New to iRacing, would like some tips.

Andrew Skinner · May 28, 2012

hey guys im getting iRacing tommrow and would like some beginner tips (before i start), if it helps ive played Race 07, GTR2, Rfactor and Forza 4 and have a pc compitable wheel. ive seen some youtube videos of other players, some say smooth and take your time and some say rush. ive got may career plan almost set, im gonna go road but cant decicde between my 2 favourite american series.

any tips would be welcome

p.s would like to thank das for persuading me to buy this

Jan Roman · May 28, 2012

1. Read the sporting code. It'll help you understand basic principles of iRacing.
2. Get out of the Rookie safety class as soon as possible. That's the time to rush. It's not shame starting from the pits by not gridding when you are asked to. Trust me, Rookie races are not really a good example of great driving experience. You can try Cadillac series as well.
3. Once you get your D class license, its time to choose. Open seaters or hard tops. If you choose open seaters, go for Skip Barber Formula. In case of hard tops, I'd choose Mustang (it's getting the new tire model (NTM) today so it's probably a good time to drive it).
4. Then it's really up to you. I don't think you should try to be the fastest immediately. You have expereince from other racing simulators and games so you'll get comfortable soon, but I suggest driving safely (not at the edge). Pick a race series and aim for the neccessary Safety class. When you reach it, try to be faster and faster.

I can't advise you more really, but I did this and I've had a great time so far.

Adam Sawyer · May 29, 2012

Don't race too hard just stay out of trouble with 0 incidents. Keep gaining SR to get out of rookies, get 4.0 and you'll get fast tracked out. Rookies is horrible, ppl dive bombing and not giving space, it's just a horrible place to be. And watch the first lap in every race, there will 100% be some kind of pile up, stay out of it! Race clean and smooth, avoid the incidents and you'll fly up the positions

Josh Barton · May 29, 2012

I found the best trick to get out of rookies was to start from pitlane (this means missing the grid, then hitting start race) so you're in clean air, and just trundling around for the race. You'll probably finish high up regardless as many people will crash. Dont worry about your racing record or irating, just get SR up. It only takes a few clean road races and you'll be in a D liscense.

I dont like the D cars, so I completed my minimum participation requirment for D class cars (you need to to be able to go up a class) by doing time trials, then did the same thing in the rookie races again and very quickly got a C.

C class opens up many more opportunities, and the racing is cleaner, so then you can start as you like. Personally, I just went for A levels first, then chose what to race, gave me more options. Also, it gets easier to go up levels in the high level races, as the races are longer. For instance, I went up 0.85 SR in one B class race with a couple of off tracks to boot!

Other than that, just enjoy yourself!

Xosé Estrada · May 29, 2012

Josh Barton said:
Personally, I just went for A levels first, then chose what to race, gave me more options. Also, it gets easier to go up levels in the high level races, as the races are longer. For instance, I went up 0.85 SR in one B class race with a couple of off tracks to boot!
Other than that, just enjoy yourself!

If you usually have clean races, yes, because otherwise it's easy to loose a lot of SR in the upper classes as well, specially if you focus on iRating more than on keep SR

Dazmaniac · May 29, 2012

Andrew,

Another good way to learn certain cars and tracks, without incurring any hits to iRating and SR is to run some laps in the Spectator/Ghost Sessions.

From the home screen, select Events and then Spectator/Ghost Sessions. You will then see a list of sessions currently on the go, and depending on what content you have, select an appropriate car/track combo that is being run (if available) and join the session.

You initially join as a spectator and can watch any driver from all the available camera angles to see how they drive. But you can also select to test-drive in that session and join in the fun, but you are a ghost car that the others cannot see (and they drive through you without collision) and it allows you to run as you normally would in races, but without the worry of causing incidents or losing yourself rating points etc.

It's a great way to get the feel of iRacing, learning how the cars handle and also learning the tracks, especially as you will be new to it all.

Have fun fella.

