Band of Others iRacing Team

[Kenadian]

Hey guys,

I've sent invites to all current iRacing Members for our Band of Others iRacing Team.

Currently the Team invites have been sent to Noel, Kyle, Sam and Anthony.

So I guess we now have to figure out what we're going to compete in and when.

 

[Daunt]

I may or may not have snuck on for a few minutes to run a few laps. So far I am loving the changes. The cars I drove felt MUCH more stable under heavier braking and are braking much better (likely a result of ABS changes)... I found myself moving a lot of my brake points closer to the turn-in at Spa with the McLaren.

The cars also feel 100x better at slow speeds. Whatever changes they made to achieve that, I hope they keep it that way. Going through the final chicane at Spa is much more fun... less wobbles and a bit easier to get onto the gas.

Higher speed corners, though, I am finding the opposite. They seem harder, but this may be a result of not having a proper setup to the new baseline / changes (there were major changes to the rear suspension on the Mclaren) and a few other factors. Not sure if the rear suspension change affected how well the car handles minor bumps and curbs, but the car doesn't because unstable as easily from minor things that were stay-aways before. I wonder how the inside of mid-ohio's turn 1 is, before it was a STAY AWAY in the McLaren.

Reallllly digging it though!

 

[ElektroVodka]

I guess you will be streaming this Duke?
Would be awesome to have a multi twitch running then!

 

[Kenadian]

I guess you will be streaming this Duke?
Would be awesome to have a multi twitch running then!

We'll have no choice in this regard because the files would be too large to save locally.

Hopefully drivers can spend some time in our Twitch Stream Chat as well to engage our viewers from an insider perspective.

 

[Peeble]

So as I understand it there are two team series:

iRacing Team GT3 Series - GT3 cars - same schedule as regular GT3 series - CLASS D SERIES
iRacing Team Sports Car Series - Ford GT/HPD/DP/Ruf C-spec - same schedule as regular WSC - CLASS C SERIES

I'm up for both.

 

[Noodleguitar]

I finally read all of the patch notes. Looks like they have really tried to put effort into the driver swap system. Reading all the notes it might seem complex but I feel that's a good thing because it should prevent most of the glitches and vulnerability to abuse.

Probably the best patch note I found is this:

Mount Panorama Circuit

- Brake markers are now visible even when graphic details set at minimum.

Now I can finally get through turn 1 without guessing wildly!

I haven't tried yet but I'm excited for the changes to the GT3 cars (including Ford GT3). From your post, Kyle, it sounds pretty promising. I think in the end the McLaren did get nerfed by adding 30 kg but from what I've seen the McLaren has been the fastest last season.

We should probably try out the driver swap stuff with a bunch of us, maybe in the weekend? Maybe week 13 has a driver swap series for road. If not, I'll happily host something.

As far as cars go Peeble, I'm fine with every one of them except probably the Ruf Track and the DP (don't intend to buy that one).

 

[Kenadian]

I tried the Ford GT3 at Mount Panorama and couldn't turn a single lap. I don't know if it's a wing setting, ARB stiffness or perhaps the rear needs to be softened up but that car really wants to over-rotate in braking; brake bias did nothing.

If you have the wheel pointing anywhere but straight when you're braking downhill then you're in a world of hurt.

I don't know what it is about the Ford, I want to like it but I absolutely hate it.

The one thing I am curious about though is are we able to field more than 1 car/race as a Team? We have 5 Drivers so it would be cool if we could have 2 & 2 with a rotating Sub.

Also, GT3 D-Class?

Most of these guys aren't ready to go that fast hence the slow in/slow out understeering CTS-VR and the KIA wouldn't wanna be ya.

 

[Noodleguitar]

The one thing I am curious about though is are we able to field more than 1 car/race as a Team? We have 5 Drivers so it would be cool if we could have 2 & 2 with a rotating Sub.

Also, GT3 D-Class?

Most of these guys aren't ready to go that fast hence the slow in/slow out understeering CTS-VR and the KIA wouldn't wanna be ya.

Nope, when you register for a team race you only have 1 car available. I'm not sure if in practice every team member could practice at the same time (doubt it) but not during a race. You could maybe temporarily split up the team to do that and then use a similar name and the same paint scheme.

I'm also fine with the Cadillac or the Kia, for me the car doesn't matter that much. Although, as far as I know there are no team races for this class in the coming season.

 

[Daunt]

Also, GT3 D-Class?

Most of these guys aren't ready to go that fast hence the slow in/slow out understeering CTS-VR and the KIA wouldn't wanna be ya.

This. I didn't think there was any sort of GT3 coming to anything other than the license level it is currently at. On the schedule PDF, it is not listed. But the week of fun is a good chance to try out the class in a race-type setting.

We can field 2 and 2 but I don't think that fifth man can go back and forth. I'm not sure though.

Personally I'm ok with either series. But that was the point of the other tread I opened up regarding the B2O Endurance Team.

I would like to hear what you guys think about the current GT3 cars though and the changes they've made. My personal opinion only goes so far, as I'm not the most experienced racer here.

EDIT: I did also try the Caddy the other night when I was going through the cars.. Didn't feel that much different. Better braking and maybe a bit more stable but again, I only spent a few laps in each car. Still noticeable changes.

 

[Noodleguitar]

We can field 2 and 2 but I don't think that fifth man can go back and forth. I'm not sure though.

Can you really? If so, I'm sorry for spreading misinformation. I thought the idea was to join as a team and then pick any drivers from your team to drive a single car in a session.

