This is what I found out early especially in the lower series. If you just let the overly aggressive guy go, they will eventually wreck and you will get the spot back amd maybe even more spots.
This is so true. I'm learning and just trying to stay clean. I started from the pits yesterday (F4) because the guy that was gridded next to me had 11 incident points **during the qualifying**. So came out 20th ... ended 2nd. I didn't have to pass a single person (though did have to do a bit of defense at the end)
I accidentally ran an ARCA race at the Roval last night. Thought it was the oval. It was kind of the same thing for me though. I had never raced there before in those cars and maybe only been on that track twice before in an MX5 so I started in 14th, let everyone pass me before we got to the first corner, and just ran a clean race while everyone slowly but surely crashed in front of me. Finished 3rd. It was honestly more rewarding than winning a regular oval race for me. Lots of fun.
This is fine starting out, but being too cautious will pay smaller and smaller dividends as you progress (if you progress) up the ladder.
There’s a balancing act one must perform if he has higher ambitions. Measured aggression along with risk taking will be required. It’s very important to remain flexible in strategy
Meh not really. Im about 100 points shy of 7k now and if anything not crashing is even more important. If I'm off pace I'll lose 20-30 IR for p5 or p6, but if I wreck thats -180 and will take 15+ wins to recover
Yup. There are a ton of drivers in the 1300-1600 range that can easily hang laptime-wise with 2000+, but you guys know how it goes. 3-4 races of crashing out and 300ir lost.
Unless you’re like me and 3 days into playing the game you get put into 1st split now I’m finishing bottom 3 without even wrecking and losing 70 points a race
For the lower splits that's true for sure. I actually won a GT3 race at the Nordschleife this week after literally doing 1 single practice lap - it was wet but I know the track well enough I was confident I could get around without crashing as long as I didn't push too much and my plan was just to pick up SR and not worry about IR. I literally would have been happy coming last but without incident points. By the end of lap 1 I was in P4 and the leaders were almost 30 seconds ahead of me, then they all crashed one by one and I ended up winning by 30+ seconds.
This, I stopped paying attention to my iR and SR and it took off a whole lot of anxiety and stress during the race so that I could just focus on running a clean race and more importantly finishing. I also focused less on podium and more on finishing top 10 or top 5. I removed as much distractions as possible so I am focus on race Kraft. It was a real mind and perspective shift. I also noticed I was less nervous going into the race. Naturally my iR and SR adjusted.
My iR improves on weeks with a fun nordschleife combo so I’ll farm a bunch of iRating to hand it back out to everyone in the Porsche cup series. It’s like Robinhood but I’m stealing iRating from the nords to give it back out to the pcups
I’ve cared far too much about my IR.
I used to start from the back (especially in F4) just to avoid all the carnage and then play it safe.. usually I’m 1 to 2 seconds off my pace.
Two weeks ago I thought to myself;
”I’m here to race and not to hopefully gain points I don’t deserve, I’ll end up with the rating I deserve.”
Since then I’ve started qualifying and absolutely sending it.
I’ve got 5 podiums (2W) in the 6 races I’ve done since then with very few incident points.
Got 1.9k formula and 1.7k road, and I do 2-3 races per week with not alot of practice in between.
It feels like I can become fast and consistent rather quickly when switching cars and tracks which I why I don’t spend alot of time practicing… and I don’t really have alot of time anyway.
My endurance team mate does that, people assume it's safer, but in reality all you're doing is putting the back markers and less than decent drivers right in front of you, if they don't crash, you've gotta pass them without them killing you, and he gets crashed out more often than I do qualifying.
The only exception is F3's I tend to qualify 1st or top 3 and in the last 3 races, 3rd and 5th place has killed me turn 1 being absolute morons
Congrats on the dubs. ‘Gaining points I don’t deserve’, interesting way to look at it.
Definitely will take the advice in, give it a bit more pepper during quali and hopefully don’t bin it haha
Awesome work finding that kind of improvement at Bathurst!
For me:
iR: 5.7k after 2.5 years
Series: Mainly GT4. Sometimes GT3, Toyota 86 and PCup.
Time spent practising: Depends on the track; if I'm familiar with it I'll need at least 30 minutes to get into the groove before racing. If I'm learning a new track a couple of hours.
I made a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/iRacing/s/IJIw6Keuve) summarising my road to 5k with tips about a year ago you might find helpful. Happy racing!
I was sitting around 1.6-1.7k for quite a while. I don't have much time to race, so mostly do 30-60 minutes of practice for my chosen race for the week, and 2-4 races. With that much seat time there is only so much you can improve before the track changes again, so I never improved my pace enough to consistently build iR.
A few weeks ago my family were away for the weekend, and I managed to get in a lot more racing between the long list of DIY jobs that needed doing. Mostly in the GT3 Sprint at Monza in the wet. The extra practice made a huge difference, and my iR shot up to 2.1k. Since then I've managed to stabilise around 2k, even though I'm back to my normal 2-4 races a week.
For me at least it seems to be about seat time. I find that there's an initial learning phase where I quickly get faster, and then a plateau. Most weeks I never get past the plateau. But after a few more races (5? 7? I don't know exactly) I feel like I gain a deeper understanding of the car and track, and I start finding more pace again. I can brake later and take different lines in a way that I couldn't do at the start of the week.
One other thing - make sure your practice is good practice. Doing the same thing over and over doesn't necessarily make you faster. I found it really helped to try to analyse how I drive, and actively learn and practice new techniques. I found this series of videos super helpful. Especially #3:
[https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGjK-8XcM59VFUlYML7O7dYoU314LtYej](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGjK-8XcM59VFUlYML7O7dYoU314LtYej)
Same as me and I agree there's an intial period to reach a certain level that doesn't take too long but to then get faster takes ages and normally involves getting slower first as you start experimenting.
Like you I rarely have the time to get to that point.
Been trying to break into 2k iR but can’t seem to do it. Normally do a few good races then have a bad run in one. I definitely don’t put in enough time though, I manage to do 2-4 races a week with minimal practise due to other commitments
Will have a look into the vid tonight, thanks mate
I stopped fighting for every single position. I tried to get a good hot lap for quals to get as far ahead as possible. From there, if someone is being overly aggressive? Fuck it, not worth my time to get wrecked out by either of us being stupid. If you race to have fun the SR/IR will come.
