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.
This season is going to be really difficult to manage, time-wise, as there are now so many quality vehicles to drive in a given week. Each one requires practice, and as the cars are more advanced they now require even more time to develop setups!
As much as I’d like to run multiple series throughout the season, I am going to have to concentrate on just one for the time being, to make sure I can practice comfortably and get a race in each week.
My primary series is going to be the Skip Barber series. I managed a few races last season and it’s a great car to drive. This time, I’d like to work on my own setups and so each week I’ll be spending a good amount of time practicing before running the race each week. The series will take me to lots of new tracks such as Infineon and Virginia.
My secondary series is going to be the Late Model series. I really enjoy oval racing and will try to run a full 12 week campaign in the late models. It’s going to be a steep learning curve as I have no setups ready, but if I can (and have time) I will try to develop custom setups for each of the racing weeks. I don’t own all the tracks for this series yet, but I will be able to compete in eight racing weeks so I shouldn’t be disadvantaged too much.
In addition to these two series I also have an interest in running some extra series in a part time basis. As I have a C licence I need to run some sessions in the Star Mazda and Chevy Silverado. During the season I’ll pick one or two weeks and run some events to fulfill the requirements. I also might try a Radical race as well, we’ll see how it goes.
I have definitely decided to approach season 4 in a completely different way from season 3. This time I am not going to care so much about the championship and my weekly points results – I’m going to race more. Instead of ‘sitting’ on a good result for the week (for fear of bringing the average down) I’m going to race for the fun of the individual race itself.
I also expect my iRating will begin to decrease during this season. Last season I spent a lot of time practicing for good race results, and my iRating increased throughout the season. I achieved a key milestone in reaching 3057 in my road iRating which I was very happy with. Now, I will be joining races with less practice time so my underlying pace is going to be a bit lower. I’ll probably get matched into faster grids than I should be for a while, until my iRating stabilises.
Goals
My season goals are :
- Finish Skippy series with more than 800 points
- Get a win in the Skippy (my first?)
- Compete in at least eight racing weeks with the Late Model
- Finish season with an iRating of 2500 or more
- Achieve a C 4.99 rating in both road and oval disciplines
Some of those will be easy, some will be hard. All are possible, with a bit of luck and some hard work!
So, onto Week 1 – Infineon Long!
