iRacing

[Rare White Ape]

Looks like a lot of racers took advantage of the 50% off new memberships sale.

There’s a shooty game streamer on Twitch who goes by the name of Summit 1g and has a bajillion followers, and a few weeks ago he took up iRacing, and a whole buttload of his fans have followed along. The sale was one thing, but I think he has attracted more people to iRacing this month than *anybody* ever has in such a short period of time.

Summit is actually quite fast and has quickly learned the ropes in rookie MX-5s, even attracting the attention of Tony Kanaan for assistance (plus he’s already achieved a 2.5K iRating by farming in that class). But be on the lookout for his followers causing a bit of havoc while they try and apply their own nascent skills.

[Cam]

There was a bit of chat about that among the GBR guys.

[Cam]

Here's a good one. I just finished a fixed Porsche Cup race at Tsukuba. I qualified 16th in a field of 23. I was one of the slowest qualifiers. I didn't want a bunch of noobs behind me, so I started from the pits along with Thomas. He wrecked the first car he encountered and had to pit for repairs. I survived attrition and made it up to 11th and was fighting for tenth with Ivan. Thomas came out of the pits behind me. I didn't want him behind me, so I let him go, hoping he would wreck Ivan. Thomas attempted a pass in T1, but Ivan attempted a block. This caused Thomas to go wide, letting me slip through again. Later, I got a run on Ivan and he blocked me too. There was 0x contact, I locked up, slid wide, but gained the spot. Later in the race, Dennis, a lapped car, caught me fast. I was letting him go, but he sideswiped me for a 0x contact. I finished 10th with 0x. Dennis typed in the text chat, "field of wankers." Another driver typed, "Tell me more and enjoy your vacation."

I saved the replay to review it and report Ivan for blocking. I also looked at what Dennis was up to. He qualified on pole, but got wrecked in the first corner. He got back on track and was driving very aggressively. Eventually, he hit a couple of cars, including Leo. Dennis spun from the contact. Later, Leo was involved in an incident and was off-track. He attempted to rejoin (terrible rejoin), but Dennis was passing at the same time. It didn't look like much of a hit, but Dennis' car was obviously damaged from the contact. It was barely a graze, but I've gotten meatballs from minor stuff like that. Dennis slowed down, waited for Leo, then attempted to wreck him. It was unsuccessful. Dennis pitted for repairs.

Dennis got back on track, but must have got a drive-through for either speeding in the pit lane or too many incident points. He got back on track and proceeded to bash almost every car he caught up to, including me. Near the end of the race, he was DQed and kicked from the race for too many incident points. Uh, who's the wanker?

I'm off to file a couple of protests. I think Dennis will get a time-out for this one. I will not be the only one protesting him.

[Cam]

...All of a sudden, I am fighting for the lead! I patiently waited and stayed in his draft, intending to set up a last-lap move. Final corner, I had a great drive, moved to pass and... they wrecked us both rather than risk losing. Such petty garbage. Protest filed.

This driver has not been online since I was notified of the protest decision.

[Rare White Ape]

I'm trying to crack 2k iRating on my oval license and I am so close. Tonight I start with ~1959 on my oval licence and 2031 on my road licence.

I'm in a race with about 15 to go and gradually gaining positions, up to 6th so far. Everyone but the top three usually burn their tyres too fast and end up being slow in the last half of the race. Every race starts the same: a couple of yahoos race up to the front and and up being sitting ducks later on. Two cars ahead of me are holding me up but also battling, and they make contact. I was 0.2 sec behind them with nowhere to go and get sent into the wall. I lose 88 points. Guy who caused the wreck says sorry. It happens. Oh well. It's annoying but I accept that.

The very next race I come 3rd and gain 62 of them back.

To top things off, I need to do one more GT3 fixed race to get my participation credit and then I can retire from these stupid cars. Le Mans. I practice for half a lap then qualify 8th. On the pace lap everyone's warming their brakes to get heat into the tyres: fast-slow-fast-slow. I am doing the same and am about 2 m from the rear of the car in front. Car behind me mis-judges and taps my rear bumper before we enter the Ford Chicanes. He doesn't apologise.

Lights go green and the top 8 get a nice jump on the following pack, so they're half a second behind me. I am on the outside of a car which is on the first apex of Dunlop chicane. The same car from before sends it far too deep into the left-hander and taps my rear bumper again, so I spin. I am last, facing the wrong way, with rear and now also front damage, on a high-speed track. He would have made the corner... if he was all by himself on an empty track, but there was a group of 8 cars filing through there taking it easy on lap 1. I lose 74 points. He doesn't apologise.

I am on the cusp of achieving a pretty cool goal: over 2000 iRating on two licences. It's just a tonne of bad luck caused by idiots that is holding me up at the moment. And once again, for a number of weeks both of my iRatings are damn close to each other with my oval licence threatening to overtake my road licence, but it still hasn't happened yet

Maybe tomorrow it will...

[Cam]

Looks like a GBR 1-2-3 in iRacing's Div. 3 Supercars standings.

[Cam]

In other news, I gained, and lost, 400+ iRating this season. First half of the season, I did great. Second half of the season, not so great. Yes, wreckers make it tough.

[Cam]

Tried three oval races yesterday. Got wrecked in all of them.

One was the Identity Crisis race; GT3 at USA Speedway. I qualified 4th and got up to a solid 2nd for a while. A car that wrecked earlier came out of the pits and immediately spun in front of me. I could not avoid hitting them and it caused a pile-up. Just my luck.

Tried Pick-Up Cup a few more times. That makes about 8-10 of those in a row where I got caught up in a wreck. I have never successfully finished a Pick-Up Cup race.

[Rare White Ape]

I did an identity crisis race too. Caused my own problems when I tagged the wall exiting turn 4 and had 40° bent steering for half the race. I managed to hold off a guy for 6th for five laps but he passed me and then two laps from the end I got mega sideways and bent the car even more. I was a lap down and followed 2nd into the final turn, throttled it hard, hit the pit wall again, put it into reverse and drove it backwards in the grass until I got “helped” over the line by another competitor who was also finishing

These races are unranked, so best leave your expectations at the door

[Rare White Ape]

And Pick-Up Cup is at Daytona isn’t it? Avoid that. Super speedways do not produce good racing among amateurs.

The best races to do are Phoenix or Charlotte. I’ve done a few and I always get a mix of people who take it seriously and those who want to park sideways across the track. Best one I had was Phoenix where a group of five trucks were in a pack and doing well to avoid the others. I also just love Phoenix for how unique and challenging it is.