iRacing

[Carlos]

iRacing is the successor of Grand Prix Legends and Nascar 2003. Developed by the legendary developer Dave Kaemmer iRacing was born in the summer of 2008.

Good video showing some nice racing in a mixed class.


iRacing is distinguished from other racing simulations in a number of aspects. The keys:

Pricing: For iRacing you pay a monthly fee. Besides paying your procurement costs for circuits and cars. You get discount on purchases if you purchase multiple times. There are also new drivers often interesting introductory offers. A demo is not available.

Competitions: iRacing organizes various competitions. Each has its own racing series race times and days. Every week the circuit switches. And every 13 weeks a new season. You can qualify for each series in a week and your best time counts for the whole week.

Hosted Sessions / Tournaments: You can also enjoy iRacing creating your own league with combinations of circuits and cars. For this you pay a fixed amount per unit of iRacing.

Safety Rating (SR): iRacing works with a Safety Rating. Your Safety Rating is determined by the number of incidents per turn you have (off track, loss of control, contact with others). You must drive safely to get higher licenses and to be promoted. Also 'car contact' without your fault is at the expense of your Safety Rating. The result of that is that there is fairly careful driving. Safety Rating is separated for Oval and Road.

Licenses: iRacing has a licensing system (Rookie, D, C, B, A). This licensing system is individually designed for oval and road racing. Based on your Safety Rating you can promote. With a Safety Rating higher than 3 spring you can promote on the promotion dates. If you exceed 4 Safety Rating and enough races or time trials driven you get instant promotion.

iRating: This is a number that is linked to your results. If you have good results in a race you get iRating points. The iRating separated for Oval and Road.

Layout 'splits': Races are classified on the basis of iRating in splits. This way you usually race against people who are about as fast. This ensures exciting races without you immediately "search" races driven by much faster participants.

Money: You get $5 iRacing credits for one year uninterrupted membership. If you invite someone else, you can collect $10 iRacing credits. And if you do good in races you can earn up to $10 iRacing credits. With this money you can buy new cars and tracks or a hosted session establishment.

 

[Forcone]

Damn Carlos. I've been thinking about trying this for months but haven't had the time. And I don't think my PC could even run this! If I had room to build a proper PC rig, this would be my obvious game of choice..Some day....!

 

[Carlos]

Damn Carlos. I've been thinking about trying this for months but haven't had the time. And I don't think my PC could even run this! If I had room to build a proper PC rig, this would be my obvious game of choice..Some day....!

You said you were buying a house right? I got a few thousend out of the mortgage to do something with the house, don't tell them a part is in my pc

 

[Forcone]

You said you were buying a house right? I got a few thousend out of the mortgage to do something with the house, don't tell them a part is in my pc

I was, but am not anymore.. Couldn't come up with enough collateral or what do you call it... Would've got the mortgage otherwise. Weeeell, some day!

 

[katpeeler]

Great post Carlos...couple of quick observations/questions...

1= On the picture of the race results on another thread, it looked like people use there real names..and if so there seemed to be ALOT of foriegn names...Im assuming its because of the servers in your Country?
2= What is the minimum amount of PC is needed to run the game?? And can you be competative on the MINIMUM amount of hardware for the PC??
3= Can you have more than on Class of car and can you run in different classes?..if so does that cost more money (besides the actual cost of the cars/paint)
4= Once you have a car do you "tune" them like in Forza? Ugrades like Forza??
5= How is the handling of the cars with the wheel versus Forza?? Ive always felt that Forza was a little TOO slippery when it comes to the handling.....
6=In that video you posted it showed the in car view but it seemed the view was NOT behind the steering wheel..Is this like that on all the cars??..Do you have different views...Hood, front bumber??
7= It seems that people that race Iracing are VERY serious about it....do you have "pick up" races just for fun or do you have to find a race going on when you log on....

 

[Carlos]

I was, but am not anymore.. Couldn't come up with enough collateral or what do you call it... Would've got the mortgage otherwise. Weeeell, some day!

Ah that's pitty! I'm working for the same company over 4 years with full time contract (without limit) so wasn't a problem for me luckily. Good luck next time! 👍

Great post Carlos...couple of quick observations/questions...

