Round 3 - Indy 500 "Official Test Races" [May 17th - 19th]

We will be running 2 test races on both Wednesday the 17th (Tonight) and Thursday the 18th (Tomorrow)

Practice: 20:30 CET
Race: 21:00 CET (50 laps + 2 formation laps) The grid will be random. There will be practice starts on race day with the official grid, today is just about practicing the procedure.

These test races will give everyone and opportunity to practice the race start procedure.

There will be practice starts on race day with the official grid, today is just about practicing the procedure so you all know what will happen.

Here is some text to describe what will happen and some images to help illustate.

1) Start formation lap behind SC and Ben (Our SC Driver for just the start), single line hugging right side
2) AI SC goes into the pits and Ben stays, we continue single line hugging right side through turns 1 and 2
3) As the cars enter the backstretch, they move to formation when each ones reaches the Indy logo on the wall. This ensures they don't move at the same time, but in a kind of cascade.
4) 1st car of each row moves to utmost left, 2nd car to centre, 3rd car stays where it is. Because you will be doing it in cascade it should be easy to identify your assigned position: When you reach the Indy logo you just need to look what is in front of you: 1 car, move to middle, 2 cars, stay right, 3 cars, move left as new line.
5) We go in formation through turns 3 and 4, and Ben enters the pits and types "green flag" in the chat.












Any questions please post here. We hope as many as possible will join this session.

Will it be possible to get replays of these practice races?

damn just reading this and it's too late to join now...hope I can be there 2morrow for some fun

We will be running 2 test races on both Wednesday the 17th (Tonight) and Thursday the 18th (Tomorrow)



These test races will give everyone and opportunity to practice the race start procedure.





Everyone except for US drivers (and others no doubt) who have a day job. I'm not available till 23cet on Wed or Thursday.  But my understanding is that there will be practice starts on race day.

Just for clarification, the new AIW will only be valid for the "initial start" we will still be lining up in rows of 3 for the actual start?

Jason Fitch wrote:

Just for clarification, the new AIW will only be valid for the "initial start" we will still be lining up in rows of 3 for the actual start?

Of course.

People really need to sort their s*** out.

People driving flat out under yellow and crashing into other, weaving on the straights to lose the following car, dive bombing into corners, making it 3 wide into the turns, hard braking while under yellow. A LOT OF YOU HAVE DONE A FULL SEASON OF OVAL RACING! Yet some people are racing like they have never done this before. Some of the driving i saw was as though some of you have never raced online before!

Yes the game got confused, but i am solely commenting on the driving standards which were appalling from a lot of people.

Seriously, get your heads in gear for tomorrow. We do not want a race full of yellows and accidents.

If the game gives you a "Go to the end of the longest line penalty" do it, then you will not get a stop/go.

No disrespect intended to anyone, but the standard of driving this evening was way too casual and frankly, reckless. On Sunday, we will need everyone to drive with the best of care if we want to have a race with minimal yellows and a healthy field finishing.  A few points I would like to stress:

- DO NOT race to the line when a yellow flag is called; this will only lead to pile ups when the field arrives at the safety car.  And in any case, the field is frozen when the yellow is thrown, so there is no point in racing back to the line.

- If you are given a longest line penalty during the pace laps, SERVE THE PENALTY.  Otherwise, you will incur a stop and go when the track goes green.

- Some of you really need to practice getting away in these cars.  Otherwise we will have an epidemic of "Driving too slow" and longest line penalties on race day.

Jason White wrote:

No disrespect intended to anyone, but the standard of driving this evening was way too casual and frankly, reckless. On Sunday, we will need everyone to drive with the best of care if we want to have a race with minimal yellows and a healthy field finishing.

Apologies for any contributions to this I may have had, everybody.

Matthew Hull wrote:

Jason White wrote:

No disrespect intended to anyone, but the standard of driving this evening was way too casual and frankly, reckless. On Sunday, we will need everyone to drive with the best of care if we want to have a race with minimal yellows and a healthy field finishing.


Apologies for any contributions to this I may have had, everybody.

Apologies are fine, but sound driving is even better.  Remember how calm and smooth everyone was on qualifying day.  We need the same sober approach on race day.

Hm, waste of an evening. First I sidelined myself, then my computer froze and I returned to late for the second practice race

With 500 miles ahead of you, dog-fighting constantly with the cars around you makes no sense.  Driving three wide into a turn on a one groove race track makes even less sense.  I agree with Richard, it looked like some of you had never raced online before.

Now, if I'd gotten even that far as fighting with...


...I avoided running into the back of two other cars on getting away of the grid, because I was first in a hurry for rF telling me I was to slow, then hit the brakes to late, and got hit from behind. Then I saw, I could still join the race, went out and got DQ for leaving the pits under a red light.

As much as I enjoy the sim and the series, rF's yellow/rolling start system remains a constant source of grief...

Is it not possible to let rFactor do a standing start, with Ben in the Pace Car on Pole, and subsequently do 2 manual pace car laps?

Juha Bos wrote:

Is it not possible to let rFactor do a standing start, with Ben in the Pace Car on Pole, and subsequently do 2 manual pace car laps?

The problem there would be that rFactor would immediately throw a yellow because the cars are stopped on the track.

Also, set a short first gear that allows you to start easily.

I never got a go to end of line instruction just the stop/go penalty on every start, for Sunday what are we meant to do if that happens? Serve it on warm up laps and rejoin in original position/back of grid or just ignore it?

I also got a penalty when everyone crashed under yellow and I ended up first in line behind the safety car, even though the game was telling me to follow the safety car it gave me a stop/go penalty for being ahead of cars I shouldn't of been? I then went to pit to serve penalty stupidly as safety car was still out so just drove through and it was then telling me to join back of queue rather than dropping behind safety car giving me a lap lead?

Don't thing I'll be home in time to do practice races tomorrow.

Let's wait until we have a replacement AIW before we make recommendations; hopefully it will resolve the issues we are having.

In the meantime, everyone needs to practice slipping a way from a stop! If you're having trouble with that in a practice race it will be 10x worse on race day. AND 10x worse than that getting out of your pit stall during the race!

I would suggest looking at your gearing. A lower 1st makes it easier to get away. But you may need to compensate with 2nd and 3rd.

If you don't know how to do the start, please ask for help after re-reading the rules. If you're sure you know how to do it, practice, practice, practice with the AI in off-line mode with the two-wide formation until you are comfortable.

And, ABOVE ALL ELSE, stop demanding the admin make changes the week before the race because you have not prepared and insist on being a hazard on the track and an idiot. They are doing their level-best to make this as idiot-proof as possible! But there is always someone trying to push that limit.

PREPARE! And don't be the idiot that wrecks the race for someone who has prepared all month!

Here endeth the sermon.

For tonight's test you must all download this updated GDB AND AIW.

--> DOWNLOAD UPDATED RACE DAY GDB AND AIW <--

And to add in the sermon, caution under yellow flag, I saw yesterday some crazy and unacceptable moves under yellow, and that's happened only after 5/200 laps.

Is matchmaker down? I can't get the server list to display

What is the adress of the server, so I can connect to it directly?

91.121.135.76:34410

Cheers Lee