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Motorsports UK Esports Series and iRacing update

04 Sunday Oct 2020

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In a very strange year, it’s now October, and the only racing I’ve done has been online.

This does mean I’ve sunk many hours into sim racing with iRacing, and improved a fair bit from where I was for my last blog.

I have now completed my first ever full season with iRacing, and also completed the minimum number of weekly races so that I get $10 credit back to spend on the game. If you complete 9 out of 13 weekly races in a season you get $4 credit, up to the maximum of $10 up to a certain licence class, with another $10 available for A and B class events.

I finally have the A licence now, but to be honest it only really allows you to do a couple of much longer endurance events, which I don’t want. I’d much rather have their 15-40 min race format, because I have a job and fiance who would not agree with me doing 24 hour online races!

More importantly, though, I actually did quite well in my overall leagues in the iRacing series I was racing in.

My main race series is still Skip Barber, but I also did pretty well in the RUF, Radical and GT. I stopped racing the basic MX5’s which were a major learning series for me, but still dip in occasionally and also do a few of the Advanced Mazda Cup races. I also concentrate more on the other open wheel series: Formula Sprint, Renault 2.0 and F3. And I’ve used my $10 credit to buy the Ferrari GT3, which seems like a good series to do.

So, as you can see, I finished right up the pointy end of several leagues, which I was chuffed with! This means I get promoted to tougher leagues, so we’ll see how this season goes.

I should note that this is NOT the best way to go iRacing. You should concentrate on just one or two cars and master them. This will mean your iRating goes up as you’ll do far better at your specialist series. If you jump into multiple cars, your iRating score sorts you into races accordingly, so if you’re fast in Skip Barber and then jump into the unraced Ferrari, the game assumes you’re just as good in both, so when you finish right at the back your iRating drops as well.

But I’m doing this for fun, and am happy with an iRating around 1500 as long as I get to drive different stuff.

Last week, I also had my first ever genuine win in the Motorsports UK iRacing Esports Series!

I do quick race reports on my Facebook pages, so you should have seen them already if you’re following them (and you should be!).

I like some layouts of Lime Rock Park, but hate the one with the West Bend Chicane, so you can imagine my ‘joy’ as I logged into the pre-race practice to try the Dallara F3 around there.

However, I soon found I was within a second or two of the usual fastest drivers, and knew I could improve with more laps. I qualified in 3rd place!

With a decent start I actually crossed the line at the end of the first lap in the lead, but lost a place soon after… although I was still right on their tail for the next few laps.

I dropped back a little, but then caught and passed them, and despite several cars giving chase and almost catching me, and some very close calls with some cars I was trying to lap, I won by 6.5 seconds!

Not bad at all!

That leaves me 5th in the championship, but don’t think I have much chance to gain more than a few places, but I’ll give it my best shot. It might be the last time this series is ever run, so I have to make the most of it before I jump back into a real car on a real track…

Which still might be on the cards for Formula Vee this year… Watch this space!

The Return To iRacing

24 Sunday May 2020

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I hope you are all safe and well out there? Or, to be more specific, I guess – in there.

With all racing cancelled due to Covid-19 (you might have heard of it), if you haven’t switched on to all the brilliant sim racing that is being broadcast, you really are missing out. Many ‘real drivers’ have switched to sims for their first time ever to try and get some of that buzz back. And you know what? It works!

Me? Well, I last did a blog on iRacing years ago. In fact I let my subscription run out and hadn’t played it for around 3 years.

Why?

Mainly because my internet connection wasn’t good enough, so I’d get my laptop hooked up to the TV, plug in the wheel and pedals, fluff up a few pillows, and then on the first lap of the race my connection would drop out, no times would be recorded, and my game ratings just took a dive every time…

Add to that a not insubstantial monthly fee, and that was that.

But despite having most of the other racing sims, I still knew iRacing was the one I really wanted to be playing. The one that was most rewarding to race against others on.

I signed up for one month for $15, as tax is now included. That’s a crazy increase!

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My first impressions (after a few hours of downloads and updates) were that the tyres felt much more realistic – especially on braking where they’d nailed the floaty feeling before it locks up.

I’d also forgotten how to drive the sim, and my safety rating took a clattering, along with some more disconnection issues…

But I reset my brain again. I started driving like Miss Daisy and put the racing line back on. I did a load of Time Trials with just me on track, so I could lap consistently without going off track without overdriving the car everywhere.

I concentrated on the Skip Barber and Mazda MX5 only. The Skippy is the closest the game has to a Formula Vee, and feels great. The MX5 is much less forgiving, and will swap ends frustratingly quickly, but the actual racing you get is brilliant.

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I’m trying to get my C Grade licence back, so will literally start the race slowly and keep out of everyone’s way to let them pass me through the first few turns. Assuming they’ve still not taken me out, I then drive a few slow laps, and half the field will crash on their own or in tangles. I then just cruise through and normally end up in the top 5 just through consistency.

If someone is catching you by 2 seconds per lap, just let them through. You’ll gain a lot more by avoiding the incident points for contact and following them to see how they’re faster.

Honestly, all you want to do is stay out of everyone’s way and even if you finish last as long as you have no incident points your rating will climb and you’ll be put into races with more careful drivers.

Do that a few times and you’ll find yourself leading races and THEN you can start to enjoy it all.

I’ve definitely got the bug again, so will be taking out a full year subscription.

