iRacing Season 3 Mazda - Brands Hatch (GP) - May 18

[Kerr]

I prefer the leader controls method.

That way everybody should react to the car ahead and with reaction times little gaps should appear.

When 20+ cars react to green it means everybody will be going at the very same time and reactions would often mean cars overlapping on the way to T1 with a tightly bunched field.

Leader controls is the safest method in my opionion.

[JohnBayes]

Yeah that sounds good to me.

Yeah James sorry about that was sure I was going to hit you, but so was relieved when I didnt!

[Blunder]

I think I'm right in saying the leader does not have to floor it on Green!
but I guess that causes more problems than it solves!

Congrats to Oily!... being in Team Prodigy it made it very difficult....
It was like cheering on Michael Schumacher because you didn't want the forever whinging Mark Webber to win!

Ahum..... err... I got a little bashed ... ahum... apology accepted! 

Fantastic car / track combination, even getting knocked out didn't upset me too much as I had really enjoyed practicing but I must admit, the thought of a small reset for my minor damage would have meant me enjoying the race til the end! 

Look forward to the next one!

[mr_oily]

Thanks Oldies, rest assured I'd be saying exactly the same lol 

It was probably so loud due to the fact that i was glued to your wing at the time .   Dont feel to guilty about using my set ( Im sure you dont really)  ,  Always share my set ups ..Just a shame you had to get hold of it.  

Did you make any changes to it??

Hahaha, I should probably have been even more worried in which case - thought I still had some car lengths to spare coming into the hairpin but sounds like it was a bit closer than I realised!

Nah I won't deny it was some welcome relief that you weren't harrassing me but never nice when it's something terminal - would much rather it was just a wheel that had snapped off, you know, something minor . What happened anyway, is it just you raping these things or was it an accidental double downshift?

Only changes I made were a couple of extra clicks of rear wing and the oval gear ratio...seemed to give me some nice drive in places. It's funny with the last build I could barely drive your setup and mine felt sweet, this time it was completely reversed although it did feel like it might pirouette on me at Surtees at any moment if I dared to trail the brakes!

[popabawa]

I think I'm right in saying the leader does not have to floor it on Green!

No, the leader doesn't have to floor it on green, he effectively has the time from the green flag being shown to crossing the start/finish line to start accelerating. If he waits until after the s/f line then he could get overtaken, until then, the #2 car will get black flagged for overtaking.

I would *much* rather let iRacing police the starts than get into arguments over whether starts were legal or not, in that respect James did an excellent job last night

There's two sides to this. One is that in the true spirit of racing (not iRacing) rules, you should wait until the green flag is shown, the second is that practically it's easier to police and very possibly safer if we let the lead car choose when to go once the safety car is off track. I think the second option is preferable.

[Adam Parle]

There's two sides to this. One is that in the true spirit of racing (not iRacing) rules, you should wait until the green flag is shown, the second is that practically it's easier to police and very possibly safer if we let the lead car choose when to go once the safety car is off track. I think the second option is preferable.

The proof is in the lack of incidents from lap 1 - I'm more than happy to have a repeat of the clean start from last night.

[Simmo]

Brian hits the nail on the head.  I've done hundreds of real life rolling starts (in karting).  In those the pole man controls the pace and his only responsibility is to keep it "steady and even", i.e. don't keep accelerating and then braking etc as you approach the line.  The starts are always cleaner when the pole man goes early and increases the pace coming out of the last corner.  If you bunch the pack up on the start/finish straight there is always a pile up at turn 1.

[purdie]

Fun race but didn't get to the flag (what does it look like again?)

Very sorry for the tap Simmo.... I am not too sure what I was trying to do, even after looking at the replay 

....we were having a good race! Felt like F1 the way it is hard to get up close behind a car 

New build is much more to my suiting, I think the tyre model doesn't have that odd mid-corner speed dead zone... which is usually where this car oversteers 

Grats Oily !! 

[Simmo]

No worries, no harm done, I didn't actually lose a place. 

