IRacing

By Shovas / 2024-04-22 / Original Article

What is iRacing?

From the Wikipedia entry...

iRacing is a subscription-based racing simulation released by iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations in 2008. Official races, special events, league races, and practice sessions are all hosted on the service’s servers. The service simulates realistic cars, tracks, and racing events, and enforcing rules of conduct modeled on real auto racing events.

And here’s one of their game trailers...

Sales and Deals

Black Friday Sales

iRacing has an annual Black Friday sale where account renewals are typically half off. For example, a one year subscription usually costs $99 but during the sale it costs $49. You can renew for multiple years and the the code they give you can be used multiple times even on different accounts.

iRacing Dollars and Credits Sales

iRacing has a sale around March (Update: They did the same thing Christmas 2014) where you buy iRacing Dollars and they’ll give you extra iRacing Credits for free. For example, buy $20 iRacing Dollars and they’ll give you $5 iRacing Credits free, or buy $75 iRacing Dollars and they’ll give you $25 iRacing Credits free. iRacing Dollars and Credits have equal value and can be used to purchase cars and tracks exactly the same. It’s a good deal!

Tech Tracks

Tech tracks are tracks currently undergoing development by iRacing. They cost $5 which is half or more off regular tracks. You only get to keep the track until it becomes an official track at which time you will receive iRacing credit for how much you paid for it and you will have to buy the track again at full price. But, hey, at least you got to enjoy it until then!

Any other sales or discounts?

Sorry, no, iRacing doesn’t seem to do sales like other online stores like Steam where games might be 50% off or more. iRacing doesn’t sell cars or tracks at a direct discount other than the iRacing Dollars/Credits sales mentioned above. So try to score when you can!

Racing

Never Qualify On New Track Days

New tracks typically launch on Mondays in the evenings (EST). If you qualify just after the switch you’ll likely be one of a few who did and you’ll be at the front of the grid. Unfortunately, most smart drivers know new track days are typically going to be pretty bad for racing incidences so they don’t qualify and start near the back to avoid first corner wrecks. So, save your SR, and just practice before the race. Enjoy the ride around the track while all the bad drivers crash out early. Qualify the next day.

Weekly Track Schedule Encourages Big Time Weekend Racing

You’ve probably noticed new tracks in a series are updated on Mondays. That’s because they’re providing drivers the whole week to build up their experience and skill so that the following weekend becomes the ‘Big Event’ with the best racing. Just like real-world racing usually has the big races on the weekend.

So, you may find your amazing time early in the week, and maybe even some wins, no longer holds up later in the week when everyone’s had time to practice on the track. ;) I know, it’s happened to me winning races early in the week and then having no chance later in the week!

Start Practicing New Week Tracks Early

I heard this in the iRacing forums a while ago… Like I mentioned above, everybody gets practice just by racing throughout the week so people are better later in the week than earlier in the week. That means you might have been winning or placing high in races early in the week but then you find it hard later in the week. So, instead, stop racing the current week’s track on, say, Sunday, and start testing on the next week’s track.

If you were good at tracks earlier in the week before doing this than you’ll be even faster earlier in the week after doing this! That should translate into better finishes and maybe even more wins!

Now, of course, this is sort of an iRating farming trick that some people exploit just due to the nature of having such frequent track changes and understanding people will be under-practiced early in the week. That said, I believe the practice will do you more good and you’ll improve overall. Maybe you’ll even start to be able to compete later and later in the week! And isn’t that what racing is all about?

The Schumacher Advantage

I recall watching a documentary on Michael Schumacher where he described that he would work out 50% more than he strictly needed in order to have a reserve capacity that he could draw on when needed.

I think this is a great idea and I’m applying it to practicing before racing. In a 20 lap Lime Rock Park race, I’ll practice 30 laps. In a 40 Minute Blancpain Sprint I’ll practice 60 minutes. I try to Time Trial the entire session, 30 minutes, to up that 50% advantage.

Beware, never turn good into bad by turning it into a chore. Yes, you should practice new tracks, maybe once or twice, and you should mix it up with a Time Trial or Qualifying to keep it interesting, but then you should get into the races and don’t look back unless you really want to. Always get back to racing so the joy you find in racing always reminds you of why you love the sport.

