Tag: simracing

Frederik, Jeremy and David on ‘offline’ racing at the SimRacing Expo

Posted on by Jaap Grolleman

Last month, the world of simracing gathered at the SimRacing Expo at the Nürburgring, with some of the top of them competing in the 2017 ADAC SimRacing Trophy. With ten rigs from the organisation, forty gamers battled it out locally, with an audience at the venue, as well as viewers online. VRS coaches Jeremy Bouteloup and David Williams came second and third in the final, with Frederik Rasmussen of CoRe SimRacing taking the victory. We catch up with all three of them here.

Competitors ahead of the huge audience — © SimRacing Expo

Do you feel a different kind of tension when you’re racing in front of an audience and not in your own home? 
David: “You certainly feel the atmosphere, which is very audible while driving, even though we have headphones on. There were moments during the final when Jeremy was fending off Frederik where I could barely hear the car, such was the noise level of the crowd and the live commentary through the speakers above the stage. In addition you have cameras moving in and out of the rigs, sometimes in your face, which can be very distracting! I have to say though, the excitement is something you don’t get at home, which you can feed off to fuel your focus.”

Jeremy: “It’s definitely different. While at home it’s only you and your rig, on stage it really feels like you’re in an arena. You generally hear the crowd, the commentators, and that can be quite distracting if you’re not used to it. You really need to focus on what you’re doing because when you start thinking about who’s watching you, or see the cameraman trying to get good shots of you, then that really can lead to on track mistakes. But it’s a great experience if you’re performing well, because everything you feel is amplified as you can share it with the crowd!”

Frederik: “It was definitely different to race with everyone watching, but after a few laps I forgot about it and was able to focus on the driving only. Yet when a camera man comes over and films you it can be very distracting, making it hard to concentrate.”

Do you miss your own rig and the software you have installed at home? Or you just quickly learn cope with it?
Frederik: “I didn’t miss my rig, because it was the same for everyone. But I must say it was quite hard to have only a short time to get used to a brake pedal that’s twenty times harder than what I have at home, and the seat was moving a bit!”

David: “The software is exactly the same as at home, but the settings (no changes allowed) and hardware are very different. Fortunately I’ve got decent experience with unfamiliar rigs and so adapting wasn’t too much of an issue, however it’s always difficult and seemingly minor differences can throw people off what they’re comfortable with and what they have muscle memory with. This year, each rig had slightly different wheel and pedals, which made things even trickier, because after each heat you’re in a different one. Yet the format was great and forced everyone to adapt.”

Jeremy: “It depends on the rig that you have at the event. It’ll never be the same so you always need to adapt, but with experience you’re able to adapt quickly and perform decently with equipment you’re not familiar with. Depending on the event, that’s sometimes the key to a good performance because you have limited seat time to get accustomed to the rig you have to use.”

Rigs for the competitors
— © SimRacing Expo

How does it work with setups? Do you quickly make the changes you memorised? 
Jeremy: “In these events you generally have limited setup options available, as the difference is only supposed to be made on driving. For this competition, only the brake bias was available but that was a key one since the Porsche doesn’t have ABS. So setting this, I went on the safe side because I didn’t feel as confident with the equipment as at home.”

David: “As Jeremy said, the SimRacing Trophy event only allowed adjustments to the brake bias. If the setup was open, I’d probably bring a photo of the garage screen or a USB stick to copy settings across.”

You have your headphones on, but do you hear anything from the audience behind you or the commentators? Do you ever look to your left or right to see what other competitors are doing?
Jeremy: “Despite having headphones, you definitely hear what’s going on around you! You can hear the crowd applauding when there’s a nice overtake, the commentators shouting a drivers name, and so on. You can have a sideways look at other competitors, but there’s not really a point in doing so as you need to focus on your own race. Obviously, this is much harder to do in this type of environment because you have a lot more distractions than at home.”

David: “As Jeremy said, the noise levels are so loud at the event that it’s still difficult to hear the sim clearly at times, and cues such as tyre noise which we rely on at home can become very difficult to sense. Technically you can see the rigs immediately to the sides of you, but the best strategy really is to try and block out external distractions as much as you can.”

Frederik: “I could hear audience and commentators well, but I don’t really ‘listen’ to it. And yeah I tried to look to the persons next to me sometimes, but you couldn’t really see very clearly, heh.”