1= On the picture of the race results on another thread, it looked like people use there real names..and if so there seemed to be ALOT of foriegn names...Im assuming its because of the servers in your Country?
2= What is the minimum amount of PC is needed to run the game?? And can you be competative on the MINIMUM amount of hardware for the PC??
3= Can you have more than on Class of car and can you run in different classes?..if so does that cost more money (besides the actual cost of the cars/paint)
4= Once you have a car do you "tune" them like in Forza? Ugrades like Forza??
5= How is the handling of the cars with the wheel versus Forza?? Ive always felt that Forza was a little TOO slippery when it comes to the handling.....
6=In that video you posted it showed the in car view but it seemed the view was NOT behind the steering wheel..Is this like that on all the cars??..Do you have different views...Hood, front bumber??
7= It seems that people that race Iracing are VERY serious about it....do you have "pick up" races just for fun or do you have to find a race going on when you log on....

1= Alot of foreign names yes, but that's probably because of the time I'm racing. My race was around 6pm local which is in the morning at your time.

2= I'm not sure what's the minimum. I was running with an Asus pq5 pro motherboard, 4gb (32bit system so 3,3 useable) memory, Intel core 2 (slow) processor and a nvidia 9800 gtx graphics card which was broken, I was able to run 10 practice laps or some race laps but then froze. I'm sure if that graphics card wasn't broken it would've worked good because it was only for a small time.

3= You can run in more classes, but you need to buy that car for that class. When you start as a member, you get the starter package which you can run in different series and you get a small amount of circuits which you can use during your fist season. You don't really need more because the other series are for higher licenses. You can however buy cars and circuits and race on hosted series (by people like you and me, clubs etc).

4= No upgrades, but tuning yes. You can setup the car however you want but some series (like rookie) are fixed. When you get an higher license you'll be able to attent more professional leagues which allow different setups.

5= Like you said, Forza feels a bit loose. The feedback in the wheel is very good, I had no problem to adjust and was able to run the fastest lap in no time of that session. Braking and shifting is more important now, shifting back in Forza is no problem while it turns you backwars in iRacing, which ofcourse is more realistic.

6= Don't know about other camera views, but it starts with cockpit view. You can look left and right and that's it. When you hook up your wheel for the first time it asks what buttons you use to look left and right, nothing more. Those are the replay cameras for sure.

7= Very serious, but not TOO serious. If you race normal you won't get any problem, and remember how the iRating system works. If you want Road tracks you will start your career like me. You can select a league for your class (rookie), probably the nvidia league (Mazda MX5's). You can paint the car with different themes and select sponsors, but they are pre-chosen by them. When you're applied to that league, you can start racing. Every hour a race starts, you can apply to that race and untill the timer goes to zero you can practice on that track. Or select TEST and you can go with whatever car and whatever track you have bought. Untill you have a high license there is really no point of getting high class cars since you can't apply to those leagues.

And!

http://www.iracing.com/half-off/

 

[Carlos]

Did 2 races today. First race I started as third and in the second lap I overtook the leader, but spun out because I stepped on the gas too early. Collided with the railing and had little damage. Was in the pits for a whole lap, was -1 on the rest The rest of the laps were pretty nice and made up my lost lap on all of them , becoming fifth out of nine.
http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=6717041&custid=104531

Second race I started as 9th, kept 9th for 2 laps because I went to sharp on a corner twice, had to slow down. After that just went for it and the leader was in sight in the 15th lap. Paced a lap behind him and then aftertook him.
http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=6717300&custid=104531

 

[katpeeler]

What scares me is that your a VERY good driver in Forza and with comments like that I see you doing well above me in Iracing.........

 

[Carlos]

Thanks! but I'm losing from Forcone, Fezz, Wiggs, Silent, Chris and alot of other guys so I might be not as fast as you think And iRacing feels a bit more realistic try to run it on the lowest graphics to see if you like it. One month membership is not alot of money... Or maybe at a friends house?

 

[katpeeler]

My weekends have been kinda busy lately...and when I have extra time Ive been playing other games....BUT when there isn't a football game on I might give it a shot..how long would you say it would take from start to finish....download the game to actualy playing it...like getting your wheel set up for it......Ive NEVER played any games on PC so I dont know..thanx

 

[Carlos]

When you are a member, you download (I think) an old version of the game, which then asks to me upgraded with around 2gigs of things. You can minimize it by unboxing cars or tracks, but you can better do them all so you can do mixed races. I have a 50mbit connection and it didn't took that long, don't remember but it wasn't long. Loading the track takes around half a second..