Racecraft

Don’t push your first lap – Seriously. It’s not worth the L1 or T1 wreck.

Unless you’ve qualified top 3 or so don’t drive hard right off the bat, take it easy through the first turn. That first bit I’m sure you already know due to the infamy of online racing T1 wrecks. What you may not know yet, though, is to also take it easy through the first lap. Just like the first turn there are those people who are going to push hard through the entire first lap and cause wrecks more often than you might think. The grid is very tight through the first lap which tends to cause more contact and more wrecks, but through the second and third laps things spread out a bit and you can really start to push, and the wreckers have already put themselves out of the race. So, take it easy your first lap and proceed with caution for a couple of more laps. You don’t want to end your entire race in the first lap!

Race your line and not your opponent

After a few seasons in iRacing I decided to stop worrying about Safety Rating and just go for the best result possible in each race. I went from a Safety Rating carebear to an iRating junkie. What happened, though, was that I was so worried about protecting my position that I stopped driving my own line, where I was fastest, and that meant the guy behind me was that much faster and putting that much more pressure on me. More often than not it resulted in more contacts and really the couple of positions I maintained weren’t really worth it in the end. So, instead, I started racing my own line even if that meant people were passing me. In the end, though, my results were well earned and, better than that, I was actually faster than my defensive driving and so my results actually improved over the long haul.

Keep your eye on your line and your opponent in your peripheral – Not the other way around

When racing gets intense, you can fall into the trap of keeping your primary focus on the guy ahead of you. This causes you more often than not to drive his line and not your own even if your own is faster. Remind yourself you are racing to your own line, that’s why you caught up to or are keeping up with the driver ahead of you. If you start focusing more on your opponent than your own racing line then you’ll start to make mistakes and get slower. Keep your primary focus on your own racing line to make sure you’re going as fast as possible and then train yourself to see the other drivers around you secondarily in your peripheral vision. You will have to respond to their driving behaviour, like early braking, catching when they make a mistake, but you won’t be ready unless you’re already focused on driving your faster line.

Avoid Qualifying to Improve Your In-Traffic Driving Skill

There’s nothing like seat time to give you the experience and skill necessary to drive in race traffic. If you want to learn how to drive around other cars then avoid qualifying. You will be gridded near the back and you’ll have to learn how to handle moving your way up the pack to a better position. You’ll get satisfaction passing the few stragglers at the end and later on finding yourself making progress through the pack to higher positions. It’s a great way to learn how to drive around other cars and to learn how and when to make passes successfully. You’ll also learn driver behaviour and when it’s safe to be aggressive or sit back for a bit. Trust me, you’ll be surprised how high up in the pack you end right from the back in some races. Anything can happen in a race, and usually does on iRacing!

Use Your Brake Lights to Avoid Getting Rear-ended Before Corners

Tap your brake just enough to light up your brake lights just before your actual corner braking if you notice a driver right up close behind you. Because of skill and internet lag, there’s a fair chance that driver is going to rear-end you when you brake hard into a corner. Tapping your brakes lights up the brake lights and lets them know what you’re going to do before you do it. They’ll start braking and you’ll have breathing room to brake your corner. If they’re less than 0.5s behind you – watch out!

Note! Some cars don’t have brake lights, such as the Skip Barber car. Some cars do lik the MX-5. Just be aware of that. This tip will work for some cars and not others.

Going Faster

Stop worrying about your Safety Rating

I’m really, really guilty of this. As I mentioned elsewhere, I was a Safety Rating carebear. This can be a good thing because you’ll learn how to drive safely but it can be a bad thing when your SR is more precious than actually racing. I’ve put this tip in the Going Faster section because I’ve slowly come to realize that a lot of the fastest drivers I see have pretty pitiful safety ratings: Fast drivers care more for their fast line than they do about a 1x off track hurting their Safety Rating. While watching replays, I saw faster drivers plow off-track to maintain their speed and distance advantage rather than backing off to avoid the off-track (as I would, I’m pretty embarrassed to admit).

