Terrible iracing drivers

[Josh Barton]

The one thing Ive noticed in my week and a half with iracing is that there are some bad mannered drivers who seem to be on there getting away with a terrible driving style. Now at first I thought it was confined to the rookie series, with inexperienced drivers coming to grips to the fact they are no longer playing need for speed, but having since fast tracking my way to a C liscense ive noticed that these drivers keep appearing. Just that the ones with higher licenses know that in order for you to protect your precious saftety rating they can block, brake check, weave and divebomb you because they rely on you to get out of their way (even if you are much faster).

Just in a race I did moments ago, a guy was doing all these things. Eventually I got sick of him as he tried to run me off the start straight as I tried to pass him (if he let me, I would have had him passed well before turn one) so I held my line, he turned in and was speared off. Cue torrent of abuse from him but was I justified? Or have I become one of them?

Also, any tips on avoiding these drivers? Will they eventually dissapear by the time I get to A level?

 

[Patrick Moore]

The one thing Ive noticed in my week and a half with iracing is that there are some bad mannered drivers who seem to be on there getting away with a terrible driving style. Now at first I thought it was confined to the rookie series, with inexperienced drivers coming to grips to the fact they are no longer playing need for speed, but having since fast tracking my way to a C liscense ive noticed that these drivers keep appearing. Just that the ones with higher licenses know that in order for you to protect your precious saftety rating they can block, brake check, weave and divebomb you because they rely on you to get out of their way (even if you are much faster).

Just in a race I did moments ago, a guy was doing all these things. Eventually I got sick of him as he tried to run me off the start straight as I tried to pass him (if he let me, I would have had him passed well before turn one) so I held my line, he turned in and was speared off. Cue torrent of abuse from him but was I justified? Or have I become one of them?

Also, any tips on avoiding these drivers? Will they eventually dissapear by the time I get to A level?

I feel your pain.

I tag a 'terrible iracing pilot' if I see them do the same bad behaviour in multiple races. We all have bad races from time to time but to repeatedly do things as you mention above in several races is disgusting!

I do a few things if I encounter a terrible iracing pilot:
Protest (if they did anything that can be protested during the race to myself or other pilots)
Put the pilot on my 'studied' list
Insert the "warning skins" that I found at the iracing forum (these are highly visible skins that will show up as the skin of the terrible pilot).
Avoid the terrible pilot during the race even if it means staying several seconds behind and not gaining any positions.

good luck!

 

[Josh Barton]

I feel your pain.

I tag a 'terrible iracing pilot' if I see them do the same bad behaviour in multiple races. We all have bad races from time to time but to repeatedly do things as you mention above in several races is disgusting!

I do a few things if I encounter a terrible iracing pilot:
Protest (if they did anything that can be protested during the race to myself or other pilots)
Put the pilot on my 'studied' list
Insert the "warning skins" that I found at the iracing forum (these are highly visible skins that will show up as the skin of the terrible pilot).
Avoid the terrible pilot during the race even if it means staying several seconds behind and not gaining any positions.

good luck!

Those are good tips, ones I would not have thought of

Its not so bad now, Im one race away from A levels in both types of racing and at the moment Im doing the trucks, and I havent had one crash in all the 8 or so races Ive done, so its much better. Ive also moved up a split as well (ie my irating has gone up a bit), so the drivers are much cleaner.

 

[Greg Carr]

Here's my race from last night, I am in the yellow Corvette. The same HPD driver wrecks me twice and then wrecks the GT leader on the last lap as well as a fellow HPD.

Needless to say the protest process has begun, I love the Corvette and it stinks that I have to race it against the HPD which leads to crap like this

 

[Dario Jagar]

this HPD driver was drunk or crazy, maybe even both

 

[Josh Barton]

Thats possibly the most rediculous **** ever Greg, that guy was mental, and makes you wonder how he got out of the rookies!

I dont think protesting does anything though, I protested a guy who brake checked me than waited on the side of the course to ram me, but nothing happened. The clown still races. But his SR was down in the 1's and I think recently he just gave up lol.

Now Im an A in both types I think I may be more agressive, but up until a point. Not like that jerk in the video lol

 

[Greg Carr]

Well the protest was a waste, oh well. I am hearing of some changes to the MC racing for the next season hopefully it should help get these bad drivers to race a standalone HPD series so crap like this will be less frequent.

 

[Søren Holm Pedersen]

Man, oh man, do I feel your pain.

I've had my share of experiences with bad drivers, man. Only problem is, it kept me from getting further from the rookie series. So still to this day after at least a month of combined active competing, I have trouble with guys driving like there is no tomorrow.

