When would you like to race?

[Péter Bártfai]

So, this thread is to find out what time interval suits the most people here for racing!

Edit: suggestions:
- Post your times in GMT.
- If you are in the DST zone, you can post separate time intervals for summer and winter

Here you can find a map with all the time zones:
http://www.worldtimezone.com/
UTC=GMT, if your country uses Daylight Saving Time (DST) in summer, you need to add 1 to your time-zone to get your time in summer.
F.e.:
CET is GMT+1 in winter, GMT+2 in summer
EST (winter) is GMT-5, EDT (summer) is GMT-4

Example (and my opinion):
I think EU events should take place between 18:00-20:00 GMT in summer, 19:00-21:00 GMT in winter.

Let's hear your opinions!

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Well, i vote NO for the CET, GMT is the same all year round. CET will just make everything complicated. For ex you say race 20:00 CET... What is it in EEST? In the winter? I bet you live in CET time zone..

This discussion pops up now and then. Once more, if you start the races after 20:00 GMT, Eastern Europian drivers will be affected. GMT 19:00 is 22:00 here, after the race time is close to 00:00. GMT 19:00 is the only option that'll work for all EU events. If we here in the east would have a say, we would like to start at 18:00GMT....

 

[Péter Bártfai]

Edit: I see now what you meant, I'm editing the top post.
BTW the 20:00 CET is exactly 18:00 GMT at the moment. 19:00 GMT in winter.

Edit: BTW I see now that your country uses DST so actually you can compare better to CET as your time is always CET+1. But I'll stay to GMT now, as this way those who are not in the DST zone can also see their time better, I've included a map to make it easier.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I think it should vary.. Race could even start at 17:00GMT all the way to 21:00GMT. But i think the driverbase is too narrow nowadays that now amount of shuffling or adjusting will not increase daily club race participations.. Maybe 4 or 5 events per week, that's one solution to dwindling numbers, decrease the amount of events and increase flexibility. Latter is something that is way easier said than done... My solution is bring the ranking back, give some extra motivation to Club Racing.. Maybe monthly minicups based on the day of the race (tuesday cup etc..) or give points to only from races that have at least 15 participants starting..

For EEST timezone i think the consensus is that no later than 19:00GMT during the week, 20:00GMT in the weekends could be possible.

It would be great to test this... First week every race starts at 17:00GMT and next week 18:00 etc.. See what timezone is the most active and favour that. I'm so used to race at 18:00 (simracingsuomi uses that time) or 19:00GMT (RD time) that i sometimes start the rig at 17:45GMT and realize i have no race scheduled that day.. I see no harm of doing a compromises 19:30 or something but the overall format can be tightened too so that it won't end too late. Skip official practices and start with ½h qualy..

 

[Chris Butcher]

The ranking system was removed to reduce the over-competitiveness. Plus it was very intensive to maintain.

A lot of people in the EU are still at work at 17:00 GMT remember.

 

[UMC 22]

I don't think start times should vary. It adds complication and you'll get people turning up too early or too late. Some people already have difficulty working out what GMT means in terms of their own timezone without the start times shifting from event to event.

GMT 19:00 is the only option that'll work for all EU events.

I agree with this. Any earlier and you make it almost impossible for those in Western Europe to take part, any later and it does the same for those in Eastern Europe. 19:00 GMT may not be 'perfect' for every RD member, but it is by far the best compromise.

 

[Aaron DeMarre]

03:00 GMT

I know this is late for the East Coast US peeps, but that's my ideal time.

 

[Ricoow]

18:00 GMT Practice, 18:30 Quali, 18:45 Race
And after DST changes I like the 19:00 GMT setting

 

[Marco Bijl]

For me its difficult to say. On weekdays, 18:00 practice is doable, but not prefered since I have to put my little girl in bed around that time.
If it starts 1 hour later, it also ends 1 hour later (duh ). That means that for a weekday, it's a bit to late, since my alarm goes after about 6 hours after finishing the race.

