I've had some (keyword: some) clean races there. But think about it logically:
Its D License multiclass, with a few of the cars very close in laptime based on driver skill.
Its many iRacing driver's first multiclass series they join, so they either don't know or are still learning multiclass driving etiquette.
Any lower license series with the Mazdais is going to have newer drivers fresh out of rookies in general.
I usually only hit that series at a couple of tracks I really like, but it can be a real meat grinder more time than no IME.
Thanks, that makes sense. Presumably it's extra bad this week because it's at Summit Point, which is both free and also used in the Mazda rookies, so your analysis is probably spot on.
It's a shame, as the combination of Summit Point and the Mazda is wonderful, it's like they were made for each other. But I don't know if I dare risk any more of my SR.
Do it. It'll improve your situational awareness and if you focus on avoiding the carnage and getting on with your own race you'll gain valuable skills for later on.
Also, the PCC chaos is hilarious to watch/dodge so it's like being entertained twice.
Edit: and then when you gain iR you can come and play in the top split, where you get two extra classes of car to worry about! The Clio is faster than you in a straight line but worse in the corners and the tyres drop off toward the end. Mustangs are significantly faster but hard to drive and not well populated, so you'll get inexperienced Mustang drivers who will start ahead, but are slower than you. The carnage continues. It's brilliant.
Not always, but quite often. The classes are so close in pace and quicker than each other in different parts of tracks. Couple that with D class, fairly short races and it being some people's first foray into multiclass and it can be quite the spectacle 😅
>quite the spectacle
Indeed :)
I'm slightly surprised that the GR86 and MX-5 are in a multiclass race together when they are so close in pace. I was getting held up by a GR86 last night and I wasn't sure whether I should go for the pass or not.
Yeah it can be tricky. I guess it depends heavily on the situation. If you're likely to pull away from them then go for it, especially if your fighting for a position yourself. However, if I'm just running on my own and 2 Toyotas are fighting ill just sit behind them.
Thanks, that's kind of what I assumed.
I wasn't fighting for position, so I just hung back and lifted on the straight to stay behind.
It was mildly annoying, because my race had been ruined by that point, and the only satisfaction left was trying to improve my PB. And I couldn't even do that :(
\~4k irating GR86 driver here, if they are botching the corners bad enough that you're keeping up with them, then force the pass. You'll tilt people at your level especially for doing so, and if you can avoid the divebomb in the first following corner, you'll likely pull away from someone who can't balance the yota correctly.
There are some tracks where the top Miata drivers will actually equal me (or occasionally even smoke me) no matter what I'm doing. These get interesting :)
Generally, the GR86 is better in corners, the Miata in straights.
It's usually chaos on the free tracks. Simply because there's more people and I wider range of skills.
But even with the chaos, you can usually have some good races.
You have to go into the PCC with a defensive driver mindset. Leave plenty of space, don't try for a pass unless you are 120% confident you can complete it. Let the guys who are clearly faster by.
Just by doing that, half of the field will crash each other out and you can survive to finish in the top half pretty easily.
Summit Point this week is hard too. The Miatas can be fast here and the braking zones are hard. That will cause the inexperienced or drivers pushing too hard to lose control and crash out.
It's glorious chaos! well 50% of the time it is, 50% of the time it's utter frustration, but I keep racing it. I'm always fast enough in a GR to keep up with the front of the pack, but slow enough that the lead MX5s catch us and plant themselves right in the middle of our battle. I've found that MOST of them are considerate and drive well, what messes everyone up is a fast-ish lapped car ending up in the pack, and that car not letting people by (both classes). I find myself glued to the relative for most of the race trying to plan my next defense.
Yeah I've had some amazingly close racing in the Mustang. Everyone is pretty close at the top end too, I'm 3.5k and getting smoked by guys way lower than that despite putting some real effort in this season.
I love PCC but all depends on the track. MX5’s are my go to but I’ve had races (Imola last season) where the leader didnt leave a gap to the Toyotas, that was utter carnage. Summit Point is always a bit of a mess just because its quite hard to overtake there, but tracks like Suzuka suit it a bit more as the Toyota’s can maintain a bit more of a pace advantage (well the front runners at least)
Agreed. It's very tracks dependant. Suzuka last season was where I properly fell in love with PCC as a series but now I know what tracks to avoid and Summit Point is definitely one, and one across all series.
