timwheatley.org

This was one of the most satisfying simracing experiences I have ever had. After huge struggles with the Formula Mazda, being totally unable to lap this car, I managed to complete a race having only made a single error during the whole event. Even better, during this event - my best race ever in the Mazda - I had a wheel-to-wheel battle with two other drivers.

I hadn’t bothered to qualify. I would rather start at the back in this car so that I am not a burden to other racers. I wound up being iRated as the 8th best driver and would start 9th on the grid.

I got a good start but dropped to 10th within the first few turns. I eventually got in a good position behind the man who had passed me (Georg Naujoks) and overtook him into the final turn. A car soon dropped out and gave me 8th.

I had a good little battle for 7th going on when I clipped a kerb and almost spun out. I fell back down to 10th. On the next lap I was back up in 8th after two cars let me by (one moved over, one spun).

Cars gradually fell off the track and I eventually found myself in a fantastic battle with the 5th (Georg again) and 6th-placed cars. It was the best battle I’ve ever had in the Mazda obviously and one of the best ever battles I’ve ever had in simracing. I wound up finishing in 6th place right behind Georg.

Here are the edited in-car highlights of the entire race:

Here is the battle with the two cars from out-of-car:

I had one incident during the race which is when (on lap 7) I lost control and spun onto the grass. My fastest lap was 1:29.964 - a personal best.

Yesterday I had (what felt like, anyway) my worst ever race in iRacing (click here to view the race report). I got 15 incident points in a single event.

I don’t know why but it seemed like everyone was trying to block and as I’m someone who will only normally overtake on the main straight at Lime Rock Park, I found myself getting thoroughly involved in problems I felt were not of my own making. My Safety Rating after that race went down to Class C 2.21 - I think the lowest it has ever been. I’ll upload race reports from yesterday/today’s races tomorrow.

I felt like I learned a little bit yesterday because after the Skip Barber Race Series event at Lime Rock Park, I ran a Formula Mazda event at Infineon. I made quite a few mistakes (9 incidents), but to my great surprise I gained Safety Rating (up to Class C 2.31). I then realised that while it may be easier to lose safety rating in Class C - it also seems easier to gain it at times. I had a chat with Alison Hine after the race and she told me to cool down and said that she is driving well within her limits in order to preserve her safety rating… During the race I had been passing her then spinning and I kept repeating that pattern over and over while she consistently lapped away… I knew what I was doing, I felt I was pushing 101% and realised that by doing that, I’m making myself look a lot worse of a driver than I know I can be…

After the Mazda race (I was feeling pretty low), the iRating threw me a ‘pity win’. I ran a Skip Barber Race Series event at Lime Rock Park and found myself in quite a commanding position. I won by 10 seconds… (Read the race report). I went to bed with mixed feelings over my racing events that evening.

Today, I decided to run a Skip Barber Race Series event first. I had an awesome race and had some great battles. I’d also lapped fairly cleanly and my safety rating went up to Class C 2.46. I finished 7th while I was iRated (and predicted) to be able to run for about the 12th place!

After that race, I joined a Formula Mazda race and to my total shock and surprise I had fun - In the Mazda! I have quite clearly stunk in this car, absolutely stunk. I’d actually go far enough to say that I hated this car. Like I said to Alison after the race last night, it feels like it’s too fast for me (even though I know it’s relatively slow) and it feels too ‘big’ for the tracks. I described it in the chat as like ‘threading a needle’ trying to keep the car on the black stuff. Taking Alison’s advice I toned my driving down a bit and decided not to ‘experiment’ with lines and braking zones like I normally do during races. I convinced myself to be happy with my laptimes and to finish, where I finish.

The race went very well and apart from an off track -> loss of control on lap 7 I ran a perfect race! Did you hear that? I managed to run a Formula Mazda race with just a single error! Not only that, but I found myself in the most wonderful three-car battle for 5th-place… After the race, my safety rating was Class C 2.70, a gain of 0.49 in just four races (two good ones). Something that was really pleasing was that when I felt I was driving at 95% of my proper pace, I was lapping (at best) 1s per lap faster than I had when driving as fast as I felt I could… Weird, huh?

This video is well worth a watch as we battle hard for position:

Getting a good start from my tenth place starting position, I managed to hold position around lap one. I lapped cleanly and had a good fight for sixth throughout the first nine laps.

So, after those nine incident free laps, the person I was battling with and I came upon a recovering car around the carousel and unfortunately, rather than waiting for us to pass, he decided to drive onto the circuit, lose control and crash into us.

It annoyed me at the time because I knew it was going to ruin my race and my safety rating, but like with everything, you just have to get over it. Being angry isn’t going to remove the incident from the record books and nothing I do will turn back time. It is, what it is. It was, what it was.

Our unfortunate incident at Infineon in the Skip Barber 2000's.

I gained a position through what happened and wound up finishing in sixth place.

With car number eleven and a sixth place starting position, I knew that this race would be one I’d likely be able to shoot well above my iRating and get a nice finish compared to where I’d been predicted.

I got a good start and held seventh-place after the first couple of turns. I was being careful, not wanting to get as many incidents in this race as I had the last one. The race was going very well and very clean throughout the first lap and I knew that I was in a field with guys who knew how to keep the car on the track… If I was going to get a good finish, I’d have to have minimal errors.

