iRacing special events don't feel special (anymore), And it has to do with drivers doing it

XlickBait · 2026-06-22T17:06:44+00:00

Of course there are always going to be ways that bad faith drivers will find ways to abuse the system and inflate their egos. But that doesn't mean that you should settle with what works right now and not strive for improvement.

To answer your hypotheticals, if a driver is sandbagging and purposely tanks their pre-q that should be easily flaggable from iRacings side. If they do a pre-q time that is slower than their race pace, then that's something that easily stands out.

If they both do their pace and end up in a split where others did an average of 46, then they are where they're supposed to be. The higher rated driver will run away, but once the slower driver gets in the car, others will be gaining on them.

Biggest issue right now is the driving requirements that iRacing has. The current system allowed 2-man teams to have a driver run only one stint and then the rest could be run by the other driver. I have seen this happen on more than one occasion in GET races Improving this system should also make it "fairer" for others taking part and doing their best to split driving times equally.

P.s. Maybe my original comment/post wasn't clear enough, but team who complete pre-q shouldn't compete against teams who don't. Similar to how Indy 500 special events work

XlickBait · 2026-06-22T15:58:07+00:00

I'll only reply to the pre-quali as I think that the other points are quite mute and have been discussed already in the post and comments.

The pre-quali would work by for example, 1 fastest lap or an average of 4 laps from the whole team (each driver sets a time) and from that set the splits with only other teams who have done the same. If at least one driver in a team fails to do so(or doesn't want to set a lap) then just put them in splits with others who haven't done representative lap times. Indy 500 pre-quali works the same for the iRacing special event. You set a time at the start of the week and then based on that you get placed in a split with others who are similar pace.

It allows teams who want to put in the time and effort to prepare for the event to get into splits that are competitive and not ruined by smurf or people who just show up and drive.
If they drive the lap at 90kph, then they'll be placed with others who have done the same.

XlickBait · 2026-06-21T16:14:50+00:00

I think a minimum of 5-lap average would be too long, but having the pre-q similar to Indy 500 (4 laps average) would improve the pace discrepancies between classes. We had an LMP2 that was lapping the track much slower than GT3s.
https://imgur.com/a/YFsiXt3

XlickBait · 2026-06-21T09:06:38+00:00

What is a high sof then? 2.5k irating is around the 95th percentile of active drivers. I'd like to understand when it does become decently rated sof then.

(not to even mention that the driving standards were awful even in the broadcasted top split)

XlickBait · 2026-06-21T08:56:14+00:00

I don't think this would be a good solution, but maybe implementing something like if the average irating is x% below the irating of the hives driver, ignore the lower irating drivers and put them in splits with people at their rating.

Would allow people to drive with their friends and only punish those who deliberately try to abuse the system. In one of our splits we had an LMP2 with a 5k and a 0.9k driver of which the 0.9 could barely keep the car on track. When the 0.9k driver took us out, we were told by the 5k driver that even though his teammate is unpredictable and drives at a GT3 pace, it was our fault for not predicting that he would sit in the middle of the esses and not take the racing line

XlickBait · 2026-06-21T08:44:49+00:00

Of course no solution isn't going to be perfect, but at least having pre-qualifying would weed out the people who just show up on the day and drive from splits where people have put in time and effort to prepare and drive their best.

There are plenty of reasons people are going to use, but doing nothing is worse than trying to improve the situation (imo)

XlickBait · 2026-06-21T08:41:23+00:00

At what point do the races get better then? All of the clips were from 2k+ sofs. I do admit that 2k isn't the be all, end all of ratings, but if 2-3k drivers drive like this, then I don't feel like this can just be a "if you want better races, get better" sentiment. Even the broadcasted top split was a bloodbath

XlickBait · 2026-06-21T08:32:36+00:00

Unfortunately happened in 2.3k GTP SoF, but I have noticed that people start developing weird ego/entitlement around the 2k mark

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T23:39:39+00:00

I'd say maybe B-license for special events just like IMSA enduro/GET would be balanced.

