Ever since Sheila and I went to the beach the other week, my skin has been slowly peeling. It’s kind of hard to evade the baking sun here (it’s out all damn day), and I’ve probably had a whole Summer’s worth already and we’re only just dipping our toes into August.
Anyway, the really sick thing is that my skin sheds and the Kittens eat it. Gross, huh?
David Braben said today at the Developer Conference that Elite IV should follow the release of The Outsider, next year.
Elite IV “had not been forgotten”, is a “really ambitious project”, said Braben.
He also talked of how the development of Elite IV has stopped and started a few times now and that the technology for the game had been thrown out a number of times as the team worked to get things right. He also said that a team is actively working on the game at the moment.
Next week is when this schedule will start, weeks run from Saturday to Saturday and each track is raced for an entire week.
If you want the best for your season, consider testing these tracks in the week prior. This way you can capitalize on the fact that most drivers don’t do this and you can keep your car on the track when others cannot. As the week goes on generally drivers get better and better at the track.
Rookie Legends (This schedule is repeated three times during the 12 weeks).
Week 1: South Boston Speedway
Week 2: Lanier National Speedway
Week 3: South Boston Speedway
Week 4: Lanier National Speedway
Advanced Legends
Week 1: Lowe’s Motor Speedway (Legends Oval)
Week 2: Oxford Plains Speedway
Week 3: Lanier National Speedway
Week 4: South Boston Speedway
Week 5: Lowe’s Motor Speedway (Legends Oval)
Week 6: Oxford Plains Speedway
Week 7: Lanier National Speedway
Week 8: South Boston Speedway
Week 9: Lowe’s Motor Speedway (Legends Oval)
Week 10: Oxford Plains Speedway
Week 11: Lanier National Speedway
Week 12: South Boston Speedway
Class D Late Model
Week 1: USA International Speedway
Week 2: South Boston Speedway
Week 3: Concord Motorsports Park
Week 4: Martinsville Speedway
Week 5: Toyota Speedway at Irwindale
Week 6: Jack Arute’s Stafford Motor Speedway
Week 7: USA International Speedway
Week 8: South Boston Speedway
Week 9: Concord Motorsports Park
Week 10: Martinsville Speedway
Week 11: Toyota Speedway at Irwindale
Week 12: Jack Arute’s Stafford Motor Speedway
Class C Silver Crown
Week 1: Homestead Miami Speedway
Week 2: Atlanta Motor Speedway
Week 3: Martinsville Speedway
Week 4: Richmond International Raceway
Week 5: USA International Speedway
Week 6: Lowe’s Motor Speedway
Week 7: Homestead Miami Speedway
Week 8: Atlanta Motor Speedway
Week 9: Martinsville Speedway
Week 10: Richmond International Raceway
Week 11: USA International Speedway
Week 12: Lowe’s Motor Speedway
Rookie Solstice (This schedule is repeated three times during the 12 weeks).
Week 1: Lime Rock Park
Week 2: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Week 3: Lime Rock Park
Week 4: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Advanced Solstice
Week 1: Summit Point Raceway
Week 2: Lime Rock Park
Week 3: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Week 4: Summit Point Raceway (Jefferson)
Week 5: Summit Point Raceway
Week 6: Lime Rock Park
Week 7: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Week 8: Summit Point Raceway (Jefferson)
Week 9: Summit Point Raceway
Week 10: Lime Rock Park
Week 11: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Week 12: Summit Point Raceway (Jefferson)
Class D Skip Barber 2000
Week 1: Infineon Raceway (Long)
Week 2: Virginia International Raceway (Full)
Week 3: Summit Point Raceway
Week 4: Lime Rock Park
Week 5: Summit Point Raceway (Jefferson)
Week 6: Virginia International Raceway (South)
Week 7: Infineon Raceway (IRL)
Week 8: Lime Rock Park (Chicane)
Week 9: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Week 10: Summit Point Raceway
Week 11: Virginia International Raceway (Grand East)
Week 12: Infineon Raceway (Cup)
Class C Formula Mazda
Week 1: Road America
Week 2: Silverstone (Grand Prix)
Week 3: Virginia International Raceway (Full)
Week 4: Infineon Raceway (Long)
Week 5: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Week 6: Silverstone (International)
Week 7: Summit Point Raceway
Week 8: Infineon Raceway (IRL)
Week 9: Road America
Week 10: Silverstone (Historic)
Week 11: Infineon Raceway (Cup)
Week 12: Virginia International Raceway (Grand West)
Remember, week 13 is championship week and there will be various events surrounding it.
The promotions for those eligible were done on Saturday:
1585 promotions in the Oval category from Rookie to Class D
368 promotions in the Oval category from Class D to Class C
1239 promotions in the Road category from Rookie to Class D
341 promotions in the Road category from Class D to Class C
I’m one of those who moved from Class D in both categories, to Class C. I’ll be starting the season with a Safety Rating of 3.40 on the roadcourses and 3.43 on the ovals. My iRating for both Road and Oval is about average, I think, so I’m pretty happy with them and at least I am consistent enough to have a similar iRating for both disciplines of racing.
I kept my qualifying time from days ago and enter this race as the second highest iRated. I would be starting third on the grid and decided I’d have a shot at a win because everyone’s qualifying times seemed achievable for me in race conditions.
As the race started I found myself being slowed by the two lead cars, but hung back and showed patience around the first two laps as we developed a gap between us and the guy in fourth. As I came around the final turn on lap three though, disaster, I drove into the wall with my left wheel, bending the suspension…
I carried on driving, hoping that the damage wouldn’t be too bad and to my great pleasure, it wasn’t. I also hadn’t gotten a penalty for hitting the wall, but did get an ‘off track’ penalty on the fourth lap when coping with the damage.
