SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Feature: Sim Racing Tips - Getting the Most Out of Your Virtual Racing Hobby

How you approach your sim racing session will go a long way to how it actually turns out. Don't go in saying "I'll set a personal best tonight", because with that approach you probably won't. Instead, concentrate your efforts on driving consistently and keeping your car exactly where it needs to be on the track. Instead of lap times, focus on precision car placement, hitting your shift points, braking points, etc. Always work on your car balance, because thrashing at the controls will never yield a good lap time. It's counterintuitive, but if it feels slower and more fluid, it was probably a better lap.

This is an important point to reemphasize when first learning a racing sim: Don't worry about lap times. Concentrate on what the sim is telling you about the car. Traction, chassis rotation, tire slip, etc. And concentrate on nailing your marks — your car placement at the braking point, turn in, apex, exit, throttle timing, etc. Think about how you're turning the wheel, at what rate (too fast means too late on turn in, and self-induced understeer). Are you able to unwind the wheel it as you pass the apex and drive for the exit, or are you holding the turn in as you accelerate out? — if so, you're holding the car back in terms of acceleration. Are you braking hard, easing off, then easing back on the throttle in almost one seamless motion? In other words, you need to be aware of what you're doing with the controls as you turn laps. As you gain experience with the track, and with the sim, you'll start to get a feel for what you're doing with the controls. And that's when you'll get some consistency and your lap times will improve.

Take a break between track sessions, and spend the time to self-analyze with the replays using both in-cockpit and chase views. Use a telemetry program if available and look for speeds at various points on track (typically braking zones, apexes and turn exits. Without telemetry programs, you can compare lap times by watching the tachometer and speedometer. Look at braking points, peak rpm before braking, speed at apex, and rpm at turn exit.

Telemetry from F1 Challenge '99-'02

"You only gain sim racing experience one lap at a time." Work on consistency, control and awareness, use the replay feature to define your best racing line, and then drive the car where it needs to go. Between track sessions make reference of your lap times, and your average session times, over the next several sessions. You won't set the track record in one session — if it was that easy, anyone could be a real race car driver. And there wouldn't be any challenge or reward to this genre.

In some respects this is where sim racing is a lot like golf — practice, and concentrate on how you're practicing. It'll pay off. Here's what Tom "20mm" Hayden said about my comparison of sim racing to golf:

"Since you brought up golf, golfers are exactly the same way, always looking for that putter that will fix their woes on the green, or that neat training gizmo that will instantly give them a Tiger Woods swing. I'm a gym rat, and as such I know that there is no quick fix to turn someone who is overweight and out of shape into one of those TV exercise gurus."

True. True. And equally true for sim racing. One of my squadron mentors once told me that "you only gain experience one day at a time."

Enjoy the ride. It's a challenge, and it can be frustrating, but it's also a rewarding experience.

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