I'll try out some of the GT3 cars in the near future. Today I'm sick and even typing this almost feels like too much effort

Did you see by the way that there won't be any iRating losses/gains in the official team series? I wonder why that is but it does mean your team members can have a range of 1000-6000 iRating without one of them feeling he's donating kidneys every few laps .

 

[Kenadian]

What about SR?

 

[Kenadian]

It makes more sense for Teams to be able to field multiple cars because a Team is usually more than just 2 or 3 drivers.

I would love to see an endurance race with 3 or more B2O cars in it.

The other question I have is do we just create a Driver Team and have those 2 or 3 Drivers work together continually?

To be perfectly honest, we should all be able to sub in whenever needed but the main Driver Teams should stick together pretty much exclusively.

 

[Daunt]

I saw that iRating thing and wasn't sure if i was reading it correctly! SR will be balanced according to how much you drive and such. But yes, it will be a factor.

Don't forget about driving requirements for each driver. The equal share (25% of an equal share). It is nice that they will have it calculated and displayed how much each driver will need to drive and has left to drive in order for them not to get a post race DQ. But equal share, if you didn't read, will require that much. So in a 100 lap race, with 5 drivers, an equal share is 20 laps a piece, then 25% of that is 5 laps. So MINIMUM amount each driver can drive is 5.

There's no reason we can't make two teams of two drivers each for a particular race. But I think the major factor in determining this is the length of race. The currently planned official series will have 1 hour long driver swap races (see my thead for the 2014 S4 schedule) with 1 that is two hours long. I'd say those aren't very long at all... it wouldn't kill us to have 4 drivers but it is certainly overkill if you ask me.

For a longer race (I'd say anything more than 2 hours) like six, 12 and 24 hours, etc we will need a large team and multiple TZs will help with this, too.

 

[Kenadian]

That's the problem really.

If we want to compete in events that last 2 - 24 hours, we'll need a lot of Drivers. In fact, there's no way we could ever compete in a 24 hour Team Race with the Team we have now.

For 24 hours we'd require a minimum of 6 Drivers ready to go for one full day, not possible currently.

The best we could hope for is a 12 hour race and even that's pushing it with the small number of Drivers we have now.

The good news is our Team will grow over time because the focus will be on bringing in more Drivers via YouTube, Twitch, etc.

If you really stop to think about it, the only original Driver here is me, the rest of you came to us via one of the aforementioned media so I'd expect that trend to continue.

We'll need to figure out a way to embrace them at a Team Level and get them into Teamspeak, Practices and Races regularly to form that Team vibe.

To be completely honest the only way I see this happening is by swarming the Global Challenge Series with multiple drivers as we have in the past.

In fact, Global Challenge is the only series to date where the bulk of our Drivers have spent Practicing and Racing together once promoted beyond Rookie.

 

[Daunt]

That's the problem really.

If we want to compete in events that last 2 - 24 hours, we'll need a lot of Drivers. In fact, there's no way we could ever compete in a 24 hour Team Race with the Team we have now.

For 24 hours we'd require a minimum of 6 Drivers ready to go for one full day, not possible currently.

The best we could hope for is a 12 hour race and even that's pushing it with the small number of Drivers we have now.

It won't kill us to park the car for a few hours or so... Granted we probably won't WIN that way, but still it isn't going to kill us if we have no one to drive a late night early morning slot... a fucking Australian or two is what we need. But as I said in the other endurance thread, it will be better for us to practice and whatnot with the 1-2 hour driver swap races before moving to longer ones.

 

[Kenadian]

Honestly Daunt, if we're going to park the car then what is the point in competing?

That to me seems like a gigantic waste of both time and energy and I don't have 00dles of it to throw away these days.

I don't mind adjusting my weekend sleep schedule to accommodate one of these races but I won't do it if the car is parking, that's just plain silly lol.

A few more Euro's would be nice though, no question about it.

I'm going to talk to Per about their thoughts on endurance racing and see if maybe they want to join the Team?

 

[Daunt]

Honestly Daunt, if we're going to park the car then what is the point in competing?

I'm going to talk to Per about their thoughts on endurance racing and see if maybe they want to join the Team?

I kind of agree with that. Either way we're not at the point to participate in races that last more than four hours. But yeah talk to them and see if we can coordinate something... again I don't think it is needed though until we hit major events that are over 4 hours. But practice between all of us will do wonders.

 

[Noodleguitar]

You can do a 24 hour race with 3 drivers if you use the Le Mans strategy of stints (~3 hours of driving) and then going to sleep/eat for the next 6 hours. Of course that's a big commitment and not something you'd want to do every 2 weeks or without enough practice.

 

[Kenadian]

3 hours of driving lol, can either of you concentrate that long? I don't even know if I can drive 3 hours without having to go to the bathroom.

Do you think we can get a B2O Team Discount on adult diapers?

 

[Daunt]

I could probably push 2 but the point is I don't know yet. We don't know. Never tried to race that long... so the coming driver swap races will help. Can't really do much until we give it all a go starting with the 1 hour series and going from there. 3 hour stint might not even be bad, but then waiting six hours then having to do it all again? I don't know really.

As for bathroom breaks, as the older drivers may worry ... Pit stops should be at LEAST 40 seconds so if you can't pee that fast then you're outta luck. Proper GT3 pitting rules are in place now so you can't change tires and fuel at the same time, and a full tank of fuel will be 40 seconds. But personally I think that is ample time to take a leak.