Coca Cola 600 & Indy 500 - Top 5 Finishes in Both!

[zero7159]

Yeah, it was a heck of a sim racing holiday weekend. I started on Thursday night with the Coca Cola 600, but I got wrecked out around lap 130. I tried again on Saturday morning and this time I went the distance, 400, I mean 398 laps (leader lapped me twice), 4 1/2 hours of seat time and a 4th place finish. Woohoo!!! The key was simply survival. I was the only participant with 0 incidents. Here are the results:



Of course, I could not stop there. As many of you know, iRacing released the DW 12 IndyCar this week, but due to software issues, iRacing had to cancel its annual Indy 500 races. The NW League went ahead with our Indy 500 on Sunday night. I almost bugged out due to difficulty with Turn 1. I literally typed up the post, but then I changed my mind. I mounted my F1 rim and away I went. The race was grueling, it took almost four hours, mostly because we had a lot of road guys and they did not understand oval racing, including the cautions, lucky dog, etc. Plus, we had several guys with no chat and so they could not hear admin commands. Lots of guys wrecked out during the first 100 laps but then we got some green flag runs. I somehow managed to figure out Turn 1 in practice and was OK during the race. Only 4 incident points and I got a hard fought 4th place!!!! I guess I can race the IndyCar, at least on ovals.



What a wild weekend. I got a lot of great sim racing in, plus I got some quality time with my family. I even started work on converting my garage to my man cave, including lots of clean up, insulation and throwing out stuff.

[oldslowfred]

Congrats Craig, awesome results !!
that is a lot of racing

[F1Fan07]

Well done.

[spazsterian]

Congrats! Good job Craig!

Sent from Galaxy Note 3

[Deleted]

Congrats, yet gross
again you need to explain to me how you get so much time to race during normal hrs while taking care of kids? I am lucky if i get an hr or 2 to race the ai at 1:30am lol

[Jarhead]

Good job Craig. That is a lot of racing and some good results. Glad you are finally learning the IndyCar. Don't worry, I can't run it on road courses either. Something I plan to work on next season.

I put in several hours last week testing setups and getting ready for the Indy 500. I qualified 61st. Then I was signed up to race on Friday night when the servers went down. One of my teammates was able to get in the race. He was in the top split. I would have been the last car in the top split. They started the race with 2 drivers. A few others were able to get in and started laps down. Then iRating shut it all down after about 20 laps.

Since I couldn't run the Indy 500, I ran a few IndyCar fixed oval series races which were also at Indianapolis, but using the old car. The races are only 30 laps, but still fun. Out of 4 races I ran over the weekend, I got a 2nd place and 3 wins, so not a bad weekend in the IndyCar.

[zero7159]

May 26, 2014 20:42:15 GMT -8 @kurupt said:

Congrats, yet gross
again you need to explain to me how you get so much time to race during normal hrs while taking care of kids? I am lucky if i get an hr or 2 to race the ai at 1:30am lol

This weekend was a combination of luck and a patient wife. As far as Saturday morning's race, my wife was patient with me doing it because I had tried on Thursday night and got wrecked out. But, she did start to get pissed after about two hours. When I told her we could do anything she wanted after the race was over, she was OK. Sunday night was a different story. My daughter had a sleepover at her best friend's house and so it was just my wife, five year old son and I. I barbequed brats on Sunday afternoon and we finished dinner by around 5pm. My wife and son were both exhausted and so they basically crashed, allowing me to slip into the man cave for the Indy 500. As I mentioned in my original post, I almost cancelled my entry in the race due to lack of comfort with the car and track.

Otherwise, my regular race schedule, particularly during the work week, only works because I usually avoid racing as soon as I get home from work. Rather, I wait until between 7:30 and 8pm, after dinner and when my kids go to bed and my wife likes to decompress and watch trash TV, such as the Kardashians or the Housewives. She does not expect me to watch that crap with her. I also don't practice, hot lap or test very much, I just race. That is why you have seen me express impatience with rFactor 1 & 2, Project CARS and Assetto Corsa. Too much testing, tweaking, bugfixing, etc., not enough racing for my taste. I can do an iRacing C fixed truck race in 20-30 minutes from the time I sit my ass down to the time the checkered flag waves. Same deal for the Global Challenge series. I have been running the iRacing NASCAR and Cadillac for some time now and so I generally know the tracks and cars pretty well. I have no desire to spend hours and hours practicing just so I can compete for the top 10 in the top splits. I just don't have the patience or time for that. That is why I have done over 1100 official oval races, with only 8 wins. Video gaming is now my #1 hobby. I no longer do white water kayaking, skiing, mountain biking or golf (recreationally, i still play for work). If I get back into one or more of these sports, that will of course affect how much seat time I can get.

[zero7159]

May 27, 2014 6:12:10 GMT -8 Jarhead said:

Good job Craig. That is a lot of racing and some good results. Glad you are finally learning the IndyCar. Don't worry, I can't run it on road courses either. Something I plan to work on next season.

I put in several hours last week testing setups and getting ready for the Indy 500. I qualified 61st. Then I was signed up to race on Friday night when the servers went down. One of my teammates was able to get in the race. He was in the top split. I would have been the last car in the top split. They started the race with 2 drivers. A few others were able to get in and started laps down. Then iRating shut it all down after about 20 laps.

Since I couldn't run the Indy 500, I ran a few IndyCar fixed oval series races which were also at Indianapolis, but using the old car. The races are only 30 laps, but still fun. Out of 4 races I ran over the weekend, I got a 2nd place and 3 wins, so not a bad weekend in the IndyCar.

I just got $6 in iRacing credits in my account, as a partial refund for the purchase of the DW 12. I was not expecting this, but it is a nice gesture from iRacing, particularly for guys like you Troy that put in some serious time getting ready for the official 500.

[F1Fan07]

I got the credit too, I guess they assume most recent buyers of the car were planning to do the cancelled 500. Since I got the car for ~$9 (100% road discount) it was better than a 50% refund

Good morning,

As many of you are aware, we had a website issue on Friday night just as the Indy 500 was starting. As the cause of the problem was unknown (still working on it), we officially cancelled the race Friday night and the race Saturday night. The problem however was not the sim itself or the race servers, it was with the web and data infrastructure of which there are tens of thousands of queries and calls happening all the time. We experienced no other problems other than at “race time” unfortunately.

Again, our deep apologies for this. As I said in another post it is more disappointing to us than anybody. We worked very hard to get the car out on time for the race and organizing the event.

As a small token we are awarding every member a $6 credit this week who purchased the Dallara DW12 car through Saturday, May 24. This is at least a 50% discount and in many cases more than that with the multiple purchase discounts we offer and we already gave a $6 credit to whoever purchased the old Indy car in the last 90 days.

As far as scheduling a new race, as I alluded to in another post we have some projects that we have been working on to reduce the chance of something like this happening in the future. Longer term, a redesign is happening with one of the main purposes if not the main purpose to have the most stable service possible.

Anyway, we want to wait until we roll this new code out which we should do in coming weeks and then we can reschedule a new race. The goal is certainly before this normal 13 week season ends towards the end of July. We may even decide to do a fun race sooner rather than later followed by an official race. Will keep you posted.

[Seahawks1Fan]

Great job Craig! Hardcore man....hardcore!

[zero7159]

Thanks guys. I am still sore from a weekend filled with those races and lots of work on the house. The sim racing garage is coming along, my plan is to move in this Fall, once the temperature goes down.