iRacing - hosted GT3 Club Races - Sundays @ 9:00am EST

[SnappyDEe]

OP has been edited - sessions are now two hours. Sessions require password which I will post the day of the race.

These RD club races are casual events I am hosting for the purpose of providing the opportunity to race using the iRacing service but without the pressure of worrying about iRating and Safety Rating. The majority of the tracks will be base content but there will be some of the more popular paid tracks mixed in as well. All skill levels are welcome to join in and race. Please race respectfully and have fun.

Two Hour Sessions: 1 hour practice, 15 minute quali (single car, 4 laps), 45 minute race. Race fuel limited to 46 percent. You will have to pit so use the time in practice sessions to find your stall. There are also 2 fast repairs available.

Session requires password which I will post up here on the morning of the race.
Password = Senna

The cars:
BMW Z4 GT3
McLaren MP4 12C GT3
RUF RT12R Track
Ford GT3 GT3


Sunday December 27th, 2015 @ 9:00 am EST - Okayama International (base content)

Sunday January 3rd, 2016 @ 9:00 am EST - Daytona circa 2007 (base content)

Sunday January 10th, 2016 @ 9:00 am EST - Spa (paid content)

Sunday January 17th, 2016 @ 9:00 am EST - Laguna Seca (base content)

Sunday January 31st, 2016 @ 9:00 am EST - Summit Point (base content)

Sunday February 7th, 2016 @ 9:00 am EST - Interlagos (paid content)

 

[SnappyDEe]

That's awesome. Got some good champ points to go with it too! ...I almost ran that race, but had too much house work to do. Yeah, cleaning bathrooms is much more fun. Nope.

I ran another good one last night. I started 16th or 17th and was mixing it up with 3 or 4 other cars. Thanks to attrition and a good pit strategy I finished 11th. The most astonishing part was that I finished with 0 incident points. Incredible at a track like Gilles Villeneuve.

 

[SnappyDEe]

On a side note. Something is up with the FFB on my Thrustmaster TX. iRacing has never felt so good. The McLaren feels super informative and responsive with good road feel. I messed with the stings on the wheel and got lucky I guess because I usually just mess things up. I don't know what my settings are but if anyone is interested I can post them up later.

 

[James Nance]

On a side note. Something is up with the FFB on my Thrustmaster TX. iRacing has never felt so good. The McLaren feels super informative and responsive with good road feel. I messed with the stings on the wheel and got lucky I guess because I usually just mess things up. I don't know what my settings are but if anyone is interested I can post them up later.

Thats awsome to hear, making me jealous. Yes to your settings, I would be curious to what else to try, even though Im very happy with my current settings.

 

[Fritz Anker]

I ran another good one last night. I started 16th or 17th and was mixing it up with 3 or 4 other cars. Thanks to attrition and a good pit strategy I finished 11th. The most astonishing part was that I finished with 0 incident points. Incredible at a track like Gilles Villeneuve.

Man, that's great! I ran the 10AM PST and it just didn't go that well. Got bumped from behind lap 1 - not very big at all - but it still docked me a 4x (don't get it). Then I did my signature spin and that cost me places but got them back and more through attrition. Decided to try again at the 12PM PST race, qualified much higher and was racing nice and close - was fun!

...then my Buttkicker vibrated my mouse right of the tray and onto my keyboard. Of all the keys it hit, had to hit F12 - suddenly I'm looking straight out my right side window (F12 recenters my TrackIR). Crash! At least I didn't hit anyone. After about 20 minutes in the pits, I take to the track again (optional repairs my butt), then my headset battery died. Really? Two races and two SR killers.

...I am liking this track but finding it a bit challenging to pass - even slower cars, if they know where to put their car it's really tough to get by them.

 

[Fritz Anker]

On a side note. Something is up with the FFB on my Thrustmaster TX. iRacing has never felt so good. The McLaren feels super informative and responsive with good road feel. I messed with the stings on the wheel and got lucky I guess because I usually just mess things up. I don't know what my settings are but if anyone is interested I can post them up later.

