I made another really quick promo video today. Had no time to do it really so just put something together quick which gave all vital info and the promotion code. If you happen to come here when the promo code has been shut off, see the banner on this page for a permanent promo code with a saving of up to $20 for 2 years.
Anyway, here’s the video:
I made another side by side comparison between real life and iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations today with a lap around Circuit Park Zandvoort.
It was quite difficult to find an onboard lap on Youtube that I could use and after contacting the poster (who turned out to be the rights holder – woohoo) of a lap in the Corvette C6 I decided that was probably as close as I was going to get. I then asked our testing team to supply a replay of a decent lap in iRacing’s C6R and one came fairly quickly with what he described as more of a safe lap than a quick one.
Because of the fact that the driver of the real-world video was pushing a lot harder than the sim driver I had a little bit of work to do to get things to match up. As these videos are about showing the track geometry more than anything else I extended the real-world video just a little at each segment to make them match up.
I think it turned out well, the only differences really are very minor and most will be because the in-sim footage was recorded from a single car testing session while the real-world video is from race day (more trackside objects).
This race is a tale of what might have been: The evening before the iRacing Daytona 500 I changed my PCs motherboard is preparation for a graphics card upgrade and unfortunately although I reinstalled Windows 7, reinstalled a bunch of programs, got iRacing working, etc, I forgot to do something terribly important…
On Saturday 13th February, 2010 I was unable to run the 500, but got in a quick qualifying session for my race on the 20th just 15 minutes before the race session: I set a 48.075 and this would put me in 11th-place to start the race.
With 30 minutes of warm-up, it gave everybody plenty of time to check their setup, practice put stops, etc. I personally just practiced getting into and off pit road at speed and missed an opportunity to notice and correct that ‘terribly important’ thing once again…
The start of the iRacing Daytona 500.
We raced through a few cautions in the early laps, but things remained fairly constant for me until lap 15: It was the first time I’d really had to slam on the brake and when I did so it must have knocked my calibration off (recalibrating was the ‘terribly important’ thing I’d forgotten to do). At that point I was running 12th and just biding my time, but unknown to me the brake was now dragging and I hadn’t noticed the tiny sliver of red on the brake indicator.
Over the next 100 laps or so I just went backwards. At the time I believed I had lost an engine cylinder and was down on power, it wasn’t until about lap 114 that I realized what had happened, having finally noticed that the brake indicator was showing applied brakes.
Initially I just pulled back on the brake with my left foot while pushing on the throttle with my right, but after I began to experience cramping I managed to fix it for good on lap 164. However, during those last few laps I had had enormous fun: I normally wait until there’s ten laps remaining before I push really hard to get to the front, but knowing my position I used a combination of strategy, aggression and good luck to come back from two laps down to one, and come back from 22nd-place on lap 114 to 14th as the race ended.
Three-wide at Daytona.
So I ended with mixed emotions, just like everyone else: At one point I had resigned myself to just running for safety rating with a damaged engine, but I ended up having a lot of fun in some really tight racing. I had very few incidents (scraped the wall on lap 100, car contact on 190, the wreck on 194 and an off track on 198 while I got out of the way of the other cars on the final restart), but I still can’t help but think what might have happened had I not been trailing brake for half of the race!
My only real solace is that if this were real life, NASCAR would have probably forced me to start at the back anyway due to an ‘engine change’ in my PC… Starting back there I probably would have gotten involved in one of those early accidents and wouldn’t have had the fun I did during the race. Maybe next year I’ll be able to finish on the lead lap!
Really wasn’t looking forward to this one. I had quite a bit of trouble finding a way to be consistent around this tricky oval this week and didn’t think I’d do very well in a race, but when it came down to it I think I performed really well and with some quick steering avoided a crash ahead which gained me two spots.
I qualified a day earlier, setting a decent time of 15.718. I didn’t even finish the session cleanly, spinning as I took the white flag – so I didn’t hold out much hope for the race.
Starting third on the grid at Oxford Plains I first of all tried to stop the second-place starter from being able to get down to the bottom of the race track. I almost managed this but when he almost spun and swung into my front end while I was underneath I backed off a bit and settled into third.