You only have to setup your wheel once, first time you connect it. Takes around a minute. It's very easy, just do what you're told

 

[katpeeler]

Hmmm...thats not as bad as I thought....been looking at videos online last night and I have to say it looks great...But to be honest Im scared that if I get wrapped up into this I will NEVER see another game in my life...Maybe when some of these other racing games (AC, project cars) come about I might drop the hammer...but it seems that with my life going on I wont have the time to realy give this the time it needs.....Im gonna sit on it for a bit

 

[Carlos]

Than, it's better to wait. You really have to get some straight hours into this and when you're buying more circuits and cars, it's a shame for not using it...

I'm currently looking in what series I'm racing next season. The promotion date is the 29th, then I'm advancing into class D. Thinking of the Mustang cup, then I have to buy that car plus around 8 or 9 circuits. To buy it all in once is a bit expensive, though the series is spread over 12 weeks so 3 circuits per month I guess. ($15,- per circuit). As you hear it's already becoming a little bit more expensive, although I could stick in the series I'm in but I feel I'm ready for next class..

 

[katpeeler]

When you get rolling, let me know how your scheduled races are...From what I was looking on line they are set in stone but I thought you said races run every hour......I mean I can give the game an hour a week for sure if its an hour I can pick myself to run....

 

[Carlos]

When you get rolling, let me know how your scheduled races are...From what I was looking on line they are set in stone but I thought you said races run every hour......I mean I can give the game an hour a week for sure if its an hour I can pick myself to run....

Yeah it's like this; 1 series is 12 weeks long, every week a different circuit. So 12 circuits. You can set qualifying times through the whole week and your fastest will count everytime you start a race, which starts every hour. I too was sceptic about this, but every hour I see around 30 to 50 people join my slow class now, who are seperated in different splits. So enough people to race with. Some people are running a couple of races so you sometimes race the same guys in the race after you just have done.

Just remember the time a race starts. Here it's around .00 on the clock, so if I go .05 online I have to wait 55minutes for the next race to start. You can subscribe to a race around half an hour till start, then practices or do whatever. I usually subscribe 30 minutes before the start, practice for a bit and then race. When I do a second race I'm not practicing, I'm still hot from the race I've just done and you only have around 15 minutes between.

 

[Forcone]

Yeah it's like this; 1 series is 12 weeks long, every week a different circuit. So 12 circuits. You can set qualifying times through the whole week and your fastest will count everytime you start a race, which starts every hour. I too was sceptic about this, but every hour I see around 30 to 50 people join my slow class now, who are seperated in different splits. So enough people to race with. Some people are running a couple of races so you sometimes race the same guys in the race after you just have done.

Just remember the time a race starts. Here it's around .00 on the clock, so if I go .05 online I have to wait 55minutes for the next race to start. You can subscribe to a race around half an hour till start, then practices or do whatever. I usually subscribe 30 minutes before the start, practice for a bit and then race. When I do a second race I'm not practicing, I'm still hot from the race I've just done and you only have around 15 minutes between.

That sounds great! 👍 Next question: are there multiple series running at the same time? I mean like 2 class D series at the same time? So if I start my career now in the Nvidia Cup (the MX5-cup??), I have no choice over the series? Like, if you guys are in the middle of week 5 of the series, I cannot apply for another series that may be just ending or is about to start over? Hope you understand something of this mumbling..

OR, if I started racing now, and didn't get a high standing in the series because of missing all the races in the beginning in the series, is there a possibility of getting "promototed" still?

EDIT: Third question!! You said each week is a different circuit, and a race starts every hour. How are the series points given? Can you race the same circuit as many times you want? What's the determining factor when giving out points? Your lowest total race time? Your highest standing? This is difficult!

 

[Carlos]

Next question: Yes all the series are running 24.7, but some series run different than others. I'm not really sure how this works but what I know, is that some races go official and some are not. I haven't seen this in iRacing but read about it on the forums. I will get back on this when I know for sure because I'm looking at the races I've done, I'm getting different amount of championship points while my finishing position was the same. It looks like the higher the strenth of field (SOF from now on) is, OR amount of people competing in that race.