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I also remembered a few essentials for people using their laptop and basic equipment:

  1. Plug into your router with a top quality (class 8) ADSL cable, and do not use a WiFi connection.

  2. Use the lowest graphics setting. I have a very high spec laptop, but it’s still only barely good enough…

  3. Lower the screen resolution slightly to get more FPS (frames per second).

  4. You need a custom desktop PC if you want it to look pretty, but you can still do it if you have limited space and just a laptop and your TV screen.

So I’m still building my skills up again, but loving it for a few hours a day. I might even try some oval racing – or the new dirt oval and rallycross that’s now in the game.

If you’re on it, feel free to add me as a friend – I’m called ‘James Cater’ weirdly enough.

I bet you’ll enjoy it, once you’ve slogged your way out of the crash-happy Rookie series!

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BONUS BITS!

Did you know that Motorsport UK licence holders get 3 months of iRacing for free? Click the link in the Members Benefits section of your account and they’ll send you a code in an email.

As someone already paying for iRacing, I tried this and the code did not work – I’ve queried this with Motorsport UK to see if it’s for first time members only, or if it will work when my sub runs out…

Also, there is an e-racing championship being organised by Motorsport UK and iZone for all licence holders, with analyses and stuff all free for you! You need to sign up to the league before Monday 25th May (tomorrow!!!) ideally, or you won’t be guaranteed a space. The link in the last mag is wrong, so go here to sign up: www.bit.ly/izone-esports

How do you learn to race?

23 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Technique, Uncategorized

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How do you learn to race?

Is there really any such thing as ‘natural talent’? Can anyone just climb in a racecar and wow everyone else with their skills?

I don’t think so. At the very least, I KNOW that I certainly can’t!

I put in a lot of research before I began racing, and in a lot of ways it was that learning that fired my passion to want to race.

From an early age, most children (I’m not going to say “boys”, but writing this highlights another reason why girls might have a tougher start in the motorsports world) will play with toy cars, and watch motorsport on TV.

Then it will be the inevitable progression to video games.

Whilst this is all very fun, it’s actually teaching you a lot about the physics of how cars move, and with the games you’ll find you need to follow the racing line to win.

If you’re lucky enough, it’s around here that you’ll get to jump in a kart, and then spend the next 10 years learning race craft and driving first hand – however, if you’re like me that isn’t didn’t happen, and you’re at a definite disadvantage over all the child racers.

Then maybe you get your own road car, and learn the skills needed to drive a proper car. You may not be pushing the limits, but it’s all going into your ‘lizard brain’, where you don’t have to think about how to change gears, when to use the clutch, how to feed in the throttle etc.

Most potential racers will then do a few track days, honing those skills even more, and getting their brains used to driving quickly around a circuit.

Then there’s people like me. I did a handful of ‘arrive and drive’ kart sessions with no training or competition, rode motorbikes for 10 years (although bikes are great for sharpening reactions and getting into the mindset of improving skills), finally took my car road test around 5 years ago, and the first time I ever drove on a track was for the ARDS test!

I’ve done alright, considering – but what you won’t see from that CV is the hundreds of hours I’ve spent reading up on racecar physics, months of studying onboard videos in intense detail, and my mental preparation. It’s not easy, and there is no quick way, if you want to be serious about it all.

There are hundreds of educational racing books around. The grand-daddy bible of all of these is “Going Faster” by Skip Barber.

Another Vee driver – Ben Miloudi – kindly leant me this book when I first had the idea to race. I studied it like I was going for a PhD! Tyre slip angles, heel and toe, the grip scale, racing lines, sacrifice corners, and even what to do when it all goes wrong (clutch in and stand on the brakes!) are all in this invaluable book.

If books aren’t your thing, then there is also a cheesy 70s video version around – but, like most films, I found the book was far better!

The videos that I did find worthwhile are the onboard videos from other Formula Vee drivers. From these, you can learn the track, listen for the gear changes, and see where to hit the brakes and turn into the corners. Whilst you need to study the videos from the front-running cars, I’d also highly recommend watching the slower drivers as well. You’ll then see WHY the faster drivers are faster – braking later, getting back on the throttle faster, braking less, lifting off through corners or staying flat… It’s not perfect, because most footage seems to disappear (get your vids on YouTube Paul Smith!!), has no sound or has dodgy picture quality. And before you take a Paul Smith approach into your first ever corner, do be aware that your brain will scream “HELL NO!!!!!”, so make sure your markers are somewhere between the faster and slower drivers!

It’s also important that you’re watching Formula Vee videos. If you learn a circuit by watching an AC Cobra blasting around the place, you’re going to be in for quite a shock at how differently you need to drive a Formula Vee car!

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Speaking to other racers can be a massive help, too – but do be aware that how they get through a corner in the pre/post race banter can be considerably different to what they do in reality! You’ll hear “Take that corner flat – don’t lift” quite a bit… Even if they are doing that, consider that they might have been doing it for 15 years and have the skill not to end up as a fireball against the pit wall – or they might just be a bit of a head-the-ball! So listen, but ultimately go at your own pace and push safely from there.

Glenn has been an invaluable source of information about how to drive – he’s got a championship win to prove he knows his stuff, and we’re happy to be both brutally honest with each other and realistic about what we should be achieving.

After these, the only thing left is to drive!  All of the above will help you to understand how to go faster, but as I’ve said many times, there is no substitute for getting laps under your belt!  Testing is expensive, but it’s pretty essential when you’re staring out – whatever experience and background you have.

If I had it my way, I’d do a test day at every circuit before race day, just to familiarise myself with it.  That worked for, umm, one track last year, and this year could well be the same story.

That could be where a driving simulator like iRacing comes in to help!  I’ll be posting a follow-up blog about that soon now that I’ve settled into it all…

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