Bad racing habbits you know you have.

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Righteous
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Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Righteous »

I didn't know where to put this, so I put it here.

AC and AACL has got me right back into Sim racing and with a few months of free iRacing access, I've been getting back into that a fair bit too.

I started watching some of iRacing's driving school videos out of boredom but one that really struck a chord with me was the one about "using your eyes". It seems straight forward enough, but I have always had a problem watching cars directly in front of me, rather than looking past them. It tends to cause me to run off the road a bit when I'm following and certainly did in the first round of AACL.

I guess part of that was being out of practice, but still it's a bad habit I can attempt to fix.

I did a couple of races last night in iRacing and really concentrated on looking ahead. Funnily enough, I won both the races and only had a couple of incidents with people spinning out in front of me and them being unavoidable.

My other bad habit is I loose concentration if I have a comfortable lead in a race, even last round of AACL, I went off on the last lap. In my mind I was already drinking my virtual champagne.

How about you guys?
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by norbs »

Being to easy to pass. Not defending my line when people think they can barge past.

All that changes tomorrow night! :D
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Righteous »

Just wait till I'm past you before you start getting racey.

If I can get past.... McLaren is slooooowww at silverstone.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by norbs »

Righteous wrote:Just wait till I'm past you before you start getting racey.

If I can get past.... McLaren is slooooowww at silverstone.
Well, it is a bit different if it isn't someone on the short bus. Like at Imola, I could see Shaun catching me by 3 seconds a lap, so I got the fuck out of his way.

But I wont be letting the other window lickers through as easily. :nod:
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Righteous »

That reminds me of another bad habit. Watching mirrors instead of the track. Sometimes will fall off the race track because of it.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Duke »

Funny you bring this up Righty.
Seems you & I have been doing the exact same thing...
Everything you've said applies to me & I too found iRacing to be a great help in getting my MP eye back in.

by the way after 2 straight weeks of just playing iRacing I now find AC much more easy. Not that I'm faster just way more consistent & controlled. ;)

Now watch me bugger up Wed night... !!!
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by SE1Z »

I watch my mirrors too much and also 'look back' far too often....
Wish I could stop, I have a problem... haha
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Righteous »

I'm pretty happy with what looking further up the road is doing. It's a weird habit to break, it feels very strange when you're so used to looking down, but once I forced myself to do it, I was much more consistent when following others online.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by richo »

SE1Z wrote:I watch my mirrors too much and also 'look back' far too often....
Wish I could stop, I have a problem... haha
I am exactly the same mainly because I have no clue how to drive sims .The only car so far in AC i felt remotely quick in was the Abath open wheeler every other car I'm clueless.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Woodee »

Stamping on the throttle after getting a little sideways which often makes me even more sideways :D
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Scottie »

Scottie never pushes the tires hard enough...
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Righteous »

Haha!! Scottie pushes them hard enough thank you very much.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by pixelboy »

I brake too late on most corners.. Fast in slow out :-(
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by DarrenM »

I'm also bad for losing concentration, particularly in the last couple laps if I feel my position isn't going to change. I drive differently when my mentality changes and screw up.

I also blip the throttle just before the apex a lot. Was fine in GPL where it helped rotate the car, but in most cars it just unsettles them or causes understeer and screws up my exit.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Exar Kun »

I ride the throttle way too much on braking. A legacy of GPL with crazy rear brake biased setups.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by pab »

I'm the opposite to you Mick, I ride the brake too much while cornering. I developed the habit racing Nascar 2003 where I used to use a touch of brake to stabilise the car in the middle of the corner. Now in iRacing (and in my real world karting) I have to force myself to stay off the brake in the middle of the corner, cause all it does is make the car/kart tight and stops it's free rotaton (as well as slowing me down mid corner).

I had an interesting kart meeting a year or so ago, I siezed my engine, and my kart builder offered me one of his karts for the rest of the meetig (he was running 4 classes and had had some DNF's in one of them). He had mechanical brakes on it rather than hydraulic, which worked no were near as well. I was amazingly fast that day, passing guys cleanly around the outside of corners all over the place. Made me realise that I use the brake far too much, and I'm much faster without them :)
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Exar Kun »

I do actually stay on the brake too much a bit as well. I have a very Lowndes-esque style of driving it to the apex rather than getting the braking done and then rotating the car. So lots of throttle and brake right to the apex and then I'm pretty tentative coming off the brakes. Worked very well in GPL but was horrible in LFS. Still seemed to work OK as a technique with the Skippy in iRacing but other cars (especially the stiffly sprung ones) not so much.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by pab »

The delta bar in iRacing has been a fantastic tool for me, I was amazed to see how much time I was losing by using just a tiny amount of brake in the middle of the corner (the Skip Barber especially because it relies so much on carrying momentum through the corner).
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Righteous »

Agree Pab, I love that Delta bar. It actually really helps me be consistent and stops me from pushing too hard. I used to try and make up time on laps in LFS if I had blown a sector early in the lap, but seeing that thing go red keeps me from over driving.

I find that I'm too slow mid corner a lot of the time, on slower corners. I've found I've really got to concentrate on keeping speed in the car during the first couple of hairpins at Silverstone rather than just "rolling" around them.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by DexterPunk »

I usually worry about other drivers more than my own race. Specially when we are dicing around. The worst thing in online racing is someone who wrecks your race, and i'm so hyper aware of it, that I end up wrecking my own race in the process. Been a long time since I've really raced online though.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Duke »

Over driving all the time...

I find it hard to get out of Qualifying mode in our hosted league races...
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by AstrO »

These days it's me not practicing enough before races. A great example will be tonight's race where I've only completed 8 or so laps (all in hot lap mode) so far, and no long run testing (obviously).

My skills are really starting to drop off (or maybe I only thought I had some)... but then I am getting older. ;)
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by DexterPunk »

They definitely drop off... I had my wheel packed away for about 5 years or more. At one time I was capable of setting aussie records, and many moons ago (with enough practice) was Top 5 in the world. Now I struggle to work out where I'm losing time.. and not just a tenth or two. I just don't have the time available to me to put in the practice... which is one reason I keep steering away from online racing. I'm fairly competitive, and I want to know I'm prepared enough to have a crack at winning it.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Jiminee »

For me there are two things:
- Over driving the entry to the corner / being too focussed on braking at the last possible moment, a legacy of the Microprose GP days I suspect. This generates understeer, robs me of momentum through the corner and makes it hard to get back on the power early enough.
- Taking too long to find my max pace in a race. I could probably solve this a bit by doing more practise right before a race but just never seems to happen. I'm also very conservative in the first few laps around the 'crazies' (ie Europeans) which probably helps my overall results but does mean I get taken advantage of.
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Re: Bad racing habbits you know you have.

Post by Cursed »

* Brake too early
* Don't look far enough down the road
* Get the yips around other cars in AC. I used to be so much more comfortable in LFS around others. I imagine that it's just that I'm not used to the feel of AC yet.
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