IFCA Series News

Qualifying to get into the season will open this Saturday for Season 9 April 11th.  If you haven't checked out the TCM cars now would be a good time to start.  There are 15 fully tunable cars with downforce.  All are shared as well.

Build sheets here:
https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6646-tcm-car-builds#136901


Current lap times here:
https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6652-season-9-rnd-1-nurburg-gp-april-11th


A preview of what's to come in 2020 here:
https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6649-season-9-april-11th-and-beyond

GTDon2 wrote:Qualifying to get into the season will open this Saturday for Season 9 April 11th.  If you haven't checked out the TCM cars now would be a good time to start.  There are 15 fully tunable cars with downforce.  All are shared as well.

Build sheets here:
https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6646-tcm-car-builds#136901


Current lap times here:
https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6652-season-9-rnd-1-nurburg-gp-april-11th


A preview of what's to come in 2020 here:
https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6649-season-9-april-11th-and-beyond

Just wanted to remind everyone its time to put on our recruiting hats again.  Everyone needs to try to recruit just 1 new team.  If you do, a 1/2pt will be added to your pre-season total.  Also, and again, those with a Factory rating of 1949.999 or less automatically get the pre-season bonus boost of 5pts!

If someone is new and unrated bring them to our Wed night race or send them to me and I can get them tested and rated.

I did the math for how many "FREE" points are offered to everyone and especially the slower teams.  It turns out to be a large number if drivers were so inclined to fully take advantage.

Here's what it would be:

1.) 1/2pt x2 for recruiting 1 new team
2.) 5pts x 2 for a Factory rating
3.) 1pt for matching paints
4.) 3.5pts x2 for top 7 practice lap the whole season
5.) 3.5pts x 2 for Wed Support race participation


This is a total of 26pts! 

Realistically any two-man Factory team can get all of these FREE bonus points. Then there is still the fastest race lap bonus, track lap record bonus, and regular season points to go for!

If you aren't making an effort to collect what are essentially FREE points you are only hurting your team's cause.  Only the top 7 practice lap bonus is performance-based, the other 4 are just there for the offering to help a team out.

This puts a lot of pressure on the faster teams who only bother to participate in the race itself.  By not gaining any of the FREE bonus points they are in real danger of being picked off by a slower team by the end of the season.

Stay Tuned!

Please put these new guys on your friend's list and give them a big IFCA welcome!

vL OCHO Lv 1949.999
Nismo0Lucino 1945.999
joeyXccel 1944.999
grimm161 1940.999
era636 1935.999

GTDon2 wrote:Please put these new guys on your friend's list and give them a big IFCA welcome!

vL OCHO Lv 1949.999
Nismo0Lucino 1945.999
joeyXccel 1944.999
grimm161 1940.999
era636 1935.999

Welcome also to RTR Glory 1949.163  and l Mr Mopar l 1934.999

If you are ready to make a qualifying run for Season 9 (which starts April 11th @ Nurburg GP)  I will be on tonight.  Come join my lobby and get'r done!

I just noticed an interesting little stat that tends to support the premise of the "IFCA Relay Challenge" format.  In the last 8 seasons both ChevyPower and GTDon have won 3 championships each.  But the difference was that Chevypower won with highly rated teammates, and GTDon didn't.  Suggesting that you don't have to have two top-rated drivers to win at this format.  It would seem that a higher rated driver paired with a lower-rated driver has even chances to pull a win off if they do all that they can as a team.

There are at least 12 things you must do to win in this format especially if you are paired with a slower driver.  Even the fast teams need to do some of these things or they will struggle to win a season championship.

12 things you need to do to win here at the IFCA:

1. Communicate with each other all the time.
2. Practice together during the week.
3. Help your partner with testing cars.
4. Consider all the tracks on the schedule and not just the first track.
5. Attend the Wed night support races for extra bonus points and experience.
6. Do practice laps for bonus points for being a top 7 driver every week.
7. Grab fastest clean race lap for a bonus point.
8. Match your liveries for bonus points.
9. Be a clean driver for bonus points.
10. Don't get any warnings or point deductions for bad driving.
11. Do perfect driver exchanges and don't miss your pit windows.
12. Don't wait until the last minute to tell teammate that you need a sub.

