iRacing ChampCar events 2020

[MostMint]

ChampCar has an iRacing series and the next event is Wed 4/29.

The entire schedule and race by race threads are here: https://forum.champcar.org/forum/72-cha ... ng-league/

Watch the event live on the HughJass YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChX-pK ... PcA/videos

I don't yet know what I need to do to register for these events so hopefully I can figure that out in time. Below are specifics about the event from the iRacing league event:

Session name: ChampCar iRacing Series
Private: No
Server: US-Bos
License level: Class D (2.0) to Pro/WC (4.0)
Leagues: ChampCar iRacing Series
Team Driving: Disabled
Track: Charlotte Motor Speedway
Configuration: Roval
Time Of Day: 2020-04-29 13:00 2x
Car Class: Hosted All Cars Class
Car: Pontiac Solstice
Max Fuel Fill %: 100
Weight Penalty KG: 0
Weight Penalty LBS: 0
Power Adjust %: undefined
Fixed Setup: Yes
Paint Cars: Yes
Maximum racers: 60
Dynamic Sky: Yes
Weather: Realistic
Tournament: No
Heat race: No
Practice length: 120 minutes
Qualifier length: 60 minutes
Race length: 60 minutes
Starting type: Rolling start
Num fast repairs: 1
Cautions: Admin only
Count caution laps: Yes
Lucky dog: Off
Wave arounds: Yes
Restart type: Double File, Lapped cars to the back
Consec. caut. single: No
Green/White/Check: Disabled
Hardcore level: Disallow all driving aids (but clutch assist OK)
Car damage: On
Restrict results: No
Warn incident limit: No limit
DQ incident limit: No limit
Qual scrutiny: Off
Auto-Clean Marbles: No
Practice: Automatically Generated
Qualify: Clean (0%)
Race: Carried over

[Fred32v]

Started 57th of 60 cars, finished 37th.

Number 50 in Teal

It was fun to watch live on youtube.

[Fred32v]

ChampCar has an iRacing series and raced Wednesday 04/29/2020.
It was 6th in their series but the 1st for MostMint #50.
The YouTube is 1 hour and 33 minutes long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT0Vpohn8BA
There are only a very few high lights for #50. he started 57th, at 55:38 he was 24th.
Eventually he finished 37th overall. At 55:14 they talked about #50's driver.
During the actual race I was only able to catch one picture,
but going through the YouTube I was able to pull off over 23 photos,
notice his position in 1st picture, here are seven.

First appearance

Leaning in

Sides rubbed up

3 wide

Charlotte Wall

Traffic

Accident behind #50

It was fun to watch live, but only because #50 was in the race.
I also enjoyed the YouTube replay which gave me more control.
If you missed the race, I’d recommend watching the replay.
Note the times on the bottom of the photos.
Except for the real time Live excitement, the replay is easier to watch.
In the end it is so much better than nothing, but …..

[MostMint]

My next iRacing ChampCar event is tonight at Watkins Glen.

https://forum.champcar.org/topic/20714- ... 0-5202020/

I've had more time to prepare for this one, including watching last year's version of this event (20 cars entered). My best lap times are still 3 seconds off the pace but at least this is a longer lap than Charlotte. If I can qualify mid-pack, make it through lap 1 without incident, and avoid big mistakes I should be able to finish on the lead lap.

Officially my goals will be to score points, and finish in the top 1/2.

Same YouTube coverage as last event.

[MostMint]

Result discussion:

Race 1: Chose not to qualify, started last, pitted on lap 1, ran 60 minutes on same tires, finished 37th. No major mistakes.

Race 2: Problem #1: At registration time I learned that the Mazda MX-5 Cup car I had been practicing with was not the right car. There are three different Mazda MX-5 in the game. With a lot of time at this track, and almost two hours of practice, this was recoverable. Fortunately this car is much easier to drive - though I had not painted this one so no signature teal or #50.

Decided to qualify, started 38 of 53 cars. Ran a 2:19.9 and leaders were 2.16.2 ish. Problem #2 - On the pace lap before start finish line as the cars accordioned and while I got stopped in time the guy behind hit me, then he hit me again he was pissed or out of control. No matter I was able to proceed.

Started the race and went kind of easy lap 1 while the guys in front of me sorted it out. Was able to get a rhythm and move along. Had a few passes and being passed but handled it clean. Ran the car down to .2 gallons then game in for fuel. Problem #3 - my pit stall moved from practice and I missed it. Had to make another lap at pace speeds but made it around.

Got 5.3 gallons of fuel and four tires, and I was ready to go. I came out behind the leaders, maybe ahead of 6th place (a lap down). One lap after I went out I managed a 2:19.3 so I was doing pretty well. I was a bit surprised how little traffic I was encountering - with 53 cars and this long track we spread out pretty good. 6th got by smooth and there was a decent gap til 7th. When 7th caught me it was the front straight. After turn 1 he was right on me - looked to be behind off right rear quarter panel. Problem #4: I breathed the throttle a bit to allow him by but he wasn't paying attention and next thing I know I'm looking at the bottom of his car as he has literally run over me. We both wipe out and my car noses into the inner guard rail. I decide not to try and do a whole lap with the broken car and press the tow button. I was 36th at the time. Problem #5: I'm planning to use my fast repair (you get one per race) and when I get to repair time I realize it's gone. My race is OVER as the repair time is longer than the time left in the race.

I ran 16 of 26 laps, finished 41st. With no wreck I'm 35-34th, and without the slow lap to save gas probably 32nd. My best position was 20th which happened as I stretched my fuel down to .2 gallons.

