Tag: Road

Dirt iRacer & go-karter Tim Ryan on racing on tarmac and mud

Posted on by Jaap Grolleman

Meet Tim Ryan: Aussie from Perth, 19 year old, teacher in learning, driver of Evolution Racing Team (as teammate of Simon Feigl), and racer on dirt, whether it’s on go-karts or in iRacing.

Can you tell a bit about yourself?
I’m studying to become a teacher, and I try to balance dirt karting, studying and sim racing. I’m probably on the sim too much, which is influencing my studies a little bit.

When I was eight, my dad got me into go-karts, on dirt tracks. Since then I’ve always been racing, and I’ve progressed through the dirt-go kart series, and competed at state and national levels. But I love all forms of motorsports. As an Australian, I’m probably most keen about the V8 Supercars, which I think is one of the most competitive touring car championships in the world.

So, dirt go-karting is really a thing? An actual competition?
Yes, it is, and it’s a typical Australian thing. The go-karts on dirt are great. You’re sliding a lot, and since you only have a rearward brake, the kart is very lose. And I’m always getting dirty, heh.

How did you start with simracing?
On the Playstation 3 I had Gran Turismo 5, and jumped to iRacing in 2012, but it wasn’t until last year that I really took iRacing serious. I joined Evolution Racing Team (ERT), and although I think they took me as a development driver, I’m part of the #28 machine in the World Championship. I spend a lot of time on the technical aspects of racing too, so I also help making the setups. Through ERT I also got in contact with David Williams (VRS coach), and we did some coaching sessions together.

How did that go?
Great. Through the software, David and me were able to pinpoint problems in my driving. My lines were fine, but I was lacking lots of trailbraking, a thing I probably carried over from dirt racing, were it’s absent, so it wasn’t something I naturally did. For road racing I think the braking aspect is the most difficult but also the most important thing, because for most people it causes the most amount of time lost. From the sessions with David I also learned how to use the software on my own. I think I used to be half a second off David’s pace, but now it’s quite close.

What do you love about racing, whether it’s real life, sim, road or dirt?
I love the technical aspect of trying to improve and trying to find the competitive edge over the competition, whether it’s on the car or the driver.

Do you think dirt racing, either in the sim or real life, can benefit from telemetry too?
Yes. Actually, also in real life we use telemetry. Definitely not as advanced as road racers though, but we still monitor laptimes, coupled with RPM and GPS. We can see the lines and work on that.

How are you finding iRacing’s Dirt? And how does it relate to real dirt go-karting?
I’m really enjoying it, and I’m focusing on that a lot. I think it relates really well to real life dirt racing, especially the way the track is dynamically changing. There’s a great slot progression, which is the most important thing in dirt racing. In the sim it feels very natural, and I’m sure it allows me to stay sharp for the real dirt racing too, be more consistent on the weekends.

Do real life Dirt racers have an advantage on other sim racers?
Definitely. I think real life dirt racers are doing really well in iRacing too, I mean last week alone I gained 2k iRating. But I’m sure the sim racers will catch up on us, because it’s a different driving technique which they’ll have to learn.

Is dirt racing useful for road racers too, whether it’s sim or real life?
Absolutely. Dirt racing is really intense, you’re countersteering all the time, everything happens very quickly, and you need to pay a lot of attention. Lots of things require different techniques. Braking isn’t very important, but overtaking for instance, you must time your run out of a corner with a different line, position yourself and get alongside and overtake.

I apply dirt techniques in road races too. I find that when conditions are hot or tyres are wearing out, you’re sliding a lot more with the cars, and my dirt racing experience helps me learn to cope with the track progression and car control. So I think I’m smoother on the road than most people, where I’m always trying to limit the amount of slide through the smooth steering and throttle inputs.

What do you think is the secret to dirt racing?
It sounds simple, but it’s difficult. The most important thing to learn is to know where the grip is. It changes every lap. Races typically start using the inside lines from corners, but as cars use that line, the grip decreases. Your lines, whether it’s early or late apex, will change all the time throughout the race. If you can see where the grip is with your eyes, it helps massively.

