SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Feature: How to Succeed in Racing (without really trying)

And even with some acquired knowledge, I now know there’s a huge amount I have yet to learn, and then to hopefully to apply in practice and later in a race session.

Here’s a brief example, which actually happened recently, and coincidentally involving those very same Vipers we discussed at the beginning of this article. I was having a conversation with a friend who is an experienced driver, and I was telling him about how frustrated I had gotten with the Dodge Viper in GTR.

"Sorry about your wall, mister!" This particular practice session was at Spa on a rainy, wet afternoon. I would just barely get out of the pits and onto the track, apply some throttle, and the car would instantly take a vicious spin. Again and again this happened, no matter how delicate I was in putting on the power. It aggravated the heck out of me. I could not believe how poorly the developers had modeled that car. It could not possibly be that difficult to drive.

It got so bad I quit driving GTR for the day, and went off for some different Viper fun and flew my Falcon 4:Allied Force F-16 Viper into the ground on landing approach.

After hearing my GTR story, my friend and I had a little discussion that went like this;

His question was: "Did you have rain tires on?"

My question back was: "Rain tires?"

Very illustrative of the state of my auto simulation knowledge.

By now good readers, you may be wondering at my mildly amusing, but rather dreary tale of woe. What, if anything, did I actually gain by reading Chunx and McGonigle’s fine “how-to” articles? Besides the fact that I didn’t know very much, or that racing sims are tough and take lots of practice and a lot of learning in order to run fast? Even beyond the fact that Great Expectations of the Unrealistic Type will lead you to hitting your steering wheel and talking to yourself?

"Chunx said nip the cones" I’m glad you asked.

I actually learned a lot, some of it painful, and we’ve pretty well covered those aspects, but even those were beneficial. I got rid of the easy fix notion and instead settled down for some planned practices in which I tried to take my learning in small, digestible pieces.

I learned just by watching good drivers drive, seeing what they did on a particular course in a particular car. Seeing what their revs were, speed was, braking zone was, what their line was. And then trying to do it myself. Just not too fast, too soon. I learned by reading through their thoughts about racing, what was important, when, and how. Things like turning the car in before you think you really should!

I learned that I need to set myself some defined goals for a particular session. If I am racing a new track, it may be just to get acclimated to it, learn the layout, begin to get a sense of the braking points and how best to drive it. Later, learn some of nuances, where the dips are, the uneven ground, the most difficult spots on the track — for me.

I learned not to go off hell-bent-for-leather driving a track I am not very familiar with. If you don’t know exactly which turn is coming up, what direction it goes, how severe it is, and most importantly how you are going to set up for it, you’re in a learning situation, not a Hot Lap situation. Take your time and learn the track, then you can figure what the best way, for you, is to drive it.

Other practice sessions may be learning to drive with a new setup, or a new car. Maybe I’ll try to refine my sense of drifting, where the tires are beginning to skid and how to use the brakes plus the accelerator to steer the car. There’s so much here, so much to learn, there’s no way I have found just to go out and drive and hope I get better. Having a plan, and sticking to it, works much better.

I learned that mashing the throttle all the time is great, but only for off-road adventures. Smooth application of power, at the right times and at the right places on the track will help you drive faster.

I learned not to focus on getting that Hot Lap Personal Best time. The times will come, but you have to finish laps to ever get a time for it. That means I have to reduce the off-road excursions, be in control. The better times will come, but they will come as a natural consequence of better applied driving techniques coupled with knowledge, not by concentrating on them and always reaching for that carrot at the end of the stick.

"Just nip it!" I learned that, despite the obvious disparity between real life auto racing and simulated auto racing, there are amazing similarities. I have begun reading Ross Bentley’s “Speed Secrets”, and am pleasantly surprised at how much of what he discusses, real world auto racing, applies directly to simulations. That knowledge is helping me drive faster.

I learned that I am a person who has to practice quite a bit in order to show improvement, even against myself. If I get busy, which has been too often the case lately, and I don’t have time to practice, my times will suffer. I will fall back into old, stupid habits I thought I had rid myself of. I lose whatever edge I otherwise had rather quickly. Practice is important, probably more so for someone who is learning.

Now that I have downplayed the importance of Hot Lap times and Personal Bests, let’s take a look at how I’ve done. Like it or not, timed laps are a standard of improvement in auto racing, right behind winning and losing. I began keeping a log book of the dates I ran a track, the laps I ran, and the times that went with.

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