Overtaking

[Ian Gethin]

Looking for other people's advice / opinion...

I often find it frustrating that if I am racing a car of a similar speed I end up giving up the place, simply by not knowing where they are on the track.
I was wondering whether people are using the "look" left / right control, or some other means to keep an eye on that pesky other car.
I have buttons assigned on my gearstick console, but do not like loosing the wheel to use them, I have a Logitech G25, and use one button as push to talk, so the wheel buttons aren't really an option.

 

[Senad Subasic]

View left, right and back on my wheel buttons (G27). You can probably use sound cues as well.

I'd think view left and right are more important during a race than push to talk? You'd use view left and right in a tight spot, and you only talk when not executing difficult maneuvres, so easy enough to reach for a button on your shifter or something.

 

[Ian Gethin]

View left, right and back on my wheel buttons (G27). You can probably use sound cues as well.

I'd think view left and right are more important during a race than push to talk? You'd use view left and right in a tight spot, and you only talk when not executing difficult maneuvres, so easy enough to reach for a button on your shifter or something.

That is very true - I should just move my push to talk out to gear console...
Thanks

 

[James Fellows]

Some corners are basically non-overtaking place unless you have messed up and are off the racing line or are super slow so even if it looks like someone wants to stick their nose in, ignore them and they should back off.

For actual overtaking points there are a few scenarios. First is that the person is too far back so just take your normal line. Second is the person is close enough to overtake but you won't contest it so really you could do a quick look back to confirm they are going for it and then just leave them some room. If you are looking to fight it, use of the look right/left buttons helps, as well as general experience and knowledge of the track.

Really it is a case of not getting flustered. I like to move my car all over the shop if I can and pretend to go for a move but if we were to take the race we just did, there really is only three places where I would say you could overtake and they would be T2, T6 and T8 and even these rely on getting a good exit from the previous corners. The rest of the time you shouldn't need to worry.

 

[Dennis Phelan]

The virtual mirror actually works very well for the online races! It has a very wide field of view and can tell you quite a bit, but you have to look at it often to maintain a situational awareness. It does a much better job than any of the other car mirrors. Closing the door on an overtaking vehicle is also very acceptable practice, maintaining a good line and watching the virtual mirror to see when he's taking the opportunity to challenge, as you said, the problem comes with drivers of similar speed.

I had a driver, Eric Estes, that was so consistently matching my laptimes and positions that I spent an entire season sharing with him, bumpers. Either he would be trying to overtake me or me him and we learned a lot about driving close that year, it was a big help.

 

[Leon Charmant]

As for your wheel buttons, why not use the Voice Activation Detection setting instead of a push-to-talk button? Simply go into the sound/voice options and set the detection meter at such a level that the sound your wheel/pedals make don't get transmitted. Only if you would be talking directly into the microphone the sound would be loud enough to be transmitted. It helps me a great deal whilst racing as I don't have to worry about pressing any buttons. Then you'd have both buttons available for viewing left/right.

Personally I rarely look to the left or right of my car, except for when my rival is directly next to me. I only need to know whether we're not making any side-by-side contact, but aside from that I only use the backwards view option to judge where my rival is. Actually, looking left/right only distracts me and prompts me to make errors on track.

As for actually being overtaken, I tend to do everything I can to prevent being overtaken in a corner. I just don't feel that comfortable battling through corners as I'm constantly afraid I'd make contact with my rival. What I do is block my rival from getting the inside line into a corner and then let him overtake on the straight.
When I am the one having to overtake a rival I do use corners to my advantage. I really like to perform cross-moves behind a driver so that I get a better exit out of the last corner. Such a great feeling when you nail such a move

 

[Ian Gethin]

As for your wheel buttons, why not use the Voice Activation Detection setting instead of a push-to-talk button? Simply go into the sound/voice options and set the detection meter at such a level that the sound your wheel/pedals make don't get transmitted. Only if you would be talking directly into the microphone the sound would be loud enough to be transmitted. It helps me a great deal whilst racing as I don't have to worry about pressing any buttons. Then you'd have both buttons available for viewing left/right.

I had considered this option, but having heard a couple of people on teamspeak, where i can hear their engine note, and their gear changes all throughout the race... I didn't really want to get this wrong, and annoy the other drivers, with unwanted noise during the race, although I'm sure that with a sensible input level it can be set up correctly!

 

[Leon Charmant]

although I'm sure that with a sensible input level it can be set up correctly!

Go for it You can always test the setting in the sound options and see whether the noise your wheel makes exceeds the limit. Once set up correctly, it's the best option available. If you are still unsure you can always ask other people if they notice anything on your side.

 

[Ian Gethin]

Go for it You can always test the setting in the sound options and see whether the noise your wheel makes exceeds the limit. Once set up correctly, it's the best option available. If you are still unsure you can always ask other people if they notice anything on your side.

Yeah - thanks, definitely going to have a play with this.