I’d put in a quick qualifying session, setting a 1:03.227 before the race. Amazingly this put me in 5th-place on a grid where I was the 12th-highest iRated driver (who knew the competition could be so high in the rookie races!)

I got a great start and immediately moved into fourth-place ahead of a driver who missed the grid. I then gained another place in turn one after the leader hopped the kerb and almost spun to the outside of the turn. Extremely happy and sitting in third-place out of turn two!

Towards the end of lap three the lead cars had pulled away from me a little and I was pushing hard to try to make ground on them, but cut a little too much to the inside exiting the downhill. This threw me off balance and into the dirt exiting onto the main straight… I managed to keep my car off the racing surface and as an incident had happened behind me came very close to getting collected by Matej Sagmeister as he took to the grass between me and the armco! I got going again and crossed the line in sixth-place.

Starting lap four and still recovering from my spin, I gained a place when Matej went off. This put me behind Michael Becker until lap eight when he ran wide in turn one, giving me fourth-place.

I remained in fourth until the end of the race, but by lap 12 had started to close in on Burke Treidler in third. We were nose to tail in places from lap 16 onwards but although I was faster I could not find a clean place to overtake and had to settle for the position.

A fairly fun race. I like having a nose to tail battle with someone, even if I don’t manage to make the pass. It was also nice to have a clean race (with the exception of my 2 incident points for the spin on the frontstretch). It was also pretty cool that the next day I was awarded with:

Here’s the race video:

The first race I slotted into the grid in ninth and held the number 16 on my car, this meant I was the lowest rated driver in the event. Still, looking at everyone else’s qualifying times I figured I’d probably be able to finish in the top-three if I didn’t make any mistakes…

I got a decent, safe start, but as usual I made the mistake of driving too safely. This always seems to happen to me and it’s incredibly annoying: I was much, much faster than those ahead of me, but they were all over the race track (and off it – I managed to avoid someone who span across the racetrack having ran wide out of the final turn), so with them being all over the race track, I stand back and wait for them to sort themselves out.

But, by waiting, by not shoving my nose into a multi-car battle, I leave myself open to the people behind because I am being forced to lap slower than I am capable! How annoying is that? To get passed not because you’re slower, but because you’ve reasoned that nobody infront of you is actually going anywhere! Honestly, on that first lap, they were crawling.

So, basically that’s the story: I dropped a few places, got annoyed at losing those places, made my own mistake running wide, slapped the wall under the bridge, damaged my left side and of course the person behind went to overtake on the right in the downhill… I had to stay left, with a damaged left side, and went off-track and into the fence.

I reset and rejoined the race in 12th, gradually making my way up to eighth without passing anybody on the track. My fastest lap was on lap 11 of 31 and was a 58.797 and this was especially annoying because I came out of the pits with the leaders and lost almost no time to them at all in the 26 laps I ran after the reset.

I also tried to join the race after and jumped the start. That race was done for literally before it began and I finished with less points that the race above netted me, so the race was dropped.

I am now standing eighth in Skip Barber Race Series points, 164 out of first and 80 out of second-place.

I was ranked 13th in a field of 15 and would be starting 9th having set a qualifying time before the race of 56.835 – well off the pace.

I got a very good start and managed to get to 6th by the end of the first lap. This was mainly due to errors by others, but I’d take it! By lap 5 I was in 5th and ran well until lap 10. I spun the car into the wall under the bridge and had pretty serious damage on the right front. I continued driving as obviously most turns at Lime Rock Park don’t put a lot of weight on that wheel… I slowly drifted back and settled into 7th by the end of the 11th lap. I stayed there until the end.

I started 2nd on the grid and led most of the race. I made a few errors and kept dropping into 2nd-place, but got it back again each time and won the race. It wasn’t an interesting race… But it was close. I was constantly only able to lead by under 5 seconds. Winning never seems as interesting as a really good fight for position with another clean racer!

The great thing about this race was that after that earlier race, where I felt ‘gotten at’ – this race, everybody was ultra clean and very polite. It really helped to bring me out of my bad mood.

Probably my worst race ever. With a huge amount of incidents and one incident in particular really getting to me quite a bit – it wasn’t fun at all. You don’t get these kind of races often with iRacing but this one most certainly was a challenge to finish when all I really wanted to do was quit and try again later. Saying that though, I really think this is only the second time I’ve ever felt ‘taken out’ in an avoidable accident.

I started from 5th on the grid and got a decent start. Because of slower cars around lap 1 I wound up losing a position down the start/finish straight on lap 2.

I only really feel it’s safe to overtake down the straight at Lime Rock Park, so quite often during the race I was lifting off heavily just staying clean and biding my time. Eventually moving into 3rd place I set myself up for a pass on a slower car down the straight when to my great surprise, he came over and ran me off the road, making me take to the pit entrance to avoid him. I lifted off and now knew that if I was to make a pass on this guy, I’d have to do it at my first opportunity, which I did, which is when he hit me in the back after the pass – and spun me around. I dropped from 2nd to 10th.

