iRacing B2O Blancpain Sprint League - S4 2017 Drivers List

[SavreticD]

Name change done.

We probably won't be making the races any longer though.

The only session with room for adjustment is the Qualify Race as that's the shorter of the 2 but the Main will remain at 50 minutes. This gives people time to get a drink, hit the bathroom, practice Pit In, etc. and works well in its current form.

Ok tnx.I was wondering something.Why first qualy isnt qualy for main race?

 

[Kinger]

Name change done.

We probably won't be making the races any longer though.

The only session with room for adjustment is the Qualify Race as that's the shorter of the 2 but the Main will remain at 50 minutes. This gives people time to get a drink, hit the bathroom, practice Pit In, etc. and works well in its current form.

Practice pit in...........puhleeze. Who needs to bother with that? LOL!

 

[Kenadian]

Do you mean the Open Qualifier setting the results for the Main Race? If so this would negate the reason to even have a Qualify Race as the results are largely pointless.

At the end of the day the main goal has always been emulating the real world Blancpain Sprint Series while giving Drivers of all levels competition and compelling reasons to race.

I know this is more of a response than you're probably asking for but in order to understand why we are where we are it probably is a good idea.

To understand how the League is structured you have to take a lot of things into account, things we've been testing for nearly 2 years now. Where we are today is the result of theoretical testing and tweaking to accommodate the fundamentals of #PracticePals while staying true to Blancpain and most importantly keeping people on track.

#fPracticePals is about taking you out of your comfort zone on track and forcing you to become a better racer. It's also about social interaction and having fun while you improve one lap at a time supported by Drivers who are better than you in some regard.

A single #PracticePals Session (if done right) will expose you to everything you will see in an Official Race the only exception being rage.

We combine this mindset with a glaring oversimplification of Blancpain as follows:

1. Qualifying
2. Qualify Race
3. Main Race

The Open Qualifier is a mix of Qualify and Practice Session. Our League consists of Drivers who've practiced and raced throughout the week to Drivers who've turned little to no laps. In order to assure the safest possible conditions on track we need to have a warmup session which this combined Open Qualify/Open Practice does.

The Qualify Race uses these results as the real world Blancpain Series does and sets the grid. We've had to make some creative decisions to keep the racing close such as the "Opt In" Inverse Grid and the 103% rule. Both ensure that each Driver follows Drivers of lesser pace upping the challenge and keeping the grid tightly packed for longer.

The Main Race is merely an extension of this mindset. It serves our League no purpose if it's to emulate that which is found in nearly every Official Race in iRacing (including Leagues). The fast guys always drive away from the field, the middle guys are always in the middle either a few cars closely packed or utterly alone and the slower Drivers watch as the field drives away.

This does not make for a good racing experience and as such is the model of what we've been working against since day one.

The League is about balancing the field as much as possible and keeping the race exciting for Drivers of all levels as long as possible. To not consider this is to run the risk of having no compelling reasons to race in our League as nothing would differentiate us from the current racing environment found in most of iRacing save our Teamspeak Comms.

Right now we're enjoying some of the lowest participant drop-off between Qualify and Main Race in our Leagues history so the chances of either seeing change are small.

The races may be too short for some but for others they either represent the perfect length while others find the timeframe a bit long given their commitments and/or timezone.

This is not to say the League is where it will remain forever. To think we're the epitome of League Racing is naive so our goal is to continually strive toward it.

For this reason we're considering many other tweaks, changes and/or additions to make our League that much more compelling such as:

• Driver Class System
• Point Scoring Adjustments (continual/ongoing)
• League Database linked forum Signatures and or Ranking (danlisa.com database dependent)
• Other stuff: to be revealed when appropriate

To summarize, after extended testing over a time period lasting longer than many iRacing Leagues last we've struck a balance that works. We are unique and compelling enough to keep Drivers on track and are experiencing a near perfect level of growth testing all core systems and the feasibility thereof.

I have no doubt that many more tweaks to the current system will be required however I think we're to a point where the data should indicate change.

Even now current systems remain under tight scrutiny. There are many examples of things I'm personally keeping my eye on a few of which are as follows:

1. Should season result irregularities or situations arise where people forego racing to score bonuses we'd tweak the bonus scoring system.
2. Should a situation arise where the fastest drivers cannot win races we'd tweak the 103% rule.
3. Should Drivers joining minutes before the Qualify Race equate to serious incidents on track we'd introduce a cutoff point to race prior to Qualify Race (this has happened on at least 3 separate occasions that I'm aware of).

In closing I'm the first to admit it would be nice to have a plethora of other things.

I'd love for us to be a carbon copy of the real world Blancpain Sprint Series but that is not feasible.

...and this at the end of the day governs all decisions; what is a want, what is a need and will its inclusion work given constraints imposed by iRacing, Membership, Scoring, etc.?

 

[SavreticD]

Wow I need coffee and some time to read this haha
I mean I know its for fun,man I didnt know rankings exist until few days ago.
Still,reverse grid is my favorite because actual racing,main race can be boring sometimes but now with more cars it will be hard to win if you are back so maybe now main race will be fun also

 

[Kenadian]

Exactly Dennis.

I think we'll see things continue to tighten up as more people join the League and become regulars.

When setting this League up we had to guesstimate what would work on any grid size. We needed a system that would work for Driver counts as low as 6 and up to 60. It may be that once we start seeing 60 car grids (which I believe we will one day) we'll need to adjust the 103% rule based off grid size.

Right now it works fine at 20 Drivers but at 30 it may present an issue where the fast Drivers don't have enough time to win the race which they should given pace.

If you are the fastest Driver, 70 minutes of racing should be ample time for you to find your way to the front if incident free. Should this become an issue we'd need to examine why and tweak the system to accommodate.

I would personally not be surprised to see the 103% rule work at fields up to 25 Drivers only.

Perhaps we'd need to alter it to 102.5% rule for up to 40 Drivers and 102% for fields up to 60 Drivers.

This of course is just one example of one area that is under constant scrutiny. You guys are very good about vocalizing shortcomings as they occur which forces us to take a long hard look at things making positive adjustments.

 

[Noodleguitar]

Nice explanation, Duke. It also summarizes some of the recent developments and future plans which is nice to have for the existing members.

You're going the wrong way with the inverse grid cut-off percentage though . When we get more drivers we want to go down from 103% instead of up, because if we were to increase it, the faster drivers would be further back on the grid.

 

[Kenadian]

Nice explanation, Duke. It also summarizes some of the recent developments and future plans which is nice to have for the existing members.

You're going the wrong way with the inverse grid cut-off percentage though. When we get more drivers we want to go down from 103% instead of up, because if we were to increase it, the faster drivers would be further back on the grid.

Eye kant maths

Edited the offending posts so as to look like slightly less of a moron.

Thanks @Noodleguitar

 

[SavreticD]

Eye kant maths

Edited the offending posts so as to look like slightly less of a moron.

Thanks @Noodleguitar

Haha you not the only one

 

[Raysracing]

please add me for this season. Ray Huang

 

[Kenadian]

Done, welcome Ray

 

[Slider]

Excuse my absence, but I've been stuck in afternoons last few weeks (we work 4 on, 2 off), but this Friday, I am off and will be coming. Are car selections locked once we do 1st race? I'm probably going to run Ferrari, but would like to try the Audi again.

 

[SavreticD]

I think you have one more race if you want to try another car but Im not sure

 

[Skid_Marc_]

Two more weeks, @SavreticD. Points scoring car locks in starting Week 5.