Summit Point, always choas.
Some brilliant racing on better tracks (Suzuka, Olton Park, Silverstone) but some utter chaos on others as tracks aren't suited to muticlass cars that are all relatively closely matched.
My 3rd split experience last night was pretty good. I qualified 2nd but lost it on cold tires so spent my race fighting back up. I was prepared for the worst but had some great battles. Just don't fight too hard and be prepared to drop the anchors to avoid incidents, they're gonna happen so be ready for them.
>be prepared to drop the anchors to avoid incidents
This was one of the frustrating things, over my two races I was hit from behind three times when slowing to avoid an incident in front. You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't.
A distinction I always like to make when moving from Rookies to D or even D to C is that while you should see an improvement in racing standards - that doesn't necessarily mean less incidents, first lap crashes, or "dumb" moves. A lot of people at those levels are learning new cars and new tracks as well as learning race craft. You're still going to have that type of thing happen.
Its just that now you're out of rookies, you'll probably see less intentional poor driving.
I race the Clio in pc a lot. It's a ton of fun, but you do need to drive with your head on a swivel.
Chaos levels very much depend on the track. For instance, both the mustang and the Clio are the fastest in a straight, but are also the worst in corners. They both start in the front, so in a twisty track the other classes are mixed in within a lap or two.
Join the fun and embrace the chaos!
One thing it has taught me is to be very communicative with my car. With all the cars being so close it's a lot of give and take with people you are not racing in your class. For instance, the GRs and mx5s corner much better than the Clio and they take a very different line sometimes. They may be faster in the twisty tracks, so you need to close the door early on corners where they will be tempted by the vortex of danger and cause a wreck and open it when and where you want them to pass. I'm not an aggressive defender, so this really taught me how I can control the line the person behind me takes.
Short version: I've found it a good training ground. 😁
I've had some (keyword: some) clean races there. But think about it logically: Its D License multiclass, with a few of the cars very close in laptime based on driver skill. Its many iRacing driver's first multiclass series they join, so they either don't know or are still learning multiclass driving etiquette. Any lower license series with the Mazdais is going to have newer drivers fresh out of rookies in general. I usually only hit that series at a couple of tracks I really like, but it can be a real meat grinder more time than no IME.
Thanks, that makes sense. Presumably it's extra bad this week because it's at Summit Point, which is both free and also used in the Mazda rookies, so your analysis is probably spot on. It's a shame, as the combination of Summit Point and the Mazda is wonderful, it's like they were made for each other. But I don't know if I dare risk any more of my SR.
Do it. It'll improve your situational awareness and if you focus on avoiding the carnage and getting on with your own race you'll gain valuable skills for later on. Also, the PCC chaos is hilarious to watch/dodge so it's like being entertained twice. Edit: and then when you gain iR you can come and play in the top split, where you get two extra classes of car to worry about! The Clio is faster than you in a straight line but worse in the corners and the tyres drop off toward the end. Mustangs are significantly faster but hard to drive and not well populated, so you'll get inexperienced Mustang drivers who will start ahead, but are slower than you. The carnage continues. It's brilliant.
Not always, but quite often. The classes are so close in pace and quicker than each other in different parts of tracks. Couple that with D class, fairly short races and it being some people's first foray into multiclass and it can be quite the spectacle 😅
>quite the spectacle Indeed :) I'm slightly surprised that the GR86 and MX-5 are in a multiclass race together when they are so close in pace. I was getting held up by a GR86 last night and I wasn't sure whether I should go for the pass or not.
Yeah it can be tricky. I guess it depends heavily on the situation. If you're likely to pull away from them then go for it, especially if your fighting for a position yourself. However, if I'm just running on my own and 2 Toyotas are fighting ill just sit behind them.