Do all these things to maximize your competitive chances to win and you probably will no matter who your partner is.

"Stay Tuned"

And Good Luck!

It's becoming evident that many of our competitors are sensing something new and different about this season and the way it all adds up.  Points that is.  Yes, if you do just a little analysis of all the available points and the other considerations such as your IFCA rating, you may be able to gain some valuable points others will miss.  Now I can't go too deep into it as that would expose my own team's full strategy but it is enough to say that our Wed night support race is going to play a more pivotal role than in the past.

On a different subject, NASCAR ran their Pro Invitational at Bristol today in iRacing, and it was a total wreck fest.  The format had to be changed on the fly because the non-regulars (read NASCAR Pro's) kept crashing into people.  It was classic, and not all that great a race.  

Bowyer and others acted like it was their right to bash into people and retaliate, you know, sort of like they do in real life.  Only here it was without any consequence to life, limb, or property, so they took full advantage.  Bubba Wallace rage quit after Bowyer crashed him out.  This wasn't without consequence however as Bubba's main real-life sponsor was not impressed with quitting or his comments afterward.  Blu-Emu sounds like they are going to drop him for his unsportsmanlike behavior.  I guess nobody likes a quitter. Here's a quote, "I ruined so many peoples day by quitting a video game... boohoo, a video game. Damn quartine life is rough."  He also ripped on iRacing and said, "That's why I don't take this s h i t serious. Peace out."

So I guess it doesn't matter how talented you are, or famous, or rich, babies will be babies, and quitters will quit. lol  Oh! And the winner was an iRacing regular #24 William Byron who was never seriously challenged.  

Having heard it said by an F1 driver, that simulation racing may be even harder than real racing because it is more mental than physical, the NASCAR babies better start to buck up or go on hating.  Truth is and why sponsors are not too keen on bad-mouthing the venue is that there were over 1 million viewers!  T10 would kill to get that many people to pay attention to their ForzaRC.

GTDon2 wrote:It's becoming evident that many of our competitors are sensing something new and different about this season and the way it all adds up.  Points that is.  Yes, if you do just a little analysis of all the available points and the other considerations such as your IFCA rating, you may be able to gain some valuable points others will miss.  Now I can't go too deep into it as that would expose my own team's full strategy but it is enough to say that our Wed night support race is going to play a more pivotal role than in the past.

On a different subject, NASCAR ran their Pro Invitational at Bristol today in iRacing, and it was a total wreck fest.  The format had to be changed on the fly because the non-regulars (read NASCAR Pro's) kept crashing into people.  It was classic, and not all that great a race.  

Bowyer and others acted like it was their right to bash into people and retaliate, you know, sort of like they do in real life.  Only here it was without any consequence to life, limb, or property, so they took full advantage.  Bubba Wallace rage quit after Bowyer crashed him out.  This wasn't without consequence however as Bubba's main real-life sponsor was not impressed with quitting or his comments afterward.  Blu-Emu sounds like they are going to drop him for his unsportsmanlike behavior.  I guess nobody likes a quitter. Here's a quote, "I ruined so many peoples day by quitting a video game... boohoo, a video game. Damn quartine life is rough."  He also ripped on iRacing and said, "That's why I don't take this s h i t serious. Peace out."

So I guess it doesn't matter how talented you are, or famous, or rich, babies will be babies, and quitters will quit. lol  Oh! And the winner was an iRacing regular #24 William Byron who was never seriously challenged.  

Having heard it said by an F1 driver, that simulation racing may be even harder than real racing because it is more mental than physical, the NASCAR babies better start to buck up or go on hating.  Truth is and why sponsors are not too keen on bad-mouthing the venue is that there were over 1 million viewers!  T10 would kill to get that many people to pay attention to their ForzaRC.

Well, you heard it here first at the IFCA, it's official, Bubba Wallace did lose his sponsor Blu-Emu because of his poor behavior in iRacing.  His excuse? It's just a stupid video game.

