RD iRacing Oval Series

Yoeri Gijsen · Apr 27, 2012

RaceDepartment Indy 500 2012 (RDINDY'12) | Intro & Info

Introduction

Welcome to the the second running of the RaceDepartment Indy 500 in iRacing. Last season saw a huge turn-out of drivers that gathered to pick up the virtual bottle of milk. Lots of crashes painted the picture of the first half of the race; close fighting dominated the second half. This year we're looking to go bigger and better than last year, so go get that FREE RaceDepartment Licensed Membership and sign-up for this annual high-speed thrill!

OFFICIAL RESULTS
REPLAY - Complete
REPLAY - Part 1
REPLAY - Part 2
Event schedule

Date: Sunday 20 May 2012
Open practice: 15:00 GMT (80 minutes)
Qualification: 16:20 GMT, 1 lap, lone qualifyer (10 minutes)
Race: 16:30 GMT, 200 laps, 500 miles (270 minutes)
Car: Dallara IndyCar
Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Indy Oval
Server farm: NL-Ams
Starting type: standing
Fast tows: Unlimited
Cautions: full course cautions on
Restarts: single file
Racers/server: 33 (possibly extended to 55)
Hardcore level: Disable all driving aids (but clutch assist ok)

How to join?

Important links

Yoeri Gijsen · Aug 4, 2012

I understand your frustrations. iRacing is a growing thing on RaceDepartment, but one cannot expect that it flourishes during the holidays. My expectations for the last two events are higher than this one.

Participation will always drop somewhat when no big thresholds (like money) are in place.

I'm glad you decided to drive today and hope you will be driving in future events as well.

David Ross · Aug 5, 2012

Oval racing is a fairly new thing to me but I've enjoyed the first 2 rounds, couldn't make it tonight but I'll definitely be there for the rest of the season. I know I'm not at the front but it's been good clean enjoyable racing which to me is far more important than winning any cash prizes.

Chris Preston · Aug 5, 2012

Sorry I had to leave so quickly at the end, the race ended at 3:20 and I had a baseball game at 4:00 so thanks to everyone who congratulated me at the end of the race. Also Trevor don't worry it all worked out in the end ^.^ One extra yellow and I might have been pushing the amount of time I had left.

To be honest I didn't expect to be that fast my first lap times were really good, however I was just average or a bit below on long runs. The fact that I was in front 1.5s after the first lap was really surprising. Even though there were only 10 guys out today I don't think we need to overreact just yet, remember everyone has one drop week and this one apart from Iowa would be the one I expected people to drop. Texas is a track you either love or hate, and without a lot of practice turn 2 will ruin your day because that wall comes up a lot faster than you expect it to. Michigan is a great track to drive at and for Daytona I expect everyone to be out who can possibly make it. I think one of the major problems is people seem to give up too easily, I know making a setup for Texas was an absolute bitch, but there's people including me who can help you out so don't say "I can't keep it on the track cya next race" you have two weeks to practice so there's really no excuse.

Anyways I hope Michigan has a better turnout, also is there set times for practice sessions or what because it would be great if we could all get together before the actual race to work on setups and give each other some tips... I know Michigan will bite you in the ass if you don't run the lines correctly.

Once again thanks to everyone that showed up I'll put the setups I used below so I encourage people who may have had a rough couple of weeks to try out mine and see how they do, my race setup I'm pretty proud of what I did with it and my quali setup is... well... kind of fast but definitely seemed impossible to handle with tape on. Sorry I don't have replays this week, didn't have enough time at the end of the race to go back and save them, but it's quite simple: keep it as low and you can and keep the throttle steady, with the NTM any sudden acceleration will send you sideways so even if you're slower than you should be mid-corner be careful how you accelerate. If you really want a replay I'll provide one, but only if you ask.

Eric Estes · Aug 5, 2012

I do want to try that race setup, thanks for posting. You just ran away every restart, even when I had fresh tires and yours were 10 laps old. Excellent job.

Marcus Hagman · Aug 5, 2012

This time family came first;-) but it won't be a habit;-p

Yoeri Gijsen · Aug 5, 2012

I have returned from my vacation and are available for contact again.

Linus Broström · Aug 5, 2012

2nd in the standings after 3 rounds. Just need the final two races to be as good as race 2 and 3 so I can't cut of that 9th place in the first round

Philip Johansson · Aug 5, 2012

Yeah, same as marcus had a last min drop out and had to go see my dad.. but i will come for michigan for sure!