I can respect people who drive aggressively to an extent. As in aggressively without being at the cost of throwing someone off the track. Incidents happen, so those are counted in too, but every single race I've driven, I have either been nudged off track, smacked off (and thus hit barriers, ruining my race entirely) or been denied an overtake because a guy couldn't handle the fact that I came out of a corner faster than him. I gave up on shouting at them over voicechat, but I did complain about it several times. Never did go and report them though, which, in retrospect, would probably have saved me and others a lot of trouble, as many of the names came back again and again. Sorry for that, for what its worth

Either way, I've put my iRacing a bit on hold until some further measures are taken to put the reckless drivers off the track.
It's probably been mentioned several times in iRacings own community forums, but, adding the consequence of having to drive at least 45 minutes worth of practice laps on at least 2 tracks, if they dump to a certain amount of safety rating, would really not be that far fetched an idea.

Either way, props to everyone handing out advice! Especially the one advice about avoiding the racers even if it means not winning the race, is something I've done, and has indeed worked. Unfortunately though, this led to me looking as others passed me and got to the reckless driver, that they ultimately got crashed into, which then led to me feeling quite a bit sorry for them :/

 

[Yoeri Gijsen]

A lot of the bad drivers have their lack of sense or skill amplified when driving in the Prototype and GT Challenge. They get to meet more traffic and if they can't handle it they'll cause accidents. Sorry to see you be the victim of that, Greg.

I had a race like that too yesterday. No less than three HPD slammed straight into my back and a Corvette tried to gain some 50 yards on me under braking. Quite a realistic idea.

 

[Josh Barton]

I like iracing, I actually think that the SR does have some merit. However, its hard in the rookies to get your way out. However, as a whole, people do behave themselves, its just that minority who dont that can sometimes ruin the experience for everyone. I think if the protest system was better this could be erradicated. I dont want people being banned because they had a poor race or an off moment, but those who consistantly cannot handle the cars or their emotions could be for instance dropped a level. This could help.

Though having come from Race 07 open servers, its still a hell of a lot better than that.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Protesting to really bad drivers does that help? Or isnt iRacing penalizing anybody anymore nowadays?

 

[Yoeri Gijsen]

Protesting to really bad drivers does that help? Or isnt iRacing penalizing anybody anymore nowadays?

iRacing only penalises people that deliberately wreck other drivers. People may get a warning for bad language as well. Poor driving is supposedly fixed the rating systems. They might help a little, but they're no solution to the problem.

iRacing does encourage protesting drivers as they do keep records of every protest ever made against any person, so they do have an overview on who gets protested the most. That information however sits behind a lock and seemingly sits their idly.

 

[Josh Barton]

iRacing only penalises people that deliberately wreck other drivers. People may get a warning for bad language as well. Poor driving is supposedly fixed the rating systems. They might help a little, but they're no solution to the problem.

iRacing does encourage protesting drivers as they do keep records of every protest ever made against any person, so they do have an overview on who gets protested the most. That information however sits behind a lock and seemingly sits their idly.

I honestly think that every day they get bombarded by protests that are trivial in nature (such as a geniune driving mistake) that it clogs the system, and the real idiots are getting away with it. Ive seen someone protest another guy in my race because he locked his brakes and turned the other guy around, hardly stuff the moderators will take seriously. There needs to be a better system, but I honestly cant think of one.

 

[Greg Carr]

A lot of the bad drivers have their lack of sense or skill amplified when driving in the Prototype and GT Challenge. They get to meet more traffic and if they can't handle it they'll cause accidents.

I couldn't agree more with you Yoeri. I think in a typical one make race you could easily finish the race on the lead lap if you are a mid to bottom of the pack racer by just staying on track. So with that being said you might only make two or three real passes (not the passes when someone spins out) for position if you are one of these drivers. When you race multi class racing you have to make at least 10 or more passes when you lap the slower classes. So that's more of a chance to make a mistake. Also driving the slower class isn't easy just because the cars are slower. IMO the HPD is pretty easy to drive comparied to what it races against. The Corvette and FGT take all your concentration to keep the car on track when you are navigating a corner. Once the HPDs catch you, you have to watch the mirrors and the F3 screen like a hawk. If a HPD is 10 seconds behind that could be one corner and then they are on top of you. In a single make race you could go laps before that same gap is closed up.

So i thought i would share my typical MC race, in the corvette.

(start)Push Push Push... crap I am losing time/or crap I am in the lead don't blow it!.........crap lead HPD is behind me..hey he made a smart pass...second HPD goes by, hey these guys know what do maybe it will be uneventful...third.....forth.....fifth.....sixth all go by, Holy crap seventh holy crap holy crap holy crap.... Phew all the HPDs are past..... ok 5 laps left, now I can start racing again..........race over.