I carried on driving but was pretty upset at what had happened. Eventually working my way back up to 4th-place, I made three major mistakes during the rest of the race and wound up finishing 5th.

Still not happy and I’m writing this days after it happened.

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:

I joined the 9:15am race session and was in an eighth-place starting position. I got a good start, being very careful into the first turn (like everyone else). I swapped position between eighth and ninth a few times as others spun or passed me until finally, on lap six of thirty-one, a huge wreck happened ahead of me.

I JUST managed to squeeze by on the grass and made five positions! I went right up to fourth! I stayed there until the end of the race too, so finished well above where I was otherwise capable of doing.

I had four incident points from the race, two off track incidents and one loss of control (a slide in turn one). My fastest lap was 59.722 and that was done on lap ten.

My start was a little slow in terms of reaction time and that is what probably saved me from becoming involved in a double-spin on the opening lap and opening turn. I just squeezed by and was delighted to see myself in 4th-place out of the turn.

Continuing to chase, I found myself running closely behind the man in 3rd and by the end of lap one felt myself in a position to make a move. The leader had spun on that first lap also, so my pass would be for 2nd! I tucked into his slipstream down the front straight and swung to the right attempting to out-brake him into turn one, but he closed the door aggressively and I had to back off… One lap later, he would lose the back end coming onto the same straight and I was able to drive by with my good exit.

I was able to hold position in 2nd and ran about two-seconds behind 1st and two-seconds infront of 3rd. A few laps later I noticed the #1 iRated driver coming up fast, he had moved into 3rd and was closing the gap to me, lap by lap. I pushed hard but eventually he got close enough and I just couldn’t hold him back anymore, he passed me under braking for turn one.

On lap nine I lost the back end under braking and although I attempted to recover quickly, the pack were right on me and I lost a position and was now 4th. I felt a little guilty because when I was still running slow, the people behind me were running two-wide and alongside me, that made three. The guy on the inside lost a few seconds after a little slide, but did get back on-track pretty quickly.

For the next ten laps I closed down on the man who had passed me after my spin. I was only about one-tenth faster so it was a real battle of consistency to get back on his tail. Neither of us put a wheel wrong for lap after lap and it was only when I got into his slipstream that I seemed much faster. He seemed to recognize this and when I approached his gearbox onto the front straight, he pulled aside and gave me the racing line into turn one. I was now 3rd.

Towards the end of the race, my good friend Damo was closing down on me, but he ran out of laps. :) I finished 2nd.

Sorry about the quality of this video, I forgot to setup the DVD-Ripping software that I use properly.

I had four incidents (for 5 points) in the race: I lost control on lap nine and went off-track (two of them over the kerbing onto the front-straight) on laps twenty-one, two and four while trying to keep ahead of Damo. My fastest lap was on lap twenty and was a 1:00.162.

I can absolutely understand why the study could be correct. Having played Burnout I can tell you that I thought my reflexes were amazing as I managed to navigate through traffic while travelling much faster than them… and surely that’s the problem? These racing games simulate normal roads, normal roads where there are actually speed limits, normal roads where there are “innocent people” in those other cars you crash into when your reflexes aren’t quite fast enough. Couple that style of racing with the glorified slow-motion replays of every crash titles like Burnout provide you with and it’s easy for someone like me to see the problem.

I do play those types of games, but I also run racing simulations, racing simulations are completely different. There is no traffic heading in the opposite direction, there are no “innocent motorists” and the crashing isn’t glorified. Quite often if you make a mistake and crash in a racing simulation – that’s your race done as your car is wrecked – compare that with the endless supply of wreckable machines “God” supplies you with in the Burnout series.

Eventually if you play games like Burnout you are going to believe that not only are you supremely skilled, you’re also invincible. When you run a racing simulation, such as Grand Prix Legends, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season or the new iRacing.com Motorsport Simulation, the objective is to finish well in the race and that means making as few mistakes as possible, being a clean, smooth driver, being aware of other drivers and giving room to them when they get close to you. It is entirely different.

I have raced many times on games like Burnout and Need for Speed. I once was even commandeered by a work colleague to unlock a license for him on GT3 because he couldn’t do it… Almost every time I raced, I raced those games with my simulation head on, I slowed a lot more than I had to in a “bounce of the walls” style game, I didn’t often put myself in a risky position or crash and even though I may have looked slower I often ended up at the finishing line first.

Back in June 2006 I was lucky enough to be able to drive a Skip Barber 2000 racecar at Lime Rock Park, my only “training” prior to this was done on iRacing.com’s new simulator. I was frightened about being out there on the real track in the real car, I wasn’t crazily confident. Driving a Dodge Neon, Viper and RAM before the Skip Barber 2000 gradually taught me the real world skills I already had locked in my brain from the racing simulations I race on a daily basis. I had 40 minutes of track time and only 10 minutes in did I have one little loss of control – but I caught it. You can actually play these arcade style games like Need for Speed in a realistic manner but the game does not promote this, they promote breaking the speed limit, they promote crashing into “innocent traffic” and they often promote running from the Police. Racing simulations promote being the best driver you can be, being fast on a closed circuit while also maintaining control of the car.