Xmas week was a bit busy so I didn't write a post, my iRacing time was a bit limited so I did as much racing in the time available that I could. But, things went reasonably well considering how little time I spent on Practicing.
In the Skippy, we raced at Oran Park the week before Xmas. Oran Park is a track in Australia which is now closed but was much loved in Australia It's very tricky - lots of elevation changes and fast sweeping corners and as bumpy as hell. I did reasonably well - 12 races, 1 win, 8 top 5 finishes but never really got into the right races to score big in the championship (more about this later). But, overall not bad at all.
My best drive of the week was probably in the Star Mazda at Spa. I'd hardly practiced at all but managed to get a 5th place in one race.
On the ovals, I had my 1st experience of superspeedway racing. It's crazy - to to able to stay with the pack, you have to team up with another person and basically push each other around the track as a tandem. Fun but scary! My best oval race was a 3rd place in the Late Model class.
For Xmas week (week 9 of the 12 week championship season) we had Laguna Seca for the Skippy. I like Laguna and it suits my style. The 1st few races were disasters - I twice jumped the start (my wheel was playing up and I eventually had to re-install and recalibrate it) and then I spun from a good position in one race. But, then things picked up and I had a few really good results, culminating in a brilliant result where I finished 2nd in the race where some of the very top guys were competing. The results sheet is below and that gives me a chance to explain some of the mechanics of iRacing.
The car number is iRacing is significant - it basically shows the drivers relative overall ranking, so the best driver is No 1 etc. The next few columns are standard race result information. The Inc column shows how many incidents you had during the race (running off-track, losing control, making contact with another car etc). I had 1 - I think I ran slightly wide on 1 corner. The championship points scored in each race change depending on how strong the field is - this race was extremely strong so the points are high - the 127 I scored is my best ever score. The Div column shows what division each driver is in (this is determined by your rating at the beginning of the season) so I was racing against people in way higher divisions than me. The iRating shows the current rating and the change caused by the race and the licence column shows what licence class each driver is and how your safety rating is changed by the race.
The race was interesting. At first, it seemed pretty straightforward - after a couple of laps I was running 5th and slowly losing ground to 4th place (and rapidly losing to the top 3) but pulling away from 6th. It basically stayed the same until lap 10 when the guy in 4th place (Car 8 who finished 3rd) spun and I passed him. I'd be cruising until then but of course I had to push hard after that to stop him from catching me - my last 5 laps were all within .2 of my fastest lap). On lap 11 the race exploded - 2nd & 3rd touched each other and the 2nd placed car had to pit and then the leader blew up his engine so suddenly I was 2nd but being caught by the 3rd placed car. I managed to hold on but was sweating for the last few laps!
Another fun part of the last couple of weeks has been the release of the new McLaren MP4-12C GT car. It's really good fun to drive and the sound is AWESOME. I need more practice with it though - it's very difficult to set-up and I'm not particularly competitive with it - yet...
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