NASCAR Class B Season 3 Week 2 Car

Here is my week 2 car. We raced at Watkins Glen this week and I really enjoyed it. I had to run a few more races that I would have like due to some bad luck but I got some decent finishes in there. Just as in real racing this week seemed to have it's share of road course ringers. So far in week 2 I am 2nd in the division 3 point standing and pretty proud of that. Now to decide what paint scheme I will run for week 3 at Michigan.

NASCAR Class B Season 3 Week 1 Car

Apology

I think I owe the late model series an apology. Tonight I decided to try my luck again with the late model at Phoenix. What a great race it was. I lined up for the start in 4th place on the dreaded outside row. After the green flag dropped I settled in to P4 after some really early dive bombs by the 5th place car. I stayed in 4th about 3 or 4 tenths behind third for 40 laps. At about that time 2nd place started slowing down. I knew I had to make my move. I started letting the guy in 3rd know I was getting impatient by driving a lane lower on the straight away to signal an impending pass. I like to do this in the hopes that they will spend more time looking in their mirror and end up making a mistake. It works in a lot of cases. This guy was having none of it though, he just wouldn't make a move on 2nd place. A few laps later I did manage to get to the inside of 3rd and moved into 2nd place shortly after. The same lap I went into 2nd we went into turn 1 and the guy I just passed went into the corner with tour de force and I went high to avoid contact. To my displeasure as we were 2 wide coming out of turn 2 I see a lapped car going about 20 mph slower than us approaching my windshield very quickly. I had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him and in the process lost the 2 spots I had worked so hard for. With 3 laps to go I managed to get both of my spots back and got my revered 2nd place. I needed this race, my safety rating was falling like a rock. Now...I'm looking forward to my next late model race.

Frustrated

Tonight was my 2nd late model race in as many days and I'm starting to wonder why I went back. Last night I was taken out while in the lead by the 2nd place car and tonight I was caught up in a wreck with the leaders when I was in 3rd or 4th. At least last night I was able to finish 2nd, tonight the damage was too much to overcome. I should have realized when in practice you couldn't go a lap without someone wrecking that it was going to be a rough time. So maybe my oval comeback is short lived.... the Mustang at Road America is amazing.

New Setup

It is nice to have my new PC up and running with iRacing. It is a major improvement over what I was using. I went from getting 51 fps with most of the detail off to 84 fps with most of the detail on. My old PC was probably about 4 years old. It has been quite an adjustment getting used to a 32" screen with much more detail than my other 19" monitor. Hopefully the better PC and view will turn me into a better driver...... we'll see. I'm really excited that the late model is back in Phoenix this week. I haven't raced the late model in a long time but I think that is where I will focus my oval races over the coming days.

Update

I know, I know.....it's been a really long time since my last post. I've been inspired by the iracing today podcast to keep journaling my experience here.I've been doing pretty well for myself I'm at a road C 4.48 and an oval B 3.72 license. I've been doing more road racing as as of late trying to find a series I can stick with for a while. I think it will be the V8 Supercar series. I enjoy the handling characteristics of the car and also the tracks they race on. 


Well in my first post I said that my 3 year old took over my playseat but I recently took it back from him. I've also added a Logitech G27 and I have a new PC on it's way tomorrow that I will hook up to my 32" LCD and hope it looks OK. If not I can always go back to my 19" monitor.


In my next post I'll try to get some pics of my new setup.

Trucks!

The last promotion cycle I made it up to class C which allowed me to race in the truck series. So far I've run two races at Talladega it's been a blast. I will still be running late model races though, they are a blast.


-- Post From My iPhone

Not so fast!

Well I thought I was ready for the Ford spec class but now I'm not so sure. I can't remember how many seconds off the pace I was but it was enough to get lapped. So I have some work to do. I'm going back to the Solstice for now until I get more road experience.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

No Longer a Rookie!

A lot has happened since the last post. I have won both and oval race in the Legends car and a road race in the Solstice. In both road and oval I have gained enough points to advance to the "D" class. This is important as it allows me to race in a higher level. For now I am going to stick with road racing going into the Ford spec series. When I get tired of that I will run my late model. I'm having a lot of fun and think I am doing well so far!

Awesome Race

Had a great race tonight with Michael Hansen and Steve Sandlin. Finished a career best 2nd place, had my fastest lap ever at Lanier and increased my level to 3.53, up .10. This iRacing is fun!!!