Right now I feel like a small NASCAR team trying not to finish last lol.

Will make some notes on the non driving aspects for next race, and have already changed the setting to not use the fast repair unless I check the box and request it.

Video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX7l4WNfBS4 though they had issues at the start and so all the pre-race and race start are not recorded

[MostMint]

Ok so after messaging with the guy who ran over me I have learned about “netcode”. This is when your local computer is acting without verification from the server. In this case we never touched but someone’s local machine thought we did and then there was a crash. You can google it for more information.

Add it to bad crash physics and tire modeling issues for this game.

Chris wasn’t upset and he apologized for ending my race early. This phenomenon is just part of the game for the veterans

[Fred32v]

Sadly, I very slowly went through that race and could not find one picture of the Black with yellow Mazda MX5 with number 19.
I think I did here his name once.

[MostMint]

Sadly, I very slowly went through that race and could not find one picture of the Black with yellow Mazda MX5 with number 19.
I think I did here his name once.

I agree with this assessment. There are no on track shots of my car in this race recording. At 40:16 and 44:48 you can see the car in the pits for repair after the wreck. It's too small to make out the # but as the camera pans on the cars on track you see it there. It is located closer to the entrance of pit road - before the break in the fence to go back to the paddock.

Last race I pitted at the start which got me back out not too far ahead of the leaders and so got plenty of coverage as I was getting lapped! This time I qualified near the back, took the green and maintained better pace. After my pit mishap and stop I came out behind 5th so no chance there either. Without the mishap could probably had gotten out ahead of the leaders and had some visibility. Good thing I'm not counting on camera exposure to get paid by the sponsors

Also I dropped from 96th to 105th in points as I added none and apparently 9 new or lower ranks drivers did score points in this event. Turned my first sim racing testing laps at COTA earlier this evening.

[Fred32v]

I needed my telephoto lenses to capture the Black and yellow #19 Mazda in the pits waiting for repairs.

Black & Yellow #19

More racing to come!

[MostMint]

Up next: COTA on June 10.

I've taken a few laps at COTA on the sim but not yet enough to know my marks. There will be a practice on June 3 I plan to attend that. If time allows I'll get some testing in advance of that date.

[MostMint]

COTA results:

qualified 15th of 24 with 1:43.xx lap
finished 14th
scored 25 ChampCar iRacing season points, which vaulted me from 105th to 60th place in the standings. Point total is now 27 lol

no offs, no car to car contact, really no competitive passing

The most excitement was beating the leader to the finish line by .12 seconds so I finished on the lead lap! I could see him coming on the relative position display so I knew for most of my second last lap it was going to be close.

With the feature of live relative positions in the car I was racing with the guy behind as I had to maintain the gap. Going into the pit cycle he was 10 seconds back and when it ended he was 5 seconds back. Otherwise with 24 cars on that long track it was a bit like MIS in 2015 where you could go a long time without seeing any cars.

Factoid: this was the first time ChampCar iRacing went to COTA, so I was at the first real ChampCar race at COTA and the first iRacing ChampCar race at COTA. I wonder how many others can make this claim?

[Fred32v]

Watched most of this race, but I pulled the pictures from the replay this morning.

On the COTA Track

Pit Stop

Pit Stop Tire Change

White flag - Black lead car after Turquoise #50

Heading for the Finish

Results

Track announcer relates how #50 kept from being lapped by half a car length,
the camera followed #50 around on his last lap since he was the last car on the lead lap.

Good fun!

[MostMint]

Eventually I'll get smart enough to look at the replays before I exit the event and can get better pics, but here is the margin in which I managed to stay on the lead lap

[MostMint]

Up next in Mosport on July 1. Full practice round on 6/24.

Last year this was basically a night race and there were only 10 cars! I have heard basically all positive feedback about this track on the forums so that sets the bar high. It is fast so it reminds me of Nelson Ledges that way.

Here is last year's broadcast: https://youtu.be/Ji6qwk8hACs

I bought access to the track this morning and took some laps. This track is very fast and has blind high speed corners. It is not going to play to my strong suits. Nonetheless the unprepared will spend a lot of time off track. If this is the same format as last year it will be a night race. We'll see how that goes.

[MostMint]

Mosport results:

Qualified 19th of 26 with 1:4.691 lap
finished 18th
scored 21 ChampCar iRacing season points, which vaulted me from 61st to 41st place in the standings. Point total is now 48

In turn 1 lap one on cold tires I got loose so I lifted. Before turn 2 I was dead last. This track is tricky though and before lap 1 ended without a competitive pass I was up to 22nd. From there I made steady progress forward and had basically settled in to 14th. As the clock wound down I noticed I was catching 13th. So at 5 second and closing I was stalking 13th and with 5 minutes to go I got off on the exit of turn two - just a tiny bit and the rear came around and I wrecked the car up good. Nursed it to the pits, did my fast repair and got back out but that dropped me from 1 lap down to two laps down in 18th. I had been off a few times prior but all manageable, and only one other time did I have a true loss of control where I spun out. I was attempting to make a pass before "Moss Corner" which is turn 5 complex, and the back got loose on the down hill. At that time I was so far ahead of 15th I did not even lose a position.

Was close to finishing in the top half of the pack I need to remember the car can only do so much on the old tires at the end of a run. I know how to bring a car home, but got too busy racing.

And my friend Tom Smith made his iRacing debut with a 16th place start and a 21st place finish 13 laps down. He was not consistent enough and had several wrecks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWUwa1rAc4