For my second chance at starting a dirt oval career, I decided to start with the basics and learn the correct way to drive — and race — on dirt tracks in the street stock car. My education began decidedly off-track, watching videos ranging from onboard camera angles to driving tutorials to tips from real-world Read more about The Dirt on Dirt, Part 1: Breaking Bad (Habits)[…]
It’s like the Mona Lisa’s eyes of iRacing. From the time you advance out of the rookie class, it seems to follow you wherever you go. Is that a judgmental stare or an approving smile? It all depends on how you think about your iRating. Because of its ominpresence, iRating has become something of a Read more about A Nuanced Number[…]
With half of my Summer Road Trip behind me, I finally left the friendly confines of a GT cockpit for a collection of open-wheeled and prototype cars in which I have much less experience. The first car on my list — the Skip Barber Formula 2000 — is one that I should theoretically be familiar Read more about Summer Road Trip, Week 7: Back to Fundamentals[…]
The numbers don’t lie. Among iRacing’s GT cars, the GT3s are the kings of participation. Last season, nearly 1400 drivers per week raced in the Blancpain Sprint Series, the officially sanctioned virtual version of the real-world GT3 championship. Even outside of that headliner series, the GT3 participation dwarfs that of many other series. The GT3 Read more about Summer Road Trip, Week 6: A Turnaround in 24[…]
If you ever listen to team communications during a race, you’re likely to hear one thing no matter which driver you tune to: “this car is driving awful!” Few things on the track draw more ire from drivers than a bad-handling car, and rightfully so. A successful setup can help make the most of out Read more about Driving Styles, Part 3: Setup for Success[…]
With all due respect to the many safety improvements that have been made, the biggest change to race cars over the past 50 years is surely the addition of wings, spoilers, splitters, and other devices that harness downforce and help the cars go through corners faster. By the 1960s, as racing tires became capable of Read more about Driving Styles, Part 2: The Lowdown on Downforce[…]
Watch most any sport and you’re likely to notice individual differences from player to player, whether it’s how they grip the bat, swing the club, or throw the ball. These differences exist in racing, too, although they’re often much harder to see with the drivers nestled within their cockpits, hidden by rollbars, custom-fitted seats, and Read more about Driving Styles, Part 1: The Ins and Outs of Inputs[…]
Every driver goes through ups and downs during a racing season, but occasionally, the down times can feel inescapable. After going through such a period in the past month, I had to figure out how to reverse my fortunes and dump the slump. It started in the Power Series race at Kentucky. I struggled to come Read more about How to Dump a Slump[…]
I’ll start this post with a confession: I usually hate running races where drafting, above driver skill, is a major factor. It’s stressful. It’s frustrating. And in general, it favors the bold driver over the conservative one, which I consider myself. For those reasons, I tend to avoid running at draft-heavy tracks if I can Read more about The Art of War and Drafting[…]