Not only does this attitude miss the point of good sportsmanship, win, lose, or tie, (a point Blu-Emu is clearly making) it is totally ignorant of the fact that iRacing is far from being just a video game. As everyone here knows there is a huge difference between a video arcade game and a state of the art virtual reality simulation.  McLaren, Ferrari, and BMW, (and whoever else) wouldn't spend one dime on a video game, but they would and do spend hefty sums of cash for full-on VR simulators that their drivers use to hone their skills before arriving at any track in the world.  I'm talking million dollar state of the art rigs. These rigs often use 3rd party graphics from iRacing or rFactor.

Unfortunately, too many people, like Bubba Wallace, still believe such activities are not to be taken seriously.  Unexpected coming from an actual racer.  Yes, you could slam him as just another NASCAR 'good ole boy' buffoon, rube, or hayseed, but in today's modern racing game it would be unfair since so many in NASCAR use iRacing for training as well as fun. Dale Earnhart Jr., in particular, has been a long time user, consultant, and supporter of iRacing since its beginning.

Chances are 50/50 that Wallace has some agent or spin doctor that knows the best way to make him the victim in all this.  Taking personal responsibility for your stupidity is the way of the past.  Today it's more effective for your team to throw down the race card and counter-accuse that it's all about discrimination and social injustice, Caepernick style.

https://www.cbssports.com/nascar/news/bubba-wallace-loses-sponsorship-after-rage-quitting-during-nascar-iracing-event/

There was contact even before this.

For shame Bubba, even we don't rage quit here. What a rube. LOL

That's right before any rumors are started let it be known that due to a hand injury APX TREMEC is unable to compete this season.  He will continue to support our R&D team and assist in any way that he can until his contract is renewed at the end of the season.

In the meantime, we are happy to announce his replacement, a driver known far and wide who is the former IFCA Relay Champion from Season 7, Boost Syndicate!

The pre-season points table has been posted which includes 1/2 points for Wed night participation and Factory driver pre-season 5 booster points for all Factory drivers.

Here:
https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6543p25-ifca-relay-challenge-seasonal-points#137055

GTDon2 wrote:That's right before any rumors are started let it be known that due to a hand injury APX TREMEC is unable to compete this season.  He will continue to support our R&D team and assist in any way that he can until his contract is renewed at the end of the season.

In the meantime, we are happy to announce his replacement, a driver known far and wide who is the former IFCA Relay Champion from Season 7, Boost Syndicate!

Heal quick APX TREMEC, we await your return!

I've been approached by a couple of folks about the wisdom of relying on the ratings to set the grid instead of actually qualifying.  And how unorthodox it is and whether its a smart thing to do.  

As predicted, so far, what we've seen is the same fast drivers finding themselves in exactly or very near where they usually are on the grid had they actually qualified to be there. So, little has changed in actuality.  And yet, there is some randomness infused as well because of some lag outs and changing ratings which is equivalent to a poor qualifying effort.

An argument can be made that grid order based on rating is actually more accurate than qualifying because it is less random. Others might say to counter this, but it is the randomness of qualifying that we should embrace.

It's interesting to note that the strongest objections have come mostly from the faster drivers and not the slower.  The basic complaint is that the grid should not be beholden to an artificial mechanism such as ratings that aren't found in real racing. And, that you should force people to perform for grid position via the pressure of physically qualifying.

Although there is merit to this in general, and it has been the traditional way to race in real racing or simulated racing, there are just as many or more reasons to think outside the box on this matter.

Firstly, this is not real racing, and as such we can do many things that real racing can't, and we can't do some things that real racing can.  Because of this, it isn't always a good thing to mirror every aspect of real racing.  If you do, it can become too stringent, stale, and difficult to have fun doing.  And fun is the primary reason we do this.  By being too realistic you can begin to take away the fun factor for a lot of people.  This is a lasting criticism of iRacing in fact.

More specifically, the "IFCA Trans-Am Relay Challenge" series is based on endurance racing or at least semi-endurance racing, and as such are not short sprint races where grid position is monumentally important as is the case in public lobbies.  Here we race anywhere from 70 to nearly 120 minutes which means grid position becomes far less important.  The format too reduces the value of grid position because you are not going to be right behind your rival the entire race as would be the case in a single driver sprint race.

