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(repost from Community Hall and the first new thread here in an age)

In an effort to promote sim racing here I propose anyone with interest in sim racing give this a go.

There's a new round of ranked leaderboard competitions posted for RaceRoom. The link to the Steam page is in one of my posts above. The download is free. The competition is free to join. So grab your old wheel and dust it off, or hook up your controller and give it a go! It goes for two weeks so try it as much as you like

This is not racing, it is time trial, hotlapping. It's just your car out on the track with unlimited attempts at setting your fastest time and seeing where you end up on the leaderboard.

You have the option to challenge any driver on the list. Doing so places their car on the track as a ghost car, so you can race me or anyone. And even better, it's a great tool for discovering where you are slow and can find time to go even faster. Pick a lap that's three or four tenths faster than your best and it will reveal where you can improve. Please note RR has the most strict track limits in the business. All four wheels over the white line is a violation and the lap will not count.

The track is Watkins Glen GP with the inner loop. The car is Formula US, a 2016 Indy Car. Open wheel, very fast, sounds wicked

So yeah, if you're keen, join me on the leaderboards and have a bash

R3E Watkins Glen Ranked Leaderboard


I'll put up a ghost tonight after work. Hope to see you there. Let us know if you join and what name you're running under. I'll take friend requests from anyone here at SimHQ. I'm Derek Bond in the sim, running under the United States flag (sort by US to find me easily)

1.24.947 at The Glen for you to chase Derek. My optimal time estimated at the moment at 1.24.555.

Nice! Top twenty. Good lap Jens. I'll load your ghost later so you can show me the way it is done

This car has a lot of grip, so you can really stand on it around the Glen.

I chased Jens around and yeah, that's a very strong lap. I couldn't touch you. Then I took it in to the garage, having given it a proper stint to see if it needed anything, and didn't change much. I dropped the aero, a bit of brake pressure and shortened sixth gear by one click. This helped, the car runs faster, but it was more a matter of growing confidence in how fast I could take each corner. The difference for example in how I was taking the loop chicane at the end versus the start was massive. Managed to post a 23.1 after several stints and tweaks in the garage.

That's a cool combination as you can really go for it and it feels fast.

I like the idea behind this Derek, hopefully it will bring some more people out of the woodwork. I will jump in when the combination interests me, indy at the glen is one of those combo's. Unfortunately it will have to wait until next weekend. But I have a new formula wheel that I could try with these cars, as long as Micro Center has a Simucube qd in stock this weekend.

Wait. A simucube what?

Did something happen to your current wheel/base? You've got time to hit the glen and you'll have everyone's lap in front of you for targets. This will be a popular event overall with a couple thousand laps posted I'd predict.

I need one of the wheel side quick detaches, to mount on the back of the wheel I picked up. No issues with the base, it's been solid the whole time I've used it. No issues with any of the wheel's I had, someone on facebook marketplace was selling a Ascher Racing wheel, and I couldn't pass it up for the price. Each wheel I now have, I ended up getting on sale, or discounted, and sometimes it's hard to pass up those deals, when they probably wouldn't come around again.

Ah well, couldn't make better than 130th.

Congrats on 8th DB.

That's just your opening salvo. Having only just gotten in to it you have gobs of pace to unlock I reckon.

Thanks, I was happy with that lap but it will drop. Not a top ten lap in the end, but I'll take it for now.

I also hit the Nordschleife in the Crossle. Ten and half minutes to get around! This is NLS layout and so has most of the GP track tacked on to the proper Nordschleife.

I'm going to hit Interlagos in the hypercars this morning. One of my favorite tracks and I usually seem to do well in the hypers. This is premium content so the player needs to own it.

I'm pretty happy with my ranking, I was 350th on previous so I improved. I used your advice on setup and found a few tenth with it I'm sure.

Still, that's quite a gap

Nicely done. That's the way to do it. Just keep improving. Building the lap corner by corner until you've put together a really fast one. Some events are fixed setup and all you can alter is brake balance and pressure, but others give you the freedom to try a few changes and see if you can find some time that way. I focus mostly on corner entry and the rest sorts itself out mostly.