I did pull back to sixth just before the esses at the back of the circuit on the first lap, and all was going well, but I screwed up the secnd-to-last turn and suddenly dropped back to ninth! Out of the final turn on that first lap I managed to make a pass for eighth, but knew I’d now have to concentrate if I was to avoid losing further positions.

A few laps later I moved into seventh place when the man in sixth got loose coming out of turn one and two cars (including me) passed him for position. I then found myself in a fight with the man in sixth - and this battle went on for the entire race…

But on lap six, just after I had moved into sixth place, I spun! This put me back down to eighth and behind the men I’d been fighting with for the last six laps. I got one position back quite quickly when the man in seventh crashed, but the man in sixth, my nemesis, he was a tougher nut to crack…

I did eventually win out with a pass in the final turn, and I stayed in sixth place until the end of the race.

Far less incidents this time! I went off track three times and spun once, so still made gains on my Safety Rating. My fastest lap, set on the final lap of the race, was a 1:49.623.

I had an awesome battle in this race for fourth place. We were very evenly matched and it was pretty cool being nose to tail for most of the race. The video really tells the story of the race, but here it is in condensed form:

Got a decent start from fifth place and kept my position after turn one. For the whole race I battled for fourth place and (after he spun - after I had), I finished fourth. The video is more entertaining.

I got a few incidents in this race, but that’s what comes with a wheel to wheel battle when you’re slipping onto the grass at times… Out of the final turn on nearly every lap I was almost alongside and we did get a car contact when he slid in a turn when I was alongside, but it doesn’t matter - I don’t get car contact penalties every race. I also tapped the back of a backmarker in a turn too, but that was because he seemed to stop on the racing line for some reason… Anyway, very nice race for me, very enjoyable!

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.

This race was simply, awesome. I qualified with a 1:26.795 the previous day and would be starting in fifth-place on a grid where I was iRated as the ninth fastest driver. Looking at the times people were running in the warmup and the speeds people had managed in their qualifying session, I felt like I should be able to finish in the top-three, but I’d need a good start…

I wasn’t paying enough attention when the lights went green and I probably was about half a second slow shifting into first-gear. This allowed a couple of cars to get past into turn one, another into turn three and another into turn 4(A) on the Infineon Cup circuit.

Feeling like I was slightly faster than those infront, I remained patient and just tried to wait for an opportunity, but what ended up happening was a hugely exciting battle between six cars that raged for the entire race. The train of six cars snaked around the circuit for lap after lap, when two would get side by side the cars behind would all close up and the racing became utterly intense for those taking part, it was fantastic clean racing at it’s very best.

I ran clean until lap sixteen when I lost control of the car through the esses at the back of the Infineon circuit. I smashed into the wall with the back of the car and had to pit and reset to fix that damage. When I rejoined I had lost two positions and had just two laps to try to do what I could…

I closed in behind the two cars who had passed me and on the final lap of the race, I managed to get by both of them! I finished in seventh-place.

Please note there are two versions of this video. I have a video of my in-car footage from lights to flag:

…and my edited video, similar to those I normally post:

I had six incident points during the race. I went off track twice and crashed once. My fastest lap was 1:26.822 and that was set on lap six.

I already knew the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup layout at Infineon Raceway, but hadn’t run on it for a long time, probably since I ran there with NASCAR Racing 2003 Season (the previous simulation by the guys at iRacing).

Early this morning I joined a qualifying session at the circuit and set a 1:28.324. I joined the a race straight away and had an awful time with my consistency, finishing eighth. Afterwards I joined a Time Trial and worked on it a little, I was able to get down to a personal best laptime also and joined another Qualifying session at 11:20 am… I managed to get down to a 1:27.638 and was fairly happy with that, for now.

I joined the 12:00 pm Skip Barber Race Series event and found myself third on the grid. Just before the race started the man who had pole position quit the server, so this put me into a second-place starting position and also gave me the inside line into turn one. I knew (looking at others qualifying times), that nobody had got a good handle on this week’s track yet - so if I stayed clean, I might end up with my second win in two days!

I got a good start but had to give the first turn to the man who had started infront of me, I followed him closely the whole lap and pushed him pretty hard, knowing (because of his qualifying time) that he was capable of lapping around one-second a lap faster than I could. We pulled away from the rest of the field and I knew that if there was to be a battle for the win, it would be a battle between just us two.

On the second lap of the race I was still following closely as we both mounted the kerbing out of turn four, I watched the guy infront start to get sideways and knew that if I could get by, I had the lead… Luckily for me, he didn’t just get sideways, he speared off to the right side and probably hit the wall as he disappeared from the top six positions.

For the rest of the race (like with my win yesterday), the only person I had to worry about, was me. I felt really good out there though and found myself lapping quicker and quicker, eventually setting my fastest lap of 1:27.171 on lap seventeen of the twenty. Two people were faster than me, but showed less consistency, so I won with a margin of twenty-two seconds over second place.

I didn’t make a single error, again. I’m really feeling good on the racetrack right now… My iRating will soon catch up with my new found ability to stay on the track during these races and when it does I’ll probably struggle to win, so I’ll enjoy it while I can!

If you watch the video and wonder what’s going on with the gear selections on my fastest lap? I use a $30 wheel and it does that sometimes… It also shakes and glitches, but nothing that really harms my racing…