I did two Skip Barber Race Series events today and I’m really not happy with either of them. Why? Well, because I finished well below where I could have and I crashed in both.
The first one, I did not do what I could to avoid an incident. I saw him very late (his car is dark and I couldn’t see it until after he started moving infront of me - giving me just a single second to react), and he pulled onto the racetrack in a heavily damaged car.
The thing that annoyed me about the incident is that he had just crashed into the tyre barrier and torn apart the rear end of his car, he shouldn’t have been on the track. When he later blamed me for wrecking his car, something you can clearly see in the video below I didn’t do, it kind of irked me. While normally I would have accepted blame, I felt he didn’t deserve that apology. He was too busy trying to be condescending and typing during the race to even allow me to say sorry. Had he kept quiet and given me a chance, he’d have been reading my apology (which I had typed out - but deleted). He also said that he was too far ahead and couldn’t see me on the F3 screen (which was wrong - there was a car less than a second behind him, which passed him before he hit the wall - I was the very next car on the track after his contact with the barrier), so that kind of annoyed me too…
I did plenty of things wrong in the incident, but when someone comes at you like that? I’m sure as hell not going to be as sympathetic or sorry as normal!
So, later on I joined another race… Guess what happened? iRacing has Karma I tells ya! I know this guy didn’t do it on purpose (just like I didn’t). He was obviously upset at himself and left the server right away after saying “sorry”, but not before I had sent a quick “np” (no problem) over the chat to help him get over it. There’s really no point attacking verbally attacking someone!
I’ve had this happen twice now, where someone doesn’t even give me a chance to say sorry or even explain what I feel happened. I don’t know if people even understand that they actually get a worse reaction out of people by being accusatory rather than just letting them apologize. I’m always sorry for every screw-up I make on the race track, but if you are already verbally attacking me, it’s so much harder to say sorry! I made a thread at the member forums saying the same thing.
Qualifying yesterday, attempting to improve my time, I set a 2:14.331 for today’s race. That laptime put me fourth on the grid in car number three (meaning I was iRated as the third best driver).
Seeing everyone else’s qualifying times I knew that either I was going to finish in third or fourth - or - I’d have to find at least a second of extra pace during the race in order to compete for a win. Luckily for me, I absolutely love Virginia International Raceway… Finding a bit of extra time here is now an absolute joy!
I got a decent start but got very close to losing a position into turn one. Luckily for me though, the person on the inside spun onto the grass and I remained in fourth.
I battled hard, pushing the car as much as I could while remaining clean. I moved into third on lap four, second on lap six and then, finding myself a long way behind the leader, started to try to find some time at VIR.
Eventually setting a blisteringly fast (for me, anyway) time of 2:12.940 on lap twelve I found myself right behind the leader. I didn’t feel that I was any faster though, I actually felt that he had been holding back to try to stay on the circuit… I think that because once I was close, he obviously started to push harder and slipped onto the grass in turn one! This gave me the lead!
For the final two laps I just had to keep on the circuit… I was very lucky to win because the former leader was closing in rapidly and set his own fastest lap on the final lap of the race. The video shows you all the passes for position and a little bit of the nose to tail action seen throughout the race.
I had no incidents. Delighted with a win. I think I’ve really turned a corner on iRacing now… Relaxing and not worrying about winning, has me winning! This race was far more interesting to run than any of my other wins… It’s always nice to have to pass someone. A dominating win is just boring.
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.
I had upped my qualifying time yesterday to 3:00.113 and although I was the eighth-place iRated driver, I would be starting fourth. I was very surprised to be starting so far up the grid, but knew with have no chance of winning (unless everybody ahead made more mistakes than me), I’d be lucky just to hold my starting position.
I recognised all the names ahead of me and knew that each of them were probably around two-seconds faster around the daunting three-minute marathon that is VIR Grand East. So, settling into my seat at the start of the race, I tried to psyche myself into deep concentration…
As the flag dropped I worked hard and tried to stay as clean as possible, but as the second and third-place cars made contact infront, I had to lift off, this let the man who had started fifth past and I found myself just trying to hold that position from the man behind through the next few turns.
I began to stretch the gap to the man in sixth and half way around the lap saw the guys in third and fourth tangle through the esses at the back of the circuit. (I found out after the race that the man who entered turn-one in fourth had damage and that’s what caused the tangle). I had to brake and slow very much and was lucky that the guy behind did this also. At the end of the lap I took fourth-place back as one of the cars had damaged suspension and had to pit.
I now settled into my groove and ran incident free over the next couple of laps. I was watching the live timing screen (F3) closely and saw that the man who’d pitted was closing-in fast, losing concentration I ran off the circuit and hit my nose in the barrier…
Reversing away from the barrier and then moving towards the circuit, I saw that the man who had pitted was now right behind me, so I delayed pulling back onto the circuit to let him through safely… To my great surprise he spun where I’d gone wide and I rejoined ahead of him while he got his car turned around.