I hit Interlagos in hypers (Lambo) and Vallelunga in GT4 (McLaren 570). I drove the Alpine first but didn't do well. Swapped to the 570 and was better.

I went with Alpine and top 100, progressing

Nice work. I have not returned to the Glen yet, but I probably will to see if I can sharpen up that lap, which is tumbling down the order, probably.

I did hit the X-22 competition at Road America and posted a lap. This car is fast and not that easy to drive. I found it more difficult before I got the Sprints and now it is better. Currently 22nd out of 322 so in the top 10% which is always my target.

Of the free comps it's only GTE at Zhejiang that I've not posted, and I don't think I've ever driven this track.

I've also been putting up laps in old time F1 cars in AMS2 at various historic tracks.

True dat. I had never driven Zhejiang Circuit, which as you might surmise, is in China. Looking at the leaderboard I saw the top times were sub-1:30 and in a GT car that means it's a fairly short lap.

Class is GTE which is just two cars, a BMW M8 and a Porsche 911 RSR. Hit the track and man this is one of the twistiest tracks I've ever driven. Corner after corner, with a bit of elevation, not totally flat and I liked the challenge. I ran the RSR and needed several stints to learn the track, and make minor adjustments to the balance but managed to post some good ones. It feels like Fuji that had been run through the wash and shrunk, with every corner pulled very close together and stitched together by two long straights. Pretty cool track, a good test, a pedal-dancer and that's the sort of track I really like. Wouldn't make a great racing track as it's too serpentine, but makes a good hotlap track. The 911 is tailor made for tracks like this (but 11 of the top 15 laps at the mo are in the M8).

I returned to the Glen and gave it another go to see if I could find any time out there and managed to shave four tenths to turn a 22.7. Used the same sorts of setup tweaks, running 6/12 aero. I tried taking the first chicane in sixth gear and basically flat but found fifth is faster through the loop right after. I'm dropping to fifth at the instant I turn in for the chicane and then just standing on it through the chicane exit and the loop. Losing some time I suspect through the final few turns and seems that the better the lap that preceded it, the worse I take the final corner. It is inversely proportional to how well the lap has gone to this point haha.

I also returned to Nordschleife NLS in the Crossle and shaved a second off my lap

The first (and likely last) annual sim racing recruitment drive has been a total flop, with no drivers giving it a go as the result of my promotion. Same as always I reckon.

Derek, I took a shot at your times on the Glen and on Road America. Well done on Watkins Glen, I am sure I have some more speed, but the car is needing more setup changes, and I'm more interested in driving than being a crew chief, lol, so the few changes I did make might be all I have in me. I put a few 10ths on your Road America time though.

Yeah, I saw that. Nicely done. The X-22 isn't my best car, but I've improved in it as I said. Even so my lap is in the top 10% so to nick it is a good effort. I think I'll have to give that one another go! I want to also congratulate you on your A rank. I kept saying that's promotion pace and so it was.

I see rollnloop is already a C and he's been at it for a few hours

The X-22 is such a weird driving car, it feels like a older turbo car that has a lot of lag in the turbo. It's hard to exit the corners and not have it spool up and light the tire up. Thanks, I didn't notice I had a promoted rank.

Yes, that's what is tricky about it. There is no TC, and as a ground effect car it has little downforce -- relatively speaking -- at low speeds. So the exits to slow corners are difficult in this car. Very easy to give it too much smash and it snaps.

Inspired by you going faster than me I hit the track again, but swapped to a red car since red is the fastest color. Ran against your ghost and chased you around for a bit. Nice driving Kenny. On that ghost lap, anyway, your exits were good. It's fun racing your ghost since I 'know' the dude driving it.

The X-22 event is fixed setup so there's no voodoo that I can do. Except I admit I don't like brake migration so mostly cancel that out and go with a more traditional brake setup. I did for this event.

The red paint shaved a full second off my PB and I jumped from the fifties to 15th on the board. Theoretical is three tenths faster again so might be worth one more attempt.

One week to go, so plenty of time to give it a shot and see how quick you are. The Glen event is at 1100 entries and climbing. Have a crack at it! Free to play