irating

Berck14Fan · 11 August 12, 13:46

As an iRacing noob, I'm curious as to how my irating affects my advancement through my career? I am currently a class C license and understand that I need a certain safetyrating to advance up the license ladder and enter various series, but I've yet to see how my irating factors into this? Does it only come into play at the highest levels/series? I race level C & D series and see all licenses represented including Pro, with all ranges of iRatings?

darock · 11 August 12, 14:22

It is indirectly important from day one. It is used to decide who you race against. More on this later. When you enter a race, before it starts, your iRating is compared with the entry and you are sorted into whichever split that rating places you. In popular series, it has more effect than in less popular series. Also, the time of day you choose to race has exactly the same effect. When the entry list is long enough, the race splits. If it's a very popular series during the busy time at iRacing, the race splits into multiple races. Theoretically the more splits, the closer racing. What actually happens is close, but subtly different than closer racing. More about this later.

One of the most important impacts to your iRating is how treat each race. The most important thing to do is run all the laps. Disconnecting early is murder. You guarantee a heavy loss of iRating. More importantly, whatever INC count you've gathered has it's impact on your SR multiplied as SR is a computation of incidents per corner. The fewer the corners you run, the more effect the incidents have.

The other impact on iRating not obvious to some is how reliably you can lap the tracks you choose to run in the car you choose to drive. Jumping into races to learn how to drive a track/car is a bad plan.

darock · 11 August 12, 14:27

You will discover over time that iRating is really something you can't control very well beyond not doing things that throw it away. Yes, you can control it in a minor way by practicing until you can run race length runs without spinning. You can practice until you can also lap at competitive speeds or better. You can't control who shows up when you race. Yes, you can choose what time to race and that often affects the entry to a degree, but you've got no control whatsoever how that turns out.

So don't worry about ways to improve it other than practice and learning setups. But do pay attention that you don't throw it away.

darock · 11 August 12, 14:38

The good thing about SR and iRating is that once you reach whatever level you aspire to, they don't usually mean spit. Once you buy the cars you want, SR really means nothing... absolutely nothing. You can see that in the upper splits in the higher license series. There are plenty of Kyle Bush emulators. They don't come and go either. They're there for however they wish.

As for iRating, it gets harder to change the longer you race. And affects nothing that affects your choices when it comes to buying new cars or tracks. It's actually easy to change if you choose to "win farm" or tank it in hopes of having slower competition to race against, but I'm assuming you aren't that type.

As for iRating, you'll probably be fairly locked into a number range after some months that probably won't go up or down unless your skills go up or down. You'll find if running a popular series you'll settle out and stay in about the same split for long periods of time.

In a couple of my favorite series, I've discovered that I'm almost guaranteed to be in the top split for sure and over half the entry will be aliens.

Guaranteed... and it's been that way for over a year and a half. The idea that losing will put you into lower splits where you will win sounds great but for most, it isn't reality.

darock · 11 August 12, 14:42

Forget about SR once you've bought the cars you want. Drive safely because it's the smart way to race and increases your average finish position while lowering your frustration appreciably.

Forget about iRating once you've found out how to race smart. It'll take care of itself and you really can't do much with it anyway if you're honest.

Until then, practice enough to lap reliably and competatively and then learn to race smart. They won't matter for sure when you've done that.

Berck14Fan · 11 August 12, 17:06

Thanks darock, exactly the kind of info i was hoping for! I'm having quite abit of fun with the ovals to this point, can be competitive in my "splits" generally but am a little disappointed that my years of rfactor, gtr2 and gtrEvo haven't seemed to benefit me as much as I'd hoped with the road courses! They have been quite a challenge or at least the cars you start with are! (the Pontiac and Mazda)

darock · 11 August 12, 17:15

You will discover that the cars differ quite a bit one to another. Steering with your right foot is less a factor in other games. You find even that is different from car to car. It's not a good idea to race a new purchase right off the bat.

You'll also find that the drivers differ from series to series. The iRacing experience is often night and day for two different people.

They've come up with some unique functionality. Their system is really unique and well thought out. It's got warts aplenty, but is certainly more than just races.

darock · 14 August 12, 11:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berck14Fan

Thanks darock, exactly the kind of info i was hoping for! I'm having quite abit of fun with the ovals to this point, can be competitive in my "splits" generally but am a little disappointed that my years of rfactor, gtr2 and gtrEvo haven't seemed to benefit me as much as I'd hoped with the road courses! They have been quite a challenge or at least the cars you start with are! (the Pontiac and Mazda)

So how is your intro to iRacing going?

