Racing Sim Thread, Part II

[GB_Simo]

Naples, you'll only wreck people if you hit them.

Sounds obvious, I know. Run at your own pace, stick to your line and you're golden. If you're faster than the man in front, you'll only need a couple of laps to work out where you can pass him. If there's faster traffic coming up from behind, just be predictable and let him work out how to pass you - it's his responsibility to do it safely.

Not that you need to be told any of that, because I saw enough of you on Race Pro to know your racecraft is where it needs to be, mate. Get yourself out there.

Man, I continue to be impressed by the quality of racing on iRacing, even running the Legends at South Boston. Managed to avoid hitting anyone or anything on my way to a 4th place finish. Was probably the 6th fastest car but kept it consistent and worked the traffic pretty well.

Mega, isn't it? Good quality racing and for the most part they're a really courteous bunch too. I get more 'pass me to the right' and 'thanks for letting me by' in iRacing than I've had in every other online racer added together.

[pk500]

Naples, Adam is exactly right. No one will mind you one bit if you're courteous when letting faster traffic pass.

Dave, iRacing is something, eh? It's almost too good to be true for a longtime sim racer. It does damn near everything right. Streets ahead of any other sim in nearly every parameter.

[Dave]

Win #1!!! My heart was about to beat out of my chest as I just hoped to avoid mayhem over the last few laps. Definitely all luck, there was one guy that probably took out the 4 cars faster than me, including Casey Mears. Had to do a double-take passing him as he came out of the pits

F*ck, there's no way I'm not signing up for a year or two of iRacing at the end of this trial!

[pk500]

Congrats, Dave! Glad you're digging iRacing. There's much to love!

Most impressive thing about your victory, Dave: Zero incident points. Well done!

[Gurantsu]

Damn, my best is a couple of third place finishes! I need to get out of these road cars!

[Dave]

I tried the MX-5 race at Lime Rock and was the last car running. Definitely wasn't ready for it, talk about a whole new ballgame.

I've had a good, clean run in my Legends races; out of my last five I think I've been hit from behind once and then had a car flip into me while nearly stopped trying to avoid the course-blocking chaos in front of me. Otherwise, all clean. Still haven't hit anyone or been hit while passing/being passed, trying to do everything I can to maintain a good safety rating.

[pk500]

From the "You Know You're Getting Old Dept.:" I was drafting tonight in a Dallara at Talladega with Flinn Lazier, the son of 1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier. I remember when he was a toddler!

It's a shame there aren't more hosted races with the Sprint Car. It's probably my favorite oval car in iRacing. You drive the damn thing with your right foot.

[Dave]

From the "You Know You're Getting Old Dept.:" I was drafting tonight in a Dallara at Talladega with Flinn Lazier, the son of 1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier. I remember when he was a toddler!

It's a shame there aren't more hosted races with the Sprint Car. It's probably my favorite oval car in iRacing. You drive the damn thing with your right foot.

I'd be happier drafting behind Mrs. Lazier

At some point I need to drive more of the other cars and tracks in the 'starter' set. I bet the Sprint Car is damn fun, they add Indianapolis Raceway Park and the 8-year old me will force me to buy them.

[pk500]

The new definition of iRacing insanity: Racing Star Mazdas around Richmond. A major handful until the tires heat up, even with the best of setups. But once the tires are warm, woo-hoo! Big fun.

[Gurantsu]

So I finally get a chance to get this weeks Grand Am race in, and halfway through I promtly blow my engine. Crappy race for me, although my engine was happy!

[pk500]

So I finally get a chance to get this weeks Grand Am race in, and halfway through I promtly blow my engine. Crappy race for me, although my engine was happy!

Did you miss a shift, or did the gearing put too much stress on the engine?

I was practicing in a Cup car last night with a fast setup, with some dude drafting me like a remora on a blue whale. My oil pressure light kept blinking for about 20 laps, but I thought nothing of it. Then POW!!! -- my engine detonated!

I checked my list of setups and realized I was using a qualifying setup for extended practice. No wonder it was so damn fast -- and fragile!

[Gurantsu]

Missed a shift coming out of the oval into the infield section. Got a little trigger happy with the downshifting. I was having a mediocre race anyway, but still would have liked to finish!