While I'm typing this, why don't it look up right now This is what iRacing says:

Series Points & Race Week Points

Race Points:
RACE EVENT points are scored in Official Series Races.
Races are valued by the Strength of Field (SOF), which is based on the iRatings of the drivers in the field. The higher the average strength of field, the more points are available for each finishing position.
Race event points are adjusted for field size. The larger the field the smaller the difference in points awarded for each finishing position.

RACE WEEK POINTS:
Drivers may compete in as many Official Series Races as they choose in a given race week.

The best 50% of a driver’s race performances (based on points scored) in a given Race Week will be averaged at the conclusion of each Official Series Race during the week. The final average at the conclusion of the Race Week will be the driver’s Race Week Point Total and count towards the season championships in that series.

Example: If a driver competes in five official races in the Skip Barber Series in a given week, the driver’s best three race-point totals are averaged and those points go towards the driver’s season championship points total.

SEASON RACE POINTS:
Season points are calculated by totaling the race week points earned by a driver in a given series in a single season. A driver’s best 8 weeks of the 12 Race weeks will count towards his/her season championship points.

Aha! I've won three races in the nvidia cup now (out of 6), first time 80 points, second one 81 and last one 78.

You will get promoted by making km's, staying clean etc. You promote quicker if you win ofcourse, I see guys getting second place at the finish and getting no points at all because they went dirty a couple of times. It's very important to stay clean. Last race I gained 0.22 points, did 26 laps all clean no mistakes made and won the race. Second race win I got dirty 3 times and got 0.63 points extra. This is because the SOF was higher and it got something to do with the dirty rating. Next time I go dirty iRacing is checking the last time I went dirty and it'll see I did a whole clean race so next race with a dirty I'm getting points for that.

Third question! Answered I think? Not sure what to tell more

Last race I kinda felt like you Started as fourth, taking the first place on the second lap I stayed there for the next 25 laps and made a gap of 32 seconds But take a look at this screenshot. I got 0.22 points, second place only 0.08 while third place got 0.12 and fourth got 0.55. Third guy got 7 incs, I got none. Why did he gain points? His SOF was only 2.79 when he started the race and there are quite a few D classes. His SafetyRating, which you cannot see, is doomed now. If the next race is totally clean he'll get alot of points for that because the last time was so rubbish. Although the race after that, like me now, you won't get as much points because nothing changed, you stayed clean. After 2 or 3 clean races the ticker is going your way and you'll get extra points for staying clean for so long.

iracing by Carlos van Wijk, on Flickr

edit; the scoring system is a little bit like we have at FPM..

 

[Forcone]

.....post...

edit; the scoring system is a little bit like we have at FPM..

All of that sounds brilliant!! Seems they've really thought this system through! Sounds like my kind of game 👍 And the scoring system really sounds similar to ours, and that's brilliant! They've acknowledged that even sim racers might have a life!

edit: looking at those Average lap vs Best lap times, seems you completely annihilated all of those guys

ps. How does the Mazda drive? Is it what you'd call realistic? From what I've heard and read, at least the tracks are created very thoroughly? Like all the little bumps and stuff like that are there?

 

[hennessey86]

All of that sounds brilliant!! Seems they've really thought this system through! Sounds like my kind of game 👍 And the scoring system really sounds similar to ours, and that's brilliant! They've acknowledged that even sim racers might have a life!

edit: looking at those Average lap vs Best lap times, seems you completely annihilated all of those guys

ps. How does the Mazda drive? Is it what you'd call realistic? From what I've heard and read, at least the tracks are created very thoroughly? Like all the little bumps and stuff like that are there?

