IndyCar league proposal

Hi everybody,

Let's get right to the point: as soon as I first tried the Dallara DW12 IndyCar mod when it was released for RFactor2, I foresaw the great potential it had to bring us an exciting championship opportunity. The car proves to be handy for everybody thanks to its pleasant traction grip and braking stability, both combined with an adequate turn-in and cornering behaviour.

Well, after squeezing the car alongside some friends for quite a few weeks, we all considered to suggest an IndyCar league in RaceDepartment in order to ensure crowded races rather than lonely parades from start to checkered flag, and that's what we are precisely doing right now.

Of course I don't pretend this to be as notorious and serious as Formula SimRacing or whatever; I'd like it to be just for fun - that doesn't mean forgetting about competitiveness and sheer racing, obviously. The key would be to have a fixed calendar with a scheduled 90-minutes Free Practice session, followed by a Qualifying round (maybe with knockout trials, F1 style) for each Grand Prix, that would consist of two short races (reversed grid anyone?). To make sure that everybody has the same opportunities, the drivers would have to respect a very simple rule: not to test out of the 90-minutes Free Practice period.

I know that it's difficult stuff as organisers wouldn't have any control over drivers, we'd have to rely on them and even on ourselves. But that's what would make this league special; having to cope with limited practice time to fine-tune the car, having the ability to maximise the hour-and-a-half period efficiently so as to make the best possible setup. Just like in real life. If that, in addition, favours equality within the grid, what could go wrong if everyone is comitted to the pact?

We'd like to know your opinions about the hypothetical championship first to assess whether it would be viable or not. Thanks for reading and feel free to add any suggestion.
 
@Frederic Schornstein
@José Javier Buisán

What i can do is give you a server for for a club/test race. (No points)

Saterday 26th:
Track: Suzuka.
Car: DW12

Everything else i'll leave it up to you.
Mod file, real road, rules, weather, race length, etc...

Let me know what you want and i'll set up a server and a sign up thread.

Just a propasal for a test race at Suzuka.

Race: 49laps :geek: (4-5 stops on the soft tires, 3 stops on the hard tires)

Tires choise will be fixed during quali. Ex: If you do quali on the softs. You do the whole race on the softs. Or do quali on the hard tires and the whole race on the hard tires.
And some setup option are also fixed after quali. (It's done by default with the DW12 cars)

Superpole: out lap, hotlap, inlap.

Standing start with formation lap.

No assist for this race. :( :p

Other ideas??
 
Just a propasal for a test race at Suzuka.

Race: 49laps :geek: (4-5 stops on the soft tires, 3 stops on the hard tires)

Tires choise will be fixed during quali. Ex: If you do quali on the softs. You do the whole race on the softs. Or do quali on the hard tires and the whole race on the hard tires.
And some setup option are also fixed after quali. (It's done by default with the DW12 cars)

Superpole: out lap, hotlap, inlap.

Standing start with formation lap.

No assist for this race. :( :p

Other ideas??
Sounds really good. Maybe as a club race for next week. After running the FR 2014 yesterday I think you should be able to run the DW12 soft tires longer than 10 Laps ;)
Haven't tried it, but COTA has also some tire killing corners and you could drive the softs for 30min or longer.

Will the servers be updated to the new build?
 
Having driven this car a bit now I am becoming more interested in a joining a League.
I,ll know more after tonights practice race.
Couple of thoughts:
-Banning practice: I dont think its practical or policeable. Some like to practice and do setup others don't. I'm one who needs quite a few laps to get pace. If they need preparation, I think drivers will in general get more from the race if they can get it.
-Evening out performance. I suggest for example a Friday night Pro-Am where drivers are handicapped. The in-car info allows you to put yourself say 40 sec behind driver A on the formation lap. This leaves the Saturday night race as the League race.
-Race distance. Personally I like longer races. It will mean more flexibilty/diversity on strategy. One idea is to do race 1 60 mins full points. Race 2 reverse grid 30 mins 1/3 points.
Thanks
 
I suggest these rounds as ordered:

Round 1: Long Beach
Round 2: Toronto Race 1
Round 3: Toronto Race 2 (Reverse Grid)
Round 4: Mid-Ohio
Round 5: Sebring
Round 6: Loch Drummond
Round 7: COTA
Round 8: Indy500 Road Course
Round 9: Indy500 Oval Course
Round 10: Silverstone GP
Round 11: Imola GP
Round 12: Nordschleife GP
 
I have never driven the DW12 even though I downloaded it, but this sound like fun.
Of course, time frame comes into play here. When do you think the races will be conducted?
 
Couple of random thoughts here.
I'm in two minds about the indy car.
We had a nice race last night and very enjoyable. The car is relatively easy to drive and has a lot of grip.
Whilst as a mid field driver, I benefited from the way this car closes up the bunch a bit I'm asking myself if maybe it more suits a regular support race role to an official league.
Its great racing but strangely in a way possibly a bit too easy to make a full league commitment.
I may well be wrong on this. Its just an idea but I was wondering if we say had a Formula Renault 3.5 2014 league. (Easier and nicer than 2010 car but still more challenging than the DW12) and had a build up race night in this car. Bit of a social event, learn the track get some mileage.
So as for one possible example: Week 1 and 2 are club and practice races
Round 1 Track A.
Week 1; Indycar race DW12. 1 hour. (Poss an ASR F1 1992 race too).
Week 2 ISI Masters race 1 hour. FR 3.5 Club Race.
Week 3 FR 3.5 League Race.

This way we get a nice diversity of cars in the build up.
Another alternative is to run the DW12 as a League but in parrallel a bit like above. So in a way like a support race. (think as GP2 to F1).
Anyway just running some ideas up the flag pole.
 
An Indycar league has to be with a fully course yellow and a safety car. It's a part of indycar and pit-strategy.

We have tried it (there were a lot during the last time). And there were some things that didn't work that well. ISI has implemented a new flag rule: yellow w/o DQ. Maybe we should give it another try.

Is there another Oval track that suits the car?

Edit: i did a quick search on the indycar website. The fuel capacity should be 19 US gallons = +/- 73 liters.
This makes the use of prime tires a bit more interesting. ;)

It's easy to implement a bigger fuel tank in the mod-file. :)
 
Last edited:
ISI has stated that they got bad data when they rushed out the Indycar. There is going to be an update to the DW12 to fix it. If they get it right and actually make this into an Indycar with push-to-pass and a few other things, I am all for this league. As it is right now- I'm waiting for the update before I touch this car again.
 

Latest News

How long have you been simracing

  • < 1 year

    Votes: 345 15.6%
  • < 2 years

    Votes: 236 10.7%
  • < 3 years

    Votes: 234 10.6%
  • < 4 years

    Votes: 175 7.9%
  • < 5 years

    Votes: 296 13.4%
  • < 10 years

    Votes: 256 11.6%
  • < 15 years

    Votes: 163 7.4%
  • < 20 years

    Votes: 125 5.6%
  • < 25 years

    Votes: 99 4.5%
  • Ok, I am a dinosaur

    Votes: 286 12.9%
Back
Top