Round 6 - Pocono (Jul 17th)

Bob Wilson wrote:

Lee Simpson wrote:

Having "slept on it" I have to second Bob's comments.  This is a great mod and a great series with a lot of hard working and very capable people supporting it. My hat's off to you guys.

I agree 100% with Bob & Lee. . . . .  

. . . . I will do everything I can to help the Administrators and my fellow drivers so we can continue to enjoy one of the most memorable times in US Auto Racing History.  I may be older then anyone associated with HSO, but I recognize a good thing when I see it. Thank you to all the Administrators, Developers, and everyone else who helps run our races.  

Count me with these guys! And BW said it quite well. While a big fan of the racing, I was never overly fond of the arbitrary, convoluted, and inconsistent way USAC governed the series. And in our particular case, it is the software -- NOT THE ADMINS! -- that is being arbitrary, convoluted, and inconsistent.

I love rFactor! I think ISI has done a great job in providing a platform where anyone in the community can develop and race their own cars and tracks. As with anything, however, there are limits. And I'm not saying our USAC73 creators have surpassed any of rFactor's limits.

Rather, I am saying that creating a mod from scratch (including all the models, physics, tracks, etc.), making everything historically accurate, then launching and administrating a full season series is a herculean task. In this case, it is the virtual equivalent of researching, designing and building 30 race cars with diverse chassis, making them look like and run like the cars of our heroes, then researching, designing, and building 10-12 full-on racing facilities complete with track, pits, garages, stands spectator vehicles and on and on and on. In the space of a year? And the working product is already a damned faithful recreation of places and things and events that all happened before Al Gore invented the internet?

Gobsmacking!

Alberto, Jason, and everyone involved (I feel horrible for not appreciating them by name!), completely in their free time (of which we never have enough), and without compensation, have done one helluva job! The turnout at each race and the jockeying for limited rides is testament to that!

And considering that all modern on-line sims are geared toward road racing, when the format is oval racing, the difficulties in administration goes up by a power of six. Not since Papyrus' "NASCAR 2003" has a title been dedicated to the oval. Hell, even ProjectCARS has punted on ovals since they can't (or won't) get their well-paid heads around coding full-course cautions, pace formations, flexible pit procedures, etc. (I'm an original investor in pCARS and that still pisses me off!)

Having done several full modern NASCAR seasons in rFactor, helping with administration and testing, as well as modifying vintage NASCAR and other oval rfm's for historic accuracy, I offer myself up as sounding board, spit-baller, brain stormer, test mule, crash test dummy, beer tester, or anything (to do with the mod) the admins may want. Just PM me and I'll find the time to be available.

In short, I appreciate all the work and time that goes into putting this series on. If I point out a fault or ask a silly question, I'm just trying make myself better with the mod and/or help get it a little more squared away. This is an epic mod and series, and I just want to help polish it a little.

Here endeth the sermon. (I'm sorry if it sounded that way.)

Somebody shut that guy up!

Thanks Scott much appreciated!  

Indeed, the effort is huge - but so is the satisfaction

James Knowles wrote:

Pranged it when ludovic spun-thought he would spin hi...but he spun low..

Start was a huge mess...

I'm very sorry about that James. I've made quite a huge mistake on turn one and you paid the price of it My sincere apologies to ruin your race in such a way.

Quote :

I believe we will be able to offer some good solution for the upcoming races,

I'm quite sure you will. So far you and all the organisation team have done a HUUUUUUUUUGE work to make the serie really works as it did

Thank you Scott, those kind words make all the difference. We are glad you all like it.

I echo what Alberto and Richard said, I really appreciate all the kind words.  Obviously, we, the admins, had technical issues with rFactor this past Sunday that we did not anticipate.  We thought we had a concrete plan to do a three-wide start with full flag rules, and it just didn't go down the same way it did in testing.  What's that old quote?  The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

Our worst fear is that the issues we had will turn people off to the series, but after reading what several of you have posted, I feel a bit more confident that this will not happen.  Your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated.  Once we have decided on a concrete plan to avoid the issues we had, we will share it with all of you. In the meantime, we have other series to run, and we look forward to seeing all of you on track.  Onward and upward

MOD is great, cars behave beliveable, i didnt drive such a car i real but it feels right to me, whole race atmosphere is great , thaks for big effort put in preparing races and mods here on HSO