 

[Jan Roman]

Heh, it reminds me of those time about half a year ago when I started to drive iRacing (and ľll be back in a couple of days, run you fools :eek: ), I was getting mad so much about it. I was racing in the Thrustmaster Mustang Challenge series, and it was a great fun. I am a very careful driver and I have never really cared about being fast. I've always focused on finishing with the lowest incident rating possible and even though I've never managed podium, I was completely happy, because usually I didn't make more than 3 or 4 incidents per race (off-roads mostly). I believe 80% of drivers should take this attitude and we would always have a great time.

I really had to be patient a lot. I got hit once per two races and ended up in pits after a tow. The biggest problem bad drivers have nowadays are judging the braking points properly. You know, the usual scenario, a few times even twice or three times per race - getting hit in the boot because of misjudged braking point. You usually end up spinning into a barrier. A very clear example - The Bus Stop turn at Spa-Francorchamps (the chicane before the finish line), very hard braking. Since I usually stick to more conservative braking points (considering "slow in, fast out" and safety) and I got hit in the back so many times that I stopped counting it.

I would say that the fast track system is the cause. Even a driver who has never driven a race may enter a lower split of A class racing, and I would say that's a bit odd. I am a good exapmle as well. A spent a HUGE amount of time on practice so that I could enjoy one or two races during the weekend. Again, I'm not very experienced so I'm not quick at all, but the time spent on practice ensured that I was driving safely during weekend races) and I managed to climb from Rookie to C class in just about a month. I know that Rookie to A class is possible in a very short time and I don't think it's a good idea to have a driver driving the Vette or even HPD even though he can barely survive a whole MX-5 race. This is clearly wrong.

 

[Josh Barton]

The road courses arent as bad with the idiots as often theres enough room so that when they do something stupid you are either on a different part of track or you can give them space.

I find ovals really bad though, especially the smaller ovals. One guy will try to divebomb another, tap him around, and then its a lottery with the rest of the pack coming through the carnage. Its litterally luck making it through those, and that really annoys me when its started by someone doing something stupid.

 

[Ivan Mills]

does anyone know what can be done to reprimend one of those terrible iracing drvers? I mean i ve been working hard on my SR for the last 3days..at first i didnt care and just submerged into the racing and battle of it all,but now things are starting to settle down and i want to go up....but its hard when u have incompetence right across the field...ive been punted ,hit and wrecked out of some Sounth American peoples way...and to booth..they do name calling as well..no surprise on either front tho.....any advice on what is a proper way to file a complaint?

 

[Jan Roman]

Simply protest him. There are official iRacing documents providin information about this, simply look at the members site, it's tehere somewhere. But keep in mind that nothing will happen if the wreck wasn't completely intentional. And even so, I heard that not many players get actually punished.

 

[Eric Estes]

For all of these reasons, I spent the better part of a year doing nothing but hosted races. Fortunately there are enough private leagues now that there is almost always something available in a more 'controlled' environment. Only recently have I ventured back into 'open' iRacing - mainly due to finding the Lotus Classic Team Championship which uses official races for its scoring. The smaller community that runs that car is a little bit more 'self-policed' then the free-for all that is rookie series. The Radical, I believe, has a similar community feel to it.
For a well populated series, I haven't had any issues when racing Star Mazda recently either, but that's only a couple of races when I needed a quick-fix and maybe I got lucky.
What I read above that I am intrigued by is the 'warning skins'. I do have one or two drivers even in the friendlier series' I'd like to tag with those ...

 

[Patrick Moore]

iRacing only penalises people that deliberately wreck other drivers. People may get a warning for bad language as well. Poor driving is supposedly fixed the rating systems. They might help a little, but they're no solution to the problem.

iRacing does encourage protesting drivers as they do keep records of every protest ever made against any person, so they do have an overview on who gets protested the most. That information however sits behind a lock and seemingly sits their idly.

I honestly think that every day they get bombarded by protests that are trivial in nature (such as a geniune driving mistake) that it clogs the system, and the real idiots are getting away with it. Ive seen someone protest another guy in my race because he locked his brakes and turned the other guy around, hardly stuff the moderators will take seriously. There needs to be a better system, but I honestly cant think of one.

There was an commentary article in the recent autosimsport where the author addresses the issue of iRacing limiting punishments to "intent." iiutac, the guy opines that iRacing should also punish 'stupid' moves and not only where there was clear intent. I believe he defines a stupid move such as a blatant disregard for physics such as the the pilot who attempts a pass from 50 yards back at the last moment and takes out the other car or the other car and his own car since he has no chance to make the corner. Yeah, the guy may had not intention of taking the other car out, but he was being stupid and should also receive a penalty.

The idea sounds reasonable, but I think the workload for Nim would increase dramatically!

 

[Jan Roman]

Yes, but I think if they hired one more person to do all this, the quality of races might improve drastically.