BTW, those two cars often wind up being favorites after a member learns the 'unique handling' that is such a part of each vehicle. The Mazda seems to be the road car everyone can come back to. I'm guessing it would win a contest as the car with the fewest warts if they asked every driver to enter.

AllanGP · 14 August 12, 20:51

I have been testing the MX-5 recently for a little promo event I am doing for iRacing at Oulton Park, it seems "to easy" to drive in my view but maybe I am not at the limit. I am going to try a series practice in it to see if I am close to competitive times.

Hotsocks · 14 August 12, 22:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by AllanGP

I have been testing the MX-5 recently for a little promo event I am doing for iRacing at Oulton Park, it seems "to easy" to drive in my view but maybe I am not at the limit.

I agree with that in the sense of too much grip generally, maybe. But conversely, the snap can be too sudden and vicious imo in some situations.

Berck14Fan · 27 August 12, 01:01

I'm now a class B license in oval after about a month. My stategy has been to boost my irating and safety rating in the Legends Cup Series which are also fun races. My "serious" series is the iracing National Series as its probably my favorite car to drive at this point and I love the close racing on the short tracks. I see myself sticking with this series for the near future to be sure! On the road side, I started driving the Spec racer Ford and seem to have found a road car I can manage. I've spent much less time on the road side of things but should advance to C license with a 4.xx srating anyday. Also on the strategy side of things, I like to run timetrial sessions to work on setups and gain safety points at the same time!

AllanGP · 27 August 12, 07:46

Sounds like you've worked out a good plan, glad your enjoying it.

wpsracing78 · 27 August 12, 09:47

Good call on the National series - I'm getting into that - had a win at Iowa so I'm sort of hooked!

Didn't really like the idea of fixed setup racing - but as soon as you start beating people in the 5000's on driving talent it kinda starts to grow on you!!

Hard to find a race in Australia though - and lots of people wuss out when there's a tough track, which makes it even harder to get a race!

I'm pretty flat out with uni work this year so really I only get 11:30pm to 3:30am start times on thurs/fri/sat if I want to race anything - so it's hard to fit 3 or 4 series in each week.

AllanGP · 27 August 12, 12:42

Probably not pushing hard enough!

I've got to 1.58's now for a legal lap.

Doing an event at Oulton Park tomorrow demoing iRacing to some track day guy's, with a couple of other iRacers. Wish us luck!

Josh Files, currently 4th in the Clio Cup is doing some demo drives and we're hoping he will set a time in iRacing - should be fun.

Will do a write up once it is all over.

renard · 27 August 12, 13:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chronus

You got my wishes of good luck. And my envy.

Mine too Allan, sounds like a fun day! Good luck mate!

AllanGP · 27 August 12, 13:36

Should be fun I've managed to get both iRacers time on track with Josh and a couple of the Oulton Park Track Tutors so they will have fun for sure.

Kalifen · 27 August 12, 13:49

Awesome! Good luck!

Looking forward to the report

Hotsocks · 27 August 12, 21:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by AllanGP

Doing an event at Oulton Park tomorrow demoing iRacing to some track day guy's, with a couple of other iRacers. Wish us luck!

Josh Files, currently 4th in the Clio Cup is doing some demo drives and we're hoping he will set a time in iRacing - should be fun.

Will do a write up once it is all over.

Good initiative.

If they're going to RFB, you might want to short calibrate the clutch pedal (don't know what you've got). It makes the transmission work much better with less likelihood of mis-shifts and getting stuck in neutral.

Good luck!

AllanGP · 27 August 12, 22:09

Well see how many people have experience or not. If not Autoblip is pretty fool proof. I suspect most might need that just to concentrate on getting around.

There could be upto 30 people having a go so they will get a maximum of 20 mins each.

AllanGP · 28 August 12, 18:26

A couple of pics from today, will do a proper write up later in the week;

Josh setting his lap

Myself (middle), Joshua (left) & Neil (Right)

Chronus · 29 August 12, 09:07

Really great to see people gathering around a racing sim.

Er...Just one thing: you say in the 1st pic "Josh setting his lap", but isn't this "Josh" on the right? 2 Joshes then?

Anyway, good pics.