Eckhart von Glan · Aug 5, 2012

don't own michigan, but I'll try to make the last round at Daytona, which is my favourite oval track.

Yoeri Gijsen · Aug 8, 2012

Let the party begin.

Marcus Hagman · Aug 8, 2012

Yeah i´ll be there

Chris Preston · Aug 8, 2012

Michigan is one of my favourite tracks for the trucks and the A class car because it's a combination of everything you love to see in an oval race: multiple lines, must be easy on your tyres, 3 wide racing, and your setup plus the way you adapt throughout the race will be key. As Yoeri said managing tyres is tricky because it's easy to get on the throttle half way through the turn, but in about 15 laps you'll see why that's a bad idea. I can tell you though that this track is very noob friendly and not too hard to drive you don't have to worry about spinning out or eating wall especially off turn 4, driving it fast while conserving your tyres isn't so easy though. I ran about 110 laps last night and I didn't spin or hit the wall once over 2 straight fuel runs and the car still seemed decent 40 laps into a run.

Race Times: First lap I can hit a 40.71, but I feel I can improve on that a bit. By the end of a fuel run I can still hit 41.65 on a good lap, but it's normally around mid 41.7's

Qualifying Times: 40.275 is my best at the moment and I don't know if there's much left there... A tenth at the most with some tweaking.

Replays: Feel free to check out a replay of a lap in race trim, and a lap in quali trim.
- http://www.mediafire.com/?1p8kd4oqyomemf1

Fuel/Tyres: I ran two fuel runs and both times had the exact same fuel mileage making it 39 laps on pitting on lap 40. From looking at the times in my two fuel runs, after lap 25 is when my tyres really started to fall off a cliff, if it stays green the entire time pitting on lap 33 and 66 would probably be ideal, but if it goes yellow I probably wouldn't pit unless it's past lap 25.

Also don't forget the official C Class races are at Michigan next week which is a great opportunity to get some practice in race conditions and see what other people are doing. I might be on vacation for this race so if that's the case I'll post my setups here, if not the best I can do is point you in the right direction.

Joel Wraith · Aug 10, 2012

IN for this

Will start practising on Sunday!

Yoeri Gijsen · Aug 10, 2012

I believe the Trucks have Michigan on the schedule as well next week, so plenty of opportunities to practise.

Chris Preston · Aug 10, 2012

Good news, I'm pretty sure I'll be at the race because I don't leave for vacation until the Sunday so look out. Yoeri you're two posts to late lol I already mentioned that the trucks are at Michigan next week. Word of advice though I don't recommend the fixed because unless things have changed since last season the fixed setup is brutal, in fact the only time I caused a wreck last season was on Michigan getting loose off turn 4 lol.

Anyone ran any laps yet so I know what to compare my lap times to?

Marcus Hagman · Aug 12, 2012

I make around 41,5 on the long run when the rear stops trying to overtake me

Eckhart von Glan · Aug 13, 2012

don't own the track, enjoy it guys and keep up the good racing (and hopefully a solid participation as well), cu all in Daytona.

David Ross · Aug 14, 2012

I've managed to get down into the high 42s but that's about it for me, still getting the hang of these ovals, the rear just wants to constantly overtake me. Would anyone be willing to share a setup for this track?

Yoeri Gijsen · Aug 14, 2012

David Ross said:
I've managed to get down into the high 42s but that's about it for me, still getting the hang of these ovals, the rear just wants to constantly overtake me. Would anyone be willing to share a setup for this track?

David, the fixed setup is good for laps in the mid and high 40's when you get the hang of it. Untill you get there, setups are useless.

The corners on the track are mostly about balancing the throttle. Turn one is full throttle. You get in high and when the SAFER wall starts you slowly let off the throttle, but keep a little on and slowly turn into the second lane (not the bottom one). Keep the throttle going and apply more throttle as you get out of the turn.

You turn into turn 3 around when the SAFER wall starts and go for the same procedure as turn 1. You get out of turn 4 high and bend back to the bottom on the start/finish and get back up high for turn 1.

It takes time to find the right balance, but you need that to get the speed up. After that setups start to work.

Linus Broström · Aug 14, 2012

just did my first truck race of the week at Michigan, and i probably won't keep my 2nd position after saturday. however i feel like this is gonna be a great race.

@Yoeri Gijsen thanks for that guiding ^^, realy helped