Wednesday Night Trans-Am Support Races

Reminder to all available drivers, we will be on tonight for the practice/shakedown fun run race @ 9pm EST with the Forza GT Division @ Yas Marina North night.

Pretty good turnout with 16 drivers.  The top 3 finishers all in DBR9's.  

Fastest lap was a 1:05.624 to 2nd place finisher who started at the back, BOEING Blind.  1st place once again and undefeated on Wed nights goes to ZHP 2004. He also started on the pole with a 1:06.553. 3rd goes to VNX ZT1.

Finishing 5th in the fastest non-DBR9 car was APX TREMEC in the Cayman GT4 with a 1:06.704.

Looks like the DBR9 is the car to go with. See you Saturday!

PS creech was having issues with his Audi and we think it was because he had sim-damage on from when he raced at SimR earlier.

I think we will be bringing back the weekly practice bonus leader board in season 2 of the Forza Masters.  It's fun, and it helps everyone to see what can be accomplished with different cars.  It's nice to be rewarded for your practice work too.

I will be on tonight for the practice race.  A lot of different cars to pick from that compete equally well this time.

For the remaining race we will re-institute the Weekly Practice Leaderboard!  You may recall that during the Trans Am Relay seasons we offered this as a half point bonus incentive for the top 7 practice lap times, as well as a track lap record bonus point.  

Since this is not a team event we are extending the 1/2 point bonus to the top 8. There will also be a 1 point bonus for track lap record.

Good luck next week!

Pretty clean, smallish field of 12 drivers. ZHP stays undefeated on Wed nights this time in a Cougar.  

Pole was set by GTDon in a Javelin with a 1:15.899.  GTDon with a great start took an early lead, but by lap 7 ZHP was ready to pass for essentially the win with the fastest lap of 1:15.017.  GTDon held 2nd place in front of a hard-charging APX TREMEC also in a Javelin for 3rd.

See you Saturday, and Merry Christmas!

Don thank you for all you, another fun year of racing almost in the books.  Marry Christmas to you and your family & the whole IFCA family of peasants!!

GoSox2000 wrote:Don thank you for all you, another fun year of racing almost in the books.  Marry Christmas to you and your family & the whole IFCA family of peasants!!

Thanks and to you as well and all of the loyal subjects of the IFCA! LOL

It seems people are starting to get the hang of the format and its routine now.  Although no one seems to be saving their fastest lap for the actual race when it can be bonused as a track lap record point.  But we shall see.

The practice race was a lot of fun and offers drivers a more relaxed sample of what the racing will be like.  And since it isn't a rated race no one gets too butt hurt about bumping and dumb mistakes.

In the real Saturday race the stakes are much higher and penalties start to come into play. People have put a lot of time and laps in and we don't want their race to be ruined if at all possible. Everyone will be more aggressive but at the same time more cautious too.  It's a razors edge to walk not unlike real racing which is the intent.  

Should you make a boo boo and commit a "SimR," or worse still a "TORA" no worries, it happens to everyone and is just part of racing. Our corner workers and race marshals are there to pick up the pieces and sort it all out after the race.  No need to get huffy, it's just racin.

All of our regulars know what is expected and what to expect if they cross the line.  It's all about a clean pace with as little contact as possible.  Contact may occur but even the slightest contact could earn you a strike.  The talent, experience, and history of a driver will all be taken into account with each situation.  The more skilled you are the more scrutiny you will receive.  No one is above the marshals or race director, except our Benevolent Dictator GTDon. lol jk!  Even he was nearly disqualified last season for stupid driver stunts.

Good luck!

Don - Agreed that I think the WED race brings more positivity to the Saturday race.

I did want to point out something of importance last night:  

I traditionally don't see much lap traffic throughout a typical IFCA race. Last night was an anomaly with a short track and a car that drove to my style. None the less I wanted tp give some amazing shout outs to LITERALLY everyone that I either passed because of pit strategies or lapping them. A D-Class race truly leaves no room for error; (1) You cant recover as quick from mistakes, (2) Competition is tougher with slower speeds, and (3) the difference in lap times are smaller.

With ZHP in a 4 second window for most of the race there was no room for error when passing others around the track.  From my perspective, I was proud to see everyone on track running quick, decisive, and steady lines. Nova, Midnight, Sir Kane, Tomcat, Sox, Papa, and others never killed my momentum. Throughout the racetrack, no matter the turn, everyone was aware of others and sticking to their racing lines. I was actually impressed how close i was able to get to traffic throughout the race without slowing either of us down.

Just wanted to say its clear that everyone has made significant improvements to their driving and it gave ZHP and I a thrill of a race without many issues that I am aware of. Great job to everyone who routinely races in the IFCA, and thank you Don for being an back door

Best regards,

Latte

Just a quick FYI for everyone:  There is no bonus for gaining the #1 practice lap. Being #1 or #8 is the same half point bonus either way.  

Gaining the track lap record bonus point can only be achieved during the race.  It is essentially a double bonus point.  There is a bonus for the fastest clean race lap which may not be the track lap record, but if you surpass the posted track lap record on the practice leaderboard, during the race, you will get an additional bonus point.