So I continued to run, but was now considerably slower than the two guys ahead of me. I seemed evenly matched with the man behind and decided that I’d be happy right then with a third-place finish.
As the race wound down, I kept lapping fairly consistently even though my car was constantly pulling to the left. On lap six, the leader had spun and had to pit, but he caught me again before the end of the race and I pushed as hard as I could, setting my fastest lap of 1:27.484 on lap sixteen. The former leader passed me on lap seventeen and I finished in third-place.
I get passed for 2nd on lap seventeen at Infineon
Not too dissapointed with a third, especially considering how much worse it could have been! I only got one incident from the ‘off track’ and my fastest lap, on lap sixteen, was a 1:27.484.
Most people in the UK have heard of a Japanese Game Show called Takeshi’s Castle. It features one hundred contestants who are slowly knocked out (sometimes literally), round by round as they advance to the final challenge.
Wipe Out, which starts tomorrow night on ABC, is a very similar show – and it’s absolutely hysterical. There’s already some episodes on YouTube, for those of you not in the USA.
Guess what? I got my first win! It took long enough, eh? I had won before they deleted all the Alpha-testing statistics, but ever since I’ve been in a bit of a dry spell. The best part is, I didn’t just win – I dominated!
As weird as it sounds, it’s not that much fun to win… Honestly all it felt like I was doing was a Time Trial, so it’s actually a lot more fun to be in a battle waaaay back, than all alone up front. But, a win once in a while, it gives you a great big boost that sometimes you really need. For the record, I finished thirty-seven seconds ahead of the guy in second-place.
Skip Barber 2000 at Virginia International Raceway
I would make a video of my win, but nothing interesting happened. The only thing that is eye-popping is that I recorded NO incidents… That’s right, for the first time, I had a perfect race. Another really nice thing is that once I was leading, I didn’t just sit back and relax, I pushed hard. My laptimes were very quick and my fastest lap, set on lap three, was the fastest lap I have ever done at this racetrack: 2:59.721.
It’s really nice to be able to see anything but zero under the ‘wins’ column on your iRacing Stats, so I’m glad that I finally got it done. I feel supremely confident right now, but unluckily for me, it’s Saturday, so that was the last race I get to do at VIR Grand East for quite some time… Now, it’s onto Infineon Raceway!
This is one of the best races I have ever driven, hands down. The only other races that I can remember coming close were when I raced in Eric Cote’s Sim Racing Mag events at the Nurburgring, using Grand Prix Legends. I remember I raced the Ferrari F2 cars, led every lap, made no errors, set fastest lap and won by a mile… The very next night I repeated the feat in the Honda Challenge event he organised.
I keep saying it, but I absolutely love this circuit. It does remind me of when I felt I knew the Nurburgring inside-out, it gives me the same thrill as I power through the blind crests, blind apex’s, well, blind everything – it’s a real challenge to do well on this track and that makes it all the more satisfying to have put the time in, and get the results out.
Anyway, earlier today I ran a qualifying session and managed to get my time down under three-minutes for the first time. I set a 2:59.895. I joined a Skip Barber Race Series event at 12:00 pm, but found myself running off the track because the Kittens decided they wanted to fight under my desk. With my race ruined I parked, sprayed them with water to stop them fighting, then rejoined so I could run some clean laps and keep my license looking healthy. The Kittens now decided they wanted to rub on my legs… So I had to quit the race and took a major hit to both license and confidence…
Joining the race at 2:00 pm, I was determined to have a good run, but knew I might find it a little difficult… I was the tenth iRated driver out of the thirteen starters and was almost certainly out of place on the grid, starting from second-place!
The green lights came on though and I made a good start, I could have probably taken the lead in the first turn if I had pushed, but decided I would stay in behind him and take second – but out of nowhere in my mirrors I saw a car braking very late – I had to stay to the outside of the turn and unfortunately lost two positions…
For the next few laps I was in a titanic struggle for second-place with two other drivers… We were so evenly matched, it was really close, but everyone raced clean and it was enormous fun…
As I continued to follow the two who had slipped by in the first turn, I knew that really it was going to be very difficult to get by, I felt that I was a little faster, but really found it hard to get close in the places it’s possible to pass!
On lap four of ten, the leader of the race spun his car coming out of the final turn and we all passed him, I was fairly close behind the guy who was now in second-place and was now more determined to make a move…
I managed to move into second-place on lap five when the man infront got a bit sideways and I took my opportunity, I didn’t slow down and pulled off a great little overtaking manouver into the next corner. As I pulled away, the former leader was now breathing down his neck and I was pretty pleased that I wasn’t the one in that position! He did eventually get past, but it took him until the beginning of lap nine.
Nothing else exciting really happened for the rest of the race, but I did make a rather large error on lap nine… I lost control of the car on the back end of the circuit while trying (and being successful at) closing down the leader, this dropped me to fourth-place and filled me with disappointment for a few moments until I realized that if I pushed hard I might be able to close the four-second gap to the man in third. I pushed really hard and was able to close him down, and got as close as eight-tenths from him, but finished one and a half seconds back when I realized it was a lost cause.
So, was I disappointed with a fourth-place? Not really… My license went up, my iRating went up, I proved to myself that I can do a clean race if I don’t push myself over the edge and really, that’s all I need to take away from it. I still seem to be getting faster and my iRating has been in an upward trend lately, it’s a big boost. 
I lost four incident points total and set my fastest lap on lap six. It was my first time lapping under three-minutes in a race and was a 2:59.933.