SR Frustration

[Willie Watt]

I thought that getting in the higher splits, even in the rookie races would get some cleaner racing and help me push my SR up to 4.0 and in season promotion to "d" license. Not so. I;d had a couple of days away from home and racing which meant that I came back to a new track for both the legends (Lanier) and the street stock (Stafford, thank goodness as Sobo in the streetstock is undriveable). My SR was a 3.67 so it should be an easy jump two clean legends, 1 clean street stock and a full time trial should get me there. Not so.

Here's how it went.

> Legends Lanier (6x of which all were caused by unavoidable wrecks by drivers right in front of me letting cars drift around the track after the wreck) - Split 3 of 8 no SR hit but no gain either.

> Street Stock Stafford (6x caused by an idiot who managed to rack up 16x by the end of the first lap) - split 1 of 2 this was a goods split with a couple of 3000 Irated drivers in it but still a wreck fest).

> Legends Lanier (16x, ouch! all the same unavoidable drifting wrecks and drivers who seem to thing that they should get to use the whole of the track when passing) this was the killer -0.17.

> Time trial (0 incidents but 105laps but only 0.08 gain).

> Legends Lanier (i shoudl have gone to bed, 10x same old story -0.07)

I don't wan't to run just TT's as I'm here to race. I just wish that people would take a bit more care. Then again, no wonder their safety rating is so low. Perhaps Iracing should think about splitting by SR as well as Irating.

Hmm, I feel better now, hope that I have a better night! lol

 

[Danny Asbury]

I'm in the same boat. This SR is the most frustrating thing I've ever come across in sim-racing. I simply don't understand it. Once I did a TT with about 3 incidents and got .47 (my highest gain in any event). Then I do another TT the other day with absolutely no incidents and get .05. I don't understand this stuff. And then I do a race where I do so well to avoid people and only have 2x incidents. But I only get .12 points when there are guys who were in flatout wrecks that got .07 and other dudes that are getting .20 and even .60 for doing nothing...

I really want to go off and race with my C license, but iRacing keeps holding me back. Makes no sense how the SR works. If someone knows of any tricks to get the system to actually recognize your good driving, it would be appreciated. Like really, I saw a guy get .60 points who was at the back of the grid. But everytime I'm in the mid-field battling with other cars (not even hitting them) iRacing thinks the guy in the back by himself is the safer driver. Stupid.

 

[Marc Good]

What I've found to be the most important is to not care too much about the SR. It basically takes care of itself.

It's normal though to check the SR gains/losses after a race. Please keep following things in mind:

- For the SR it doesn't matter if you're at the front or at the back. It's all about the incidents per corner ratio.
- The SR calculation is based on a certain amount of recent laps you have driven. The amount of laps depends on your license level. But due to this approach you don't always get the same amount of points for a certain number of incidents per race and you can not directly compair it to other drivers. If further clarification is required I will gladly write some more about this topic.
- When you get above or drop below a 1.x 2.x 3.x or 4.x you get a 'threshold' of 0.4 afair. This is implemented to prevent the SR to vary all the time below or above a certain license level.
Example: Driver with road license C 3.95 is not allowed to drive the Lotus yet because it's a B license car. If he's awarded 0.6 SR points in a race he will barely be allowed to race it with now a C 4.01. If he'd then lose 0.2 again in the next TT or race he'd not be able to race the Lotus again. So that's why there is a threshold. Once you've passed for example 4.0 you will have it for a certain amount of races and you really have to get quite some incidents to lose it again.

Hope this reduces your frustration somewhat

 

[Philip Antonia]

I'm getting frustrated with the SR as well. It's silly things that annoy me most though as SR is obviously a good thing in many ways. Today I was racing the MX-5's at Laguna. Having a nice contact free battle for 3rd place. Had two minor off tracks (one wheel on the grass kinda thing) then going down into final turn on the 2nd to last lap I got a run on him. He took the inside line to cover me in the braking zone. He got in a little too deep allowing me to attempt a switch back on him. As I moved from right to left I must have quite literally rubbed some paint on his back bumper. No sound or feeling of contact and no movement from either car. Next thing I see is Contact X4 on the top of the screen!!!! Now if I'd driven into the back of him spinning him round and put him out of the race, then I would have got the same penalty!!! I highly doubt he even noticed me rub him either, so it's very frustrating at times and a little unfair:bad:.

 

[Danny Asbury]

I see, I see, I think I get what you're saying, Marc. Basically, my SR will increase exponentially if I can put together clean races and TT's consecutively?

 

[Marc Good]

I see, I see, I think I get what you're saying, Marc. Basically, my SR will increase exponentially if I can put together clean races and TT's consecutively?

It's not really exponential. Rather imagine a tube where at one end you push in a new lap and at the other end the oldest lap will drop out of it. Now if such a dropped lap was incident free and in your last lap you got 4 incident points this will decrease your safety rating.
If however the lap getting dropped had 12 incident points and you got the same 4 incident points you're average will increase so you're actually gaining SR points.

The information regarding how many laps are included in your SR rating based on license level can be found somewhere on iRacing, might have a look if you can find it.

After all it's an average and don't try looking at the SR like a highscore or something. It evens out over time and if most of the time you drive clean it will be fine.


..and regarding the fact that you get incidents points when it's someone else's fault: Think of SR points as money and you got similiarities to real world racing and it might ease your pain
Personally I like the system since I look at it this way and don't worry about it too much as long as I can race the cars I want to.

 

[Danny Asbury]

You're a wizard, Marc!!!! A wizard!!!! I will look up that license level thing when I get the chance. But that clears a lot of stuff up for me. And yes, I couldn't care less about SR, iRating, ttRating, or any of that jazz, but... I simply can't drive the cars I want to right now because I need it to be 4.00. Once that happens and I'm in the cars that are actually fun and challenging to drive, I won't bother with the SR anymore (not to say I will drive recklessly).

Anyhow, thanks a ton! I think I know how to approach the SR issue now.

 

[Marc Good]

lol, I've never been called a wizard before but I'm glad I could help

I clearly understand you're problem regarding the cars you can not drive yet. But just be patient and they will come to you..

(remember: when I joined we had to wait at least 12 weeks for each promotion. That made it somewhat easier to get the SR up for promotion - but you still had to wait quite a long time to get to the fastest cars )

 

[William Nowell]

All good info Marc, over time I have learned not to worry so much about my SR. It changes from week to week but ususally hovers within a certain range.

 

[Flavien Vidal]

I also only worry about it if I need a new license to get to race a new car... Otherwise, just forget about it

 

[Willie Watt]

That is my issue. I'd like to towards the trucks and nascars sooner rather than wait for three seasons. Hence my frustration with sensles loss caused by others.

 

[Lars Strijdonck]

If its mainly to get out of the rookie cars just start from pit in your rookie races make the laps as clean as you can and you can be at b/c/d at the end of season 1. You can also just time trial but that takes alot longer to get the needed SR.

Also what marc said if you promote because of a 4.0SR you promote to Next license with a SR of 2.5 i think and you wont loose that easlily.

 

[Onno Naber]

If its mainly to get out of the rookie cars just start from pit in your rookie races make the laps as clean as you can and you can be at b/c/d at the end of season 1. You can also just time trial but that takes alot longer to get the needed SR.

Also what marc said if you promote because of a 4.0SR you promote to Next license with a SR of 2.5 i think and you wont loose that easlily.

I did it the same way,work t for me