AllanGP · 29 August 12, 09:22

Josh Files, racing driver, Joshua Harley, iRacer!

Chronus · 29 August 12, 11:41

Wow, it was merely a question...Geez.

AllanGP · 29 August 12, 11:42

I don't know what you mean, you were wondering why there were two Josh's and I explained who they both were? I was only providing the info you asked for why the big reaction?? I thought I was being helpful?

Chronus · 29 August 12, 12:24

I think the "atmosphere" here is fairly friendly most of the time, which is why I like this forum.

Sometimes...there is a bump on the road. Like now, for no reason:

Exclamation point: a mark ! used especially after an interjection or exclamation to indicate forceful utterance or strong feeling.

But no probs, here. I'll refrain from commenting your posts. Moving on.

porph · 29 August 12, 12:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chronus

I think the "atmosphere" here is fairly friendly most of the time, which is why I like this forum.

Sometimes...there is a bump on the road. Like now, for no reason:

Exclamation point: a mark ! used especially after an interjection or exclamation to indicate forceful utterance or strong feeling.

But no probs, here. I'll refrain from commenting your posts. Moving on.

Goodness me, don't be so delicate!

Domey · 29 August 12, 14:47

Well, I thank you for the post AllenGP. I bet that was a lot of fun, getting together like that to race against each other (on a server many miles away) whilst sitting next to each other. Do tell us more about how it went.

AllanGP · 29 August 12, 16:22

I use a lot of exclamation marks in posts and they are never intended as some sort of abuse, in this case I am sorry if you mis-interpreted it as a dig, which it was not.

Petrolmania · 29 August 12, 16:32

Well, I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with AllanGP, but I also took the exclamation mark as relatively harmless and good natured.

The internet because of it's nature can often be misinterpreted. i suspect this is one of those times. Onward gentlemen!

Den.

AllanGP · 29 August 12, 16:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Petrolmania

Well, I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with AllanGP, but I also took the exclamation mark as relatively harmless and good natured.

The internet because of it's nature can often be misinterpreted. i suspect this is one of those times. Onward gentlemen!

Den.

The dark side beckons

Petrolmania · 29 August 12, 16:41

Cheers!

wpsracing78 · 30 August 12, 11:02

Since when is an exclamation point taken in its own context? Surely you should focus on the words before it. I use them all the time - perhaps that's why you always reply so negatively to all my posts. I only ever intend for mine to be happy ones.....

example

Oh my god that pass was so good!

is that offensive to you?

Running thin on patience ttytt - a few people here are quality-of-life issues and have significantly reduced the friendliness here.
Now I can't even use exclamation points in fear of someone taking it as a literal form of aggression directly at them.

11 August 12, 13:46	#1
Berck14Fan Donated Join Date: Jun 2009	irating As an iRacing noob, I'm curious as to how my irating affects my advancement through my career? I am currently a class C license and understand that I need a certain safetyrating to advance up the license ladder and enter various series, but I've yet to see how my irating factors into this? Does it only come into play at the highest levels/series? I race level C & D series and see all licenses represented including Pro, with all ranges of iRatings?

11 August 12, 14:22	#2
darock Moderator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: North Carolina	It is indirectly important from day one. It is used to decide who you race against. More on this later. When you enter a race, before it starts, your iRating is compared with the entry and you are sorted into whichever split that rating places you. In popular series, it has more effect than in less popular series. Also, the time of day you choose to race has exactly the same effect. When the entry list is long enough, the race splits. If it's a very popular series during the busy time at iRacing, the race splits into multiple races. Theoretically the more splits, the closer racing. What actually happens is close, but subtly different than closer racing. More about this later. One of the most important impacts to your iRating is how treat each race. The most important thing to do is run all the laps. Disconnecting early is murder. You guarantee a heavy loss of iRating. More importantly, whatever INC count you've gathered has it's impact on your SR multiplied as SR is a computation of incidents per corner. The fewer the corners you run, the more effect the incidents have. The other impact on iRating not obvious to some is how reliably you can lap the tracks you choose to run in the car you choose to drive. Jumping into races to learn how to drive a track/car is a bad plan.

