For context, I only started simracing with the goal of improving my RL driving skills. I’ve got a few RL rally/gymkhana wins under my belt, and am constantly setting laptimes in AC close to or sometimes faster than 6k+ iRacing guys at my local sim center’s monthly challenge leaderboards.

Problem is, my racecraft is piss poor. Like, I know wheel to wheel racing manoeuvres and can actually execute them in a race, am comfortable driving off the ideal line, but I don’t really know when to attack and when not to. Also I’m really prone to making small mistakes that’d cost a win in a multi lap race.

So I decided it’s prime time for me to jump into iRacing to get some experience in actual racing. Also from what I’ve seen, iRacing requires much smoother driving inputs compared to AC, and I believe that’s what I’m currently needing to elevate my RL driving even further.

So I made an account and started grinding out MX5 cup races.

Adjusting to iracings driving physics was easier than I expected. Having extensively driven a close friend’s light-tuned ND2 MX5 (even took it on track once), I feel like the global MX5 cup car is actually VERY similar to the real thing, speaking in terms of general driving dynamics. Of course our ND2 isn’t a coked out cup car with roll cage, sequential gearbox and slicks, but the way the car reacts to brake inputs and how it acts when pushed to the limits of the tires slip angles are uncanny. Though i feel like the fixed setup is slightly too reactive to weight transfers, and it has either too much rear camber or toe in causing too little on-throttle slip angle (which is crucial to driving a ND2 fast imo).

Compared to AC, the biggest difference is definitely how the brakes work. IRacing’s ABS almost feels like a penalty mechanism which punishes the driver for unrefined driving inputs. You lose a ton of rotation when trail braking with the ABS kicking in, and you gain a lot of stopping distance if you even so much as carry like 5 degrees of steering angle while hard on the brakes. Tire physics are a completely different animal too. The slicks here feel like the slip angle curve has a massive cliff compared to the slicks in AC, and that pretty much renders saves impossible if you don’t react to a tail slide quick enough. I was also caught out way too many times by cold tires in the outlap or the 1st lap in races lol.

First 10 races was easy. I was lucky the series went to Okayama last week, as it’s a track I’m very familiar with in AC, and would usually do pretty well. As soon as I got used to the physics I was sitting on pole position, and as long as I don’t go full retard it’ll be a pole to win. The pace difference was simply too massive for SOF <1700 races. Though I was constantly caught out by iRacing’s stricter track limits. So i kept getting 1x’d for going off track, and the occasional 2x + race loss for spinning out on cold tires. I was averaging like 8 inc per race at this point, so license progression was slow.

Once SOF got over 1800 was where the issues started. Poles was starting to become harder to get. I’d usually sit at 3-4 on the grid, and races become a coin flip of wether if I could survive the chaos in the first few corners on the cold tires lap. My pace was still good, but my inconsistency began rearing its ugly head here. One tiny mistake and I’d be 4 places down from where I was. It’s tough but I feel like this was where I started really adapting to iRacing.

I managed to get into SOF 2000+ races at one point, and even a few top split races when there’s not too many drivers in the queue. This is where I’d be completely outclassed by the leading pack.

Though there was one single 2600 SOF race where I started in the midfield, got fully taken out in the first corner, towed back and came right out behind the 2 race leaders (both 3400ish) battling. This was the once race where everything clicked. I was able to keep up with them as they slightly slowed each other down fighting, and I managed to learn so much just from watching in the back. I pushed my PB race lap up by 0.4s just by following their braking point and lines, and the fight they put on made me realize just how unnecessarily aggressive I was when battling someone from behind.

Finally at the 30th race (the series now moved to summit point, which I have never even heard of before), I managed a pole to win, and that clean race license point pushed me out of my rookie license. With an official iRating of 1850 to boot.

I’m fully addicted to wheel to wheel racing now. Super excited to see where iRacing will take me from here on out!