[Paul Thurston]

I was just rubbish.  I had no pace and couldn't keep it on the track.  I really need to put some more time into the Mazda before I race it again.

I actually thought the pace lap start was excellent.  I was deeply sceptical but am now a convert.

Paul

[ross.mcw]

I was just rubbish.  I had no pace and couldn't keep it on the track.  I really need to put some more time into the Mazda before I race it again.

I actually thought the pace lap start was excellent.  I was deeply sceptical but am now a convert.

Paul

Apologies for hassling you to the point you fell off despite me being way out of contention Paul.  I probably shouldn't have bothered even restarting after resetting my router, but figured after all the practice I may as well (and I did actually enjoy chasing you and Adam)

Any pointers on what's the appropriate thing to do in that situation, ie. laps down for whatever reason, but quick enough to unlap yourself from slower cars...but possibly at the risk of causing them difficulties when attempting to pass.

I wasn't entirely sure if me trying to catch and pass Paul and Adam (and others if I'd not fallen off myself) was really the right thing to be doing in the circumstances.

Cheers, Ross.

[Paul Thurston]

Apologies for hassling you to the point you fell off despite me being way out of contention Paul.  I probably shouldn't have bothered even restarting after resetting my router, but figured after all the practice I may as well (and I did actually enjoy chasing you and Adam)

I was wondering why you were a lap down.

Don't beat yourself up mate, I went off entirely on my own.  The fact you were behind me had no bearing whatsoever.

[Paul Richards]

There are a few issues with the leader starting well before the green. Firstly is that the person starting in second (and generally alongside) has a distinct disadvantage compared to the person in third. Unless the person in second has triple screen or a really wide FOV the leader will almost certainly be out of direct sight when he goes. The person in third is usually then well away as well before the second place car even sees the leader shoot off. Even the person in 4th will have a better view and likely get the jump on 2nd.

One thing the second place person can do is look to the side to keep the leader in view. This normally leads to a bit of a ragged driving direction trying to judge their direction while looking sideways. The only other thing is to hang back to keep the leader in a frontal view but then almost certainly third will be well up the inside into T1. When I am on pole I always go on green mainly through fear of getting a penalty by the system. Brian for example always goes as soon as the pace car pulls in or whenever he feels like it (as he is allowed). What we need to do is establish the same method for all. We cant have some going sometimes and others at something different it just adds to confusion and possible problems IMO. In this case it was noted that the field towards the back didn't even have a chance to form up properly, that cant be right. Thinking what would happen at Laguna here with the pit entrance before the final corner. No doubt the leader would trundle round it then floor it as soon as on the straight, this would be a big disadvantage to all behind.

If it was my choice to make I would say that for our league the leader goes on green. Reasons for this, everyone sees it at the same time, nobody has to be looking at out of the side view, the field will have plenty of time to form up, but mainly its predictable. In the GTR2 league it was set in stone. Leader turns off pit limiter on the start/finish line everyone else goes after the car in front goes. In iRacing we are side by side so its more hazardous. So with that in mind I dont see why we use any sort of judgemental starting procedure on when to floor it and when not to.

All in all though I wasn't able to race and I think it was clean into T1 so who am I to judge  . I may also be biased of course. I was in second place at Brands in the IndyCar last season. Was toggling looking sideways at the start to Brian on pole. While looking forward to check I was driving straight off he went. By the time I floored it 3rd was past and 4th come behind me up the inside into T1. So if the rule is the pole man goes when he likes then thats fine by me as long as we all do that and hope I am never second on the grid and be further back

[Simmo]

Question:  I'm planning on doing my first public Mazda race this week.  Are they rolling or standing starts?  If they are standing starts what's the best way to get away?  Same as the Skippy?

[ross.mcw]

Standing starts.  For me personally, I just select 1st with no throttle on red and then floor it when it goes green.  Picks up super quick and always seems to be as quick as everyone else, but is 100% consistent.

Cheers, Ross.