New livery....gotta scratch it....right?

2021S1 week 1 VRS Mercedes AMG @SPA Drama guaranteed!!

Now, this is how getting back to business looks like...!!

Race Sim Canada - Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ Road Atlanta Iracing

2020 S4 week12 Summit Point Audi TCR Touring Car Challenge Split 1

Iracing 2017 Season 2: Best value Package

Season 2 is unwrapping in days now and, as usual, we took a quick

pick at what the new series have to offer and, mostly, at how, what, and why it might be worth to spend some extra money, to have the best experience on Iracing, at least for roughly the next three months.

Being this only the second issue on this topic, allow me to quickly repeat some considerations listed also in our previous post that you can find here:     Iracing 2017 season 1 best value package

1. This analysis is focused on Road Racing;
2. To be able to give the most valuable advice, I choose to plan a very affordable package of three pieces of content: two tracks and a car. Doing so I can keep the budget within the price of S37.66 before Tax, thanks also to the applicable 10% discount for purchasing three pieces of content. 
3. I opted for only one car because, personally, I think it's more important to focus on mastering your driving skills on that specific car and then apply the speed on multiple tracks than vice versa, especially when the level of competition is expected to raise.
4. I focused my attention on looking at the options that better cover races between Class D and Class A included.
5. In building my selection I'm assuming that I only own the basic contents that come with the subscription.

Let's start by taking a look at the tracks used in Season 2: Here below is a short ranking of the tracks that are used the most. the bold number indicates the number of times the track appears il all the competition during the season, the regular number indicates the number of weeks that track is driveable with basic content cars.

Note that for this season the best purchase, if you are not planning to add any car, will be Watkins Glen, which is run in any series above Class R that includes Basic content cars.

A special consideration has to be made in reference to the Nurburgring. The Green Hell, in its two configurations (Nordschleife and GP), ranks quite low in his season, with just 3 weeks schedule for each configuration and only 2 week each for basic cars content. That said, if combined, they outrun by far all the other tracks, allowing the user to race 15 Weeks, 11 of which with basic content cars!!! This is thanks mostly to the VLN Endurance Championship, which runs in Nurburg for the whole 9 weeks season and allows Global Mazda owners (all of us) to take part in the race. 

When it comes to cars, this season doesn't really highlights any particular machine, with just a bunch of them guaranteeing barely 3 weeks of racing on basic content tracks. here's the short list: Kia Optima, Ford Mustang, VW Jetta, BMW Z4, Mercedes AMG, Audi R8, and the old good RUF.

So if you want to jump behind the wheel of a new car and stick to the 10% discount offer for three pieces of content, the combination available will be hundreds but with only few of them sticking out to be the best use for your money.

Here below the packages that we feel comfortable to say, guarantee the most track time for this upcoming Season 2.

Last couple of considerations: 

1: The Nurburgring is one of the most fun and challenging tracks out there. That said, the length of the Nordschleife and the combine layout translate in a heavier file to be run by your PC. Make sure you are running a decent set of specs in your computer and make sure you optimize your graphic performance because this track is very demanding on your hardware and might give you problem that you don't have with other shorter tracks.

2: This season 2 has spread the basic content tracks quite evenly throughout the different Cups and Championship, Buying a couple tracks won't give the chance to gain any Race Participation Credits in this season. This is if you don't already have bought more tracks earlier. That said, any purchase it gets you closer!

I really hope this quick analysis was helpful for you and, as always, I'm open to suggestions and question to improve my contribution.

Good race!

  

Iracing 2017 Season 1: Best value package

To all the Iracing enthusiasts around the world, Hello!
Season 1 2017 is just around the corner and I would like to share a couple thoughts on how to boost the fun for at least the first three months of the upcoming year keeping a careful eye on your wallet.

Whether you just joined the community recently or you've been racing in it for long time, you most certainly reach the point where you start feeling that the basic package of cars and tracks offered by the subscription is not enough anymore. Maybe you wanna try to take on the wheel of a new, more challenging car, maybe you would like to test your skills on that track that you really like, maybe you are tired of hoping for the best when joining a Rookie Class Race. Maybe you just feel you are ready for the next level.

If you find yourself in a situation where you don't feel comfortable buying off all the contents available at once (it comes down to a lot of money!) But you still wish to expand your playing potential, here some suggestion to you.

First thing first, allow me to list some considerations that will explain my process of thoughts in finding the best value package for this season:

1. This package is focused on Road Racing;
2. To be able to give the most valuable advice, I choose to plan a very affordable package of three pieces of content: two tracks and a car. Doing so I can contain the budget within the price of S37.66 before Tax, thanks also to the applicable 10% discount for purchasing three pieces of content. 
3. I opted for only one car because, personally, I think it's more important to focus on mastering your driving skills on that specific car and then apply the speed on multiple tracks than viceversa, especially when the level of competition is expected to raise.
4. I focused my attention on looking at the options that better cover races between Class D and Class B included, excluding for now Class A and above because, after all, I'm just planning for one season and whether you are a D, C or B driver right now, it will take a reasonable amount of time to reach Class A.
5. As mentioned above, in building my selection I assume that I only own the basic contents that come with the subscription.

That said, after running some research, I found the best use for your buck! Here's the package that I choose and the reasons behind it.

      TRACK N.1: Watkins Glen will be hands down the most used track in Season 1 2017. It will appear in 15 out of 18 scheduled series. On top of that, if you are a Class D driver you could race it in the Gran Touring Cup, Spec Racer Ford Challenge and Global Challenge, with cars that you already own (!). C class drivers will have an additional race available in the Advance Mazda Cup Series.  

