Racing Lapped Traffic

[vendsale]

Today I was in a Silverado race at Las Vegas. I was feeling good and running at a decent pace. Around lap 38 a couple lapped cars caught me while I was leading. I was doing my best to keep them behind me but I just couldn't. They both passed me but I wasn't going to just lay back.

In my mind I wanted to stay ahead of them for the inevitable caution that would be thrown. I wanted to keep them a lap down because I knew if they got their lap back I would be dealing with them later in the race.

We were racing clean but then it happened. The number 2 truck got into my right rear and took me into the wall. Needless to say I was pretty upset. It turns out that it was an incident due to latency.

I feel like that I was taking a gamble by racing in traffic but it could have payed off in the end. As it turned out it ended up with me in the wall. In hindsight I would have laid back and stayed out of trouble but I felt comfortable in traffic and I trusted the guys I was racing with.

The other guy was mad that I was racing them so hard. What do you think? Should I have been racing them that hard when we were 1.5 seconds ahead of the field?

Here's the replay of the wreck
Session 4246796-486660.rpy

Here's the screenshot of what I thought happened. After watching the other guys replay it turns out it had more to do with latency than malice.
Session 4246796-486660.jpg

It wasn't all bad though. I came back for a photo finish in second place!
http://members.iracing.com/membersit...0&custid=19445

[Rickypro]

If I was pretty sure it was going to stay green I would have not pressed them much but since there was a pretty good chance there was going to be another yellow I don't see anything wrong with racing them hard.

Nice finish by the way!!

This is sort of off topic but has to do with keeping lap cars a lap down.
I will really be glad when they implement fixing damage and do away with the reset. I was in a race the other day and there was a truck that was pretty damaged because of his own doing. His comment was, "I am going to wait til halfway before I reset". We put him a lap down but he was the first truck a lap down. He went in after halfway during a yellow, did the pull past his pit stall trick and reset. Bingo, new truck and didn't lose a lap. On next yellow he gets back on lead lap and theoretically could have won the race but he damaged himself again. Hopefully when they put in damage repair it will leave you a little bit of aero damage even after repair so you can't beat up you truck and still run for the lead.

Hope I didn't hijack your thread too much.

Congrats again on the nice finish!!
Only 4 cautions. Looks like the racing might be getting better!

LOL! I just realized after watching that video that you probably had to reset! My rant above is not directed at anybody resetting, I have done it and will again. It has to do with the fact that it is possible.
I just think that if you tear up your stuff or get it torn up by someone else that it should not be able to come back on the track as good as new.

[vendsale]

I actually did have to reset but didn't pull past my pits or anything. I was a lap down, but after two cautions was able to get back on the lead lap. I agree with you though, the resets need to go.

[davidan]

Kris it's hard to say, but on a service like iRacing where I dont personally know the drivers and have a good feel for their intentions and driving style I would probably take the cautious route. In this case I would have likely let them go and taken my chances. But no way in hell should one of them be mad at you for racing them hard, when you are the leader. My opinion has always been that the leader has the right of way and they should be more careful around you .... now of course they were racing for position as well so have every right to do so -- but in your case I dont see that you did anything wrong. Hate to hear that you weren't able to win the race, but glad you got 2nd. Like any big service where there are lots of racers, such as iRacing I find that some guys are more agressive and assertive than others.

[vendsale]

Your right David, on these large services it is hard to get to know everyone's driving style. In the future I am certainly going to be more defensive in a situation like this.

Working on second shift leaves me racing during the day which puts me in races with a lot of European drivers. The latency that the drivers have around me is normally higher than during peak US hours. This incident was mostly latency related but I feel like he could have given me a little more room.

It's a good learning experience for me to take with me as I race with drivers I've never driven with before. It makes me miss real league racing!

[Rickypro]

Note to self and you other guys. Don't start the truck race with 4 gallons of gas. I forgot to switch my gas back to full but I thought "hey, no problem. I know someone will cause a yellow in about 10 laps or so." Well, we ran about 1/2 the race under green and the only reason the first yellow came out was because I spun going into the pits.
Still fun but kinda boring being laps down.
Do you guys run with the voice chat enabled? There was on guy in my race that talked the ENTIRE race. Even after he was out of the race. He was going on and on about how his luck was horrible and it seemed to be everyone's fault but his. I must just be getting crabby in my old age.

[davidan]

Note to self and you other guys. Don't start the truck race with 4 gallons of gas. I forgot to switch my gas back to full but I thought "hey, no problem. I know someone will cause a yellow in about 10 laps or so." Well, we ran about 1/2 the race under green and the only reason the first yellow came out was because I spun going into the pits.
Still fun but kinda boring being laps down.
Do you guys run with the voice chat enabled? There was on guy in my race that talked the ENTIRE race. Even after he was out of the race. He was going on and on about how his luck was horrible and it seemed to be everyone's fault but his. I must just be getting crabby in my old age.

Doesn't that just figure Ricky that it would go caution free like that. BTW, I have voice chat disabled, for that exact reason ...