[GB_Simo]

A NASCAR The Game 2011 video for those interested. Rowdy does Daytona:



iRacing world champion Richard Towler is at the controls and the AI looks like it's set to fairly easy - having said that, EA's superspeedway AI in NASCAR 09 was dog slow even on Legend. No signs of any pack racing or any of this year's tandems either, but it looks like fun.

I've always thought that a race at Daytona or Talladega, with the difficulty pitched properly and the AI behaving as it should, ought to be the most flat-out fun experience in virtual racing. It's always failed to be, somehow, but the ingredients are there.

[pk500]

I've always thought that a race at Daytona or Talladega, with the difficulty pitched properly and the AI behaving as it should, ought to be the most flat-out fun experience in virtual racing. It's always failed to be, somehow, but the ingredients are there.

Even in iRacing? Some of my most enjoyable white-knuckle moments in iRacing have been in Cup cars, Trucks or Dallara IndyCars at Daytona and Talladega. MASSIVE fun.

[GB_Simo]

I've always thought that a race at Daytona or Talladega, with the difficulty pitched properly and the AI behaving as it should, ought to be the most flat-out fun experience in virtual racing. It's always failed to be, somehow, but the ingredients are there.

Even in iRacing? Some of my most enjoyable white-knuckle moments in iRacing have been in Cup cars, Trucks or Dallara IndyCars at Daytona and Talladega. MASSIVE fun.

Dealing strictly with single player for this one, mate. With NASCAR 09, to use the most recent example, once you had your car levelled up to a reasonable degree you could drive away from the pack running solo.

I can imagine it's a blast on iRacing but I'm not competent enough on the big ovals to go anywhere near a draft train. That's not false modesty or anything - I'm just not comfortable running the superspeedways, even alone. In the Cup machinery, I'm just not comfortable full stop. Can't drive a nail into a piece of wood in those things.

This kid - the video's 3 years old so he'll be 11 now - makes me sick:



There's a comment on YouTube which says that soon afterwards, he ran 3:24 in the Lotus. GPL Rank says I only did 3:22 in a Lotus around Spa and I was 23 at the time, not 8...

[pk500]

I can imagine it's a blast on iRacing but I'm not competent enough on the big ovals to go anywhere near a draft train. That's not false modesty or anything - I'm just not comfortable running the superspeedways, even alone. In the Cup machinery, I'm just not comfortable full stop. Can't drive a nail into a piece of wood in those things.

Dude: I find that unfathomable. I'm more than happy to run some restrictor-plate hot laps with you at any time. It's about the only area of iRacing in which I have some semblance of skill.

[pk500]

That kid in the GPL video probably is Greger Huttu's little brother or nephew.

[DChaps]

Virtua_LM Sebring International Raceway V1.00 released for rFactor

I rarely post rFactor news these days as I don't have it installed on my hard drive, but any Virtua_LM release always warrants a mention.

http://forum.emacberry.com/viewtopic.php?f=107&t=7151

Virtua_LM is proud to present you with one new endurance legendary track: Sebring, United States.
Content
3 layouts available: the 12 hours Course, the Club Course and the Modified Course

I would almost install rFactor again just to check it out if the iRacing version wasn't already so damn good. Now if Virtua_LM ever release their Prototype C or GTX5 mods for rFactor, that would be a different story. My guess is that rFactor 2 will be out before that.

[Rodster]

Too bad it's for rfactor as every race turns into a drunken chariot race, pathetic AI.

[Dave]

Well, that was interesting.

Decided to participate in my first street stock race tonight and during testing felt like I was hopelessly out to lunch--my line was pretty consistent but it felt slow as hell. Somehow I managed to get through the warmup without being particularly close to other cars, so as we lined up to race I fully expected the field to run off in the distance.

I'll be damned, at least in my split, my times were competitive! I jumped up to third, managed to get into second, but then faded back to a fifth place finish, all without incident (my #1 goal). One guy making a pass really messed up my rhythm and cost me time, he was pretty aggressive and didn't do a good job of holding the low line while trying to pass. I just went up the track and let him get by, but lost a lot of time getting back into the groove.

I continue to be amazed by the quality of racing on iRacing. What a great, great service.

[TCrouch]

Some of these posts got me back to curious with iRacing again, as I hadn't run a race since 2009.