      TRACK N.2: Road Atlanta qualified second in the ranking for most used tracks in 2017 Season 1, together with Sebring and Spa-Francorchamps. However, it takes the second spot in this package because it guarantees two more racing weeks to drivers in Class B in the Gran Touring Cup and Spec Racer Ford Challenge plus an additional one for C drivers in the Advanced Mazda Cup, with cars from the basic package.

Both tracks also made this package because of their racing potential when combine with the selected car that we are going to show now.

       CAR: The RUF is the car that made the cut in this particular package. Here are some of the reasons why:
- The Ruf is driveable in all D, C and B classes;
- The addition of the Glen and Road Atlanta allows for two more weeks of racing for D drivers, one additional for C drivers and two more for B drivers.
- The acquisition of the RUF opens the doors to three new series:
Class D - Ruf GT3 Challenge: 7 out of 12 weeks of racing available with this package;
Class C - Ruf Cup: 6 out of 12 weeks of racing available with this package;
Class B - IMSA Sportscar Championship: 2 out of 12 weeks of racing available with this package.


Here's the cost breakdown......

Qty	Description		List Price	Your Price
1	10060:Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen International		$14.95	$14.95
1	10353:Ruf RT 12R Ruf RT 12R		$11.95	$11.95
1	10082:Road Atlanta Road Atlanta		$14.95	$14.95
1	10392:10% off - 3-5 piece discount PRCART3PIECES - Purchase any three to five pieces of content (cars/tracks) at once and receive 10% off the total		$0.00	$-4.19
		iRacing credits:		$0.00
		iRacing dollars:		$0.00
		Taxable Amount:		$37.66

.....and here's the amount of extra racing gained by purchasing this package:

Grand Touring Cup:                    +2 Racing weeks;
Spec Racers Ford Challenge:      +2 Racing weeks;
Global Challenge:                        +1 Racing week;
Ruf GT3 Challenge:                    +7 Racing weeks;
Advanced Mazda Cup:                +2 Racing weeks;
Ruf Cup:                                      +6 Racing weeks;
IMSA Sportcar Championship:   +2 Racing weeks.

For a total of 22 more weeks of racing guaranteed for the next season, plus the availability of tracks and car for the following seasons as well, for $37.66. Isn't that reasonable?

Stay tuned for more tips and suggestions and leave a comment! 

Indy Racing League - 2015

The Motorsport season of the New World is reaching full speed this weekend. After the two classic endurance appointments
of Daytona and Sebring, it's time now to welcome the IndyCar Series 2015 together with the little sister IndyLights

Following is a brief update on the most reverred open wheels series in the U.S.

TEAM and DRIVERS

With almost every team making changes for the upcoming season, a little summary can be very helpful:
A J Foyt will race two cars this year for the whole season, with Sato confirmed and Hawksworth moving from Bryan Herta Autosport.
Andretti is committing with four cars for the whole season. Hinchcliffe is leaving the family to join Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, while Simona De Silvestro and Justin Wilson share car n. 25
Bryan Herta doubles his presence with two cars appointed to Howard, coming back in the series and Gabby Chavez, fresh winner of the last Indy Lights season.
CFH Racing is born from the merging of Ed Carpenter and Sarah Fisher and it will have three cars for carpenter, newgarden and filippi. Mike Conway is leaving to join the Toyota team in the WEC.
Ganassi doesn't change much except for Briscoe leaving the seat to the young Karam, already involved in the 2014 Indy500.
Dale Coyne will partner with Huertas and the Italian rookie Francesco Dracone, while Wilson is joining Andretti for at least the Indy 500.
KV Racing is relying on European drivers for this season with Sebastian Bourdais and the other rookie Stefano Coletti from GP2. The other Sebastian, Saavedra, won't race this season.
Rahal Letterman is downsizing, leaving only one car on track for Graham and Filippi moving to CFH.
Schmidt Peterson changes both drivers: Jakes and Hinchcliffe for the Russian Aleshin and Pagenaud moved to Penske.
Penske expands to four cars and welcomes Simon Pagenaud.


CALENDAR

The calendar has been shortened from 18 to 16 race. Actually it was supposed to be 17 but the last minute cancellation of the
season opening race in Brasilia, Brazil, due to some sudden political changes has further reduced the number of races.
The only race entering the 2015 calendar is the Gran Prix of Louisiana, while the double race of Houston won't take part in this season
as well as one of the 2 in Toronto.  


RULES

On the field we'll see much more sofisticated looking cars, due to a new aerodinamic
package provided by Honda, which reminds us of the F1 aerodynamic kits for the years
2008-2010.
Several are also the changes that we will notice on track. First of all no standing starts
in 2015. Too many, in fact, the failures during the starting procedure in the last couple
years, some of which led to dangerous pile ups (last of them at the Indianapolis Gran Prix
with Saavedra walking out of a completely destroyed car). Pit selection will be based on the
team performance in the previous race and not more on the driver's performance
Prior to the race, the qualification groups will be based on the last session of practice
and not anymore on the first one.

The point system has also been revisited by moving the double point assignation from MAVTV
and Pocono to Sonoma that will be the only one beside the Indy500 to award double points.

 
Time now to get ready! The Firesonr Gran Prix it's just around the corner!!



Picture from bu30sports.com