Think about it, what does your Safety Rating do for you in iRacing? It allows you to level up your license to access better series. The only way you can lose your license is if you drop below 1.00 during the season or 2.00 at the close of the season. If you can’t maintain a 2.00+ safety rating then, yes, I encourage you to focus on your on-track safety. If you can maintain a 2.00+ safety rating then your Safety Rating is doing nothing for you except flattering your vanity!

So, go ahead, stop worrying about your Safety Rating and allow your inner driver to be free to choose the lines, pick your passing opportunities, and engage your compeition with a passion that brings the risk of failure but also the potential reward of better finishes and maybe even wins!

Do your homework: Study your rivals

To my own shame, I’ve gotten out of this habit but I think I’ll recommit to this: Watch a replay of the leader’s fastest laps in each race session. In any multiplayer race session in iRacing, you can view replays of everybody else in your session. Just ESC back to the menu and look at the bottom bar, click the helmet and select the leading driver, then click the Laps tab and select the appropriate session (Practice, Qualify, Race), then click the arrows near the bottom to change the lap to the desired lap, set your view to cockpit view, and watch how the leader drives the track.

In a recent race, I picked up on three differences in the line of the leader around Lime Rock Park that I wasn’t seeing: (1) Take turn 1 with your left tires in the middle of the track, not too tight and not too far out, you’ll be able to feather braking and throttle in order to accelerate out of turn 2, (2) Hug hard left on turn 3, even if it feels really slow, so that you can keep left and accelerate through the apex all the way out of turn 4 while shifting gears, then you get a long stretch of acceleration to take advantage of before turn 5, (3) lightly the tap the brake to stabilize your car for turn 6 (just before the hill and the final turn) rather than heavy braking through the turn in order to carry momentum.

It’s amazing what you can learn watching the replays. You might not even think a certain tactic would work until you see somebody else do it in a replay. Replays give you the chance to see what else is possible and the permission to try it out yourself!

Use All The Track (And Everything Else)

If you find yourself lapping around and around without improving your times much then ask yourself: Am I using all of the track? Ask that question about gears, RPMs, brake points, frame rate, etc.

You’ve probably heard race commentators talk about ‘using all of the track’ – entering a turn as far outside and as close as possible, hitting the apex exactly at the tip, and exiting the turn as far outside as possible. The same advice could be said of gears, engine revs, brake points, game frame rate, field of view, and more…

Always ask yourself, am I using all of the track? If you are you’ll be faster than if you, say, leave 15 feet of track open as you exit a corner because you won’t be able to carry as much speed through the corner without using all of the track.

Ask yourself this about everything: Am I using all of my gears when possible or am I losing potential acceleration on a certain stretch because I’m more concerned about the next turn? Am I using all of my engine RPMs or am I shifting too early and losing part of the power band? Am I using all of the game frame rate I can get or am I missing some detail because my low frame rate causes me to miss movement in between frames? Am I using all of the field of view that I could or am I losing time on track because my perspective of the road causes me to misjudge corners and get the wrong line?

Asking yourself “am I using it all” is a good way to check yourself and think about all the actions that go into racing and whether you’re getting the most you can out of them.

Brush up on your Reading

I need to do this: Read a book or two on race driving that are commonly recommended or are very highly rated. Try Going Faster! Mastering the Art of Race Driving which “reveals the collective racing wisdom Skip Barber Racing School instructors have accumulated over the past 25 years.”

There’s also Ultimate Speed Secrets: The Complete Guide to High-Performance and Race Driving which covers “everything you need to know: choosing lines; adapting to different cars, tracks, and racing conditions; setting up controls; and understanding car adjustments and mental preparation.“

And there’s Speed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques which claims “shave lap times or find a faster line through your favorite set of S-curves with professional race driver Ross Bentley as he shows you the quickest line from apex to apex!”.

Just like with most things in life, there’s only so far we can take our own selves. Sometimes we need a teacher. Books can be that teacher. Like watching replays of the competition, reading books on racing will help you look at things from a new perspective and open up possibilities of driving your race lines in different, potentially faster ways.