Holy crap, what a massive, massive difference. Seems like any PC time I have now has been on iRacing ovals. I've run several Street Stock and Late Model races, and a bunch of practice sessions in the Sprint Car, the Dallara around IMS (that's a blast), and the Cup cars in the Carburetor cup.

One thing that I think is odd...I'm ALWAYS thrown into the mix with blazingly fast, ridiculously good drivers. I have no hope of being 3rd or something like that, as everybody I race is half a second quicker per lap. But the time off has created a much-needed change in my mindset, where I don't EXPECT to be fast, and instead just get seat time. I almost always find some guy somewhere in the middle of the field that I can get racy with, and in those moments it's the most fun racing I've ever had.

My best moment of 2011 came last night in a SS race at Thompson. I started 5th (since half the field didn't qualify), and found my times to be on pace with the upper tier, but not the top 2 guys, who were just dusting everybody. I dropped the hammer too hard coming off of 2 about 10 laps in and solo spun it. Sucks for me. Let the entire field go by and dropped back to 12th, but worked back up to 7th with a few laps to go. I finally caught 6th, but the 2 blazing leaders were on my ass and they were nose to tail, so it was a huge part of the race for them. I was on the 6th place guy's bumper, but didn't want to cause any issues for the leaders, so I moved up the track to let them by.

Much to my surprise, when I moved up to let them by, so did the 6th place guy. So we went a lap down, but went back at it for the last 5 laps or so. I was shocked at how tough it was to pass at Thompson, as the fast line is pretty much a single lane. Somebody has to make a mistake. But it was damn-near movie quality stuff on the last lap. I had tried high, low, late apex, early apex...nothing worked. Last lap, getting into turn 3, I saw him hug the low groove, and figured that was my only shot. I dropped the hammer and let the ass end dance and just held on for dear life around the outside, and tapped the RR quarter on the fence as we came off of turn 4, but I managed a last-lap, last-corner pass for position that put a grin on my face all night.

Even if it's only for 6th place

[pk500]

Another satisfied iRacing customer. Add Terry to the list of people who know there's no game on market, console or PC, that can compare to the quality, organization and constant updates of the current incarnation of iRacing. No other game is close.

Sounds like you had a hell of a night, Terry! Very cool!

[DChaps]

Some information on the new iRacing build coming for 2011 Season 2 next week:

Compliments of Alan Hesebeck's transcribing Tony Gardner's interview on the last PSRTV event:

“In April we have an awards system coming out, where you'll earn 74 different awards at this point. We'll have the damage repair completed for every car. We're going to do a teaser release for the new tire model. That looks like it's going to go. We're going to roll it out for the Nationwide car and probably a road car as well. The new Nationwide car will be in the build, if you own the existing Nationwide car you will get that for free. We're going to roll out the Okayama track in Japan, we're going to give that away to everyone for free. New graphics for Skip Barber car, we'll start some animation in the sim in this build. New telemetry tools coming out, the list goes on and on. There's a hundred small things in this build, a lot to do with hosted racing. You can schedule hosted racing a year in advanced. You can pick different sessions for hosted racing or private league racing, two hours sessions, four hour session, six hour sessions, a bunch of things like that.

The July build is the real big one though with the new tire model launching, heat racing. We're going to roll out some driver aids for hosted sessions and certain series. Major aero changes, these drivers will be able to drive the high line so much better. So we're real excited about that, obviously really excited about the tire model. The Suzuka track, Iowa, the Ford GT car, LMPT2 car coming out in that build. The list goes on and on, there is a lot coming out this summer.”

"It's funny, you get things 80 or 90% done and they don't make it into a build and then everything piles up and makes it into one build. Headlights will be coming in the July build so you will be able to drive on road courses using headlights and reflectors which is really neat. Just a big long list of things coming out. We're really excited, I think this is the biggest time in our history for sure.

(You mentioned some of the animations, what kind of animations are we looking at here?) We would like to get fully animated pit crews but we are going to start with driver arms and wheels and things like that. It's a lot of work but the point is we are moving down that path. In this coming April build we are hoping to have driver arms in the Skippy car. We did that whole car over with all new graphics and it will include some driver arms, out of car you will see that. Animated pit crews and things like that, those are the things we hope to have down that road, it's a start in that whole process."
- Tony Gardner President, iRacing.com

Cool that the new Okayama track will be free to everyone and that there are more hosted option settings and features.

