Signed up

I have decided to go with another 3 months of iRacing, and this time, I want to get it right.
Anybody want to hold my hand and guide me through it, as I got it all wrong last time and didn't enjoy it at!

Cheers
 
Choose a series and stick to it. Look in the forums too for informations, and when the big races usually happen. You can also check the results page to see if the series is popular in your timezone.

If for example the series requires a C license, you'll need at least a D 4.00+, which is easy to get, just keep out of trouble and you'll be fine. You have to do 4 races per license to gain one, and have 3.00+ SR (4.00+ promotes you right away once you do 4 races)

It's quite simple when you take the time to understand how it works. If you have more specific questions ask away, and it would help if you would choose a preferred series now so I can tell you how to get there using relevant cars :)
 
you need to make a basic decision first: do i try to get as a high a licence as possible, quickly (because e.g. i want to run the big gt cars) or do i rather take my time, get to know the environment, pick up a bit of experience here and some there. both approaches in my eyes are reasonable and will lead to satisfying results.

for the first, the fast trip do a couple of mazda cup races but by all means start from the pit (ask in this thread if you don't know how to) and stay a second clear of everything that moves. in other words: run races that produce 0sr. this should quickly get you into the rookie 4.0 category. next step up would be the cadillac in the world series, however this is a very tough environment, lots of chaps who do not take a considerate approach. again, start from pits, stay out of trouble and after 5 or so clean events you should be up for promotion to c-class. at that point i would buy the ruf since you get four rides for the price of one and two of the tracks you need to compete in the ruf cup. again: stay out of trouble, just finish cleanly. all the time you will be picking up experience on how iRacing plays and feels. forget your racing instinct, that'll come later.

for the second: do your mazda events to get the d-licence, then buy the skippy (skip barber formula ford) and some tracks (there is a good thread on which tracks to buy in the skippy thread), read all the info in the skippy thread and spend two seasons in the skip. this should teach you all you need to know. after that, pick your target and by that time you will know how to get there on your own.
 
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Once I finally got a proper wheel, I really started to finally enjoy iRacing and have set up my account to renew (I would toggle that setting off and on daily). I'm definitely taking the slow and steady approach, though I'm spoiled with the racing club races here with their professional driving and expected behavior after an incident. In iRacing, you have basically have to plow through a wreck and pray or stop still until the idiot crashes the rest of the field to make the lost position during his first wreck.

I found this video extremely helpful in getting predictable (I said predictable, not fast) performance from the cars where the back-end keeps slipping all over the place.

 
Enjoy iRacing, it's great fun but requires lots of dedicated seat time to get good. Highly recommend the skip barber car for training and the RUF for pure fun of driving.
Skippy forum threads have lots & lots of great information and very friendly people.
 
Lots of good info here but does anybody realize how ridiculous it must sound to a newbie that your first few weeks (at least) on iracing you should enter as many races as you can but start from pit road and don't even think of racing anyone....I stayed a rookie longer than I should have because I actually tried to race people.
 
Definitely give the Skip a try. The car is fun once you get the hang of it, and the Skip community is huge. What Michael says is right, though, the lower-license races can sometimes (often?) turn into demolition derbies. If you don't yet have the speed to run at the front, starting from the pits is not a bad idea.
 
Yeah, it really depends where in the field you are and who's in the race. The whole point of rookie is that it's the only place the people who have no idea what they're doing can race. The trick is simply to be aware of that and drive accordingly. For some that means starting from the pits, for others it just means keeping your head on a swivel and letting them wreck themselves without taking you with them.
 
The other rookies were the problem last time I had an outing with iRacing. I kept getting punished for other drivers mistakes.
I guess a couple of days totally dedicated to time trials might just be what I need. I would have already had them but my wife had been ill, which means I have to take over the whole house duties, and when you are disabled, it's exhausting.

Better than driving with noobs though.
;-)
 
Just think of rookie as racing school, rather than a series. They just want to see that you're smart enough to handle traffic and gauge if they're safe to race with. Basically, it teaches you to recognize the drivers you should let pass because they're going to spin off track in a few corners anyway ;)
 
Yeah, it really depends where in the field you are and who's in the race. The whole point of rookie is that it's the only place the people who have no idea what they're doing can race. The trick is simply to be aware of that and drive accordingly. For some that means starting from the pits, for others it just means keeping your head on a swivel and letting them wreck themselves without taking you with them.
Easier said than done.
 
Just think of rookie as racing school, rather than a series. They just want to see that you're smart enough to handle traffic and gauge if they're safe to race with. Basically, it teaches you to recognize the drivers you should let pass because they're going to spin off track in a few corners anyway ;)
AHAH, now I know where I went wrong in iRacing! Thinking I was "Smart Enough" to handle the traffic . . . :)
 
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Easier said than done.
I did alright, even with a few run ins with whackos. You only need to average 9 or fewer incidents per race to get promoted, so if you keep it on the black stuff you can still get run into twice ;)
AHAH, now I know here I went wrong in iRacing! Thinking I was "Smart Enough" to handle the traffic . . . :)
Just remember, rookie is where you find the worst and least experienced drivers.
 
I'll necro post and say that I did what others propose here and started a lot of races from the pits to move from Rookie to D class, I suggest doing the same. I was making steady progress on my Safety Rating and looking good for a fast track upgrade. At one point I felt that I was getting the hang of it and got cocky enough to start racing from the grid, but after only a few races I noticed my progress on Safety Rating was going for the worse so I went back to pit starts and that solved it for me.
I did this on both ovals and road races and even managed to work my way up to a 2nd place in a oval race once after having started from the pitlane.
 

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