If these were shorter sprint races with no driver exchanges, then I would have no choice but to support full qualifying as a rule.  But I think this is where a few people are missing the point by overemphasizing the impact of qualifying in this kind of long race format.  I think they think this out of habit mostly, because, that's the way it has always been done in other series.  I also think that they feel that they might be put at a disadvantage when their grid position is ultimately tied to their IFCA rating.  But those same people also agree that they welcome qualifying for its potential random outcome.  Well, you can't really have it both ways can you?

It's funny that the slower drivers don't see it this way at all.  Unlike the faster more competitively driven drivers, the slower drivers understand that no matter which way the grid is set they will still be in about the same grid spot.  Only the fast drivers seem concerned that they might not be on pole even though they claim they don't mind a bit of randomness here and there from time to time.  Very interesting.

But I say the proof is in the pudding.  So far the two fastest drivers based on rating have both been pole sitters as expected.  This shouldn't be a surprise if we believe the ratings are true. In addition, without a bonus point for pole position, combined with the long race format, being on pole is more symbolic than an actual advantage keep in mind.  By eliminating the bonus for pole we also keep the faster teams from separating from the slower teams more quickly during the season as the slower teams don't have much of a chance at being on pole through qualifying.  Having a bonus point for pole position was like handing 7 free points to the fastest team(s) during the season.

It's possible that we might have a vote on this in the future, but not until after we see the results and whether it was good or bad, more efficient or less, or more fun or not, For now, we will continue the "experiment."

Again to reiterate:


The pro's are:


1. Starting on time more often
2. Allows for longer races through saved time
3. Increases the value and importance of your IFCA rating
4. Is added deterrent to sandbagging
5. Increases participation in the Wed Support race
6. Still allows randomness in that driver ratings do change every week
7. Some people don't like to qualify
8. All things being equal the faster guys will still be towards the front of the grid as before, but we didn't have to use up 10min to run a qualy and another 5min to set the grid just to find out everyone is in about the same spot as they would have been if we just used their rating.
9. Offers greater strategic considerations and team consequence i.e. who should finish first depending on rating and whether to risk grid position for season points.
10. No pole bonus which amounted to a gift to the faster teams each week


The cons are:


1. Some people like to qualify
2. No bonus for pole position


As you can see there are a great many more positives that outweigh the few negatives.

Thereby removing the chance that I will start anywhere but last, every time regardless, is just fantastic for us. Makes it so much easier than, God forbid, a fast guy will be slowed down on their first couple of laps by one of us getting in their way if we should be so lucky as to qualify well and not have to start at the back. Your welcome but don't let it make the mistake of saying I will move over for a fast guy to pass, find your own way around me, I'm as entitled to the race line as anyone else, if you come up one me you better find your own safe way around me because I will not give up my place.

No one asks anyone to give up their place. And that isn't what happens when you are being lapped.  Too often people battle the leaders while being lapped. It makes no sense to do so.

There are rumors making the rounds that Forza 8 may come up with their own version of driver ratings and officially organized racing in like manner to that of iRacing. If this does happen it would potentially make private leagues less attractive and clubs and teams more attractive as they would ban together to compete in the Official Forza 8 events and not waste time in local leagues.  

The IFCA along with TORA, SimR, FRB, EZT, etc would in some ways become obsolete.  People would place their attention on the T10/Forza 8 Official events and mostly abandon any league events.  The leagues would probably try to create a representative tier structure that could possibly be used as a means to graduate drivers to the big show but more than likely they would simply dissolve if the Official racing was properly organized.

You might ask why they would do this at all?  The answer could be the recent results of the Pro Invitational iRacing events being broadcasted.  Close to 2 million viewers were watching each race, a number that dwarfs anything T10 has done with its pitiful ForzaRC.

If Forza 8 models itself after iRacing it would mean that drivers would work their way up a rating's ladder to be eligible to race in the biggest events.  It would be automated so that every time you raced anything it would immediately do a rating's calculation just as is done in iRacing.  They may have a separate oval rating just as iRacing does too.  

[For those of you who don't know, the type of rating's formula used in iRacing is the same as we use here at the IFCA which enables you to estimate the skill level of each driver compared to other drivers in the pool being rated.  The Elo rating's formula was invented back in the early 1960's by Dr. Arpad Elo and is used as a rating system for multiplayer competition. It is a proven method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games.]