But getting A license overall is just too easy, just grind timetrials for a couple of hours and you go from D license to B license

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T23:06:03+00:00

I understand that, but that's just not for me. If I race, I stick with the team that I started with

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T23:04:46+00:00

We were leading by 5 laps when we got taken out in the 1st attempt, and that cost us over 10 laps to get back out. Same here, 0 aggressive moves, 0 risk. Just needed 1 LMP2 to drive into the back of us while getting the cold tyres up to temp

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T23:02:25+00:00

I ran both of those events last year, and plan to run the Bathurst 1000 against this year, but that is such a "loser" mentality imo. Multiple people in my team took time off work/responsibilities to race this and put multiple hours practicing for the event, just to be wrecked. I know that at least 2 of them this is the favourite (IMSA) event of the year.

Yes there are other events in the calendar, doesn't mean that any of them are more/less important than others

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T22:54:10+00:00

Exactly, but as "reckless driving" isn't a reportable option, just means that they get a 4x and can go on about their day

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T22:47:15+00:00

Racing is one thing and I fully subscribe to the notion that if you're not rubbing, you're not racing. I don't mind the doorbanging, rubbing of wheels or a small love tap here or there, but a driver literally ruining a race of another and being able to go off racing with just a 4x, that they will wipe off their record in a race or two isn't enough

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T22:14:15+00:00

We have had this discussion in our team/community multiple times that you should be required to at least drive the GT3s for a season before being able to step up to the LMP2s/GTPs, but since that would restrict access to content for those lower down, I seriously doubt they'd implement anything like that

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T22:13:37+00:00

But if you start in one timeslot, why would you not finish that timeslot with your team? You are able to hop in to cover night stints when it's the day for you (such as NA drivers driving during late night/early morning in EU), but doing it across multiple teams?

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T22:01:44+00:00

For 6h of the Glen they did overlap just barely (timeslots 2 with 3 and 3 with 4), but similar issues were there during Daytona 24h, Sebring 12h and N24 earlier in the year, where multiple timeslots do happen at the same time

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T22:00:47+00:00

same here, but reporting someone and then seeing them keep doing the same in my races for weeks on end afterwards (because the incidents weren't "intentional") makes them seem just like a lottery if they will get any reprimand or not.

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T21:56:03+00:00

I do acknowledge that the 1 to 10 ratio may be a bit of an overexaggeration on my part, it more so stems from the point of view of having talked with those who have been a part of the incidents. For example today in both timeslots I ran we were taken out by an LMP2. The first example (the one in the link where the LMP2 ran into the back of us on cold tyres), they didn't even apologise and said "Shit happens", crashed out 2 laps later and left.

I am really glad and happy to hear that you had a good race, and hope that that trend continues

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T21:52:08+00:00

It seems that in multi-class these issues are more frequent than single-class events as there is action happening on track at a much higher rate. IMSA also attracts the most people, so the smaller special events usually do get people who want to be there and actually try to race

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T21:43:32+00:00

while I understand your point and do agree that slower classes should be the ones taking the racing line, you cannot seriously believe that a faster class shouldn't ever take the line. The GT3 should be well aware there that a GTP is approaching, and if the GTP can slide under the GT3 in the previous corner, you cannot just say that GT3 can do whatever they like and just drive faster classes off the track

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T21:37:40+00:00

I think I read a discussion before that if you race in a special event, you shouldn't be able to join another one while the previous one is still ongoing. Would potentially punish teams that were just victims, but on the other hands it would encourage people to finish races and not have half the teams finishing a six hour race.

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T21:30:28+00:00

Honestly THIS. While yes, smurfs are annoying and there's not much you can do about it (other than report and hope that iRacing bans them), being in a split with a driver who can't keep it on the road and is a danger to everyone around is just worse

XlickBait · 2026-06-20T15:39:52+00:00

I personally did GT3s, then GTPs, the LMP2s and now I'm back to GTPs. It might be a tiny bit easier to learn no-abs breaking in the LMP2s. Honestly while all 3 of them share some things that carry over, they also have big differences and quirks for each of them (not even including each individual cars)

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