Nice to get things dialed. I don't have the TX but have been killing myself trying to set up my pedals placement in my rig. They've been killing my knees, so trying different angles and distance. ...still tinkering with it but think I'm getting closer.

 

[SnappyDEe]

I use the Thrustmaster TX with the Formula 1 add-on wheel. My DOR is set to 900 degrees.

Here they are:
Thrustmaster Control Panel Settings:
Overall Strength of all forces = 100%
Constant = 60%
Periodic = 60%
Spring = 5% (I like a bit of resistance when turning the wheel, I may turn this down or off completely at some point in the future)
Damper = 8% (like I said, I like a little resistance :-P)
Auto Center Settings = by the game (Recommended)

I have heard that, and tend to believe, that by having any damper or spring I am risking deadening some of the more subtle FFB signals that could be communicated to me by the game. That is why I may start experimenting with lowering them or turning them off altogether. For now this seems to work for me.

Now, on to my in game settings:
When I calibrate the wheel in the iRacing software it gives me a "Wheel Range" and "Map Range" of 692
Enable FFB is checked
Linear mode is Off/not checked
Dampen Oscillations is Off/not checked
Strength = 14
Damping = 3%
Minimum Force = 6.8%

These may not make sense. In fact, the may not work for anyone else. I will post up any changes and results of those changes. Right now though, the wheel feels very good. I have mostly been driving the McLaren MP4-12C GT3.

 

[James Nance]

I use the Thrustmaster TX with the Formula 1 add-on wheel. My DOR is set to 900 degrees.

Here they are:
Thrustmaster Control Panel Settings:
Overall Strength of all forces = 100%
Constant = 60%
Periodic = 60%
Spring = 5% (I like a bit of resistance when turning the wheel, I may turn this down or off completely at some point in the future)
Damper = 8% (like I said, I like a little resistance :-P)
Auto Center Settings = by the game (Recommended)

I have heard that, and tend to believe, that by having any damper or spring I am risking deadening some of the more subtle FFB signals that could be communicated to me by the game. That is why I may start experimenting with lowering them or turning them off altogether. For now this seems to work for me.

Now, on to my in game settings:
When I calibrate the wheel in the iRacing software it gives me a "Wheel Range" and "Map Range" of 692
Enable FFB is checked
Linear mode is Off/not checked
Dampen Oscillations is Off/not checked
Strength = 14
Damping = 3%
Minimum Force = 6.8%

These may not make sense. In fact, the may not work for anyone else. I will post up any changes and results of those changes. Right now though, the wheel feels very good. I have mostly been driving the McLaren MP4-12C GT3.

Fascinating findings, I seem to be on another planet with mine, compared to yours. Will have to take a moment and try these.

 

[SnappyDEe]

James, I feel like car set up is impacting my experience as well. I run the McLaren which has horrible understeer in slow corners and pushes badly in high speed corners. As a result, I run the brake balance shifted to the front. I also have ABS at the highest setting. When under heavy braking, like at the hairpin at Gilles Villeneuve, my wheel is beautifully transmitting how much the cars is wiggling around (for lack of a better term). The back end is unstable under heavy breaking with my bias set up but it is so cool because the wheel is totally transmitting it to me. Bumps, undulations and kerbs in the track feel awesome. I don't know, I'm not the best source for FFB tips but I thought I'd throw it out there and get someone els's opinion. I'd love to hear what you think.

 

[Fritz Anker]

...actually so would I, as I also am running the McLaren. But to help with the understeer, I actually pushed the brake bias to the rear at least two clicks. I also found increasing the starting pressure helps too - it's still there, just not as much. Certainly not like driving the Z4.

 

[Marc]

McLaren is a mid-engine car, understeer is it's nature.
increase rear ride high has the most effect to solve that.
To stabilize the car under heavy braking put brakebias more to the front, but brakedistance will increase!
Is there still negative toe at the rear with Baseline? If so try to set it slightly positive, may help as well.