How’s the whole event? Does simracing need more local events?
Frederik: “The whole event was just epic, I wish there would be a lot more of these events to meet people and race with them.”

Jeremy: “The whole event is definitely a nice showcase for simracing. It’s great for the drivers, for the teams involved, and for the public. It’s a unique experience to see online racing being on-site and it makes it much more engaging for everyone. From a drivers’ perspective, it can be really stressful but also enjoyable to perform in front of a crowd. There aren’t so many events like this one and simracing being a rather small e-sport, it definitely helps bring more attention around it. It’s also a great opportunity to meet people you are racing with or against all year long and put faces to name.”

David: “I really love live events like this year’s SimExpo. It’s an awesome chance to put faces to the names you find yourself racing against online, not to mention friends and teammates you’ve gotten to know so well, and whom you get the chance to share drinks with in the evening (and early morning!). The atmosphere and passion you feel in person watching the races in my opinion surpasses even real racing, given how accessible the drivers are to spectators, and I really see this as being the best chance for simracing as an e-sport to grow. I’d love to see major online championships conclude with similar in-person live finals, as it warrants the kind of buzz and excitement such high level competition deserves.”

David, Frederik, Jeremy — © SimRacing Expo

 

The 2018 SimRacing Expo is again held at the Nürburgring boulevard, at 15 and 16 September 2018.

4.2: Surviving the first corner

Posted on by Jaap Grolleman

“You can’t win a race in the first corner, but you can lose it in the first corner” is one of the oldest racing adages (another being ‘To finish First, you first have to finish’). And it’s one of the most valuable (and least adhered) lessons, as merely surviving the first lap can ensure a points finish, especially in the lower splits of road racing. But does first-corner-survival come down to mere luck, or is there some skill or strategy involved? We catch up with some of the VRS coaches.

Martti Pietilä:
“The most important thing about starting a race (and the first corner) is also one of the most fundamental concepts of racing overall: look where you want to go. When driving alone, this is quite natural, and most of the time we just need to think about how far we look, at either the apex or the exit. However, at a start there’s so much going on around us, we tend to forget this very basic requirement, and start to look at the cars around us. Especially if there’s a crash in front of us, we get so fixated on that and continue to plow in to the mess, even though there was plenty of time to avoid. The key here is to be aware of whats happening around you, not just looking at the cars around.

Lastly, if possible, I try to stay away from the middle of the track, so that an ‘escape’ plan is available if things go wrong!”

Jeremy Bouteloup:
“The best way is to think of all possible scenarios during the approach of the first turn, different racing lines and how you’ll have to position the car. This will help anticipating what will happen and will allow you to react in due time. A second thing is; don’t do anything unpredictable because that will increase the chances to be hit. Other than that, there’s no magic for this and with experience, you’ll learn when and how to react, and it’ll come naturally.”

Olli Pahkala:
“Keep up situational awareness, stay sharp and smart and try to avoid any sudden movements in a steady flow of cars.”

Martin Krönke:
“Heh, the easiest thing is just to qualify on pole. Less issues then! But still you can’t really prevent people running into the back of you. Perhaps if you notice in time that someone is going to overshoot the corner, you may prevent contact by not turning in. But if someone is messing up real bad, chances are you can’t do much at all. So really, if you’re in the pack, just expect the worst and be ready to react. Be prepared to brake and not run into the carnage. If the worst case doesn’t happen, good. If it happens, at least be prepared for it.”

David Williams:
“Regardless of where you start, your initial focus should always be on having a clean, disciplined launch. If you’re on the front row, try not to be distracted by drivers behind you. Be prepared to defend into turn 1 if necessary, and try and visualise the line you wish to carry through the corner before you get there. However, if you find yourself starting in the middle of the pack, it’s important to realise that you must give yourself the opportunity to react to, or take advantage of situations which will change and develop quickly. Be willing to brake much earlier than normal if closely following another car, as it’s likely they’ll be reacting to cars ahead and the pack will be backed up. Avoid erratic or aggressive inputs which may catch other drivers unaware, potentially causing a collision with you. At the same time however, be ready and aware of opportunities which may present themselves to you, and remember how much later you can brake if you choose a line with no cars immediately ahead.

