My iRacing career thus far (Jan ’12)
I have previously mentioned on this blog that I’m now racing on iRacing.Com. This has been an extremely fun and challenging step in my gaming exploits, but I hesitate to call iRacing a “game.” It’s without doubt the most realistic racing simulation that you can drive, and frankly, it does an excellent job of separating the racing “casual” from the “hardcore.” Although iRacing can be enjoyed by the non-sim enthusiast, it takes real dedication to work your lap times up to a real racing status. The cars you race against are driven by real people, most of which treat the simulation like it’s the real deal (which it pretty much is, aside from the g-forces, repair budgets, and potential hospital bills). That being said, people tend to make mistakes, especially rookies like myself, so there’s definitely an added challenge for rookies to dodge the other rookies on the track when they inevitably spin out.
I joined up with a racing league called “Racing for Jesus” in my quest to find a league to belong to. It’s made up primarily of Christians, which was something I was hoping I would find for many reasons. The first being that I wanted a positive Christian fellowship with this activity, since I knew I would be spending a decent amount of time with it. I also wanted to be a part of a community that would hopefully be helpful and friendly while I race with them and chat with them at their forums. I know how harsh the gaming community as a whole can be, and I didn’t want to be in a community where it was making it even harder for me to pick up the pace with everyone else. It’s hard enough starting out as a rookie, and I didn’t want to be berated on this journey too. It was hard enough learning the ropes of Left 4 Dead 2 multiplayer (which was my first serious look into what online gaming had to offer), and I learned firsthand how awful and degrading gaming communities can be with that game. Online multiplayer is a blessing and a curse; it’s great with your friends, and not so great with strangers. Every once in a while you will run across someone who is worth your time playing with, but overall, gaming communities just aren’t worth the frustration. Most gamers expect you to submit to their every whim and expect that you’re as good as they are, and can’t understand that the perfect world in their head doesn’t exist. Luckily, with RFJ, the racers that make up the community are the antithesis of what the gaming community usually is. This is truly a blessing within itself.
I currently race in RFJ’s “Starter Pack Series,” which uses the cars and tracks that you get with a base subscription to iRacing. This has been beneficial to me, monetarily, as this means I don’t have to buy all the tracks and vehicles up front. We divide up the series into four races a month, with a champion declared at the end of each month. Sometimes the races are open to the public, other times they are password protected (although the password is left on the iRacing forums for others outside the group to use). In the month of December, I finished 5th in the points out of a total of around an average of 10 drivers (had to miss a race due to graphics card issues). So far in the month of January, I have won a pole and am currently tied for 5th in the points. It’s looking up this month, and I can definitely see my skills improving. I’m enjoying racing the Legends and Street Stocks. The Street Stocks run a bit tighter in general than the Legends, but they’re more forgiving in general. If you tap the wall or another car with the Legends vehicle, you mess the car up big time.
Further on down the road in my iRacing record, I would like to look into racing Late Models, Modifieds, or Sprints. I think it’d be fun to race the NASCAR cars, and RFJ does put on a Truck series every Monday (I work Monday nights, which is why I haven’t put a lot of thought into running the Trucks with those guys) but I’ve always had a soft spot for the short tracks. It’s what I grew up watching. I still believe that the Sprint Cars put on the best racing out of any asphalt or dirt series out there, and I would enjoy to be a part of that experience, even though it’s a virtual one (I’m not really seeing myself get a job as a professional racer in real-life, I don’t have anywhere near as much money as I would need to get a team going). We’ll see how my iRacing career pans out. I’m looking forward to participating in official iRacing races in the near future.