Now driving with a damaged front-end, I pushed hard but felt terribly inconsistent in every turn. The Skip Barber 2000 is a low downforce car anyway, but losing that front made it very hard to judge entry and exit speeds… It wasn’t long before he was back on my tail again! Still struggling to cope with my cars new handling capabilities, I completely screwed up the entry to the final turn and this allowed him to easily slip by down the main straight, so I was now in fifth-place on lap six of ten.
I kept as close as I could after he had passed me and knew that if something were to happen I needed to keep myself in a position to take advantage of it. Lucky for me, on the back end of the circuit, he spun once again and I was able to drive past him once again and was now in a solid fourth-place.
On the next lap, the man who had been running in second-place suffered a disconnection and although he returned to the race track, he had lost so much time that he wasn’t a factor anymore. This moved me up to third-place and, knowing how highly skilled this field was, put me in a position I really didn’t want to lose. I pushed hard and set my fastest lap on lap eight, but continued to run off the track a little where I simply couldn’t get the car to turn…
With him now back on my tail, I kept pushing as hard as I could and suddenly found myself closing in on the man in second-place! I noticed as I got closer that he was trying to limp back to the pits as in certain turns his car got way out of shape… I knew that there was a chance that if he lost it at the wrong time I could find myself getting in an accident, but also knew that if I didn’t pass him quickly, the guy behind would pass the both of us…
I continued to run in second-place onto the final lap and found myself under pressure from both the man I’ve been talking about the entire race, and the one who had just limped to the pits and fixed his damage. I told myself not to screw it up but in doing that, I lost concentration… I messed up the entry to turn two and consequently braked too late for the following turn, losing two positions as I spun lazily across the grass.
I got the car righted again and continued to lap, finishing the race in fourth-place and in a field with an average iRating of 2213, had finished well above where my iRating of 1312 has predicted. So, I think I am getting faster, and I think my gains in iRating (55 points in this race alone) are a good indication of that. I’ve had a few pole positions just lately too (on both the roadcourses and ovals), so I think if I can bump up my consistency a little, that first win can’t be too far away…
I lost nine incident points during the race, so had no license gains (or losses). I went off track five times, one of those times hitting the barrier and another time spinning the car. My fastest lap was on lap eight, was with damage, and was a 3:00.711.
This was one hell of a race. I started on Pole with a 3:00.752 I had set just forty minutes before the race, but knew that I would be in a tough race at a track that I personally think is an enormous challenge. For any race track to have a three-minute laptime, means it is a track you really have to concentrate, the fact that this course includes so many blind turns and sweeping bends where the line is all-important, this track, is just fantastic! I’ve totally fallen in love with Virginia International Raceway!
I got a fairly good start, leading for about half a lap until I was passed and dropped (eventually) to third-place. I stayed in third for the whole rest of the race, but was in-touch with the leaders (who had an enormous wheel-to-wheel battle) for the entire race. I really can’t even describe how much fun this race was, but most important to me, I managed to learn that I was taking some turns in the wrong gear (as I noticed the people I was battling got better exits than I did)… I’ll hopefully have time this week to test out my new found gear selections in another race!
I also noticed when watching back the recording that I didn’t push those ahead of me very hard. There were a few times where I backed off rather than sticking as close as possible to their gearbox…
Anyway, here’s the highlights…
I ran onto the dirt four times during the race and this gave me four incident points, but still managed gains on my license. My fastest lap was a 3:00.440 on lap three.
This video says more than any words possibly could. But, before you view it, be aware that each of these drivers are from different countries and are the entire Atlantic Ocean away from where the server is located.
This is one of the most enjoyable tracks I have ever seen. But every configuration, as I drive around, I half love it and half hate it. I love the circuit, I hate how many mistakes I make.
I’ve always had an ‘OK’ safety rating but in every race this week (so far) I have had up to 17 incidents per race I think and my iRating is dropping like a stone. I’ve only had one incident that involved someone else, I think, and I’d like to say sorry for that one, the rest of the time I just put a wheel on the dirt and “wheeeeeeeeeee!” I spin, spin, spin over that white line at the edge of the racing surface.
Mind you, just now I had to answer the phone and quit the race to do so, but check that race result when posted and I probably have more incidents than the rest of the field put together and I only did a few laps of the race!
It’s funny because ever since trying VIR in the early alpha of iRacing I thought to myself how tough the track was for me and I have maybe given myself a mental complex about it… It’s pretty funny really as I’ve never found something so hard, yet wanted to go back and do it badly all over again!
“I had been practicing on the computer at VIR and in the game, you really have to be disciplined and not try to drive real hard and just try to drive smooth. That’s what I did in the test and it worked awesome.”
“No, I haven’t been to any driving schools. I’ve just been practicing on the computer a little bit.”