If I have to choose, I would choose 19:00 hours, and only race in the weekends. Limits the options in racing a bit, but at that time I am way more releaxed, which is better for my driving.

 

[Péter Bártfai]

What about the official practice starting at 18:30 GMT, and quali starting at 19:00? Or having no official practice at all?

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I'm in the favor of the latter, allthough the previous one is almost the same..I approve of increasing the qualy time and skipping the practice or move it to unofficial time.. It could be that practice2 is the unofficial practice and the official starts with qualy.

 

[Dennis Phelan]

If you mean that quali will begin at the time practice currently starts at, I'm in favor!

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

It would decrease the overall time and so would fit better to individul schedules. Good idea to divide practice to each of our own timetables and limit the qualy and race only to shared timeslots..

 

[Marco Bijl]

Would be nice indeed. Althoug, when winter time arrives again, it might be early again.
When overall time is decreased a bit, it might be even possible to race in the weekdays.

Now, a practice for me starts at 21:00 local time. That means the race is at 22:00, and with 80 minutes of racing, it's finished around 23:20. My alarm goes around 05:00 again, so thats a short night that way.


It's hard to find a schedule that fits for the most of us

 

[Ivan Boskovic]

I like S2000 sunday event at 9GMT

 

[Rupe Wilson]

I dont think you should just have Qually,
I dont want people entering the room when im trying to qually, and i know how much you guy like to type-chat.
I would like a longer qually time but still have the 20 mins practice, and a server going up a few hours in advance of the officail start, and also dont get rid of warm up but at presant its to short to drive so it can be used as a finaly check... leaving no excuses for people leaving fellow racer on the start for the full 2 mins while our tyres get cold, and when the race start (its blue flag if you try to overtake them). Or we get a funny connection with them, causing problems in the race...

After all this is supposed to be a fun event, lets build up a good group of racers, its a bit turn up race and go at the moment....mind u it doesnt help when RD dont even get the server up and running in time for the event...

 

[Marco Bijl]

Ok, good point Rupe.
And what if practice would be up a few hours before the race. Qually directly behind it, so when qualy starts, entry closes. Enough time to enter before, and to try stuff.

Personanly, I do not agree with the warmup thing. I think the practice is to be used for settings and stuff, and I do not drive during warm up. But like said, thats totally personal. I understand your statement though.

Indeed, it is supposed to be fun, and it is in my humble opinion. But for me, driving events on weekdays is just not a responsible thing to do, since my personal life (read work ) will suffer from it. So for me, scrapping official practice, but enlarging the unofficial practice, could be a sollution. Seems to me as if the start is just half an hour early, and official practice has a new name

 

[Dennis Phelan]

"Official" practice is not mandatory, it's just a time to be on the track with others, compare notes, lines, times etc. This time shoud be available though, as it is and not mandatory.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

At least 3 minutes of warmup is necessary... Toiletbreak before +40 minutes of gaming, right? And a cigarrettebreak for some. And soem time is necessary to allow maximum joining time available.. All thou qualy should be closed, that would speak for 10min superpole qualy then... It not easy, both have their pros and cons.

 

[Marco Bijl]

"Official" practice is not mandatory, it's just a time to be on the track with others, compare notes, lines, times etc. This time shoud be available though, as it is and not mandatory.

I agree. But I do not see a difference between the time before the official part starts, and the time the server is up before the official part starts.

I mean, if the server is up 1 or 2 days before the race, the half hour which is now called Official Practice, could also be scrapped. Difference is that you join during the long practice session instead of the official one. It's just a name in my opinion.

At least 3 minutes of warmup is necessary... Toiletbreak before +40 minutes of gaming, right? And a cigarrettebreak for some. And soem time is necessary to allow maximum joining time available.. All thou qualy should be closed, that would speak for 10min superpole qualy then... It not easy, both have their pros and cons.

Have to admit, I forgot about the little stops before the race . Hereby changed my view on Warmup. It's needed, but just not always used for driving