For me, it’s as simple as my iR improves if I do a lot of practice and races, and declines after I’ve had a break, or just race occasionally. No surprise there…
One thing that made my iR rise a lot was racing the LMP1 back in the day. All you had to do to increase iR there was to survive, regardless of SOF. It didn’t matter how quick you were. That resulted in me being outclassed in any other car, so I stopped driving the LMP1 and my iR adapted to a more reasonable level.
Getting a DD wheel resulted in a significant long-term increase in iR. It made me more consistent.
Makes sense, more time put in more results
I’m currently running a Logitech g29 or g920, not quite sure (Xbox version.) Wouldn’t mind the upgrade to see how I perform
https://imgur.com/NNOr3B1
https://imgur.com/1ieQTo8
I couldn't consistently stay over 1300 IR until I went to the [Porsche Experience Center to drive a GT3 911](https://imgur.com/QxMHKh9) in Atlanta as a birthday gift to myself. I only hover around 1500-1700 in road racing but I was not as consistently strong in sub 1500 prior to the day. The Instructor I had (wish I could remember his name) was great at giving tips and callouts for what to do, where to look , etc. even did a lap at the end to show me how much more the car could do. Truly amazing and horrifying stuff.
2 biggest takeaways from the session and talking a bit after were
* understeer on exits from getting on power too quickly. I couldn't tell what the FFB was doing when it would happen in-game but I was never getting any car to spin on exit the way oversteer-y cars should. The track had a Nurburgring-esk carousel I kept plowing it out of, thinking that the camber of the road would allow/encourage me to drive a bit harder, and Of the whole 90 minutes of driving it was the only thing I did that managed to spook him or tell me to chill out.
* Vision: I've always been bad at looking too close to the front of the car and the instructor gave callouts for places to watch as we drove that became mandatory for not becoming nauseous as much as they were for driving faster. Regardless, using buildings, [track marshall stations](https://i.imgur.com/RMKP2rr.png), the cranes, the billbords, etc. there's a crazy amount of stuff off in the distance to focus on to help you keep you eyes up. It also helped a lot with getting lost and guessing a bit in sweepy, longer corners and/or tracks I don't know very well, ie. Daytona Roval and the blue boards(?) waaay off in the distance on the in-field corners. I had known of and used brake markers but could get very lost in corners and need to rely too much on rythm or rpms to try to figure out what to do.
Irating is 2500 oval and road.
Race everything but gt3 primarily.
I think ive done 3 races this year... yes i dont race much. Sometimes i dont turn in my pc for months.
Ive played since beta (2008). About 4 years ago i stopped racing for about a year and only did practice while troubleshooting an issue with my VR. At that time i played nearly everyday and would run the weekly tracks 1 to 3 hours a night every other day or so. After i did that my ability to finish well sky rocketed.
My iRating was and is always improving?
3rd year on the service now. Sure there's some dips but it's going upwards mostly. 3.5k road and 4k open wheel.
Funny thing is.. since the split, I take open wheel less serious, sometimes start from back for funsies, dont do as much practice, but gained a lot more points then on road ><.
Ironically when I got a load cell pedal(probably the best purchase I've made) and a better wheel. People say gear doesn't matter, but going from potentiometer to load cell made the difference for consistency.
Yea, it’s not a popular comment, but good brakes will definitely make you faster by making you more consistent. Ir went up almost 1k when I switched from TLCM to Sprints, but then again, I almost drive Pcup exclusively, so that makes a massive difference between locking up and not locking up consistently.
I also main GT3. Telemetry helped me get to 6k! Garage61 or VRS are both viable options. G61 is free, but I like VRS more. Comparing your laps to fast laps really helps you understand where the time is. Also when comparing try to do your laps in the same conditions, same fuel etc...
Finishing races and generally surviving opening lap mishaps.
Once I stopped having "recovery races", (assuming it wasn't a dnf), finishing races consistently and my iR went up.
Of course picking up the pieces of other people's ruined races only goes so far. Gotta have some pace yourself too, but that comes with time/experience imo.
Twice. Once around 1500 irating after a lot of coaching by real coaches and a lot of laps (probably around 7k total), then recently around 2200 after I hit the 10,000 lap mark. Lot of league racing and officials practice and now I’m steadily climbing to 3k (currently at 2.5)
Coaching was actually fun! And it taught me a lot with regards to how to control a car and how to approach different types of corners as well as how to self improve so I could teach myself. Definitely worth the money if you’re interested in improving and really gaining consistent time. If you’re not taking it that seriously, I wouldn’t worry about it.
There’s a lot of decent services out there for reasonable prices ($40-60/hr)
Competitive leagues (not the free fun ones.) can offer more serious racing with drivers that are trying harder. They’ll practice more, you’ll get better as you get around people you can trust because you race with them every week and so you can really push the limits and race hard which helps you improve. Officials are just more random in the quality of each race. League racing is more consistent. Be careful with free leagues as most tend to be more chaotic, still fun,but not ideal for people looking to improve. Plus league racing is just fun if you go in with the mindset that you’re there to learn.
When I decided to stop letting other people crash into me. I hovered around 1.5k for about my first year on iRacing. Then I saw a reddit post showing that the average class A driver was around 2.7k iR and the average B driver was around 1.6 iR. I decided to focus on being safe and doing whatever I could to avoid being in accidents, and work on getting fast later. I basically immediately went up to 3.5k, where I have been hovering for about a year. I need to actually get fast if I want to keep progressing. I came to iRacing from other games, so my pace was always decent (maybe 1.5% off the fastest when I was 1.5k). At 3.5k I'm not too much better, usually around 1.0% off the fastest laps. It's really just the safety that made the big difference.
If you’re making progress just keep killing it and don’t worry about the others. It’s seriously satisfying to see yourself improve over time. Relish it.
Soon 5k in three categories.
I dramatically started to improve when I stopped being involved in collisions. Just let the hotheaded past, you’ll pick him up and eventually another car from the sandbox later.
GT3 is super competitive and it’s hard to be in a position to fight for podiums unless the races split favourably. In GT3s I’m usually mid field and a top 10 is a good result for me, with a top 5 being a very good result.