The Masada feels very realistic and all tracks are laser scanned, I thought I'd give Laguna seca a go because I thought I new the track but its so different from Forzas variation. The ffb is another thing that's far better than forza

 

[Carlos]

I like the scoring system very much to. Actually the reason why I registered, try it out and seems everybody is trying to race professional. I just did a race and had an incident I was on the inside and he turned in on me, but I think he was planning to cut the corner from very wide and didn't expect me to go on the inside because I thought he was giving me the space. Oh well Started as tenth, but after that I had to begin from the back, it happened in the first lap After that all good, turned out I was with another guy the only rookies in that race Even 3 B license guys!

iracing2 by Carlos van Wijk, on Flickr

Woohoo! Best race till now I think, I really noticed that they were more experienced, counter attack me the whole time. Second place was a really hard struggle but managed to take a gap in the end!

The tracks are laser scanned and you can tell! The green fake grass strips next to the curbs, hit that and you inmediately know. You also feel the difference in height. Braking hard and you over a bump you'll lock up, brake to long into a corner and you are backwards, steer too much you get understeer, it'll cut back if you don't watch out and spin hard. It's very very hard to recover the car from spinning. Also going on bumps, then brake, will make your car go sideway. So yeah pretty realistic


And I haven't told you about the spotter. iRacing uses a spotter, like in Nascar. It'll tell you were you should go when next to a car, where the other car is and when it's clear to go infront of him. He will also tell you if you have only 10 laps to go, 5, last etc. He will talk about fuel if needed and all of that. And if you raced well he even tells you, you did good

edit; Ninja'd by Hennessey!

 

[Forcone]

Dang, have to start planning how to utilize my PC for sim use! I'm wanting to try this out so bad! My GF won't let me build a huge rig in this small apartment so I guess I'll have to get creative...! I've seen some nice "home office/sim rig crossings", I guess I have to try to do something like that. Maybe it's time I bought some new pedals and a built a proper shifter! I think I'll use my G27 as a base, since it's gathering dust in the storage atm. Damn...! To the drawing board it is!

 

[Carlos]

Why did you ask her? You just do it and have no sex for a month That's all!

Goodluck with your plans. I've seen some nice table setups on the internet. But how do you drive now??

 

[Forcone]

Why did you ask her? You just do it and have no sex for a month That's all!

Goodluck with your plans. I've seen some nice table setups on the internet. But how do you drive now??

Hmmmm good question! Ahahha, I must be an idiot, I already have a 10 meter VGA cable connected from my PC to the Sony TV, and I also have a bluetooth keyboard/mouse! I could just do it the Forza way, sitting on the couch with my wooden rig! Problem solved!!

Edit: now I remember why I haven't done it! I'd need a longer USB cable for the Fanatec, or the PC Xbox 360 rf dongle. I'm not sure whether the Fanatec works with it though, I think not?

 

[Carlos]

My manual says: Please read in the big manual how to couple (bind) the rf dongle to the wheel.

I think they mean the manual you have to download?

But table is option?

Maybe if you get a low chair it's doable.. Or the fanatec wheel stand. Looks pretty nice!

 

[hennessey86]

Is that you in the pic carlos

 

[Carlos]

Hahahaa no, I'm much more handsome

 

[hennessey86]

fair enough

 

[Carlos]

Just purchased my local circuit (Zandvoort) and a new car, the Mustang FR500S. My plan is to complete a whole season in that car (12weeks), after that season I want to advance in the Prototype & GT Challenge (LMP1/GT2/GT3). The new season is starting next week, so Forcone, if I were you, hurry up a little

I'm excited! Can't wait to drive it!

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

I wish I could get into iRacing. I just can't afford to sink the money into a good setup, and I'm totally hopeless with the cheap-ish Thrustmaster wheel and single monitor I'm using.

It's funny, I've actually driven a real Playboy Cup MX5 (well, the slightly different Skip Barber cup version) on Laguna Seca, but if I try the same thing with the game, I'm spinning all over the place. The problem is that you learn in racing school to drive by looking at the key points (apexes, braking, exit, etc) and letting instinct do the rest, but that's impossible with only one monitor since the screen doesn't cover the whole corner.

 

[Forcone]

Just purchased my local circuit (Zandvoort) and a new car, the Mustang FR500S. My plan is to complete a whole season in that car (12weeks), after that season I want to advance in the Prototype & GT Challenge (LMP1/GT2/GT3). The new season is starting next week, so Forcone, if I were you, hurry up a little

I'm excited! Can't wait to drive it!

Mustang should be fun! 👍 Hey come on man, isn't Horizon coming out this week!? No time for any iRacing!