One more thing, I consciously balance risk versus reward on tracks where it’s hard to overtake, or for sprint races compared to endurance races. But it’s also important to be aware that the rest of the grid are more likely to take extra risks as well, and to make allowance for mistakes from others to be made and ultimately capitalise on.”

5.7: Differential basics

Posted on by Martin Krönke

The differential (or diff, for short) allows the left and right wheels to rotate independently, which helps balance the car through corners. Its configuration determines how much of the torque coming off the engine is transferred to each wheel. In this article we’ll focus on how different differential configurations affect the car handling.

If you’re interested in the mechanical workings of a differential, we recommend you check out the following videos: ‘How a Differential Works?’, ‘Understanding Limited Slip Differential’, and ‘Working of Limited Slip Differential’.

Locked differential (also known as a spool)
The spool is essentially a solid axle connection between the left and right wheels, or a fixed differential. Some people weld their differential fixed, for instance to allow easier drifting. A spool ensures both left and right tires rotate at exactly the same speed.

A spool gives you good traction accelerating on a straight line, but the handling of the car is compromised during turning. When going around a corner, the outside tire has to travel a longer distance. So, the inside is forced to rotate faster than it needs for the turn radius and hence spins. This causes stress (wear) on both tires and the drive train. In terms of handling, this causes understeer when decelerating, and oversteer when accelerating.

Spools are typically used in karts, drag racecars, some oval race cars and some road race cars. Notable road car examples on iRacing are the V8 Supercars.

Open differential
A completely open differential allows the left and right tires to rotate entirely independently. This helps with turning. The open diff also allows more torque to be transferred towards the less loaded tire. This is quite unfavorable when one tire is on a slippery surface like mud, grass, ice or wet track markings, as the tire on the slippery surface will end up spinning, consuming most of the available engine torque. Consequently, there may not be enough torque going to the tire on the grippy surface, so acceleration would suffer.
In terms of handling, an open diff gives you oversteer at the entry of a corner, and will understeer at the exit. Most open diff cars are underpowered, however, high-powered open diff cars (or cars with open limited slip differential), may spin the inside wheel on corner exit. Excessive spin on the drive axle cause that axle to lose grip causing sudden oversteer (on RWD cars) or understeer (on FWD cars).

The open diff presents challenges in low traction conditions. In addition, the balance changes suddenly through the corner, which is not desirable for a race car, as you are giving up traction. On iRacing, the Pro Mazda, Skip Barber and Spec Racer Ford are open diff cars.

Locking differential
A locking differential can behave both as an open differential and as a spool. The locker mechanism unlocks the wheels during corner entry and mid-corner and locks them on corner exit, when on the power. A popular locking differential is the Detroit Locker, used in NASCAR.

Limited slip differential
As we saw, both a spool and an open diff have their issues, especially in racing conditions. Most race cars thus use a limited slip differential, which offers the best of both worlds. You can tune the differential to behave as an open differential in certain conditions. And you can tune it to apply a certain amount of “lock” between the left and right tires. By optimizing the diff setup, you can improve your car handling through a corner.

Adjusting a limited slip differential
A limited slip differential might have any (or none) of the following adjustments available, but here’s what they do:

  • Number and/or type of of friction & clutch plates: the more friction and clutch plates, the more locking happens through all corner phases.
  • Preload spring: defines the base amount of force that is applied on these friction and clutch plates. With small enough (or negative) preload, you can open up your differential. The heavier the preload spring, the easier your differential will lock.
  • The Ramp angle: this can be used to tune the amount of locking under deceleration/acceleration. For instance 50/80, where 50 stands for the locking during deceleration into corners, and 80 for acceleration out of corners.

Each car in iRacing has a different differential settings available, under different names and configuration values. For example, here are the differential settings for the McLaren MP-30:

Up to you

You can achieve identical handling with completely different diff builds/configurations. As always, it’s important to experiment with each setting to gain experience with the car and to develop an instinct for how to approach differential setup. However, here’s a starting point when you think about each diff setting:

  • You want to start with changing the number of plates to control how quickly the differential builds up locking force. The more locking force, the more it behaves like a locked diff and vice versa, the less locking force, the more it behaves like an open diff.
  • You may consider the preload as a form of general trigger for sensitivity. It set a minimum amount of locking force that is applied at all times.
  • You’d consider changing the ramp when you want to modify handling under braking (entry) without impacting the handling under acceleration (exit).

