Car Parts 2011

Since Rochester NY is supposed to get about 4 inches of snow today and the Pittsburgh Steelers do not play until tonight, I have an entire day of lounging at the apartment. So what does that mean? It's a race day in Rochester! I plan on sitting on my butt and racing on iRacing all day long and blogging about it as I go.

First off iRacing is quite a bit different from GT5 or F1 2010 as you may have read about here previously. iRacing is an online service racing against all real people, no shitty AI here though you do find the odd shitty human. The cars and tracks are laser scanned, and all the chassis adjustments are true to whats available in the real car. To be honest I have a hard time playing other games now, they just don't feel right. The edge of grip, transitions, and car attitude just feel goofy in comparison. Though the learning curve does turn some people off who want to just jump in and go.

Today I am racing the Nationwide Impala at Chicagoland. Chicagoland is a goofy track in its own respect, it never actually straightens out, its just one big curve. It also has a fairly abrupt transition into turn 1, its kind of like driving off a cliff (not quite like Dover though).

The class I am running in is for License B and the setups are fixed (ie I didn't have to spend a few hours making my own). Now the fixed setup here is honestly not very good at all, its tight in and scary loose off, this track is pretty tough on tires so it gets worse on entry and better on exit throughout the run.

I have already ran a few qualifying sessions (4 laps) and my best Q effort has only been 31.272, thats a bit disappointing as my race best is a 31.191 and practice best is a 31.086. Either way I ran a couple races last night, I was placed in the lower of two groups which put me towards the front. In two races I had a 2nd place and a disappointing 13th after I lead 10 laps. My safety rating also took a hit falling to 3.55 out of 5.

12:30 Race

Today I started out in the 12:30 race which was only a single group/split so there was a wide range of racers. I started in 5th place and only made it through turn 2 before a wiggle two cars in front of me caused a chain reacting check up to me, the guy behind didn't let up and punted me. Luckily I just slid sideways down the backstretch and didn't take damage. So my plan was to hang in the back and take tires every caution. The problem with being in the back of course is that there are boneheads back there. Of course after the next restart a guy got taken out two cars in front of me and I spun in avoidance with no contact. So at this point i had 4 incident points (2 for each spin) and I thought it best to ride it out and finish clean. I was able to pick off a few guys on the long run to the checkers to finish 12th out of 19.

Fast lap - 31.346 (20)
Avg lap - 43.985
Incidents - 4
Pts - 53
SR - 3.52 (-.04)
3 Cautions for 11 laps out of 50 total.

2:30 Race

Well that didn't go as planned....








He made it through, I didn't. Gotta good look at the underside of the other car though... Full recap after the race concludes and I get the stats...

Well to start off this was probably the toughest group I've ever raced in, out of 22 guys there were only 3 B level guys, the rest were A level and 2 Pro level so the strength of field was off the charts. I started 8th, and unlike the previous races with this many good guys in the same group it stayed green early. I dropped back to 12th after getting shuffled on the high side a couple times, then on lap 11 Thomas Nolden got loose out of turn 2, overcorrected and then bounced off the wall. I was two cars behind, the yellow car (Laust Olsen) made it through and I hit Nolden square in the rear end ending my race.

Fast Lap - 31.455 (11)
Avg Lap - 33.416
Incidents - 4
Pts - 6
SR - 3.41 (-.11)
12 out of 50 laps completed

Next Race at 4:30, I'm going to try to make qualifying at 4:15 as well.

4:30 Race

Now that was better...





I wasn't in a terribly fast group so I actually got to start on pole and led the first lap before settling into 3rd for the long green flag run to start the race. After 32 laps the third place man (George White) spun on the front stretch and just about collected me.





I don't quite know how I missed him, just put it to the floor, headed for space, and hoped. After the restart I fell all the way back to 4th but unfortunately for the leader Darrell Rector and Mr. White the 2nd place man Justin Robertson was suffering connection problems and collected both but it stayed green and I followed Robertson home to finish 2nd.

Fast Lap - 31.227 (7)
Avg Lap - 36.252
Incidents - 0
SR - 3.52 (+.14)
1 Caution for 4 laps out of 50 total
8 Laps Led

One more race for the day at 6:30, so far I've run 112 laps and lost .01 of safety rating. I may run an open setup race (in which I'll probably get spanked) but its 100 laps and will help the SR cause.

6:30 Race

YEAH BABY!!








Finally got that first oval win under my belt to match my win in the Mustang Cup at Mid Ohio. I went and re-qualified and lowered my time to 31.052 which made a difference because it put me on the pole for the second straight race. If had not lowered the time I would have started 3rd. Well not to brag but I kinda ran away and hid this time, after the one caution Darrell Rector (who was in a few of the other races as well) got in front of me for two laps but besides that it was 48 out of 50 in the lead. Pretty damn happy right now and thats a good way to cap the week of racing and the night.

FIRST OVAL WIN
Fast Lap - 31.224 (30)
Avg Lap - 40.447
Incidents - 0
SR - 3.69 (+.15)
2 Cautions for 8 laps out of 50 total
48 Laps Led

So for the night I finish with a 1st, 2nd, 21st, and 12th. With totals of 162 laps, 56 laps led, 8 incidents, and +.14 SR points (just from races only). Hope you were mildly amused if you were following along.

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