 

[SnappyDEe]

McLaren is a mid-engine car, understeer is it's nature.
increase rear ride high has the most effect to solve that.
To stabilize the car under heavy braking put brakebias more to the front, but brakedistance will increase!
Is there still negative toe at the rear with Baseline? If so try to set it slightly positive, may help as well.

Yes, this is good advice. Maybe I should post the set up here for folks to grab and try out.

If anyone tries the wheel settings please post your feedback.

 

[James Nance]

Heres a short video of the Daytona race last Sunday. From my perspective of course and till I spin, haha

 

[Fritz Anker]

Awesome. Well done!

 

[Dave R]

Heres a short video of the Daytona race last Sunday. From my perspective of course and till I spin, haha

I'm glad I finally got to see the battle up front Thanks for posting it James

 

[SnappyDEe]

Cool video. What capture software are you using? Love the dramatic slow motion.

 

[James Nance]

Thanks guys. I dont do a whole lot of fancy stuff yet. I use Nvidia Shadowplay to record and Sony Vegas Pro to edit with, works quite while holding onto the quality. I got the Replay keys a little memorized and from there I play director.

 

[James Nance]

Did my GT3 race and wasnt so good. I was the farthest up BMW in qualifying(7th) among the fast Mclarens and Ruf's. Leader brake checks 3 times almost causing pile ups, other than that, was a clean start. From there I was in no mans land, not quick enough for the pack of Mclarens and just quick enough from the rest. I got passed by one BMW during pitstops but quickly gained on him. Made a clean pass in the 2nd chicane, then heading into the last chicane, he miss judged his brake marker and ran into the back of me. I had a chance for 5th through attrition but from that hit it set me down to 8th.

Im ready for Sunday

 

[SnappyDEe]

Sunday is going to be interesting. I haven't practiced at all and the last time I ran laps there the best I could do was not very good. I don't want folks to post lap times in here though.

What can we do to get some more drivers to join in? Do we need a different time slot? If so, what would work? I'm open minded so just throw it out there.

 

[Fritz Anker]

Sorry to say guys, but I'm out for this Sunday. Forgot my wife is traveling starting Sunday morning early so we're all getting up to wish her off. Then I'm solo taking care of my boy for the week. Have fun and hope for another awesome video, or two. Good to know Shadowplay doesn't hurt the fps, been meaning to turn it back on, but this season's build is not as stable yet. Still getting a few stutters and frame drops and didn't want to chance making it worse.

...as far as the time slot, it's early for me for sure but works out too as we finish right when the fam wakes up. No time will be perfect but if it has to change that's cool too - the more the merrier. Maybe since this is for fun we should try different types of races, not sure what's available but we could try: spec/fixed-setup races (included content), reversed grids with double 20 min races, standing starts, night races are always fun, and maybe even team races with driver swaps just for fun/training if we choose to go into an endurance race sometime.

 

[Fritz Anker]

...oh and as an aside. FINALLY got some good races today. This week had brought my SR down to 1.5 or so. Did some TT just to bring some life back into it from all the pinball at the track. The 10A PST race was really loads of fun, good battles, some rubbing, nail biting pit stops and finished 9th. ...then squeezed in another at the 2P PST race and this one wasn't as exciting but I won it! Well... through attrition but a win is a win, right?

Very hot track so slippery everywhere, qualified 2nd - nail biter as I dropped a wheel first lap and spun so had to start my 2nd lap from the pits. Wasn't a good lap so surprised by the position. P1 was clearly faster and half way into the race he spread the gap out to 10 seconds but thought he got collected by back markers after pitting. Didn't see him and suddenly I get the call I'm in P1! Led the last half of the race, maintaining the gaps and trying my darndest to keep a cool head and NOT spin. Got the checkered flag, full parade lap, zero incidents. Feeling a little redeemed.