2.3: Getting started on oval racing: your first week

Posted on by Ray Alfalla

Your first week of oval racing is just about the same as when you try anything for the first time, so take it easy! One of the biggest mistakes that rookies make is trying to go too fast, too early. At first glimpse, an oval looks very simple. It’s got a couple straights and a couple long turns. This makes new drivers want to exit pit road and set a world record time on the first lap. However, you’ll soon realize that because the turns only go in one direction, and because the turns are generally longer than those on road courses, that the cars will be set up to only go left, that the car’s setup will be on the ragged edge of spinning out, in order to achieve competitive lap times.

There are fewer opportunities to make up time on an oval, so it ends up being a competition of who can go through the corner the fastest. Of course this applies to all of racing, but since road racing includes heavy braking zones and shifting, mistakes are more common and making up lost ground is a bigger possibility. You won’t be shifting at most ovals, and there won’t be much braking unless at a short track. So, you better be ready to put the “loose is fast” theory into practice!

But, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, remember that you’re just a rookie at this. Some day you may be burning rubber and hanging out the rear end through the corners, but for now, take baby steps. A good way to learn a track and car is to join an open practice session and simply observe other drivers, preferably the fast ones. There are also plenty of tutorials on VRS’ YouTube channel, and another, perhaps the best option, is to head into the VRS software and open a datapack (learn more about datapacks in 2.6).

Inside each datapack is a replay file you can load in iRacing itself, or you can open the Driving Analyzer (as seen on the image below) to see the inputs as well as the cockpit view. Make notes on how the driver is positioning the car, where it touches the outside and inside of the corner, where it picks up the revs. These minor details are very important on an oval. Missing your mark by a foot can be the difference between running up front or in the back.

Once you’ve seen how the fast drivers go around the track, try it yourself in an offline session. Make sure that you can complete a clean lap, and then two, three, and so on. Eventually, you should be able to complete ten consecutive laps without incidents and achieving a very consistent laptime. If you’re having trouble accomplishing this, simply slow down. Eventually you’ll find a comfortable pace that will allow clean laps. Sure, it may be slow, but being able to complete clean laps and finish races is the most important thing to do as a rookie. Overdriving the car and crashing is highly unproductive.

After you’ve learned to race cleanly, it’s time to join others on track. Go back into an open practice, and run clean laps just like in testing. There is usually quite a bit of crashing in these practices, so you’ll get a chance to practice wreck avoidance. Intentionally find packs of cars and pretend you’re in a race. Get used to having someone right in front of you, blocking your vision into the turn, and someone right behind you filling the mirror. This is what will happen in the race. Practice pit road entry and exit as well. Basically; do your homework. Once you’re comfortable and confident in your ability to run clean laps and not cause an accident, sign up for a race! Remember, you’re a rookie. Don’t ask too much of yourself, and focus on finishing the race. Have a good time out on the track, and learn as much as possible with every single lap. Most importantly, have fun!

Finnish success in (sim)racing: why?

Posted on by Jaap Grolleman

Finland has a population of only five and a half million people — much less than the city of London — yet ranks fifth on the amount of Grand Prix’ wins, only behind the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and France, and ahead of Italy. Valterri Bottas’ win in the 2017 Russian Grand Prix means he’s now the fifth Finnish race winner, adding to the list of Heikki Kovalainen, Kimi Räikkönen, Mika Häkkinen and Keke Rosberg — the latter three having also won a total of four world championships. In the World Rally Championship, seven Finnish drivers secured a total of fourteen titles.

It seems that per capita, Finland produces more racing world champions than any other country. Simracing is no different: the iWCGPS was won five times over by Team Redline’s Greger Huttu, and last season, the #18 BMW of Coanda Simsport that won the Blancpain World Championship was co-driven by Klaus Kivekäs, while Coanda’s Martti Pietilä co-drove a HPD to overal victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Other top drivers of the sim racing scene are Aleksi Uusi-Jaakkola, Joni Törmälä, and Olli Pahkala, having all won races at the top level.

