The 2012 Season 1 Schedule is out, for those who don't know already. Actually it's been out since Jan 24th, but I didn't know.

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts ... 25477.page

I'm planning to run the Skip Barber, Star Mazda, Lotus 79, and IZOD IndyCar Road series. (Hmmmm... I'm seeing a trend here.)

There's also a new build coming out tonight. Here are the rumored changes:

• New tire model (NTM) added to the Star Mazda. and Riley DP
• Stiffer sidewall on all cars with the NTM.
• More spotter files will be added, possibly to inform when/where there are wrecks, lap times, and location of the leader.
• More features in hosted sessions to allow more admin controls and also improvement to tournament racing.
• Other additions like brake glow and backfires from cars.

What series are you running?

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

You know if you get one of this cars in real life we could have a series @ AMP!
Could also bring back that elusive FTD you've been looking for during autoslaloms.

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"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

Sure! Just find me a formula car to purchase for $11.95, and a $12/month race series to run... I'm in!

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

I'm not 100% sure what to run, there are alot of choices.
I probably will run, Star Mazda, Grand-Am DP cars, IZOD Indycar road and Ford V8 Supercars. (Do you see a trend...I don't, lol)
Maybe I should buy a Skip Barber car, look like fun, but I'm thinking before buying any more cars, I still need a few more tracks to complete the races from the series listed above.
I actually want to start working on more Oval Track races as well, some of the Truck series races look like too much fun but I'll have to up my oval license from D to C before I can do that.

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Brian
VP, AMP
#51 Vantage Motorsports

Here are the full release notes for the recent upgrade....
http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts ... 41248.page

Speaking with Scott today he said the tires seemed to have more grip... and after a dozen laps you should be comfortable with them.
All good news.

I advise everyone to test before our race on Wednesday.

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"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

I only got to try the MX-5 Cup car a couple times in between server outages (ugh!) last night, but yeah... The updated tire model is noticeably different. Essentially what they did is stiffen the tire's sidewall.

The first thing you'll notice is turn-in.. It's very sharp / direct / responsive, like you added a pile of toe-out to the front. Much less corner-entry understeer. It gives the perception that the front has way more grip. It's also MUCH easier to catch a slide now. You can throw the car into a corner, drift through the apex and easily straighten it back out on corner exit. Not that it's the fastest way through a corner... It's just easier to control now.

You'll definitely want to put in a dozen or so practice laps before trying a race. At first it feels all wrong, but once you get the hand of it, it feels almost more natural. I like it!

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Hmmm...I found a big difference with the new set up...much better feel and I am a little quicker around the track.

Still working out the kinks...like why does the hands of the driver on the screen only go so far and then stop and my hands go farther ???

...." I WANT MY SHIFTER BACK " !!!!....

OMG!...this is addictive...thanks Brian G for letting me sit in for a few laps of lime rock...had to run cause the GF was beating down the door and I had the headset on and couldn't hear her...my bad

Hey Brian...I got down into the 101's and my force feedback started to work again.

Hmmm...they only want $17,000 for a fully equiped full motion race cockpit system.

I turn the virtual wheel off. Already have a steering wheel in my hands, don't need two!

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

The NTM is great, you have to drive the cars a little different. I got into the 59's at Lime Rock after only a few laps and didn't have to drive the snot out of the car to do it either.

Kevin, your doing great! Hope to see you tomorrow. My only advise would be to experience a real race tonight before tomorrow so you have a good feeling of what an iRacing Race is all about. DON'T overdrive the car into corner1 on the first lap, take your time and get up to race speed, have fun!

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Brian
VP, AMP
#51 Vantage Motorsports

Well...the first race with you guys was a real eye opener for me...I need to learn how the system works so I am not asking everyone questions while were driving.

On the other hand...after finishing the 30 lap race I noticed a few things...arms were tired and I was loosing control of the vehicle as the race went on. After thinking it over I went back to something Brian G told me along time ago while driving some laps around AMP. He said to move the steering wheel closer to your body as it makes it easier to be smooth as you are using the smaller more precise muscles of the forearm and wrist and because of that you will feel less tired as the race progresses.

It didn't make sense to me then as I was use to driving the focus from one position and for only short stints at 8/10th was no problem. Today I decided to move the wheel about 10 inches closer to my chest and immediately noticed a positive feel to the set up. Took to the track for a little warm up and WOW...what a difference...dropped 1/2 second off my lime rock time!!

Decided to take this new set up into a race and after 20 laps of which 11 people started the race I finished in 4th place with only one slight misshap...which bent a rim and required that I drive a little slower for the remaining 2 laps.

This cockpit set up is starting to come together...soon it will be time to adjust the car and see what happens then.

I'M HOOKED!!!

Are we racing this Wednesday evening and if so...at what track?

I'm sure someone will host a race if Jason is not available. (It really sucks that he hosted the last one but could not attend.)

On a separate topic, I picked up the Riley and a bunch of tracks this weekend. I was going to try a Grand-Am race at Seabring, but it's a night race and I can't see anything!

The headlights don't light up the track at all. I think the only way I could run there at night is if I put in a few hundred practice laps during daylight beforehand and memorized the track. How do you guys do it...

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Scott...try changing the settings on your monitor/s to brighten the screen...only way I can race in the dark!

Couldn't help but notice Scott that you ran 5 or 6 races on Sunday...sheeesh...what about bathroom breaks!

Brian W. came over to try out the T500RS wheel/shifter system and give me a few pointers on getting around the track quicker as well as setting up the system for better frame rates...."man is he quick around those tracks" !!

I need more practise is what it comes down to...just put the clean laps in...lap after lap after lap......!