11 August 12, 14:27	#3
darock Moderator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: North Carolina	You will discover over time that iRating is really something you can't control very well beyond not doing things that throw it away. Yes, you can control it in a minor way by practicing until you can run race length runs without spinning. You can practice until you can also lap at competitive speeds or better. You can't control who shows up when you race. Yes, you can choose what time to race and that often affects the entry to a degree, but you've got no control whatsoever how that turns out. So don't worry about ways to improve it other than practice and learning setups. But do pay attention that you don't throw it away.

11 August 12, 14:38	#4
darock Moderator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: North Carolina	The good thing about SR and iRating is that once you reach whatever level you aspire to, they don't usually mean spit. Once you buy the cars you want, SR really means nothing... absolutely nothing. You can see that in the upper splits in the higher license series. There are plenty of Kyle Bush emulators. They don't come and go either. They're there for however they wish. As for iRating, it gets harder to change the longer you race. And affects nothing that affects your choices when it comes to buying new cars or tracks. It's actually easy to change if you choose to "win farm" or tank it in hopes of having slower competition to race against, but I'm assuming you aren't that type. As for iRating, you'll probably be fairly locked into a number range after some months that probably won't go up or down unless your skills go up or down. You'll find if running a popular series you'll settle out and stay in about the same split for long periods of time. In a couple of my favorite series, I've discovered that I'm almost guaranteed to be in the top split for sure and over half the entry will be aliens. Guaranteed... and it's been that way for over a year and a half. The idea that losing will put you into lower splits where you will win sounds great but for most, it isn't reality.

11 August 12, 14:42	#5
darock Moderator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: North Carolina	Forget about SR once you've bought the cars you want. Drive safely because it's the smart way to race and increases your average finish position while lowering your frustration appreciably. Forget about iRating once you've found out how to race smart. It'll take care of itself and you really can't do much with it anyway if you're honest. Until then, practice enough to lap reliably and competatively and then learn to race smart. They won't matter for sure when you've done that.

11 August 12, 17:06	#6
Berck14Fan Donated Join Date: Jun 2009	Thanks darock, exactly the kind of info i was hoping for! I'm having quite abit of fun with the ovals to this point, can be competitive in my "splits" generally but am a little disappointed that my years of rfactor, gtr2 and gtrEvo haven't seemed to benefit me as much as I'd hoped with the road courses! They have been quite a challenge or at least the cars you start with are! (the Pontiac and Mazda)

11 August 12, 17:15	#7
darock Moderator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: North Carolina	You will discover that the cars differ quite a bit one to another. Steering with your right foot is less a factor in other games. You find even that is different from car to car. It's not a good idea to race a new purchase right off the bat. You'll also find that the drivers differ from series to series. The iRacing experience is often night and day for two different people. They've come up with some unique functionality. Their system is really unique and well thought out. It's got warts aplenty, but is certainly more than just races.

14 August 12, 20:51	#9
AllanGP Donated Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Wrexham, North Wales, 25 mins from Oulton Park Age: 51	I have been testing the MX-5 recently for a little promo event I am doing for iRacing at Oulton Park, it seems "to easy" to drive in my view but maybe I am not at the limit. I am going to try a series practice in it to see if I am close to competitive times.

27 August 12, 01:01	#11
Berck14Fan Donated Join Date: Jun 2009	I'm now a class B license in oval after about a month. My stategy has been to boost my irating and safety rating in the Legends Cup Series which are also fun races. My "serious" series is the iracing National Series as its probably my favorite car to drive at this point and I love the close racing on the short tracks. I see myself sticking with this series for the near future to be sure! On the road side, I started driving the Spec racer Ford and seem to have found a road car I can manage. I've spent much less time on the road side of things but should advance to C license with a 4.xx srating anyday. Also on the strategy side of things, I like to run timetrial sessions to work on setups and gain safety points at the same time!

27 August 12, 07:46	#12
AllanGP Donated Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Wrexham, North Wales, 25 mins from Oulton Park Age: 51	Sounds like you've worked out a good plan, glad your enjoying it.

27 August 12, 09:47	#13
wpsracing78 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Adelaide, Australia Age: 23	Good call on the National series - I'm getting into that - had a win at Iowa so I'm sort of hooked! Didn't really like the idea of fixed setup racing - but as soon as you start beating people in the 5000's on driving talent it kinda starts to grow on you!! Hard to find a race in Australia though - and lots of people wuss out when there's a tough track, which makes it even harder to get a race! I'm pretty flat out with uni work this year so really I only get 11:30pm to 3:30am start times on thurs/fri/sat if I want to race anything - so it's hard to fit 3 or 4 series in each week.