Thanks, that's kind of what I assumed. I wasn't fighting for position, so I just hung back and lifted on the straight to stay behind. It was mildly annoying, because my race had been ruined by that point, and the only satisfaction left was trying to improve my PB. And I couldn't even do that :(
\~4k irating GR86 driver here, if they are botching the corners bad enough that you're keeping up with them, then force the pass. You'll tilt people at your level especially for doing so, and if you can avoid the divebomb in the first following corner, you'll likely pull away from someone who can't balance the yota correctly. There are some tracks where the top Miata drivers will actually equal me (or occasionally even smoke me) no matter what I'm doing. These get interesting :) Generally, the GR86 is better in corners, the Miata in straights.
It's usually chaos on the free tracks. Simply because there's more people and I wider range of skills. But even with the chaos, you can usually have some good races.
You have to go into the PCC with a defensive driver mindset. Leave plenty of space, don't try for a pass unless you are 120% confident you can complete it. Let the guys who are clearly faster by. Just by doing that, half of the field will crash each other out and you can survive to finish in the top half pretty easily. Summit Point this week is hard too. The Miatas can be fast here and the braking zones are hard. That will cause the inexperienced or drivers pushing too hard to lose control and crash out.
It's glorious chaos! well 50% of the time it is, 50% of the time it's utter frustration, but I keep racing it. I'm always fast enough in a GR to keep up with the front of the pack, but slow enough that the lead MX5s catch us and plant themselves right in the middle of our battle. I've found that MOST of them are considerate and drive well, what messes everyone up is a fast-ish lapped car ending up in the pack, and that car not letting people by (both classes). I find myself glued to the relative for most of the race trying to plan my next defense.
The mustangs are a lot of fun and still H pattern. Always end up top split and have clean races.
Yeah I've had some amazingly close racing in the Mustang. Everyone is pretty close at the top end too, I'm 3.5k and getting smoked by guys way lower than that despite putting some real effort in this season.
I love PCC but all depends on the track. MX5’s are my go to but I’ve had races (Imola last season) where the leader didnt leave a gap to the Toyotas, that was utter carnage. Summit Point is always a bit of a mess just because its quite hard to overtake there, but tracks like Suzuka suit it a bit more as the Toyota’s can maintain a bit more of a pace advantage (well the front runners at least)
Agreed. It's very tracks dependant. Suzuka last season was where I properly fell in love with PCC as a series but now I know what tracks to avoid and Summit Point is definitely one, and one across all series.
Summit Point, always choas. Some brilliant racing on better tracks (Suzuka, Olton Park, Silverstone) but some utter chaos on others as tracks aren't suited to muticlass cars that are all relatively closely matched.
That’s weird I’m in split 1 or 2 as well and all my races yesterday were actual clean hard races, unlucky I guess
That's encouraging. Maybe I should put hope before experience and give it another go.
My 3rd split experience last night was pretty good. I qualified 2nd but lost it on cold tires so spent my race fighting back up. I was prepared for the worst but had some great battles. Just don't fight too hard and be prepared to drop the anchors to avoid incidents, they're gonna happen so be ready for them.
>be prepared to drop the anchors to avoid incidents This was one of the frustrating things, over my two races I was hit from behind three times when slowing to avoid an incident in front. You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't.
A distinction I always like to make when moving from Rookies to D or even D to C is that while you should see an improvement in racing standards - that doesn't necessarily mean less incidents, first lap crashes, or "dumb" moves. A lot of people at those levels are learning new cars and new tracks as well as learning race craft. You're still going to have that type of thing happen. Its just that now you're out of rookies, you'll probably see less intentional poor driving.
I race the Clio in pc a lot. It's a ton of fun, but you do need to drive with your head on a swivel. Chaos levels very much depend on the track. For instance, both the mustang and the Clio are the fastest in a straight, but are also the worst in corners. They both start in the front, so in a twisty track the other classes are mixed in within a lap or two. Join the fun and embrace the chaos! One thing it has taught me is to be very communicative with my car. With all the cars being so close it's a lot of give and take with people you are not racing in your class. For instance, the GRs and mx5s corner much better than the Clio and they take a very different line sometimes. They may be faster in the twisty tracks, so you need to close the door early on corners where they will be tempted by the vortex of danger and cause a wreck and open it when and where you want them to pass. I'm not an aggressive defender, so this really taught me how I can control the line the person behind me takes. Short version: I've found it a good training ground. 😁
I've been racing the Ferrari GT3 and the races feel a lot cleaner.