Speaking of Unhinged Racing

[Deb]

Trying to take @Skid_Marc_'s advice to work more on my situational awareness as to car placement on track so to race more, I saw in the Ring Maester series that they were racing the GT3s this week. The 296 was in there, so I figured, 3 laps, WTH!!! I didn't think I had a great qualifying time, but maybe a lot of people didn't qualify, so I gridded 5th. Started very well and toward the end of the first lap, I caught a car in the train that was struggling and not driving the normal race line, so I thought I would wait until the straight to pass him. The guy behind me had other plans and punted me. I recovered but the mayhem continued. The aggression was unreal. Just watching people getting punted and getting punted myself, I realized this has nothing to do with real life racing and I am now out on sprint racing. I was so mad at how bad this was that I honestly couldn't sleep. I was trying to think of solutions other than leagues where you can actually work on racecraft and not be on the grid with a bunch of idiots.

So what do you think about iRacing adding splits to a few popular series where you have to have a SR above 4.0 and you check a box to join a "racecraft" race if you qualify and you want to? And perhaps iRacing could steward these races randomly to ensure racing is reasonably clean. Do you think this would help? Would you want to race in one of these splits? I think its less important for endurance races since you have to keep the car clean to do well, but after seeing last week's NEC race, I'm not so sure.

 

[Skid_Marc_]

As I've said before;

• No I don't think an iRating limit would improve things.
• League racing is the only consistent counter to the anonymity of online racing, especially in the more popular classes like GT3. However, even leagues are not a consistent, positive experience. They absolutely can be, but they require the right people in-charge, willing to put forth a lot of time and effort on a regular basis to maintain.
• iRacing has a lot of employees, moderators, and "partners" who attempt to "monitor" random races, but there are so many races per-series, per-season, I doubt it makes a difference, and I don't know how much iRacing could afford to increase the number of these monitors, and I don't know how you could quantify the effect that they have/would have.

I think iRacing could do themselves a favor and help this series, and other similar series, out by reducing the maximum starters from 30 to 20. If they're going to do short, 3 lap, sub 15-20 minute races, then you don't need 30 people on the track. However, I don't know if that makes financial sense to iRacing. Cut 30% of the field size, and you're adding 30% to your server cost (I'm not 100% on that math mathing, but it sounds good.. more splits = more cost). Despite it's size, the Nürburgring provides no room to hide, and few opportunities to pass. If iRacing is going to have short races, then they should have smaller fields. Everyone becomes so desperate to get what they can, while they can, and that desperation comes at the time when the concertina-effect is at it's greatest. It's so many moving parts, that it becomes over-whelming, and everyone is driving over their head, and there are no consequences because it's a sim.

A lot of people sign up for sprint races because they don't want to spend the time having an actual race, they just want quick chaos on the hope it will all work out for them. A quick spike of adrenaline. Just for the shot of it going well. And if it doesn't, they'll sign up for the next one. And you have to have thick skin, because while you're lying awake at night, thinking about them, they'll never remember who you even are.

Also, the Nürburgring is not the place to learn racecraft. Those are skills better developed in more manageable track. The knowledge, skill, time, patience, and confidence gaps between every driver can be so far apart, and you need to find someone similar to your level on most of those things to even run side-by-side on something as "simple" as an oval. You add 10-15 corners to it, and that gap widens. And then you add 145 more corners to it, and the task of learning how to run side-by-side is basically impossible.

My best advice would be to find a small series that you can find some enjoyment in. I know the fast cars and the big tracks are the most fun to drive, but when you lower the speed, you lower the closing speeds, and you lower the performance distance between cars. You're forced to exist around other drivers. Formula Vee, Formula 1600, MX-5, GR86, the entry series are the entry series for a reason. For some, they're a stepping-stone to the future, for some, they're the greatest thing that they get to run, and they wouldn't run anything else, but they're the bottom of the ladder for a reason.

Most importantly, you have to be willing to make mistakes, and you have to be willing to forgive people who make mistakes around you. Even though they're total assholes, and it's all their fault, and their mother never wanted them, and they'll never make their dad proud, and they think you're the idiot, and they'll never change. It's just part of racing.