Thanks, Doug.

CAUTION PROCEDURES FOR THE SimHQ INDY 500

When the caution comes out, please DO NOT:
- overtake
- exit out of the race

When the caution comes out, please DO:
- lift off immediately
- hold your line if you are 2- or 3-wide
- safely catch up to the safety car
- enter the apron road prior to turn 3 if you intend to pit

After cars have pitted:
- Upon being told to do so by Doug, overtake the pace car and catch up to the rear of the field.
- Inform Doug if he has not cleared the penalty that rFactor will assign.


If you crash and want to exit the race, please wait until the caution period is over. This prevents rFactor from getting confused and penalizing other drivers because they aren't right behind a driver that has pressed ESC. If you need to, sit in the pits or on the side of the track. If you are on the track surface, then you will have to press ESC anyway and we will deal with the consequences.

Hi guys really sorry, but my band has got its first big break today in front of 1000 or so people and I only knew about the gig yesterday i'm sorry, but have a good time racin.

Um, hello? Where are Niles, Joe Hassell, PDM66, and Steve? We've just delayed the start by 15 minutes in the hope that you'll show up.

The draft effect seems to be at a nice level for this mod. I don't know if it's "realistic" or not, but drafting doesn't seem to give so big an advantage that 2-3 cars can quickly disappear off into the distance.

Getting the car to turn in, without plowing into the wall on exit, while still keeping the back end from swinging out, made the turns interesting. My setup showed oversteer on exit until after the initial lap out of the pits. Once the tires got warmed up, it seemed fine.

The last 30 laps, or so, got very interesting. I was riding along with full boost (set at 1), trying not to lose too much ground to those ahead, counting down the laps and estimating the minimum fuel needed when I'd have to pit for the last time. I pitted with 20 laps to go. As other cars filtered into the pits, before and after my stop, I ended up in 3rd, behind Joe and Ahmad. Joe was 6-7 seconds in front of me, and Ahmad 2-3 seconds up. I was gaining on Ahmad, and Joe's lead was coming down, but was it enough? I had to wonder about Ahmad's damage level, or boost level, as I caught him and got by into 2nd. Ahmad was in tow, and it went on like that for 3-4 laps, until I finally saw he wasn't closing in with the draft. With the laps winding down to the finish, I caught up to Joe in the back straight, and slung by just before turn 3. I thought I was holding it low, but we had some slight contact mid-turn, and the back end swung out just a little - and recovered. That could have gone bad quickly. At the time, for some reason, I thought that was the last lap, or I'd have probably waited to try a pass. It really was just a series of fortunate circumstances at the end, for me to end up in first.

That probably calls for a banana-dance

Fun stuff, but it would have been better with a full field. That seems hard to come by lately.

I've got to head out this afternoon -- the Gone Fishing sign is up.

I elected not to pit under the numerous safety cars and it was the right choice in the end as I kept good track position and only needed to pit twice.

I was holding my own in the 2nd half with PK about 4 seconds behind me. But after our pit stops he was gaining about 2-3 tenths a lap which was worrying. I knew Joe had to pit again so I kept pushing but I'm not sure if it was because I was carrying more fuel or because my engine was yellow that I was slower than PK. He passed me with about 7 laps remaining and I was able to stay in his tow but made a mistake on 1 of the turns and fell back out of it.

Followed him across the line for 2nd as Joe ran out of fuel.

Sorry for the tap earlier too, PK. Good race but very disappointed with the turn out, especially since I sacrificed a few hours of sleep before needing to help my friend move in a couple of hours! It'd be a pity to lose MOTORSPORTS from SimHQ.

Sorry to all for delaying the race i lost track of time at the gym and got held up getting out of the car park.

I had practised a few hours earlier and had a good qual setup, trouble was i hadn't tweaked my gears for the race and did it at the last minute when i joined, the result was a much to long 6th which was ok in the draft but useless when on my own. Got 3rd when i passed a stationary Joe in the last lap, but i had suspected he still had to stop for fuel.

The turn out was bad and the race was reduced to 100 laps, what a shame with such well organised races. I would also hate to see the motorsports disappear.