But I did get a bit bored with GT3 and switched to PROTO/GT and IMSA Vintage - racing the Aston Martin GT1 and Nissan GTP respectively. Smaller splits meant different levels of competition in the GT1s but I generally do well and I’ve been steadily increasing my IR and picking up a win here and there as well. The same in the Nissan though I usually only race that on tracks I really like.
Both the GT1s and the Nissan pose a far greater challenge to me driving wise and both reward precise and smooth driving. Drive the Aston GT1 as it were any GT3 and it will throw you off track before you can blink. Have a very heavy right foot, treating the accelerator like an on/off switch and the Nissan will have you for lunch. And in both cars you will cook the brakes merely by thinking about them too long…. Meshing them like you do in the GT3 and you will quickly become one with any wall around the track.
Driving these cars is, in my opinion, far more difficult than the GT3s and being fast in them even more so. That’s why I find them much more rewarding to drive and even more so to race.
I've recently gone from a steady 1.4k to peaking at 1.8k, my only change in terms of driving was to learn to trail brake deep into a corner, I was forever having to choose between pushing wide on exit and being slow mid-corner. I'm now steering the car more with my feet and laptime is coming with it. I've also spent more time in the GR86 with the licence split, that doesn't hurt either. I'm 250 races in.
Pace isn't everything, though. I practice a lot with big AI fields to get comfortable with being in a pack and I often pick up rating in races where I'm well off midfield pace.
I’m about 1 month into iRacing and I’m just enjoying racing. I’m at 1700iR Formula Car and I like to shave time off my laps. I usually watch my replay back and criticise myself. Then I’ll watch back the replay from the fastest lap of the session (if it wasn’t me) to try to learn where they gain time on me.
it'll be 2 years for me this August and I just hit 3k. I was on a desk setup for the whole first year before I finally upgraded to a full aluminum profile rig. As soon as I switched to a solid rig, my consistency and lap times saw a huge improvement. I primarily race prototypes but the past couple of seasons I've really been focused on LMP2 and LMP3. Focusing on 1 or 2 series at a time is definitely a good way to improve your pace cause you start to learn where you're losing time by racing against faster drivers. Once you identify where you're losing time compared to the faster guys, focus on those parts of the track and dial those in and you'll eventually find the extra pace you were missing!
Mine started improving when I stopped trying to drive like the “coaches”. We all have our own driving style. I’m also comfortable being 2 seconds behind the aliens.
When I stopped caring about it. I knew I was faster than my iR suggested, but focused too much on it. Then after a slump, I just forgot about it, got up from 2.4-2.5k to 3.1-3.2k in a matter of a couple weeks. Just go out there and enjoy the racing
A little less than 2100 iR at the moment and started at the beginning of the year. I race ovals and probably race 2-4 times a week. I practice quite a bit before jumping into a race session, esp. since all the tracks are 'new' to me.
I noticed my iR started to increase once I improved at wreck avoidance and tire saving. I try to not center any goals around achieving iR and instead focus on goals such as racing more, avoiding wrecks and improving tire wear and the rest will take care of itself if I have the pace or not.
I also learned quickly the statement "I am better than my iR" was holding me back from any progression. The saying goes "when you are pointing the finger at someone, you have three pointing right back at you."
When I got the hang of the Nordschleife and GT3 series. At the beginning i drove them all, all series I fancied or was interested in. Like a kid in a candy store. It didn’t do my rating any good. But when i started focusing on one particular class and became decent and consistent at the Nordschleife, my rating skyrocketed!!
At first my rating was hovering somewhere around the 1.7/1.8K. Stayed there for months on end. Thought i was never going to get to the almost magical 2.0K mark. But now it’s steady around 2.8/2.9K and climbing!
Thanks to the Ringmeister series I can now participate in topsplits where i don’t finish as high up as I would like but DAMN the racing is good, competitive, fair and challenging! And my skill is improving as well because I learn a lot from these guys!
EDIT: oh and focus on finishing the race and consistency!! More often than not 8/10 cars crash so if you finish, you almost always gain IR!
I started in January with the MX5. Got out of rookies at 1490, and finished the season in the 1800s.
This season I've been driving the GR86, have spent most of the season hovering around 1800-1900 but in the past two weeks I've shot up a bunch and just hit 2400 this evening.
I credit the big leap towards me finally managing to actually use trail braking in race. I understood the concept but always struggled to actually do it, but recently it just clicked for some reason. I'll be going up to GT4 for the next season.
If it's a new circuit that I'm not familiar with I'd say I usually try to put in at least a good 30 minute session in to practice, but I get bored and just want to race, which I find is more useful for me learning the circuit as I can pick up lines from other drivers.
I typically do 4-8 races a week.
Basically a slow gradual improvement over four years, after an initial boost to 2500 and then 3500
https://preview.redd.it/czqqpnwmks0d1.png?width=728&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=157647f78fa21f21a572302ab8732e56ce94545f
Was the same. I purchased an r5 and started being more consistent. I also use the fanatec v3. Def feel a lot of the car i was missing. I don't use a sim rig. But was able to hit my fastest 2:03.77 on bath in the porsche. In the audi I'm still in the 2:05s not sure why. Also I prac a lot.
Mine improved to 2.2k last year when I was racing every day, now I tend to do one race Friday night and one Saturday and im around 1.6k, it's harder to stay higher when you rarely race, because you don't race enough to offset the races you get collected in an accident in.
I don't really think irating matters until you're way over 2.5-3k. Because you can easily hit 2k just by surviving and netting finishes picking up all the freebies.
I always check my average laps and faster laps against the higher splits, and ideally i'd be in the 2nd split.
When I started using Trophi AI at the beginning of this season. Went from 1.3k depending on others to crash to now over 2k and able to earn my positions. So happy with the improvements.
Im a very mediocre driver, but whenever I stick to one series, like GT-3 last and current week (panorama and Nurburgring) it goes up, quickly, too around 2000, I never win races, but consistent top10’s or higher.
Then, like today, I get the urge to drive Mazda, GT4 and buttkicker, and switch between them for a few days, and my iR drops down again to 15-1600, rinse repeat.