I stayed in third until lap 19, when the highest rated driver managed to sneak his nose on the inside of me into the turn. I’d made it pretty difficult for him to get his nose under there, but he did manage it eventually. Into the next turn I did run right into the back of him as he slowed for the car ahead, this gave us both light damage but I settled down into fourth-place to start lap 20.
On lap 28 I had fallen back a little and was starting to come under pressure for my fourth-place when I saw contact ahead between second and third: One spun to the inside, one spun to the outside and I ran straight through the middle and up into second-place.
I had light pressure for second for a few laps, but eventually settled into a rhythm and was able to pull away enough that I held the position until the end of the race.
Pretty pleased with the result, especially in a field of fairly highly rated drivers. My iRating has gone up by about 400 within recent weeks and I’m starting to get some incredible racing from it. I was the fourth rated driver and finishing second was a good result.
I had no recorded incidents, set my fastest lap of 15.829 on lap five and took a large points haul of 102.
I think this was a good start to the Late Model Tour for 2010. Not only did I beat some racers with higher iRatings than my own, I put a decent score on the board during a week that last season I didn’t even run a race.
I qualified early in the week and set a 22.142s laptime around this fairly flat racetrack. I hadn’t run on USA in a really long time, so was pretty pleased with the time. When I joined the race though I found myself in the highest of three splits and while I was pleased to be given the chance to get more points, I was also disappointed that I’d be stuck at the back of the field for the entire race.
It wasn’t that interesting of a race… I was quite careful at the start and by starting on the inside line was able to hold seventh-place to lap five. I then dropped to eighth and that is where I stayed until lap 22 when I braked a little too hard going into the turn, and that gave room on the inside for the car behind. There was no way I could fight him off and I dropped to ninth. Not that bad of a showing in a 14 car field where I was rated as number 12.
My fastest lap was a 22.178. No incidents.
This was a fun race, and it’s difficult because now after the good finish I have the tough decision of whether I should try to make a full season with the NASCAR Class A series in iRacing, or not. I usually don’t have that much time to race, so I’ve stuck to the Class D series’ recently (short, punchy races are a lot of fun, too), but we’ll see. I was, after all, the first person to ever win a race with this car in the iRacing service, so I just joined to make sure I still had what it takes to win ahead of the iRacing Daytona 500 World Tour event.
If you would like to run the 2010 iRacing.com Daytona 500, check out this promotional video I made that features a great promo (3 months, free COT, free Daytona – $32).
Anyway, let’s talk about my race…
I qualified in second-place with a 47.830. I was just using the (new) Advanced setup for the car (which is actually quite good now) and knew that I had a good shot.
I started well and slotted into third-place on lap one. Everyone raced side by side successfully with only one hairy moment when the car ahead of me touched the apron in turn four. On lap 30 there was a wreck ahead of me and I just managed to clear it. I pitted, coming out in sixth-place.
For the entire race I had been experimenting with the high line. It seemed that if I was overtaking on the outside I could do it by myself as long as I wasn’t near the front, once I got closer to the leader on the high side the air just knocked me back. After the restart from the caution on lap 30 I knew this and decided to wait until ten laps to go before I pushed for the lead.
So, with ten to go I went for it, I was moving up from fifth-place and luckily caught the fourth-place man as he had a blip in his connection. I just snuck my nose on the inside and he had to give way. At the same time the second-place car had bobbled up in the turn and I followed the inside cars through, moving into third almost straight away.
I wasn’t able to move into second-place until lap 64 of 70, when the second-place car bobbled in the turn just enough for me to stick my nose on the inside again. It was close, but being a clean racer he knew he had to give me the inside and just said “Damn it!” over the in-race radio… Now I just had to pass the man who had been leading since lap 17!
I certainly tried my best. I tried to look for a gap on the low side, but one never came. I tried to go high on the backstretch, but always decided to slot back into second. Eventually I decided that after hearing others complain about not being able to hold the car down in the turns, I’d try and see if I could make the leader have that problem… So I started to bump draft at the end of the straight, hoping he’d have to run up the banking and give me the low-side.
Unfortunately, the leader was always glued to that inside line and eventually I started to bump draft simply to try to stay ahead of the outside line which was forming. I crossed the line a mere 0.070s behind.
So, like I said: I am not sure if I will compete for a championship in the NASCAR Class A Series. Certainly feeling pretty good about the World Tour event though… Daytona 500, here I come!