We catch up with Martti and Olli for a much needed explanation.

To get directly to the point: why is Finland so successful in motorsport?
Martti: Racing has always been a thing here, originally it was more about rally, as we have loads of fairly empty gravel roads where young guys can try out the limits of their cars and themselves, and of course the trees surrounding the ’track’. Back in 60’s and 70’s the roads were even less populated than now, so i guess it gave pretty nice proving ground for many guys. I guess road racing got a huge popularity boost with Keke Rosberg winning the championship. F1 was televised live in Finland since the nineties because of the Finns like Lehto, Salo and Häkkinen, and later Räikkönen’s success created a huge increase of interest. This isn’t just in viewing, but also participation of for instance karting. So I guess it’s mostly about success creating more success, but as a Finn, you always have to add two important ingredients which we have to offer to race drivers: a mild level of insanity, and ‘sisu’, a word deemed holy among Finns. It’s a combination of determination, grit, bravery, resilience, and hardiness.

Olli: Using a car is very common in Finland, so people are used to being in a car or driving it. In Germany, for example, the public transportations are so good that no car is needed, which makes quite a big difference in general for this matter. The other thing is that Finnish people are extremely competitive. We start competing in various of things from the early age. And even though it’s not serious competition, I think it does make a difference once people grow up. In Finland, we naturally grow the competition mentality.

Why is simracing so big in Finland?
Martti: I think the biggest factor for the popularity, and the level of competition in the Finnish scene, is that we really closely follow F1. Now all those F1 fans who want to race but can’t afford it, are now entering sim racing. And then we have quite a few guys who want to be really good in simracing. I guess we can’t just take things lightly, and always need to get the maximum out of it, be it laptime, or level of realism.

Olli: Racing and competition in Finland is big, and so I think it’s natural simracing is too. I think it’s also the result of growth through organising, which Fins are good at, for instance like we’ve done with the Finnish Sim Racing Association.

What’s all going on in Finland for simracing?
Olli: We have a multitude of communities organising series for Finnish drivers like Trellet.net, HDR, and there’s FiSRA’s eSM, which is the biggest at the moment. So throughout the year there’s something for everyone without looking at the level of skills. FiSRA’s eSM is intended to promote sim racing to a wider audience, as well as making legitimacy for the sport. We do and try things with these ‘offline’ live LAN-finals, from which we hope we could share the experience and knowledge to other associations, through for example the International Sim Racing Federation.

Martti: First of all, Finland is the nation of associations. We have one for everything, literally, from big to small subjects! To name a few, and this gets quite hilarious; there’s one for guys named Markku, there’s an association for PC users, and even one for outdoor toilets! Unfortunately, until a few years ago, there wasn’t one for sim racing, but that surely has changed since. It’s hard to say why some people have become so good at what they do. We sort of have this protestant work ethic here in all we do, meaning we work hard, sometimes too hard, don’t brag too much about our achievements, work even harder and focus on our own performance. That way of life is a very stereotypical image of a Finnish person, so there must be some truth in it. I guess that sort of self discipline is one necessary part what is required to make a good racing driver.

5.6: Camber & Toe

Posted on by Martin Krönke

In article 5.5 we’ve covered ride height, and with this article we’ll continue the setup adjustments on the suspension, namely camber and toe. We’ll go over both of them together, as their effects are tightly coupled.

Click for full-res

Camber
Camber is the vertical inclination of the tire. Zero camber means that the tires are straight, perpendicular to the road and parallel to each other. With positive camber, the top of the tires points outwards of the car. With negative camber, the top of the tires points inwards.

Toe
Toe is the angle the tires are rotated around their vertical axis, looking at them from above the car. You have no toe if the tires are parallel to each other, along the direction of the car. You have toe-in when the tires point in towards each other, and toe-out when they point away from each other.

The effect of camber on available grip
As you go through a corner, the cornering force (as discussed more thoroughly in 5.3) causes the car to roll and the tire to deform, as it twists between the car which wants to go one direction, and the track that’s going the other direction. This is called lateral tire deflection.

With zero camber, the force on the tires are equally distributed along the contact patch when you’re standing still or driving in a straight line. This increases the available grip under straight line braking and acceleration (assuming no camber gain). Cornering with zero camber causes one side of the tire to unload, while the other side of the tire takes more load. This is unequal load distribution and lowers the overall available grip on the tire, just when you need it most: while cornering!