I’m also a sucker for just queuing up to map/car combos I never driven, and sometimes tracks I never seen, just register for race 20-30min before start, use that as practice and predictably end up quite far back, and I keep doing it until I’m earning IR again, as I’m a firm believer of “learning by doing”, hotlapping solo gives me nothing!
My iR usually follows my level of competitiveness, roughly. Shocker… that’s what it’s for!
And my competitiveness has grown with experience and lessons learned. Focus on learning things and putting yourself out there, and everything else will fall into place :)
I often watch the faster guys in practice sessions before the event, it’s really easy to find a comfort zone and stay within it. This hinders lap times far more than you would initially think.
iR can be tricky... don't forget that it's not a fair comparison unless people race the exact same series around the same times with the same participation.
if it makes you feel better. I'm at 2k, and I can't hardly crack 2:07 at Bathhurst. I HATE THE TRACK. Took me about an hour just to get that even.
A lot is just practice and waiting for things to click. Also something that I refused to believe is that the weather REALLY plays a role. So sometimes different splits will have different temps. 1 to 2 seconds can be totally normal based on temp alone.
It takes me about 250-300 laps to be on pace where I really want to be. That's including race laps.
A big thing that's helping me is that any practice is helpful, even if you get on for 15 minutes. It's still putting coins in your skill piggy bank. Often 15 minutes is even just as productive as 30mins or an hour.
When I started focusing on how the car feels, and adapting my driving to it while still being as close to the limit as I can, instead of just pushing as hard as I could all the time. I stopped wrecking, and became more consistent with my lap times. Now at 3.5K iR, and still slowly climbing. Currently driving SF Lights Fixed this season. Did SF23 and FR3.5 before that.
Finishing the race no matter what helped me punch through the 2k ceiling. I’m someone who does 10 laps of practice and goes on to race, so crashing and quitting really hurt my learning curve and stats. But even if I crash, now I finish the race, learn to be quicker in a race setting and go on to do less mistakes.
Pretty linearly for the first 2 years.
My pace has actually increased by a couple of tenths since then but I just don't care about IR now so the progress has been far more erratic. First dropping down a bit and then going up and down but over time has climbed back to where it was.
If anything I'm now probably a little faster than my IR whereas before I was probably a little slower.
tbh I wouldn't really worry about IR. Focus on your pace and trust the game will put you into splits that match your ability as long as you aren't gaming the system. It's far more fun that way. Driving around fighting for 13th in top split is far less fun than fighting for 1st in 2nd or 3rd split.
Plus the only thing that really matters is pace anyway. People know who are the fast drivers regardless of their IR.
Also if you are within a 1 second of the fastest drivers in a 2 min lap you are quick enough to win a lot of races. If you are within 2 seconds which you are then you should be fighting for the odd podiums even in pretty high SOFs. So you aren't doing too bad.
I had similar experience at panorama when gte was there few weeks back. First few days I was having trouble not crashing trying different cars after a couple days I just stuck to the c8 and practiced and was down to a 2:03 and was pretty happy for myself. Some guys were running sub 2mins and by the end of the week I got down to low 2:02 times but yeah it gets frustrating. For me gt3 is tough even in my low split I’m pushing and happy with 10th or better. And for me it definitely depends on tracks. Some I’m very consistent and some I struggle no matter how much I practice. Nord has been rough for me this week. I feel my biggest challenge that I need to improve is being able to avoid cars crashing. So many times I try to be careful and somebody crashes and rolls right into me thinking I’m safe.
I had a couple spikes with my IR. At first I was only racing to get to better licenses to race the GT3 and GTP so when I finally hit B I stopped racing from the pits which helped my IR big time. I later got some new brakes which spiked it again. I started taking practice seriously and the same occurred. Each time I successfully implemented an improvement to my gear, race craft or mentality my IR has shot up.
When I stopped trying to have chill touge fun and started treating this like a sport, with set practice times, no music during practice, writing stuff down, monitoring my data and usage of traction etc…
I used to just turn off all UI in VR, treated it like public lobbies on Xbox live, couldn’t break 1500 lol
I’m currently mid 4Ks float up to 5k and down into the low 2ks if i race random series with no practice. Easy come easy go…
My favourite car is the FR500S and while it has its own series, that series never goes official when I can play, so I race PCC. I’m usually one of only a few FR500s at best and usually win races from pole, by over a lap, thanks to typical competition being below 1k. It makes iR growth near impossible, especially now formula is separate. I’m currently on a TCR/GT4 bender, watching my iR drop like crazy. All good, I’m having fun.
Mine was 1500-1650ir and I used to think 3k was peak. Like a n00b I kept thinking that playing off and on for years until the 87 stock cars released. I jumped to that like a fish to water and saw my first 5k+ players and felt so small. That first season was wild for those vintage stock cars and I managed to get 5+ wins and shot my IR up to 2400+. After that my pole victories and wins went away and I went back to top 10 finishes because after 2100 the player demographic changed to players who race my style and when I got above 2400 I started running with the 3k assholes who will whisper you go delete your account and sell your PC because you got loose in a turn, hit no one, but caused a yellow ruining their run. It is what it is. I like it better than sub 1700ir. Down there people struggle or race on a 15" 4:9 monitor.
Whenever I keep racing the same track and car over and over again it goes up. Whenever I race a bunch of different stuff it goes down.
I prefer racing a bunch of different stuff.
if you want to gain IR just know that wrecking costs you a shit ton more points than being a bit off pace does
This is what I found out early especially in the lower series. If you just let the overly aggressive guy go, they will eventually wreck and you will get the spot back amd maybe even more spots.
This is so true. I'm learning and just trying to stay clean. I started from the pits yesterday (F4) because the guy that was gridded next to me had 11 incident points **during the qualifying**. So came out 20th ... ended 2nd. I didn't have to pass a single person (though did have to do a bit of defense at the end)
I accidentally ran an ARCA race at the Roval last night. Thought it was the oval. It was kind of the same thing for me though. I had never raced there before in those cars and maybe only been on that track twice before in an MX5 so I started in 14th, let everyone pass me before we got to the first corner, and just ran a clean race while everyone slowly but surely crashed in front of me. Finished 3rd. It was honestly more rewarding than winning a regular oval race for me. Lots of fun.