Hi guys, if anyone's got the replay of the race I'd love to see it.

Regarding turnout, I'm not sure how this applies for everyone else, but for me Saturdays are no good for racing. It would certainly be a shame to lose motorsports as I think there is a good group of racers here. Do we have an idea of availability for different days when scheduling races?

Sorry to hear about the turnout. I hope it was an enjoyable race nonetheless.

I don't think the beginning of Summer is helping the cause. I would think a lot of people are finding things to do outside and away from the computer in the good weather.

I would like to join some of these races, but sometimes I have a backache flareup which prevents me from sitting still for extended periods and these 500 milers and endurance races are too long for me to make a commitment.

We had 13 drivers registered for this race. If Doug had made a decision to cancel the event based on that, that would be understandable. But to then wind up five drivers short on race day is inexcusable. We had some new SimHQ members who signed up to join us in the fun today; where'd they go? I am deeply disappointed with how this turned out.

The event was fun, though. Things were a little caution-happy in the first portion of the race, including one caused by me when I was dicing with another car and suffered some exit oversteer that sent me careening into the inside wall. Somehow I managed to avoid knocking off the front wing and pitted for repairs and to top off the fuel. I had just pitted on the previous caution, so I came out with a bit more gas than most of the other drivers.

There was only one more caution after that, and I elected to stay out that time. That meant that I made my third stop under green, on Lap 65. Knowing that I could get 33 laps out of a tank if I stayed at boost 1 the entire time, I was hoping very much for a caution. After Ahmad and Papa K pitted on Lap 80 and came out about 7 seconds behind me, I was really hoping for another caution. I knew that my car was fast in clean air and could run up front, and the previous restart I had made from P1 gave me a comfortable gap, so I figured if I was in P1 on a restart and I had enough fuel, I could win the race with "only" some clean laps.


Shortly after everyone cycled through the stops around Lap 80, I began planning for a quick splash, setting my pit options for no tires, no repair, and 8L of fuel. I also tried to make some fuel, running a few laps at boost 2 and then dropping all the way to boost 4. Ahmad and Papa_K seemed hooked up very well together and were coming the whole time, taking 0.3 or 0.4 seconds out of my lead per lap even after I had returned to a boost setting of 1. On Lap 98 I knew for sure I wasn't going to make it, and prepared to pit. I knew everyone on my lap would get past me anyway, though, so I stayed on just to see what would happen (and in large part because I couldn't stand the thought of finishing the race like that). Now that I reflect back on the final laps, I realize that staying out was the right decision, because a caution could have come out that may have helped me.

Papa_K passed me coming out of Turn 4 on Lap 99, and I ran out of fuel in Turn 1 of Lap 100. I coasted to the pit road entrance at Turn 3, where I ran out of momentum.

I did my utmost to conserve fuel during the caution periods, even using the "temp boost" button to move to boost 7 (max conserve) just as I began to slow down for a caution. After I made sure I was clear ahead I would adjust the boost from 1 to 7 and then release the "temp boost" button. Then I would run around in 6th gear at full throttle, barely maintaining 90 mph in most cases. If I had realized what lap I was on before I made my green-flag stop on Lap 65, I could have made a more concerted effort to extend that stop by one lap. I had a "play it safe" mentality at that point, and was not yet thinking about what I needed to do to win. I have no doubt that, had I been able to run at boost 1 for the duration of my final stint, I would have won the race easily.

There were a few really fun moments in this race. One was when I took a restart in P4 and finished the lap in P1. I passed all three cars in one shot in a single straight; I got a tremendous run. Another was when Ahmad and I ran a few laps two-wide in multiple corners. We were running nose-to-tail for a while until I got out of shape and he came inside me. My impression was that he was attempting to overtake, but I held the high line in a number of turns and was able to maintain the position.

I would hate to see SimHQ Motorsports go away. Let's not let that happen.

13 drivers registered isn't bad field really. I suppose you'd need to know why those 5 didn't show before making any changes.

Sounds like an exciting race for you Joe, and it nicely highlights some of the issues faced by sim racers. In the real life Indy, they have strategists and computer models that can make those pit stop calls, rather than a driver who's going at 200+mph.