Okayama preview pictures here:

http://www.virtualr.net/iracing-com-fir ... -previews/

[pk500]

Ha! The Nationwide car is the ONLY car for iRacing I don't own. Looks like I must complete the set!

Other cool features for hosted racing mentioned by Kevin Bobbett in the latest edition of iRacingTV:

-- More grid slots. More cars on the track.
-- Flexible time slots. Can host races up to six hours long. Our own Petit Le Mans!
-- Lower prices. .50 per hour, so a four-hour slot will cost $2 instead of $3.
-- Hosted sessions can be booked up to a year in advance. Great for league racing.
-- You can pick car numbers in hosted sessions. First-come, first-served.
-- Bulk discounts for users who purchase many sessions per month.

[pk500]

Press release issued today by iRacing. Holy sh*t, these improvements are MEGA:


World’s Premier Online, Multiplayer Racing Game to Release Revolutionary Updates over the Summer Months

BEDFORD, MA (April 20, 2011) – iRacing.com today formally announced its most dramatic software release to date – Version 2.0. Coming in the summer of 2011, iRacing 2.0 will feature enhancements across the board for the popular online, multi-player racing title.

In contrast to gaming software brands that typically release a new title once every few years, the online racing game takes advantage of digital distribution to provide regular updates of its service to the more than 25,000 iRacing members four times per year.

“By summer’s end, we will have clearly ‘launched’ a truly amazing step forward in sim racing. It is incredible how far we have come in just three years. I am thrilled to see our vision come to fruition with thousands of people racing online everyday in our service. iRacing is now to sim racing what NASCAR is to stock car racing,” said iRacing co-founder John Henry.

New Tire Model is the Core of iRacing 2.0

At the core of the 2.0 release is the highly anticipated new tire model, which will revolutionize the way iRacing members race online, providing unparalleled realism and the most accurate racing experience ever produced for a PC. The introduction of new tire model will be rolled-out over the course of the summer, along with many of the additional enhancements, beginning in May.

iRacing’s CEO and legendary sim racing developer, Dave Kaemmer and his team have been researching tire properties and working on his newest tire model for over three years. “I have dedicated my professional life, over 20 years, to working on racing simulations and physics models,” said Kaemmer. “This new tire model is our best work ever. It was incredibly challenging and time consuming to develop an understanding, mathematically speaking, of a racing tire at the limit and under all sorts of conditions – and that was just phase one. To then translate that into a working model within the simulation was incredibly taxing - but it was truly a labor of love. The tires are clearly the hardest thing to simulate for any racing title, but I think we’ve nailed it! I believe it is going to bring simulated racing to a whole new level of enjoyment and realism.”

“iRacing 2.0 isn’t a new disc that needs to be purchased. Members will download the updates from our easy to use website, all for free”, said iRacing.com president Tony Gardner. “We have improved our product so much in the last three years that, along with adding such an incredible list of new features this summer, we feel it’s fitting to celebrate the next generation of iRacing. We will be releasing some of these features in early May and some in August, but frankly we will continue improving the product long after that.”

The company initially launched its service in the summer of 2008 and 400 people joined that first month. Now three years and over 25,000 customers later, the company still provides updates and improvements to the service like clockwork every three months.

“Although we have moved well beyond our initial vision, we are working harder than ever and the features coming out this summer prove it”, added Gardner. “When we first launched we had only a few cars running on about a dozen U.S.-based tracks. Now we have over 30 official series running on over 60 laser scanned tracks from around the world - over 1,500 official races going-off each week, 24 hours per day, not to mention the hundreds of member-run leagues that take advantage of our hosted racing features each week.”

“I want to thank our tremendous real-world partners involved in this including: NASCAR, INDYCAR and GRAND-AM, who officially sanction series on iRacing.com. I also want to thank all of the tracks, car manufactures and racing teams who have worked so hard with us to get everything simulated as realistically as possible. It sure does make it more fun for our members, ”Kaemmer added. “Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank our members for their continued support and passion for race gaming and sim racing. Without them we could never have gotten to iRacing 2.0. It is incredible to think how far technology has come, especially in the last few years, and what could be in the future. We look forward to that journey with our members and many more great years of sim racing.”