Finally above 3.0

So after a few days away I finally got to race again last night at Lanier. I am happy to say that I had a solid race and I'm not at a 3.43 level. I am really looking forward to a 4.0 so I can move into the Late Model series, that will be a blast. I guess for now I may try some advanced Legends..... we'll see.

03/22/10 - Lanier Surprise

I signed on to the 8pm Legends Cup race tonight and I thought this was my chance to surpass the 3.0 mark and allowing me to choose another class. After a great qualifying run I chose the race session and I was ready to go. When I got loaded into the race I immediately realized that this was not South Boston, the track I had been running for the past few days and had just qualified so well on. It was Lanier Speedway. I had never run a lap on this track but here I was about to race. I ran as much of the warm up as I could and was ready to go. I was starting the race in 10th spot. My strategy was to not wreck and hopefully stay on the lead lap. After a few laps I was enjoying the width of the racing surface and just biding my time. One by one cars wrecked in front of me and I was thus far unscathed. I made my way all the way up to 5th position and I held it strong. With about 10 to go I realized 6th place was catching me. 5 laps to go and he caught me, I let him go, he made a mistake, I got past him again. We took the white flag nose to tail going into turn one. He drove in deep but didn't touch me as I guarded the bottom. Coming off the corner we caught a lapped car and I made a mistake and didn't give him enough room and my right front hit his right rear sending us both spinning down the back stretch. I finished the race 7th. Felt like an idiot. Lost points and am now down to a 2.88 ranking. Not to mention I probably made that lapped car pretty mad. Bad night.

Welcome to "From Rookie to Regular"

A few days ago I was browsing Facebook and came across from a posting from a friend of mine saying how addicted he was to iRacing. This friend of mine is a long time RC oval racer and race organizer so I thought if it was good enough for him, I needed to check it out. My roots in racing are deep. I have been a racing fan since my childhood years (I am 32 now). I will watch anything on 4 wheels except I don’t care much for drag racing. I have raced RC cars since I was in 6^th grade or so. I also already enjoy online racing, via the PS3 and GT5 Prologue, and EA Nascar 2009. I’m sure most of you have played these games, they are good but could be much more realistic. It’s also important to note that my son (who is 3) has completely taken over my PS3 setup and he’s not too happy when I’m racing and he is not. This kid has it good, PS3, 32” LCD, Playseats racing seat, Logitech wheel and pedal set. Me, I’m stuck on my PC with a 19” monitor , an old Logitech momo wheel and pedal set up, and a desk chair.

Downloading seemingly took forever….but it was worth the wait. Before I paid $100 for an annual subscription I decided to play it safe with a 1 month pass. I didn’t want to spend all that money to realize my older PC couldn’t handle the game. Once everything was installed I figured out that I needed to use the web interface to launch the application and I was up and running. My first laps were in a Legends at the Lowes Legends track. After some adjustments to my wheel and pedal setup I was turning some fun laps (note that I said fun, not fast J). I realized right away that my PC had plenty of power for the game, it was very smooth. After navigating the site a little bit I joined the rookie Legends Car league.

In a few days I have gone from being in the way to wanting people out of my way. Keep in mind, this is in the rookie league. I am at a 2.90 rating and looking forward to moving into either another rookie oval class or possibly advanced legends. Before I advance I would love to get into the 17 second bracket at South Boston in my rookie Legends car. I’ve come so close! I can run an 18.0 but I need one more tenth. I should be watching the replays of these laps when I see someone runs one. One thing I really like about iRacing is the realism. There is no pause, no do over, once the race starts it’s on. It reminds me a lot of RC racing. Staying out of trouble is of upmost importance. You can be the fastest guy on the track but if you can’t pass a lapped car without wrecking you are useless. In the last race I was in I started 6^th. I prefer to start on the inside row but what can you do? It was funny, while we were driving the pace laps the car on the outside of the front row and someone else crashed. On the pace lap! Unfortunately someone got paid back right after the green flag and a lot of innocent cars were collected including myself. That was frustrating.

The point of me creating this blog is just to capture the experience of a new iRacing driver. Hopefully other new racers will learn from some of my mistakes and others can follow my progress if they choose. Please feel free to leave a comment here or you can e-mail me at Nickolas.Ledford@gmail.com.