iRacing

[Tagger]

I know the SS isn't into this sort of thing. But, it's what I'm doing with my spare time mostly now. With all that has or has not happened over the last week regarding Sony, I figured I'd check around and see what else my race chassis and G25 are good for.

I had been wanting to check (iRacing out for several months but wasn't sure I could run with the guys who race there since all my experience is in console racers. When the PSN went down, I decided to give it a trial run and signed up on a 3-month deal for $12.

The available cars cover almost everything from the Legends series all the way up to NASCAR Cup cars and the Williams F1 with a lot of goodness in between like late models, modifieds, street stocks, and the Mazda MX-5 and Solstice road racers. They even have the Ford Spec racer series. Along with the cars, there are around 50 tracks and their variants.

The basic membership gets you a few of the lower end cars and a handful of tracks. A one year membership is $99. Starting out, that's enough to keep me occupied for a good while before buying more cars and tracks. The good thing is you only have to buy a car or track once. The bad thing is, they run from $12 - $15 each for cars and tracks. So, if you want to race in the NASCAR series, you're going to have to lay down a big purse to get going as NASCAR runs a 23 track schedule over 36 races. Thankfully some tracks are visited twice each season as in real life.

But, if you're like me and content to hang out in the lower tiers for a while and learn some racecraft, the expense beats buying a new console racer every few months over the course of a year.

While some of the racers use a controller, a wheel is what you really need. A chassis isn't so important. But, a wheel with a shifter (esp a gated shifter like mine) and a set of pedals with a clutch make it a ton of fun.

Graphically speaking, it's several years behind today's games. Even on a high end PC, it still looks dated. I play on a laptop I bought new about 18 months ago. I'm fine with the looks and thankful it doesn't require something heartier than my equipment.

Sound-wise, nothing beats it. At least, nothing on a console can compare. My Street Stock Camaro racer and it's V8 is the real deal. It is so gratifying to work through the gears getting up to speed or to downshift preparing for a pit road entry. It just sounds awesome. I'm using my Turtle Beach headphones. They tend to mute the crackles and pops. But, I use them becuase they have a mic. My old Sony headset does a better job. But, it doesn't have a boom mic.

Communication. I can talk with the other drivers who are using voice chat. The audio is very clear and it's good to coordinate with the other drivers for passing, pit entry and exit, and for wreck avoidance when there's an incident up ahead.

Getting started is a bit daunting. The iRacing website is full of so much information for the newcomer that I encountered some information overload to start with. But, it's getting better. This is definately not geared toward those who need their hand held. You have to dig around a bit and find the information you need.

Licensing. Drivers receive two separate ratings for performance. One rating relates to how you place in races. It's fairly straight forward. The other rating, the Safety Rating, is linked to the number of incidents per corner your experience. iRacing does not assign blame for incidents. You are either involved or not. Either way, your rating is impacted for the good or bad. Penalties are stronger for car-to-car contact versus a solo spin-out or a solo-wall contact incident. In fact, the penalty for contacting another car can be up to 4 times the amount of a simple wall scrape.

The safety rating controls whether or not a driver is promoted or demoted each month. License promotions are important if you want to move up and race the more powerful cars against stronger opponents.

That's the gist of it. Maybe not a game the SS guys would take interest in. But, it might be my new gaming home for a while except when I want to get my gun on.

[AEJustin1]

awesome!

[Tagger]

I'm posting this primarily for Justin's enjoyment since I think he's the only other person here who's really into racing games. I've stuck with iRacing since starting in April and it's been a lot of fun. I movd up into the C class license which puts me in position to compete in the truck series with full cautions and pit stops. This is the first bracket on the oval side of iRacing which is full on racing. There is no computer control during cautions and the driver alone is responsible for safe pit entry and exit. Restarts are extremely hectic and nerve-wracking - especially at the first couple of turns where all the cars bunch up at the short tracks.

I primarily race late models and SK modifieds (like the ones that ran at Bristol last Wednesday evening on Speed Channel). These are no-caution events and the only reason to pit is if your ride is damaged in a wreck. I usually do not have the time to prepare for the C-class races. They are extremely competitive and reputation is important. No one wants to be the driver who runs off-pace and creates a bunch of cautions. People remember who is serious and who isn't.

I've embedded a link from Vimeo of one racer who is working toward obtaining his Pro license. Racing in the pros series puts drivers in contention for a $10K purse at the end of the year. But, you've got to work your way up to that and apply to iRacing for the license.

Recently, JRM took Jim Caudill Jr. on as a driver in their ARCA series ride after seeing his performance in iRacing. So, for those who dream of a future in racing, it is possible to convert from simulation to the real deal. Nothing new there really as it's been happening for a couple of years now through the GT Academy via Gran Turismo's partnership with Nissan. For guys like me, it's just fun to get out there and mix it up with some really good drivers.

I've rubbed doors with several guys who work for Harvick and other NASCAR sanctioned teams. That's not that big of a deal in itself (although it's fun to listen to them talk shop during practice sessions). It does lend additional credibility to know that the guys who work on the cars for the real life teams think enough of iRacing to spend time there.

[[SS]Shooter]

Pretty cool. Some good road race stuff as well.

[[SS]Chief]

Originally Posted by [SS]Shooter

Pretty cool. Some good road race stuff as well.

Shooter loves him some racin’ (circa PS2 days...)



The game looks amazing!

[Tagger]

Originally Posted by [SS]Shooter

Pretty cool. Some good road race stuff as well.

Indeed. They just added the Ford GT and the HPD (iRacing Cars) earlier this month along with a new tire model that they've been working for a couple of years. It's not on all the cars yet but is being phased in as they can deal with the physics of each car.

[AEJustin1]

Tagger that was awesome! iRacing is on my bucket list hah if I ever get rich enough to get a decent gaming computer and a wheel, it looks amazing.

[Tagger]

Here's one of the better iRacing videos I've seen come from a subscriber:

[Tagger]

Some iRacing street stock action at South Boston (Virginia). I don't know about using gloves for a game. But, I like the setup....



This is typical for the class of racing he was doing. Street Stocks are great fun. But, the field usually loses a few cars as the laps wind down due to people pushing their tires too hard or just losing patience with a slow driver in front of them.

[[SS]Chief]

Damn...so the guy is using TWO monitor’s? Crazy...

[Tagger]

Actually, his setup is configured for 5 monitors now. He basically looks left and sees the entire door panel of the car and part of the midpost. I'd say he's running a pretty hefty graphics setup. I'd be happy with a tower unit that could run just one monitor in HD. He's got a good speaker setup also. The sound you get sitting behind the wheel of one of these stock cars is really immersive.

Edit: I don't think the setup in the vid is 5 monitors. His current set is 5 monitors though.

[[SS]Chief]

The cost of that entire set-up....ummm, just buy a Stock Car. I’m sure it would be cheaper?

[Tagger]

Here ya go. Your guess is closer than I thought, Chief. I would have guessed $10-12K to get started.

Still, this guy probably has $4-5K in his setup including monitors, steel tube or pipe fabricated chassis, the tower, the one-off all-aluminum gated shifter (very nice btw), one-off pedal set made from 6061T6 CNC'd aluminum. A lot of money for a game. But, when he wrecks, he can just hit the "tow" button on his keyboard and be done with it.

Would I buy a stock car if I had the money and decent sponsorships? Oh yeah. Nothing like the real deal. I love listening to Dad's stories about 70's-era racing at Pensacola's Five Flags Speedway. After he and Mom divorced, he hung around the pits, and would back-up for the guy who usually showed up too drunk to do warm-ups. Meanwhile the pit crew sobered the driver (sorta). One time he actually drove the car in a race because the driver fell off the trailer and broke his ankle - apparently, the pit crew didn't finish the sobering job. He said that was his last time in a race car........it's one thing to go fast. But, according to him, it's quite another to go fast with sparks flying through the window net because the guy next to you is doing his best to rub the paint off your car with his passenger door.

How'd I get going on that? Guess talking about stock cars got me thinking about Five Flags...what a race track. It used to be called the fastest half mile in stock car racing. Gotta go back there and watch a race next year.

[Tagger]

Just ran across this while wasting the last few minutes of my day.......



Obviously, this took a lot of effort to create. I'm ready to go home and strap into my chassis and race now.

[AEJustin1]

Awesome!