Rookie races; Judging interest

Lars Hansen

Buggered if I know.....
One of the reasons I applied for the staff was to see if I could get some 'beginner' races established.
But it makes little sense to go through the motions if nobody is interested. :)

So here's the pitch:
I am TENTATIVELY (meaning don't hang me if it gets changed/postponed) looking at doing it the last Sunday of every month, probably about noonish GMT so it doesn't interfere with the evening race.
The format will be a long (30-40mins) practice period, 10mins race, followed by another practice, and a final race.
The reason for the short race, and no qualifying is very simple.
The race isn't the aim of the exercise.

What I would like to achieve is to provide a 'safe' environment for people to get used to MP racing without having to worry about getting in the way of more competitive drivers.
And as such, even though we'll be running 'Get Real' physics, tire-wear will be off, as will damage so you can bounce off the walls to your hearts content.
It'll also be a way to demonstrate the do's and don'ts of being lapped, so maybe people can get over the "oh-god-i'm-about-to-be-lapped-what-do-I-do" panic. ;)

Furthermore for those who want it, I'll do a 'drive-along' of the track and if anybody wants it I'll be happy to jump in their car and see if I can help them improve.
Please understand that I can't make you an alien.
To do so would require me being one in the first place. :)
Nor will this be a fully-fledged Driver Academy. I simply don't have enough experience to claim any such thing.
But assuming that you're slower than me to start with, I'm reasonably sure I can help you improve.

The second practice is meant to discuss what went right or wrong in the first race, and what we should focus on in the second race.
Basically, it'll be a free-for-all where people can ask for whatever topic to be covered.

The above does mean that there will be two limitations.
1) We have to limit the number of drivers to a handful, maybe 8 tops.
2) TeamSpeak will absolutely be mandatory. There is simply no way this can be done through text.

So that's the basis of the idea.
The first one is planned (TENTATIVELY :D ) to go off on Sunday Feb 28th, and if it's a success we'll repeat it once a month.
The first one will be using all-free content (Silhouettes@Raceway), but if people want other stuff I'm happy to find a way to do it.
The reason for choosing the Silhouettes is that they have both TC and ABS, so though they're RWD they are fairly sedate.
A future option would be to use the Audi TTs, or maybe do a 'warm-up' using the same car/track combo as the following evening race.
But that's for future contemplation.
Right now I'm more interested in whether there's actual.....er.....well, interest. ;)

So does anybody want this?
Is Sunday okay, or do we find another date/time?
Do we keep the Silhouettes, or are people more into something else?
Would people prefer 'warm-up' sessions, or do we keep them separate from the Club races?
Ideas and questions happily received.
This is YOUR club guys, so if there's something you want, speak up. :)
 
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Lars, I think you should roll this out but not just to R3E club members this would benefit all people new to online racing. It's a major reason that so many people don't do online.
While R3E has its issues where it scores is in the quality of the free content so newcomers have a viable way of trying online racing.
 
- I wouldn't go for the Aquila, rather silhouette (I find silhouette allot more manageable then Aquila, might just be me) and audi TT.
- if possible run a fixed setup race, first people need to be comfortable after they can worry about setup. With no offense to anyone and like Bram and Oscar said, if you are more than 2sec off setup won't help, but driving tips yes.
- what I saw with most in R3E is that everyone can have decent speed, but focus on getting a clean lap after clean lap is a issues, again might be wrong.
- raceroomway bridge is perfect track, some run off area, a bit difficult lot's to learn
- good idea, sad(I am selfish I know) that it will be on Sunday brunch when sometimes I race, but at the rate I am joining events all good
 
- I wouldn't go for the Aquila, rather silhouette
:confused:
Er......That was actually supposed to be the Silhouettes.
No idea why I wrote Aquilas......Edited, and I'll be chalking that one up to posting at 3am :D

Lars, I think you should roll this out but not just to R3E club members this would benefit all people new to online racing.
I won't argue against that.
On the other hand, we have to start somewhere, and I'd prefer to keep it somewhat small while we iron out the inevitable kinks.
Ya'll gotta remember that this'll be new for me too, so I'm a little loath to simply open my arms to the unwashed masses entire RD. :D
Besides, to avoid TS descending into a cacophony, the number of people in each session would have to be rather small.
 
just don't know if a 10 minutes race will teach a lot about being lapped or overtaking slow cars
Quite true, which is what the practice-period is for.
Learning how to get lapped while racing has two problems.
1) There's usually a lot of things going on in a race.
2) It usually only happens once. Before and after that you're simply doing laps.

By using the practice period we can set the same situation up again and again, without having to go through an entire race before it comes up again.
Not to mention that we can have other 'students' (for lack of a better phrase) look through the same wind-shield while it happens.
Trying to look through someone elses viewpoint while driving yourself is......not likely to end well.

The race is only there to take whatever people may have learned, and get them to use it under a little pressure.
Using the practice-period allows us to do e.g. multiple starts by simply having everyone line up again at the finish-line.
 
Consider my interest piqued!

Timing sounds generally do-able. Silhouettes are fine, as is the Raceway track; given that it's all free content that removes another initial barrier to entry.

This is also probably a better entry to Online Sim racing/MP events than my own "baptism of fire" at a club RD event: driving Audi TTs (nice cars) at (I think it was) Monza - nasty T1 with a very solid wall - "broke" my car in the second race when the wall and I had a "falling out".

Oh yeah, and RDTCC Season 9 champion (and current Season 10 leader) @Oscar Hardwick was also on the grid - think I was lapped 3 times in that short first race [yes, yes, my 3 "pit stop" detours didn't help, but I don't think they made that much difference!]).
 

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