Nico Van Elk · May 29, 2012

Tip 1. All of the above.
Tip 2. On signing up, when it asks for a reference, put my name up

Good racing, hope to see you on track.

Dazmaniac · May 29, 2012

Nico Van Elk said:
Tip 1. All of the above.
Tip 2. On signing up, when it asks for a reference, put my name up

Good racing, hope to see you on track.

Nico,

Unfortunately, Andrew had already joined before your post (but nice effort to try and claim the referrers bonus, lol).

Yoeri Gijsen · May 29, 2012

There's no real must.

I advise to work on driving safely rating first to get to the class of your favorite series. To that end it might be good to pick a week, do some practise sessions until you are comfortable and then go out for time trials. You can simply set an average laptime over the required amount of laps and then withdraw from the session to start a new one. Do this four times to meet the necessary MPR and then do races untill you get 4.00 on your license. Make sure that you focus on safe driving, rather than on performance. Don't engage in close fights and just keep your race incident-free. This is the easiest way to get your licenses quickly.

Andrew Skinner · May 29, 2012

thanks guys for all the tips, wil get to work tommrow

Hampus Andersson · May 30, 2012

Optimal wheel settings as well.
http://www.racedepartment.com/forum/threads/iracing-optimal-wheel-settings.51360/

Andrew Skinner · May 30, 2012

thanks guys for all the tips, i have olny just started stringing laps together arround limerock, took me a while kept spinning and catching (still) a bump after turn 5 at the top of the hill. all laps were in the 1:02's

Nico Van Elk · May 31, 2012

Try to make sure you are going straight at the top of the hill. The corner should be finished by there. Makes it easier. And find some replays in the forums, study the track turn by turn. Helped me a lot.

Adam Sawyer · May 31, 2012

if i take an early apex at the bottom of the hill you come up the right hand side of it and theres no spin, otherwise i think most ppl have a small lift and back on the power

Andrew Skinner · May 31, 2012

had my first race and finished dead last 9 laps down, kept spinning, safety rating went down by.19

Dazmaniac · May 31, 2012

Andrew Skinner said:
had my first race and finished dead last 9 laps down, kept spinning, safety rating went down by.19

Welcome to the world of iRacing.

Nice to see tyou're getting your lap times down though bud.

Keep practising as you will soon have the track mastered to a point where you will be able to race, keep the incidents to a minimum and see the SR shoot up.

Adam Sawyer · Jun 4, 2012

Yeh everyone was there at one point or another. Race for clean laps, don't even bother racing for position until you've got pace. If someone comes up behind you just let them by to save the hassle of them dive bombing you, especially in the lower splits.

Andrew Skinner · Jun 6, 2012

again thanks for the tips guys. ive decicded to go down both paths. i feel more comfortable on Oakayma than i do on lime rock park, just cant string laps together compaired to oakyama, so il be doing the oakayma road racing then Charlotte Motor speedway, as it rotates with lime rock for road).

feel free to add me on iRacing .

Josh Barton · Jun 6, 2012

Andrew Skinner said:
again thanks for the tips guys. ive decicded to go down both paths. i feel more comfortable on Oakayma than i do on lime rock park, just cant string laps together compaired to oakyama, so il be doing the oakayma road racing then Charlotte Motor speedway, as it rotates with lime rock for road).

feel free to add me on iRacing .

Funny because I find Lime Rock easier lol. For some reason I can find more competitive lap times as Lime rock, I cant find time at Oakayma and I have litterally no idea where to gain there.

Just focus on getting cleanly to end. I find a good idea is to try out practice first, so you know the track and keep on it, then move to time trials as it adds a bit of pressure to put the laps together in a row. Once you can master the time trial, move on to the races, block everything out and just drive like a time trial. You'll be quick in no time, and not to mention spinning in a time trial doesnt hurt the SR as much.

Good luck! Just remember to have fun

Dazmaniac · Jun 13, 2012

If you like to keep track of the guys in your friends list and what they are participating in etc. you could do worse than checking out this iRacing forum thread

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/1275006.page

Easy to install and works well. I have it running in both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.