That's nothing... I think I did upwards of 10 in one day before.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Scott, I did the Grand-Am race on Friday night at Sebring and finished 3rd after starting 14th. Great race, need to be consistant more than anything in the 50 minute long races. As for the lights, I thought it was great. I heard a few other people say the same as you in the iRacing forum that the headlights didn't work. They work perfect if you have one of the graphics settings turned on, I think it was shadow volume, maybe. What I read is that if one of those settings is off (will have to search to find exact setting) your headlights will not work. Overall, I really enjoyed the night racing, I thought it looked and felt very realistic, kind of cool.

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Brian
VP, AMP
#51 Vantage Motorsports

D'oh!

I do have pretty much all my graphics settings turn off. Guess I should have searched the forums.


On another topic... Now that I've grown a stable of iRacing cars and tracks, I'm finding it hard to remember which series I've run qualifying / raced / have the track for / etc. in a given week. It becomes increasingly important when you're working towards the race participation credit. So to keep everything straight, I created a spreadsheet to track everything in one place.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... k4yTTJyekE

It's tailored to the cars & tacks I currently own, but if any of you guys find it useful you're welcome to copy it and adapt it for your own tracking. I got the series information from here.

Essentially, highlighted rows are the current week. Greyed-out rows are tracks I don't own. There's a qualifying column so I know 1) I've qualified, and 2) what that time was. And there's a points column so I know 1) I've run a race, and 2) how many points I got... in case I might want to try to improve upon it later. I might still add some additional columns, like my personal best for each car / track combo (so I know if my qualifying time could be better) and maybe the world record time for each combo (so I know how much I'm leaving on the table).

Yes, I'm a geek.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Just to add to Scott's geekyness, I haven't done this yet but will have to do something soon and that is to create something to calculate fuel stops and store fuel infor for each length race. the math is hard on the brain in the middle of a race. Example: in a week or two the DP cars need to run a 80 minute race, they only hold 20gal and that is not enough for 80 minutes. Basically, I need to figure out what the earilest pit window time I could pit on and then if I pass that initial window, how much less then 20gal do I need to fill to. Lots of fun!

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Brian
VP, AMP
#51 Vantage Motorsports

Good point! Even in races where a fuel stop is not required, I often can't remember how much fuel I need to start with. I've had to make unnecessary pit stops for fuel on a number of occasions.

Sounds like another column I need to add to the spreadsheet.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

I added five more columns to my iGeekSheet™.

• PB - Personal Best lap time for that car / track combo
• WR - World Record lap time for that car / track combo
• Fuel - Gallons of fuel need to complete the race (formula using Laps * g/Lap)
• Laps (or Min) - Total number of laps (or Minutes) for that race. If the Min value is red, it's actually the typical number of laps for that race.
• g/Lap - Gallons per lap fuel consumption (derived from iSpeed)

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... k4yTTJyekE

I created a separate FireFox profile (with no add-ons) and run iRacing (as the Home Page) through that. I also pinned the above Google doc as an App Tab in FireFox, so the iGeekSheet™ is always only one click away. It's working out great!

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

So can your spreadsheet interface directly with iRacing (or at least import an Excel or CSV file) or do you have to enter everything manually?

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"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

I entered everything manually... Copy & paste mostly.

However, once it's setup for the season it's pretty quick & easy to update. You just need to update 1 or 2 cells after every race / qualifying session. Takes 10 seconds max.

And each season is 3 months long, so the initial effort of creating the sheet pays off over time. Now that the format is sorted out, I should be able to create season 2 (went it arrives) without too much effort. The plan is to add new sheets for each season (as they're published). Then start a new workbook (file) when we get to 2013.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

In other news, iRacing is going to to create a virtual McLaren MP4-12C GT3.
http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/ira ... 4-12c-gt3/

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"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

I hope it drives as good as it looks!

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

As Kevin would say, things are getting out of hand!

I added two more columns to my iGeekSheet™.

• Trial - My best time trail lap for the week. There is a Time Trial award for "Full Season Competitor" in which you must run at least once a week in the same car class in a road series for an entire season. So this column will help keep track of that.
• Setup Used - I usually collect a variety of setups from the forums and shared setups during practice sessions. The problem is I can't keep track of which I ended up using each week. So this will help me know which setup I found to be the best for each track, when I look back at it later.

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... k4yTTJyekE

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

I agree. I hope you fix your PS3 quickly.....

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"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

Few updates to the iGeekSheet™....

I added a couple new elements to the spreadsheet. Ones is an Avg (average) to the points column. My goal for each week is to score more points than my average for the series.

The other is a new FFB (force feedback) column, where I enter my optimal force feedback strength setting for each track, as determined by the FergoTech iRacing FFB Tool. So far the optimal FFB for a particular car has remained consistent for various tracks, so this column may become redundant.

Then I color coded the series headings by license class, and added images of each car included in each series to make it pretty.

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... yekE#gid=0

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Nicely done Scott! The only thing I see that you could add is for the MC races you don't actually say which car you used to get the data from.

Have you actually used the iFuel (I think that is what it is called) yet, or do you understand how to use the Motec data for car setup. I really want to know more about the Motec to help with car setups.

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Brian
VP, AMP
#51 Vantage Motorsports

Yeah, I always use the same car in mixed class races, so I know in my head which one the data is for. If I ever get into running different cars in a series, I will have to add something though.

I have yet to try any fuel calculators beyond what the spreadsheet reveals. I haven't been competitive enough for fuel strategy to make a difference in my results. Usually I only place well through attrition.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Ok, I added a Car column. I also added a YouTube column for links to onboard video of a fast lap. Studying them can really help improve your own lap times, I find.

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... k4yTTJyekE

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR