Rookies - Please Qualify

Dean Thomas · Jul 16, 2011

Hi guys,

I'm a Rookie, trying to get myself up to Class D (well on my way, 3.9 at the moment). However I've never been bothered to Qualify, i always took the attitude of 'why bother, i'll just work my way through the pack, it's more fun'. Whilst it is fun to work your way through the pack, you will get frustrated with not winning races. Even though, as a Rookie, it doesn't matter if you win or not, it's about clean racing. It's still frustrating.

I also though Qualifying was 30 minutes, and as they are always @ 35 past the hour, i didn't want to lose the chance of having a race. So i never bothered. Until tonight.

Wow, what a difference. Did a couple of laps, got myself a ~1:00.200. Not the fastest, I've been faster (1:00.016 PB) but still relatively quick. Now, i started the race first. Instantly took off and finished the race with a 42 second lead (Also, 0 inc).

I am by no means the best driver on iRacing, there were a few crashes from the guys behind me (not on me, thankfully) so that explains some of the time. But i was still consistently pulling out a gap.

The biggest problem i found with leading a race, is it's boring. Unless you have 2nd right up your chuff. My mind started to wander, how far ahead am i now? what's my best lap time? OH CRAP BRAKE.

So, please qualify, it'll make the experience more fun for you. And pay attention when leading a race!

Marko Buhin · Jul 16, 2011

But you have just said its boring to qualify as you start 1st and driving with almost a minute gap. that really is boring. My most interesting official race was in MC Grand Am on Limerock. Started from behind and made my way thru finishing 2nd with +0.2 behind winner. Now, that was something

with way fastest "fastest lap" and Q on 1st place that race would be boring for me. I raced cleanly. But, my problem is that my iRating is 2k, and i dont know if i fit in that group as qualifying to 1st and then driving alone... maybe i should do couple of races like that and work on my iRating

anyway, i know i'm not Rookie, but i've just wanted to bring what i have up

Dean Thomas · Jul 16, 2011

Absolutely! it is a bit dull leading, but it does help boost your confidence in your driving, as your now winning races. It's got me into the D Class very quickly. I'll definitely be qualifying for my future races now! Now i just need to tame the ford spec racer...

Yann Laprevotte · Jul 16, 2011

Dean Thomas said:
I also though Qualifying was 30 minutes, and as they are always @ 35 past the hour, i didn't want to lose the chance of having a race.

In fact all road course qualifying sessions are 20 minutes long, and never clash with races of the same series.

I totally agree with the rest of the post anyway. The same can be said for D+ races too(unless you lack of pace or experience on the combo).

And oh, it might not be a good idea to jump in the Ford straight away, it's a very scary and unforgiving car, not sure why they put it in rookies. I think you should rather try the Solstice or the Mustang(if you have it) instead.

Marko Buhin · Jul 16, 2011

well, about my iRating, i once had a race on Watkins with Riley and race was like 50 or so minutes. i started 4th or so, but quickly made my way thru to 1st. I started to build a gap and soon thought: "hmm, i'm going to have to go to pit. i'm 40 seconds in front and it might not gonna be enough as my opponents may not got to the pit, eventho i've calculated its not possible to do a full race on 1 tank of fuel". so what i did is i've went to pit and exited 20 seconds behind 1st. so i started pushing as beast as i could without considering on my heavy brakings which killed my engine (with hard downshifting) 5 or so laps before end and 2-3 seconds behind leader now (also did my PB in the race). and lap in which i've killed engine that guy who was leading pitted as he'd ran out of fuel... so, i've lost a race over thought that me being so much different (in this case faster) than others means that i'm doing something wrong. so i changed it and i actually did something wrong

now i know that my calculations are good and i should stick with the plan and i wont have problems

and about D class - i've done my D class with jetta. but that was long time ago. now i'd do it with mustang. so up to you maybe is easiest to go with GT and take mx5 (MC with jetta's). but its still MC, so incidents are possible... I've never tried skippy so i cant tell you about that car

Kevin Ascher · Jul 20, 2011

No qualifiers are a no go for me.
Especially higher ranked drivers that want to show the rookies how good they are, start from behind, want to pass the whole pack at once and cause plenty of incidents. Booo !
IMO you should not be allowed to race unless you qualified.

Saul Boucher · Jul 21, 2011

Don't forget about your iRating. If you find yourself winning races with huge gaps, well that's just not going to last very long. As your rating goes up, so will the level of competition iRacing pairs you with when gridding the servers. And the stiffer the competition gets, with tight consistent lap times, the more exciting the racing gets.

Also, you don't have to hang around the full duration of the qualifying session. You can just hop in, through down a hot lap, and leave.