27 August 12, 12:42	#14
AllanGP Donated Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Wrexham, North Wales, 25 mins from Oulton Park Age: 51	Probably not pushing hard enough! I've got to 1.58's now for a legal lap. Doing an event at Oulton Park tomorrow demoing iRacing to some track day guy's, with a couple of other iRacers. Wish us luck! Josh Files, currently 4th in the Clio Cup is doing some demo drives and we're hoping he will set a time in iRacing - should be fun. Will do a write up once it is all over.

27 August 12, 13:36	#16
AllanGP Donated Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Wrexham, North Wales, 25 mins from Oulton Park Age: 51	Should be fun I've managed to get both iRacers time on track with Josh and a couple of the Oulton Park Track Tutors so they will have fun for sure.

27 August 12, 13:49	#17
Kalifen Join Date: Aug 2010	Awesome! Good luck! Looking forward to the report

27 August 12, 22:09	#19
AllanGP Donated Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Wrexham, North Wales, 25 mins from Oulton Park Age: 51	Well see how many people have experience or not. If not Autoblip is pretty fool proof. I suspect most might need that just to concentrate on getting around. There could be upto 30 people having a go so they will get a maximum of 20 mins each.

28 August 12, 18:26	#20
AllanGP Donated Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Wrexham, North Wales, 25 mins from Oulton Park Age: 51	A couple of pics from today, will do a proper write up later in the week; Josh setting his lap Myself (middle), Joshua (left) & Neil (Right)

29 August 12, 09:07	#21
Chronus Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Local Group-Milky Way-Sun-Earth Age: 44	Really great to see people gathering around a racing sim. Er...Just one thing: you say in the 1st pic "Josh setting his lap", but isn't this "Josh" on the right? 2 Joshes then? Anyway, good pics.

29 August 12, 09:22	#22
AllanGP Donated Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Wrexham, North Wales, 25 mins from Oulton Park Age: 51	Josh Files, racing driver, Joshua Harley, iRacer!

29 August 12, 11:41	#23
Chronus Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Local Group-Milky Way-Sun-Earth Age: 44	Wow, it was merely a question...Geez.

29 August 12, 11:42	#24
AllanGP Donated Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Wrexham, North Wales, 25 mins from Oulton Park Age: 51	I don't know what you mean, you were wondering why there were two Josh's and I explained who they both were? I was only providing the info you asked for why the big reaction?? I thought I was being helpful?

29 August 12, 12:24	#25
Chronus Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Local Group-Milky Way-Sun-Earth Age: 44	I think the "atmosphere" here is fairly friendly most of the time, which is why I like this forum. Sometimes...there is a bump on the road. Like now, for no reason: Exclamation point: *a mark ! used especially after an interjection or exclamation to indicate forceful utterance or strong feeling*. But no probs, here. I'll refrain from commenting your posts. Moving on.

29 August 12, 14:47	#27
Domey Donated Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan USA	Well, I thank you for the post AllenGP. I bet that was a lot of fun, getting together like that to race against each other (on a server many miles away) whilst sitting next to each other. Do tell us more about how it went.

29 August 12, 16:22	#28
AllanGP Donated Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Wrexham, North Wales, 25 mins from Oulton Park Age: 51	I use a lot of exclamation marks in posts and they are never intended as some sort of abuse, in this case I am sorry if you mis-interpreted it as a dig, which it was not.

29 August 12, 16:32	#29
Petrolmania Easily Distracted Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Anarkist Garage, Cyberspace. Age: 50	Well, I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with AllanGP, but I also took the exclamation mark as relatively harmless and good natured. The internet because of it's nature can often be misinterpreted. i suspect this is one of those times. Onward gentlemen! Den.

29 August 12, 16:41	#31
Petrolmania Easily Distracted Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Anarkist Garage, Cyberspace. Age: 50	Cheers!

30 August 12, 11:02	#32
wpsracing78 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Adelaide, Australia Age: 23	Since when is an exclamation point taken in its own context? Surely you should focus on the words before it. I use them all the time - perhaps that's why you always reply so negatively to all my posts. I only ever intend for mine to be happy ones..... example Oh my god that pass was so good! is that offensive to you? Running thin on patience ttytt - a few people here are quality-of-life issues and have significantly reduced the friendliness here. Now I can't even use exclamation points in fear of someone taking it as a literal form of aggression directly at them.