Highlights of iRacing 2.0

May 2011
• Early preview of Dave Kaemmer’s new tire model available on the new NASCAR Nationwide car.
• Launch of in-game awards program – over 50 different participation awards members can earn.
• Night racing on road courses using headlights beginning with Sebring International Raceway and the V8 Supercar, Mazda MX5 Cup & Roadster, Corvette C6.R, Riley Daytona Prototype, Pontiac Solstice, VW Jetta TDI Cup and Mustang Challenge race cars.
• New NASCAR “Nationwide” stock car – race the car you watch on Saturdays.
• Okayama International Circuit (Japan) – the first of several tracks from the island nation.
• New telemetry output for the data hungry racers.
• Private league racing enhancements including: reduced pricing, advanced scheduling, new race session options and additional grid spots to virtually every track.
• Graphic and shader upgrades in-game for more lifelike visuals.
• Complete graphical overhaul of the Skip Barber FSB2000 race car - updating our first car to current standards.
• Opening practice sessions to all license levels (excluding Pro Series).
• Enhanced pitting and damage repair for all cars.
• Preferred/custom car numbers.
• Improved accuracy of the model of physical track sirface to match the laser scanned data better than ever before.

August 2011
• New Tire Model for all cars.
• Enhanced aero model for improved drafting and more realistic downforce characteristics.
• Heat/Tournament racing for private leagues/sessions.
• Driver aids available for private leagues and Rookie series (ABS brakes, traction control, driving line, steering aids, etc.).
• Enhancements of new sound system.
• Endurance racing and driver swaps.
• Suzuka Circuit (Japan).
• Iowa Speedway (USA).
• Ford GT race car
• Honda LMP ARX-01C race car
• Live pop-up chat on member site.

Current highlights of iRacing.com

• Inexpensive – Standard one-year membership is less than $9 per month. Try it for one month for $5 to learn more first hand. Use Promo code PR-FIVEDOLLAR when joining.
• The most accurate, realistic and feature rich simulation in the world.
• Centralized member website with ease of use being the cornerstone; Regular automatic updates free with membership.
• Live stats, tracking and scoring for every race.
• Robust and passionate community including forums and live chat.
• State-of-the-art graphics.
• Head-to-head racing with same field size as real world racing – some tracks capable of racing up to 60 cars.
• Fully integrated and professionally developed iRacing driving school.
• Over 60 officially licensed and laser scanned tracks.
• Over 25 officially licensed and authentically reproduced cars.
• Over 100 private leagues using iRacing.
• Unlimited racing 24/7: over 1,500 official race each week, unlimited open practice, unlimited time trialing, unlimited testing on track.
• Ability to race any car at any track, anytime you want, utilizing the hosted racing feature.
• Dozens of special events each year: iRacing Indy 500, iRacing Daytona 500, Club style competition, World Cup of iRacing.
• Most prestigious Pro Series in sim racing sanctioned by NASCAR, INDY CAR and GRAND-AM, with thousands of dollars in cash prizes, full press coverage and live broadcasts.
• Fully integrated real-world and sim racing news site (inRacingnews.com) and webcast show (iRacingTV) covering the racing action.
• Mixed class racing, open setup racing, fixed setup racing, night racing on ovals.
• License and division system automatically categorizes each member into the level that they are interested in: from casual race gamer looking to just have some fun to serious competitors looking for the best competition sim racing has to offer.
• World class, live customer service and support.


Use Promo code PR-FIVEDOLLAR to get a one month membership to iRacing.com for only $5. Signup today at http://www.iracing.com/membership/.

About iRacing.com
The company was founded in 2004 by Dave Kaemmer and John Henry. Kaemmer was co-founder of Papyrus Design Group, developers of award-winning racing simulations including “Grand Prix Legends” and “NASCAR 2003.” Henry is principal owner of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club, as well as co-owner of NASCAR’s Roush Fenway Racing. iRacing.com has developed numerous corporate relationships in the motorsport industry, including partnerships with NASCAR, IndyCar, GRAND-AM, International Speedway Corporation, Speedway Motorsports, Volkswagen, Ford, and GM. iRacing is open to racers and fans of all skill levels from top-level pros to complete beginners. To join in the fun, go to www.iRacing.com.