With negative camber, the force distribution along the contact patch is somewhat unequal while driving in a straight line. However, when cornering forces and carcass deflection come into play, they can negate the effect of negative camber, equalising load distribution along the contact patch. This maximises the available grip on the outside tires (which are the ones taking the heavier load), exactly the moment when the car is limited by its available grip. This is the exact reason why typically on road cars you’d use negative camber.

Tradeoffs of using camber
As always, nothing comes for free. While camber can help cornering, it causes additional heat, more tire degradation and uneven wear pattern on the tires. You should also realise that you are trading off traction on a straight line (braking and acceleration) with cornering grip. This means that the track profile is a determining factor on how much camber you want to run. In general, a track with mostly straights and low speed corners, you’d run lower camber; and on tracks with lots of bends or high-speed corners, you’d run more camber. And, as always with mixed profile tracks, you’d have to experiment different settings to see where you can gain more time; on the straights and low-speed corners, or high-speed corners.

Camber and vertical stiffness
Vertical stiffness of the tire is hugely tied with tire pressures, as discussed in 5.2. This is mostly to be considered on tires with high sidewalls. Having the tire inclined at an angle may cause the sidewall to deform a little. The effect is that of a softer tire without changing the tire pressure. As of time of writing, this really is only something to consider with two cars on iRacing, the Williams FW31 and the McLaren MP4-30.

Effects of toe-in and toe-out
There is one more effect of camber that we haven’t mentioned yet. If you roll a free tire at an angle, it would want to follow an elliptical trajectory instead of a straight line. In other words: an angled tire wants to turn. The force that causes this effect is called camber thrust. This results in a bit more friction, heat and wear, which can be offset by a toe-out adjustment. You can also use a toe-out adjustment to get the slip angles of the front tires in a more optimal spot. So you’d typically run some toe-out on the fronts.

Toe adjustments on the rear tires also have an effect on car handling. Toe-in on the rear creates understeer, which can help with cars that are oversteery on exit. The tradeoff is wear and heat in the rear tires. Toe-out on the rear is generally wrong, as you’re likely to get more oversteer on exit.

Up to you

While building a setup, go through the order of tire pressures, anti-roll bar, ride height and spring rates. If you have that set, experiment with the camber angles to find the optimal balance between speed in the corners and on the straight. Use toe-out on the front tires to counteract camber thrust, and possibly toe-in on the rear tires, to optimise handling.

Phil Mishaga on sim racing and using telemetry and coaching

Posted on by Jaap Grolleman

A Californian iRacer currently living in Europe: Phil Mishaga is a driver for the Positive Simracing team, as part of the VRS-powered Driver Development Programme. We catch up with him to talk about sim racing.

What do you do during the day?
Well, for the past eleven years, I’ve worked in the medical field, and it has pretty much taken me all over the world. The US, the Middle East, Europe, Asia – basically every continent apart from Antartica. I’m now living in Europe.

I’ve been enjoyed racing my entire life. My grandfather and dad are big car guys and with my dad, we’d watch Nascar, IndyCar and Formula One. I like the spectacle which oval racing brings, but I love the technical aspect of road racing.

And how did you get into sim racing?
Years ago I stumbled on an online Forza league which was ran very similarly to iRacing, and they had lots of racing tutorials on their website, including ones made in iRacing. While watching that, I wondered, ‘But what’s this iRacing?’. I had never touched a PC before then, but I bought one to give iRacing a shot, and the next weekend I bought a full fledged gaming computer, and later a full rig. In 2016/2017 I had to stop sim racing for a while due to traveling and occupational obligations, but now I’m fully back again.

So why do you love racing? Or sim racing specific?
Well, couple of things. I looked into getting into any kind of road racing, but it’s pretty difficult, as I have a few things not going for me. I relocate a lot, and then there’s the financial aspect of it. Yet sim racing gives me exactly what I’m into. The technical aspect of the setup of the car, and even the technical nature of the tracks, how they rubber in and heat up. It feels like a very complete experience, as if I’m actually on the track. I even get the thrill from it, an almost abnormal sense of nervousness, during the loading screen before the race.