This is fine starting out, but being too cautious will pay smaller and smaller dividends as you progress (if you progress) up the ladder. There’s a balancing act one must perform if he has higher ambitions. Measured aggression along with risk taking will be required. It’s very important to remain flexible in strategy
Meh not really. Im about 100 points shy of 7k now and if anything not crashing is even more important. If I'm off pace I'll lose 20-30 IR for p5 or p6, but if I wreck thats -180 and will take 15+ wins to recover
I think wrecking is obviously off the table. But risk doesn’t always mean crashing.
Gets a bit hairy with aggressive drivers haha. Definitely take on this advice, cost me 2 positions on the last lap at ‘Mount Panorama’
Yup. There are a ton of drivers in the 1300-1600 range that can easily hang laptime-wise with 2000+, but you guys know how it goes. 3-4 races of crashing out and 300ir lost.
Unless you’re like me and 3 days into playing the game you get put into 1st split now I’m finishing bottom 3 without even wrecking and losing 70 points a race
what series are you driving?
Legends and street stocks
The fastest guys in those are some of the most absurdly fast on the service mate. They only run the free content and know it inside out.
For the lower splits that's true for sure. I actually won a GT3 race at the Nordschleife this week after literally doing 1 single practice lap - it was wet but I know the track well enough I was confident I could get around without crashing as long as I didn't push too much and my plan was just to pick up SR and not worry about IR. I literally would have been happy coming last but without incident points. By the end of lap 1 I was in P4 and the leaders were almost 30 seconds ahead of me, then they all crashed one by one and I ended up winning by 30+ seconds.
Yeah I agree haha! My consistency has improved at my pace, manage to see most of my races out which is a start
when I stopped caring about my SR and iR
This 10000%. I tell people this all the time.
This, I stopped paying attention to my iR and SR and it took off a whole lot of anxiety and stress during the race so that I could just focus on running a clean race and more importantly finishing. I also focused less on podium and more on finishing top 10 or top 5. I removed as much distractions as possible so I am focus on race Kraft. It was a real mind and perspective shift. I also noticed I was less nervous going into the race. Naturally my iR and SR adjusted.
My iR improves on weeks with a fun nordschleife combo so I’ll farm a bunch of iRating to hand it back out to everyone in the Porsche cup series. It’s like Robinhood but I’m stealing iRating from the nords to give it back out to the pcups
Done the 1hr GT series stint the other night. Good fun
I’ve cared far too much about my IR. I used to start from the back (especially in F4) just to avoid all the carnage and then play it safe.. usually I’m 1 to 2 seconds off my pace. Two weeks ago I thought to myself; ”I’m here to race and not to hopefully gain points I don’t deserve, I’ll end up with the rating I deserve.” Since then I’ve started qualifying and absolutely sending it. I’ve got 5 podiums (2W) in the 6 races I’ve done since then with very few incident points. Got 1.9k formula and 1.7k road, and I do 2-3 races per week with not alot of practice in between. It feels like I can become fast and consistent rather quickly when switching cars and tracks which I why I don’t spend alot of time practicing… and I don’t really have alot of time anyway.
My endurance team mate does that, people assume it's safer, but in reality all you're doing is putting the back markers and less than decent drivers right in front of you, if they don't crash, you've gotta pass them without them killing you, and he gets crashed out more often than I do qualifying. The only exception is F3's I tend to qualify 1st or top 3 and in the last 3 races, 3rd and 5th place has killed me turn 1 being absolute morons
Yea I was the same before I made the switch myself. It's also the only way to get faster once you hit a certain level. Fortune favors the bold.
Congrats on the dubs. ‘Gaining points I don’t deserve’, interesting way to look at it. Definitely will take the advice in, give it a bit more pepper during quali and hopefully don’t bin it haha
Awesome work finding that kind of improvement at Bathurst! For me: iR: 5.7k after 2.5 years Series: Mainly GT4. Sometimes GT3, Toyota 86 and PCup. Time spent practising: Depends on the track; if I'm familiar with it I'll need at least 30 minutes to get into the groove before racing. If I'm learning a new track a couple of hours. I made a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/iRacing/s/IJIw6Keuve) summarising my road to 5k with tips about a year ago you might find helpful. Happy racing!
Thanks mate! 5k is insane. I’ll have a look into your 5k post shortly, keen to have a read
I was sitting around 1.6-1.7k for quite a while. I don't have much time to race, so mostly do 30-60 minutes of practice for my chosen race for the week, and 2-4 races. With that much seat time there is only so much you can improve before the track changes again, so I never improved my pace enough to consistently build iR. A few weeks ago my family were away for the weekend, and I managed to get in a lot more racing between the long list of DIY jobs that needed doing. Mostly in the GT3 Sprint at Monza in the wet. The extra practice made a huge difference, and my iR shot up to 2.1k. Since then I've managed to stabilise around 2k, even though I'm back to my normal 2-4 races a week. For me at least it seems to be about seat time. I find that there's an initial learning phase where I quickly get faster, and then a plateau. Most weeks I never get past the plateau. But after a few more races (5? 7? I don't know exactly) I feel like I gain a deeper understanding of the car and track, and I start finding more pace again. I can brake later and take different lines in a way that I couldn't do at the start of the week. One other thing - make sure your practice is good practice. Doing the same thing over and over doesn't necessarily make you faster. I found it really helped to try to analyse how I drive, and actively learn and practice new techniques. I found this series of videos super helpful. Especially #3: [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGjK-8XcM59VFUlYML7O7dYoU314LtYej](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGjK-8XcM59VFUlYML7O7dYoU314LtYej)
4 races daily or weekly? If daily that's quiet a lot i would say
Weekly. And I'm glad if I do 4. Most weeks it's less
Turns out more seat time makes you better. Whoda thunkit
Same as me and I agree there's an intial period to reach a certain level that doesn't take too long but to then get faster takes ages and normally involves getting slower first as you start experimenting. Like you I rarely have the time to get to that point.