On the other hand, there may be no truth to this rumor at all and Forza 8 will continue the T10 tradition of creating a racing game without a claim of being a racing game.  Just another variation of previous Forza games without direction or purpose.  A gaming experience more than a racing simulation that again tries to be the jack of all automotive trades.


If the later becomes true the IFCA will soldier on as it is, giving racers the kind of customized competition they crave. Even so, it would appear that we will have time for 1 more "IFCA Trans-Am Relay Challenge" season (Season 10 July 11th) after the Triple Crown on June 13th.


As discussed with some of our more interested members we do plan on switching things up a little so that we can increase the number of cars we can compete with by lowering the number of races per season from 7, to 3 or 4.  Doing so would enable us to have more seasons and the opportunity to have more cars to drive.


Many have mentioned that it might be better to have a set limit of cars per each category of Trans-Am class of like 10.  That way there are not too many cars to test and select from so that people could get more time to practice and less time trying to figure out which car to pick.  This would also make the pre-season testing much easier as well.  And, we would be able to swap out cars each time that a particular class of cars is used helping to keep the entire series fresh and new each season.


Thanks for all your input and support.








Your benevolent IFCA dictator,
GTDon

Thanks Don!

I'll be here racing regardless of what they do, as long as you are doing it.

Yes indeed, time to start making plans for Season 10 which begins Saturday, July 11th.  In Season 10 we will see a new modified format based on your suggestions, and from what we can tell is trending in the league racing world.  

The biggest change will be geared toward a faster turn around time between seasons.  The idea is that less is actually more in that the fewer races per season we have the more seasons per year we can fit in.  This means that we will be able to race more cars per year and fully utilize the entire range of Trans-Am cars we offer.  

Instead of just 6-7 seasons per year we can double this to 12 or 13 seasons by reducing the length of a season from 7 races to only 4.  By doing this we avoid dragging out the season that is usually decided by the 4th race anyway.  Too often it is that the remaining 3 races are non-impactful races with little to no change in the order by the final 7th race.

All too often drivers are stuck in a long season that they are out of contention, don't like the car, hate the tracks, but feel they have to continue racing whether they like it or not.  Sometimes people just get bored with this sort of thing and just give up and quit. 

We don't want to be part of the "grind" in league racing because this can burn people out.  We want to keep things fresh, new, and competitive especially for our grassroots drivers.  We also want people to have a lot of opportunities to trade out teammates and not get too stuck with each other so that perhaps the faster drivers will want to go with a slower driver to mix things up more.  Having more seasons provides these kinds of conditions that we think will be a positive solution on several levels.

The car selection list too will be reduced to a standard 10 cars each season.  This helps competitors more easily pick a car and helps testers to balance the cars closer together.  It also allows each class of Trans-Am cars we use to change each time by swapping out cars that were not seen in the previous season.

As for the Wed night support race we want to make it somewhat more consequential than only getting a half point for doing it.  In Season 10 Factory level drivers will get a full bonus point instead of a half point for racing on Wed.

Everything else will probably remain in place as of this writing.  The final 4th race will again be a single driver double points round.  You'll be able to use any car for the final too. Same for getting into the season, you can use any car.  Races will be slightly longer with an emphasis on a longer final stint. All current bonuses for track lap record, fastest race lap, top 7 practice lap, matching livery, recruitment, and Clean Driver bonuses will remain.

More details to follow...

PS, The Triple Crown is still happening June 13th as a special event.  Car builds are available here: https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6650-ifca-triple-crown-car-builds
      they are shared for download too.  If you are ready to qualify (@ Daytona) just let GTDon2 know.

Thanks to FRB M1les for the footage, and ZHP 2004 for the channel and commentary

Wow awesome work gentlemen!

latte speed wrote:Wow awesome work gentlemen!

Thank you.  Hoping to do more videos as the season continues.  Unfortunately the way Forza is I can only get a portion of the race from replay and the rest from my own capture.  Since my saved replay failed I needed to use FRB Miles saved replay hench why he gets a big shoutout for sharing so I could use it.