When did you start using telemetry?
Well, I always knew of telemetry, from watching different kinds of racing on television. I knew it was something I should use in iRacing too, but I didn’t realise just how powerful tool it was, until I did a coaching session with VRS. It’s like an x-ray of your racing, showing everything.

After the session I cut down on how much I raced, and focused on making time count. I worked with Rens (Broekman) for a good part of last summer, and he steered me into the direction I needed. I saw what he was doing in the car, and it improved me massively.

You went from 1k iRating to 3k within 8 months. How did you do it?
When I first started working with Rens, I was told something so simple it hurts to hear it: ‘You can’t win a race you don’t finish.’ It’s common sense, but it’s so easily forgotten in the heat of a race. With that in mind my first focus was on finishing races. Then my priority was to finish in top 15, then top 10, and now it’s top 5, but I always focus on finishing the race. So, I contribute the gain in iRating more on becoming a smarter racer, not taking unnecessary risk. It’s a lot easier said than done.

What helped me most is how to brake correctly. With learning how to use the brakes correctly improved my car control, which helped improved my consistency. Once I was doing consistent laps it was very easy to compare to the telemetry and then change one thing at a time like turn-in, braking point, apex, etcetera. Then I would just keep changing one thing at a time until I hit the goal the coach would set for me at each track.

What cars do you love driving?
I love closed wheel cars. My favourite cars to run are the GT1’s. But I also like the GT3 cars, they’re very manageable. And then the endurance aspect adds a whole new dimension of strategy to the races.

Did you drive with a team before?
I was in a team last year, and it was great. They had just started their road program, and it really opened up the world of iRacing to me. Later, we parted in good terms though, and I did a ProtoGT season on my own, and then the Positive Simracing program came up.

Which now I think is going really well. Obviously, when you put so many new people together, you need to get used to the new routine. But I think we solidified really well. Everyone chats, and of course everything is sim racing related, so we are very focused. We’re all able to run a similar pace, and all motivated and like minded. We all aim to be competitive at a pro level. And I think we’ve been getting some good results. It’s exactly what I was looking for.

And to end, any advice to fellow simracers?
I would say, practice a lot more than you race, and don’t use race sessions to learn the track. Also, find a class and car you’re really passionate about, one you enjoy driving, and stick to it.

Javi Part 2: Eyes on the Pro License

Posted on by Jaap Grolleman

In March 2017, the Positive Simracing Driver Development Programme, powered by Virtual Racing School, kicked off with eight talented drivers. One of the them is Ecuador-born and USA-bound Javi Utreras, who we had interviewed last September. Javi’s has gone from 1.5k to 5k iRating in under a year, having only used the setups from the datapacks to get there.

Javi! You’re in the Positive Simracing DDP, how is it going?
I feel blessed to have been selected. Javier, the team principle of Positive Simracing, has done a great job. There’s a lot of chemistry in the team, we’re all very motivated to go faster and to win. And everybody is similarly paced with a similar driving style, so it’s not hard to put a setup together that works for all of us.

The circulation of drivers depends on availability, and soon I’ll also be driving with Roque Garcia and Roy Kolbe. The first race of the season, the Blancpain Endurance race at Road Atlanta, I drove with Justin Richesin. We qualified in third, and I started the race, Justin would finish it. I was saving fuel to extend the stint, but somehow we only refuelled for 100 litres instead of 120, so Justin had to pit again. Luckily for us, the leader had the same issue, and they also choose not to change tyres. So we passed them and won our first race with the new team! That was an amazing feeling.

How is your personal development going?
I finished the Blancpain Endurance championship in third place overal. It has been a journey from me, from 1.5k to 5k iRating in one year, and I’ve been enjoying it a lot. The higher you go, the more competitive and demanding the racing becomes, and everything needs to be more accurate. David and Rens have helped me so much, they’re amazing coaches. I’m now training very methodically, very goal oriented, and I’m keeping track of my races in a Spreadsheet, writing down the biggest events of the races, what I did well, what I did wrong, and what I need to do better next time.

What has been your biggest improvement?
I think it’s racecraft. It’s super important, because that’s how you stay out of trouble and keep the car on the track. Before, I sometimes had the pace but made mistakes overtaking, being too aggressive. One of my biggest challenges was to be patient, where and how to pass, or to wait until the guy ahead makes a mistake. I’m now more aware of my surroundings, more patient. And being able to pass really fast drivers, that’s an great feeling.

