Time to reflect on season 3, the first complete season I have completed in iRacing. Going into this season I had planned to run the Advanced Solstice as my main series, and thankfully I was able to compete in all twelve of the racing weeks in that series.
Overall it went incredibly well – A very unexpected start saw some early wins and that pretty much set up how I approached the entire season. My early successes ensured that I was competing with the championship in mind, and the net effect of that was a single race each week, with the exception of week three where I raced multiple times (and to poor results!)
Looking back on the Advanced Solstice season, here is a breakdown of the weekly progress (the three non-scoring weeks clearly highlighted). Links to the weekly race reports and race results (from iRacing.com) included :
Advanced Solstice Season 3
Week
|
Circuit
|
Start
|
Finish
|
Inc
|
Points
|
1
|
Summit Point Raceway | 5th | 1st | 0 | 137 |
2
|
Lime Rock Park Full | 2nd | 1st | 0 | 124 |
- | - | - | |||
1st | 3rd | 0 | |||
Summit Point Raceway | 2nd | 2nd | 0 | 124 | |
3rd | 3rd | 1 | |||
Laguna Seca | 2nd | 1st | 0 | 141 | |
Summit Point Jefferson | 1st | 1st | 0 | 117 | |
Summit Point Raceway | 2nd | 1st | 0 | 137 | |
3rd | 2nd | 0 | |||
Laguna Seca | 2nd | 2nd | 6 | 119 | |
Summit Point Jefferson | 1st | 1st | 0 | 137 |
(* – average of 8 starts)
This placed me 7th/1519 in the overall standings (grats to Dion Vergers for taking the overall title) with 1036 points, and 15th/1073 in the overall time trial standings with 736 points. I gave up on the time trials championships two thirds of the way through as it was taking too much time and it really wasn’t that important to me after all. I was really pleased to meet my ’100 point per week’ average, and also my ’90 point per week’ time trial average.
In the divisions I ended up winning division three outright and I took third place in the time trials championship (also division three).
As for the other series, I really didn’t get the chance to race anything else regularly…. I did compete in other races in the Skip Barber and rookie Solstice series, and I also made a start on my oval career by competing in both rookie and advanced Legends series. I also picked up five Late Model starts (to put me in good stead for next season!). The Skippy races were great (and chaotic!) and I was able to get ten races in (across two racing weeks). Finally I was able to sneak in two cheeky Mazda races during the season, when the series was at Laguna Seca. One was an unofficial race with just three cars, and the other was a fantastic second place with an 18 car grid. Absolutely loved that race, and can’t wait to progress to a full Mazda season in the future.
The Late Model racing struck a chord with me too. I am not a big fan of the Legends car (I’m in a minority there) as I really don’t like the way the chassis handles. Once I got stuck into the Late Model I was pretty decided to skip Advanced Legends racing altogether and dive into the Late Model immediately. I don’t think I’ll miss the Legends car…
Finally, over the course of the season I was working on consistent high placings and development of my safety rating and generally it went to plan. Only a handful of races where I picked up more than 5 incident points but generally a lot of clean driving with as few mistakes as possible. I was able to fill my SR up to 4.99 level in August and hopefully it’ll be at a decent level when I get my C licence in a few days. Even the Oval stats are looking pretty good considering I only competed in a handful of races.
Clickable stats ahead :
[...] Season 4 is upon us and I’m about to begin my second full season in iRacing. My first season went really well, and I documented the results in a blog post here. [...]