Hey guys, this is a quick summary of how things should go tonite for this race. It involves setting up prerace, racing, etiquette, and a few other reminders.
Practice:
Here you should be getting a handle on your car, whether it is wet or dry. Get comfortable racing around others, and get your awareness up.
You should also be practicing your pit stops. As with all Friday races we require a mandatory 2 tire stop each race. The practice will help you with pit entry, and prevent you from getting a stop and go because of speeding into pit lane.
Now as added excitement of the Friday races, we have chaging weather. With this in mind during practice you should set a few presets. Here are exmaples of mine:
1) Two dry front tires
2) All four dry tires
3) Two wet front Tires
4) All four wet tires
5) Full damage repair
Setting these presets will decrease your chances of having a problem when pitting.
Also it is beneficial to practice both with full race fuel, and with qualifying fuel. Running all your practice with 5-10 liters of fuel will not help when you put in your 30 litres for race time as it adds weight and changes the car.
Qualifying:
We run 15 minutes of Super pole which is an incdividual qualification. When you leave the pits you have 3 laps and they are as follows:
1) Outlap - Used to warm up tires. Also do not damage car this lap
2) Hotlap - Your one and ONLY lap to qualify with. It is sometimes better to relax a bit so you do not make a mistake and run off leaving you with a poor qualification and bad starting position
3) Inlap - A cool down lap which you run and enter the pits when finished , you can hit escape when done your hotlap, but it is more fun and real to finish the inlap and also gives you another chance to practice pitting in.
****WHEN YOU ENTER THE TRACK, ONCE YOU RETURN TO PITS, EITHER BY ESC OR DRIVING IN YOU CANNOT GO BACK ON TRACK****
Warmup:
Use this session to get comfortable with race fuel, and to once again practice you pit stops. At this point make sure you have all your presets set in place, and you are comfortable and ready to race. Also a good time to hit the bathroom!
Race:
Now the Friday events have such large fields, on track behaviour is critical. Because one aggresive move, doesnt just affect you and one car, but more like 5-10 cars. Remember this! Everyone is here to have fun just like the other, but think about how one move takes the fun out of it for another. We all like to do well, and make passes, but think of the big picture. Races are decent length, with changing weather, and with pit stops. Things happen and the race unfolds. Let it get there, use caution the first lap.
A few rules of thumb when around multiple cars.
1) Be aware of cars behind, and their position. Do not just think about the car in front. The car behind is just as important
2) When changing lanes to pass, or miss cars ran off, check before changing
3) If you are defending, and attempting to block. You can only make one lane change. There is no swerving to block
4) If a car has a run on you and you see him go inside, BE AWARE. You cannot just turn into a car that is fully beside you (and I mean nose to nose beside you). He is there, and you have to concede position. More then likely if you turn into him and he is there you are going off and your race is hindered
5) When entering pits do so in a safe manner that does not cause obstructions for others.
6) When re-entering the track from the pits, please do so in a safe manner. However remember that you ARE racing for position. Remain behind the line until it breaks, but do not pull a Schumacher and swerve into the lane of a full speed car. (this ends in sorrow)
7) When you are receiving the blue flag, do not panic. Have a look behind and see how close, and plan for a safe spot to allow them by. You do not need to jam your brakes on. Simply back off the throttle off the race line and they will find their way as they are at full pace.
That is all I can think of for now, but I wanted to share this with everyone as we have started having alot of new players join us. I know this is just a refresher for some, but also at the top is a bit of strategy that I use prerace.
I suggest to everyone that races on fridays to use teamspeak, even if you dont have a Mic. It is beneficial, because if someone runs off they announce it, and it gives early warning. Even if you leave it on but on quiet.
Also everyone prerace please remember to download the Most recent skinpack.
Thanks to all the new guys for trying out racing with us, and to all the regulars who race week in week out. I see big things coming for these friday nights and its all because of you guys.
Hope this Summary helps out, I will repost is for each event.
Keith Barrick