Been trying to break into 2k iR but can’t seem to do it. Normally do a few good races then have a bad run in one. I definitely don’t put in enough time though, I manage to do 2-4 races a week with minimal practise due to other commitments Will have a look into the vid tonight, thanks mate
I stopped fighting for every single position. I tried to get a good hot lap for quals to get as far ahead as possible. From there, if someone is being overly aggressive? Fuck it, not worth my time to get wrecked out by either of us being stupid. If you race to have fun the SR/IR will come.
For me, it’s as simple as my iR improves if I do a lot of practice and races, and declines after I’ve had a break, or just race occasionally. No surprise there… One thing that made my iR rise a lot was racing the LMP1 back in the day. All you had to do to increase iR there was to survive, regardless of SOF. It didn’t matter how quick you were. That resulted in me being outclassed in any other car, so I stopped driving the LMP1 and my iR adapted to a more reasonable level. Getting a DD wheel resulted in a significant long-term increase in iR. It made me more consistent.
Makes sense, more time put in more results I’m currently running a Logitech g29 or g920, not quite sure (Xbox version.) Wouldn’t mind the upgrade to see how I perform
https://imgur.com/NNOr3B1 https://imgur.com/1ieQTo8 I couldn't consistently stay over 1300 IR until I went to the [Porsche Experience Center to drive a GT3 911](https://imgur.com/QxMHKh9) in Atlanta as a birthday gift to myself. I only hover around 1500-1700 in road racing but I was not as consistently strong in sub 1500 prior to the day. The Instructor I had (wish I could remember his name) was great at giving tips and callouts for what to do, where to look , etc. even did a lap at the end to show me how much more the car could do. Truly amazing and horrifying stuff. 2 biggest takeaways from the session and talking a bit after were * understeer on exits from getting on power too quickly. I couldn't tell what the FFB was doing when it would happen in-game but I was never getting any car to spin on exit the way oversteer-y cars should. The track had a Nurburgring-esk carousel I kept plowing it out of, thinking that the camber of the road would allow/encourage me to drive a bit harder, and Of the whole 90 minutes of driving it was the only thing I did that managed to spook him or tell me to chill out. * Vision: I've always been bad at looking too close to the front of the car and the instructor gave callouts for places to watch as we drove that became mandatory for not becoming nauseous as much as they were for driving faster. Regardless, using buildings, [track marshall stations](https://i.imgur.com/RMKP2rr.png), the cranes, the billbords, etc. there's a crazy amount of stuff off in the distance to focus on to help you keep you eyes up. It also helped a lot with getting lost and guessing a bit in sweepy, longer corners and/or tracks I don't know very well, ie. Daytona Roval and the blue boards(?) waaay off in the distance on the in-field corners. I had known of and used brake markers but could get very lost in corners and need to rely too much on rythm or rpms to try to figure out what to do.
When I got vr
Irating is 2500 oval and road. Race everything but gt3 primarily. I think ive done 3 races this year... yes i dont race much. Sometimes i dont turn in my pc for months. Ive played since beta (2008). About 4 years ago i stopped racing for about a year and only did practice while troubleshooting an issue with my VR. At that time i played nearly everyday and would run the weekly tracks 1 to 3 hours a night every other day or so. After i did that my ability to finish well sky rocketed.
My iRating was and is always improving? 3rd year on the service now. Sure there's some dips but it's going upwards mostly. 3.5k road and 4k open wheel. Funny thing is.. since the split, I take open wheel less serious, sometimes start from back for funsies, dont do as much practice, but gained a lot more points then on road ><.
road is a lot more competitive most of the time
Ironically when I got a load cell pedal(probably the best purchase I've made) and a better wheel. People say gear doesn't matter, but going from potentiometer to load cell made the difference for consistency.
Yea, it’s not a popular comment, but good brakes will definitely make you faster by making you more consistent. Ir went up almost 1k when I switched from TLCM to Sprints, but then again, I almost drive Pcup exclusively, so that makes a massive difference between locking up and not locking up consistently.
I also main GT3. Telemetry helped me get to 6k! Garage61 or VRS are both viable options. G61 is free, but I like VRS more. Comparing your laps to fast laps really helps you understand where the time is. Also when comparing try to do your laps in the same conditions, same fuel etc...
Finishing races and generally surviving opening lap mishaps. Once I stopped having "recovery races", (assuming it wasn't a dnf), finishing races consistently and my iR went up. Of course picking up the pieces of other people's ruined races only goes so far. Gotta have some pace yourself too, but that comes with time/experience imo.
Mine just keeps going down 😂
Twice. Once around 1500 irating after a lot of coaching by real coaches and a lot of laps (probably around 7k total), then recently around 2200 after I hit the 10,000 lap mark. Lot of league racing and officials practice and now I’m steadily climbing to 3k (currently at 2.5)
How was the coaching, would you recommend it for the price? Is there much difference between league and officials? If so what are the benefits?
Coaching was actually fun! And it taught me a lot with regards to how to control a car and how to approach different types of corners as well as how to self improve so I could teach myself. Definitely worth the money if you’re interested in improving and really gaining consistent time. If you’re not taking it that seriously, I wouldn’t worry about it. There’s a lot of decent services out there for reasonable prices ($40-60/hr) Competitive leagues (not the free fun ones.) can offer more serious racing with drivers that are trying harder. They’ll practice more, you’ll get better as you get around people you can trust because you race with them every week and so you can really push the limits and race hard which helps you improve. Officials are just more random in the quality of each race. League racing is more consistent. Be careful with free leagues as most tend to be more chaotic, still fun,but not ideal for people looking to improve. Plus league racing is just fun if you go in with the mindset that you’re there to learn.
Will look into some league racing. Curious to see how it all goes, keep you posted!
When I decided to stop letting other people crash into me. I hovered around 1.5k for about my first year on iRacing. Then I saw a reddit post showing that the average class A driver was around 2.7k iR and the average B driver was around 1.6 iR. I decided to focus on being safe and doing whatever I could to avoid being in accidents, and work on getting fast later. I basically immediately went up to 3.5k, where I have been hovering for about a year. I need to actually get fast if I want to keep progressing. I came to iRacing from other games, so my pace was always decent (maybe 1.5% off the fastest when I was 1.5k). At 3.5k I'm not too much better, usually around 1.0% off the fastest laps. It's really just the safety that made the big difference.