And your goal is still the same?
Yep, qualifying for a Pro license has been my goal since day one. Now I feel more confident I can do that. I gave it a try last year, but I wasn’t the level yet. Now I have the speed and awareness, and I think with the Positive Simracing Driver Development Programme team we can qualify with two teams, and I think we can fight for the championship.

What’s your advice to other drivers? 
We’re humans, sometimes we do things in the wrong way and nobody is telling us. The most important thing anyone can do is be nice and listen to a coach. You can have racing experience in real life, like me, or some experience with telemetry, but when you have a coach who identifies the thing you can improve, who analyses you with a different pair of eyes, and when you start addressing those things, that’s when you’ll improve.

And Rens and David are very honest. When I think it’s not my fault, they says ‘no, it was your fault’. Ouch. But then they explain it, and they’re right.

 

 

 

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!

2.2: Your first test session

Posted on by Jaap Grolleman

mazda

You can try any car, but for road you’ll need the Pontiac Solstice or Global Mazda MX-5 in order to progress from Rookie license to license class D. We recommend the Global Mazda MX-5 Cup car. The Mazda is light and low-powered, so maintaining cornering speed is key. This is perfect for learning.

Recommended practice tracks are Lime Rock Park, Summit Point Raceway and Okayama Short. The Mazda goes really well on these circuits, plus they’re short so you’ll learn them more quickly. Alternatively, you can check which weekly track the Global MX-5 Cup series races at, and load that for your private test session.
It’s important to join a private test session first, before joining a public session, let alone a race. A simulator isn’t something you can just jump into, plus there are some things you need to learn about iRacing. We recommend you spend a good portion of the week in a private session. (We’ll talk more about this in scheduling)

And make sure you select Default Weather.

Default Weather explained
iRacing sessions can be held in outside temperatures from 18 to 32 degrees Celsius (65 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit), which greatly affects the performance of your tires and thus your laptime. It’s best to use Default Weather to allow better comparison with future laptimes and to then compare with other telemetry data, or VRS data packs which are always driven in Default Weather also.

Three steps to get here: click the orange 'Test' button, click 'Adjust weather', and click the blue 'use iRacing Defaults'.

 

Load the sim, set your video settings to what your computer can handle and calibrate your wheel and pedals. Then, set the Field of View via the calculator in-sim in graphics options. YouTuber KrazyDan explains it in this video.

Field of View explained
The FOV is very important to get right, otherwise your screen won’t display accurate real-world proportions for your view of the cockpit, track and your perception of distance and speed. If your FOV is off, your judgement and reactions will likely be off as well. Avoid choosing a wider view because you want to see your mirrors or your wheels, it’ll likely hurt your performance.

In the graphics menu, you can find your FOV settings. Measure your monitor and your distance from it, and let iRacing calculate your FOV. Single monitor users may find it necessary to compromise with a slightly higher value than calculated, but you can reduce the need for this by having the monitor as close as possible.
Going around
Don’t worry about the actual setup of the car itself, there’s no need to ever change the setup of the car if you’re not racing at the limit (and we’re not expecting you to do so right off the bat!). Just drive the track, get a feel for the weight and responsiveness of the car and, if new to “hardcore” simulations, you’ll likely realise this is unlike any other game you’ve ever driven.

Focus on driving clean laps, not going off-track, not locking wheels or getting all out of shape. Focus on hitting your apexes, finding the ideal line through the corners. Treat it like the real thing and try not to crash, as that will only demotivate you. Drive within your limits and slowly up the ante as you get more comfortable.

Going faster
Try to lap consistently within a second of your best lap. Don’t worry if it takes you a few hours to get to that level, it’s normal. As we said: sim racing is hard.

But once you reach that level of consistency, you can head over to YouTube and search for some hotlaps in your car and track combination, or check out one of the Virtual Racing School Data Packs. Take note of braking, turn-in, and apex points and the line taken through entry and exit.

limerock

Up to you:

Avoid rushing into a public practice session just yet. Practice in a private session! Before going ‘public’, consider reading up on ergonomics.