And lastly, what’s your focus on?
My focus is to maintain my Pro license on the road side, and when iRacing starts a Dirt World Championship, I’m pretty sure that’s where I want to quality and compete at the highest level in.

2.1: Oval or road?

Posted on by Ray Alfalla

The stereotype of oval racing is that racers just turn left, full throttle, and that therefore oval racing is easy. But there’s lots of skill involved in oval racing, especially with around forty cars with 725 horsepower fighting for the same piece of tarmac.

Whether you should pursue either oval or road racing (or both) is completely up to you. But here we dive into some of the differences here, as well as some of the similarities.

Differences in race procedures
In road racing, the car attempting to overtake should have its front tires up to the leading driver’s side before the corner, or else the corner is considered to belong to the leading car. On ovals, having any sort of bodywork next to the leading driver is enough to challenge the leading driver into the corner. This is because racing side by side is way more common on ovals, compared to road racing, where going side by side is potentially much more detrimental to each driver’s race.

Regarding pit strategy, road racing generally has very few, if any, full-course caution flag period in a race, which in turn allows the team to set one or two main strategies for the race. On ovals, because of the frequency of full-course cautions and how short the lap times are, strategies are often made on the go. Stopping for fuel, tyres, or both all depends on when the caution flies, who pits around you, and your track position.You’ll probably also go a lap down when pitting under green and be trapped a lap down if a yellow comes out directly afterwards. All these factors make oval racing strategies very diverse and improvisational.

All race starts on ovals are of the rolling kind, whereas road racing sometimes features standing starts.

In NASCAR oval racing, there is a ‘free pass’ or commonly known as ‘lucky dog’ rule. This means that the first car which is a lap down when a caution flag flies, gets to go around the track and regain a lap. Lapped cars can also receive a lap back if all lead-lap cars ahead of them pit and they don’t. This puts them directly behind the pace car, and they’re allowed to pass it and regain their lap on the last caution flag lap.

Oval racing is much more affected by dynamic track rubber buildup than road racing. Road racing usually has a fairly defined apex in each corner, and does not vary much throughout a race. On ovals, many of the turns have a wide radius, and some are extensively banked. This allows drivers to run the outside line. Due to ovals being usually much shorter in length than their twisty counterparts, this means that many more cars go over a certain groove on the track – and often. Races can consists of over 200 laps. This means more heat transfer onto the track, as well as rubber buildup. In NASCAR stock cars, more heat and rubber usually means a lower amount of grip. This causes drivers to ‘search’ around the track in the corners for more grip. Some will run the inside line, others the middle, and some may dare to go up by the wall if there is enough grip up there to compensate for the longer distance traveled.

Differences in setup approach
Since oval turns go in only one direction, the car is setup to be stiffer on the right side (because a left turn shifts weight to the right). On a road course, you would generally have a balanced (symmetrical) setup since you have left and right turns. On the ovals, the car is optimized to turn left. Everything in the car is made to turn in that direction. If you try a right turn with an oval setup, the car will not turn well at all.

Difference in skills required
One of the biggest differences between road and oval is the length of the turns. Road courses put more emphasis on hitting the apex, as more turns are short in comparison to ovals. On the oval side, turns are generally divided by the drivers into entry, center, and exit. When describing handling characteristics, the car may for example behave completely different at the entry of the turn compared to the exit. Drivers have to be able to split the turns of the track into different sections, and construct their setup for each phase of the corner. The driving skills required are fairly similar, but can have some key differences. The road side is more focused on quick reflexes and precise apexing, while the oval side centers on car control and adaptability to changing track conditions.

Similarities
At the end of the day, whether road or oval, all drivers push their cars to the limit to try and beat everyone else on the track. Oval and road racing are more similar than they are different. Drivers have to find the grip limits of their respective cars, and maneuver around traffic in order to get to the checkered flag first. Many drivers can run both disciplines competitively, but few can do them at the top level. As similar as these two sides are, they still take a different mindset to compete in each, and at the core have different cultures attached to them. But with that being said, racing is racing, and a true race fan will enjoy anything on wheels that goes fast!