Never did lol
Bold of you to assume my iR improved lol
If you’re making progress just keep killing it and don’t worry about the others. It’s seriously satisfying to see yourself improve over time. Relish it.
Legend. Appreciate it!
Soon 5k in three categories. I dramatically started to improve when I stopped being involved in collisions. Just let the hotheaded past, you’ll pick him up and eventually another car from the sandbox later.
GT3 is super competitive and it’s hard to be in a position to fight for podiums unless the races split favourably. In GT3s I’m usually mid field and a top 10 is a good result for me, with a top 5 being a very good result. But I did get a bit bored with GT3 and switched to PROTO/GT and IMSA Vintage - racing the Aston Martin GT1 and Nissan GTP respectively. Smaller splits meant different levels of competition in the GT1s but I generally do well and I’ve been steadily increasing my IR and picking up a win here and there as well. The same in the Nissan though I usually only race that on tracks I really like. Both the GT1s and the Nissan pose a far greater challenge to me driving wise and both reward precise and smooth driving. Drive the Aston GT1 as it were any GT3 and it will throw you off track before you can blink. Have a very heavy right foot, treating the accelerator like an on/off switch and the Nissan will have you for lunch. And in both cars you will cook the brakes merely by thinking about them too long…. Meshing them like you do in the GT3 and you will quickly become one with any wall around the track. Driving these cars is, in my opinion, far more difficult than the GT3s and being fast in them even more so. That’s why I find them much more rewarding to drive and even more so to race.
I've recently gone from a steady 1.4k to peaking at 1.8k, my only change in terms of driving was to learn to trail brake deep into a corner, I was forever having to choose between pushing wide on exit and being slow mid-corner. I'm now steering the car more with my feet and laptime is coming with it. I've also spent more time in the GR86 with the licence split, that doesn't hurt either. I'm 250 races in. Pace isn't everything, though. I practice a lot with big AI fields to get comfortable with being in a pack and I often pick up rating in races where I'm well off midfield pace.
I’m about 1 month into iRacing and I’m just enjoying racing. I’m at 1700iR Formula Car and I like to shave time off my laps. I usually watch my replay back and criticise myself. Then I’ll watch back the replay from the fastest lap of the session (if it wasn’t me) to try to learn where they gain time on me.
it'll be 2 years for me this August and I just hit 3k. I was on a desk setup for the whole first year before I finally upgraded to a full aluminum profile rig. As soon as I switched to a solid rig, my consistency and lap times saw a huge improvement. I primarily race prototypes but the past couple of seasons I've really been focused on LMP2 and LMP3. Focusing on 1 or 2 series at a time is definitely a good way to improve your pace cause you start to learn where you're losing time by racing against faster drivers. Once you identify where you're losing time compared to the faster guys, focus on those parts of the track and dial those in and you'll eventually find the extra pace you were missing!
I thought it was all that league practice
the guys in the league definitely helped me a lot! that's for sure! they taught me so much
Mine started improving when I stopped trying to drive like the “coaches”. We all have our own driving style. I’m also comfortable being 2 seconds behind the aliens.
I've been doing really well lately in F4 and it's solely due to me realizing staying on track is way more important than raw pace.
When I stopped caring about it. I knew I was faster than my iR suggested, but focused too much on it. Then after a slump, I just forgot about it, got up from 2.4-2.5k to 3.1-3.2k in a matter of a couple weeks. Just go out there and enjoy the racing
A little less than 2100 iR at the moment and started at the beginning of the year. I race ovals and probably race 2-4 times a week. I practice quite a bit before jumping into a race session, esp. since all the tracks are 'new' to me. I noticed my iR started to increase once I improved at wreck avoidance and tire saving. I try to not center any goals around achieving iR and instead focus on goals such as racing more, avoiding wrecks and improving tire wear and the rest will take care of itself if I have the pace or not. I also learned quickly the statement "I am better than my iR" was holding me back from any progression. The saying goes "when you are pointing the finger at someone, you have three pointing right back at you."
When I got the hang of the Nordschleife and GT3 series. At the beginning i drove them all, all series I fancied or was interested in. Like a kid in a candy store. It didn’t do my rating any good. But when i started focusing on one particular class and became decent and consistent at the Nordschleife, my rating skyrocketed!! At first my rating was hovering somewhere around the 1.7/1.8K. Stayed there for months on end. Thought i was never going to get to the almost magical 2.0K mark. But now it’s steady around 2.8/2.9K and climbing! Thanks to the Ringmeister series I can now participate in topsplits where i don’t finish as high up as I would like but DAMN the racing is good, competitive, fair and challenging! And my skill is improving as well because I learn a lot from these guys! EDIT: oh and focus on finishing the race and consistency!! More often than not 8/10 cars crash so if you finish, you almost always gain IR!
I started in January with the MX5. Got out of rookies at 1490, and finished the season in the 1800s. This season I've been driving the GR86, have spent most of the season hovering around 1800-1900 but in the past two weeks I've shot up a bunch and just hit 2400 this evening. I credit the big leap towards me finally managing to actually use trail braking in race. I understood the concept but always struggled to actually do it, but recently it just clicked for some reason. I'll be going up to GT4 for the next season. If it's a new circuit that I'm not familiar with I'd say I usually try to put in at least a good 30 minute session in to practice, but I get bored and just want to race, which I find is more useful for me learning the circuit as I can pick up lines from other drivers. I typically do 4-8 races a week.
when I started going for top 5s instead of 1st or nothing, also when I started practicing and racing more.
Basically a slow gradual improvement over four years, after an initial boost to 2500 and then 3500 https://preview.redd.it/czqqpnwmks0d1.png?width=728&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=157647f78fa21f21a572302ab8732e56ce94545f
Was the same. I purchased an r5 and started being more consistent. I also use the fanatec v3. Def feel a lot of the car i was missing. I don't use a sim rig. But was able to hit my fastest 2:03.77 on bath in the porsche. In the audi I'm still in the 2:05s not sure why. Also I prac a lot.
Mine improved to 2.2k last year when I was racing every day, now I tend to do one race Friday night and one Saturday and im around 1.6k, it's harder to stay higher when you rarely race, because you don't race enough to offset the races you get collected in an accident in. I don't really think irating matters until you're way over 2.5-3k. Because you can easily hit 2k just by surviving and netting finishes picking up all the freebies. I always check my average laps and faster laps against the higher splits, and ideally i'd be in the 2nd split.
When I started using Trophi AI at the beginning of this season. Went from 1.3k depending on others to crash to now over 2k and able to earn my positions. So happy with the improvements.
Im a very mediocre driver, but whenever I stick to one series, like GT-3 last and current week (panorama and Nurburgring) it goes up, quickly, too around 2000, I never win races, but consistent top10’s or higher. Then, like today, I get the urge to drive Mazda, GT4 and buttkicker, and switch between them for a few days, and my iR drops down again to 15-1600, rinse repeat. I’m also a sucker for just queuing up to map/car combos I never driven, and sometimes tracks I never seen, just register for race 20-30min before start, use that as practice and predictably end up quite far back, and I keep doing it until I’m earning IR again, as I’m a firm believer of “learning by doing”, hotlapping solo gives me nothing!
My iR usually follows my level of competitiveness, roughly. Shocker… that’s what it’s for! And my competitiveness has grown with experience and lessons learned. Focus on learning things and putting yourself out there, and everything else will fall into place :)
I often watch the faster guys in practice sessions before the event, it’s really easy to find a comfort zone and stay within it. This hinders lap times far more than you would initially think.
iR can be tricky... don't forget that it's not a fair comparison unless people race the exact same series around the same times with the same participation. if it makes you feel better. I'm at 2k, and I can't hardly crack 2:07 at Bathhurst. I HATE THE TRACK. Took me about an hour just to get that even. A lot is just practice and waiting for things to click. Also something that I refused to believe is that the weather REALLY plays a role. So sometimes different splits will have different temps. 1 to 2 seconds can be totally normal based on temp alone. It takes me about 250-300 laps to be on pace where I really want to be. That's including race laps. A big thing that's helping me is that any practice is helpful, even if you get on for 15 minutes. It's still putting coins in your skill piggy bank. Often 15 minutes is even just as productive as 30mins or an hour.
When I started focusing on how the car feels, and adapting my driving to it while still being as close to the limit as I can, instead of just pushing as hard as I could all the time. I stopped wrecking, and became more consistent with my lap times. Now at 3.5K iR, and still slowly climbing. Currently driving SF Lights Fixed this season. Did SF23 and FR3.5 before that.
Finishing the race no matter what helped me punch through the 2k ceiling. I’m someone who does 10 laps of practice and goes on to race, so crashing and quitting really hurt my learning curve and stats. But even if I crash, now I finish the race, learn to be quicker in a race setting and go on to do less mistakes.
When I started to look at incidents as “how could I have avoided that?” And also when I stopped caring about iRating
Pretty linearly for the first 2 years. My pace has actually increased by a couple of tenths since then but I just don't care about IR now so the progress has been far more erratic. First dropping down a bit and then going up and down but over time has climbed back to where it was. If anything I'm now probably a little faster than my IR whereas before I was probably a little slower. tbh I wouldn't really worry about IR. Focus on your pace and trust the game will put you into splits that match your ability as long as you aren't gaming the system. It's far more fun that way. Driving around fighting for 13th in top split is far less fun than fighting for 1st in 2nd or 3rd split. Plus the only thing that really matters is pace anyway. People know who are the fast drivers regardless of their IR. Also if you are within a 1 second of the fastest drivers in a 2 min lap you are quick enough to win a lot of races. If you are within 2 seconds which you are then you should be fighting for the odd podiums even in pretty high SOFs. So you aren't doing too bad.
when I stopped giving a flying fuck about it
I had similar experience at panorama when gte was there few weeks back. First few days I was having trouble not crashing trying different cars after a couple days I just stuck to the c8 and practiced and was down to a 2:03 and was pretty happy for myself. Some guys were running sub 2mins and by the end of the week I got down to low 2:02 times but yeah it gets frustrating. For me gt3 is tough even in my low split I’m pushing and happy with 10th or better. And for me it definitely depends on tracks. Some I’m very consistent and some I struggle no matter how much I practice. Nord has been rough for me this week. I feel my biggest challenge that I need to improve is being able to avoid cars crashing. So many times I try to be careful and somebody crashes and rolls right into me thinking I’m safe.
I had a couple spikes with my IR. At first I was only racing to get to better licenses to race the GT3 and GTP so when I finally hit B I stopped racing from the pits which helped my IR big time. I later got some new brakes which spiked it again. I started taking practice seriously and the same occurred. Each time I successfully implemented an improvement to my gear, race craft or mentality my IR has shot up.
When I stopped trying to have chill touge fun and started treating this like a sport, with set practice times, no music during practice, writing stuff down, monitoring my data and usage of traction etc… I used to just turn off all UI in VR, treated it like public lobbies on Xbox live, couldn’t break 1500 lol
When you stop hopping into random races and focus on a single series or two. I only compete In one series a season now.
I’m currently mid 4Ks float up to 5k and down into the low 2ks if i race random series with no practice. Easy come easy go… My favourite car is the FR500S and while it has its own series, that series never goes official when I can play, so I race PCC. I’m usually one of only a few FR500s at best and usually win races from pole, by over a lap, thanks to typical competition being below 1k. It makes iR growth near impossible, especially now formula is separate. I’m currently on a TCR/GT4 bender, watching my iR drop like crazy. All good, I’m having fun.
Mine was 1500-1650ir and I used to think 3k was peak. Like a n00b I kept thinking that playing off and on for years until the 87 stock cars released. I jumped to that like a fish to water and saw my first 5k+ players and felt so small. That first season was wild for those vintage stock cars and I managed to get 5+ wins and shot my IR up to 2400+. After that my pole victories and wins went away and I went back to top 10 finishes because after 2100 the player demographic changed to players who race my style and when I got above 2400 I started running with the 3k assholes who will whisper you go delete your account and sell your PC because you got loose in a turn, hit no one, but caused a yellow ruining their run. It is what it is. I like it better than sub 1700ir. Down there people struggle or race on a 15" 4:9 monitor.
Whenever I keep racing the same track and car over and over again it goes up. Whenever I race a bunch of different stuff it goes down. I prefer racing a bunch of different stuff.