So, if you set the track lap record during practice it behooves you to leave some room to break that record during the race when you will earn an additional bonus point.  Go too fast during practice and you may cheat yourself out of a bonus point come race day.

Except for the lone Ford Escort of STAFFY looks like everyone is settling in with the Lancia.  Qualifying position will be more important than usual at Lime Rock because there isn't much room for passing and is a one-line track.

Good luck tonight!

Ill be bringing something else to the show

A good quality practice race.  Started with 14 drivers. Some minor incidents with slower traffic but overall not bad.  

Impressive to see people driving so hard when there isn't a whole lot to fight for.  No ratings, no season points, just honing skill; it's good to see. Quite a tussle for the lead the only difference being that ZHP though faster had poor out laps after pitting, whereas GTDon had good out laps.

Our Benevolent Dictator took the eventual win, ZHP grabbed second, and TREMEC snatched a distant 3rd some 9sec back of the lead. Fastest lap went to 5th place VNX ZT1 with a :55.013 a new track lap record! ROSCOE in 4th practically tied the fast lap with a :55.096 of his own.

See you Saturday!

Very clean race today. A lot of different cars this round. 

ZHP 2004 sat on the pole in his trusty Aston DBS with a 2:07.352 and gained the fastest race lap with the win at 2:07.243.  2nd place went to the 2009 Corvette ZR1 of GTDon's with a 2:08.094. And 3rd place went to whoAREyouIamME in a 2013 Viper with a dirty 2:07.715.

Very solid racing where speed cars seemed to have a mild advantage.

See you Saturday!

I'm pretty sure that after such a high speed race where nearly everyone had some kind of crazy contact with a wall or a barrier or another car no one was truly bored.  To the contrary, everyone had to stay wide-eyed and alert even while racing alone.  One slip, one tiny misjudgment at over 200mph, and you were spinning out into the wall.  I myself wiped out once and hit the pit entry wall too.  Still I finished 3rd mainly because I was totally clean and consistent after those two incidents.

BIG congrats to AAR OneShot for the win!  I think this is his first solo IFCA victory too. He also set the fastest race lap in his  Huaryra BC with a :43.125. GoSox2000 snatched up 3rd place in his Veneno with a :43.506.  In a distant 4th place was a Ferrari FXX K driven by ChevyPower almost as an experiment to see if he could make up the pit difference. Finishing 20sec behind 3rd place while driving the wheels off the Ferrari we can safely say it can't be done.  His best lap was a fine :43.238 but it just isn't enough.

We had a few hiccups and restarts due to incorrect settings and STAFFY lagging out, but on the 4 restart we sort of got the job done.  People started to ease off the throttle and not run each other over.  Once we got going the cars spread out and the racing was clean at that point.  But then the mental mistake started to happen and drivers were taking their eyes off the road.  Several crashes with no help from anyone happened throughout the race.  But again, those who stayed cool and didn't try to push too hard ended up on the podium by a wide margin.

Bronze level drivers are top contenders here at this track. Rider, TomCat, Creech, SirKane, and OneShot have the best chance of winning and should not be interfered with or mistakenly thought of as slow here.  They are not.  Please give them the respect they deserve as they have always done for you at the road courses.

Also, please heed my warnings about proper oval racing technique.  The more caution you use the better finishing result you will have.  As noted on the Season 2 thread there are a lot of drivers with 2 or more strikes, and this track is begging to disqualify all of them if they are not careful.

Apologies to everyone about no microphone, it seems it has given up the ghost.  I never liked the charging stand as it was very wonky.  Nice headset the Astro A50s, but a janky way to recharge it and now it won't charge at all.  I will be ordering a new headset but it can't arrive until next week.

A pretty intense race and fairly clean by most accounts. ZHP took one for the team sadly.  It wasn't easy for me as Dino and then StatedF1 continued to yo-yo behind me, faster on the straights and slower in the corners.  As the track dried Dino's car acted like it had a shot of nitro and started catching me.  He had the pole and fastest lap too, so I feel lucky to have won.

Glad to see the "new guys" Manuel, Hunter, Se7en, SimR Boo, and FLA Kev. Kev, your rating is going to be 1959.999 making you a Bronze level driver. And Se7en, you are actually rated at 1954.840 making you a Bronze level driver also.  This means that you both have a 100% open build at your disposal unlike the higher-rated Silver and above drivers who must use widest race tires , stock wheels, and no downforce.

*Should we have more than 24 drivers on Saturday, only the Silver and Gold drivers will be forced to qualify to make the grid. All Bronze level drivers get a pass and are automatically in.  Currently there are 9 Bronze level drivers which means there would only be room for 15 Silver and Gold drivers.  This could possibly mean that 1 or 2 Silver level drivers would not make the grid.

Good luck in the opener Saturday 7pm EST!

P.S. very funny comments, yes I was driving, and I will share my tune, my real tune, even though Sox says they all suck. lol

Very clean between drivers for the most part last Wed at the pretty Daytona night course.  Yes, the bus stop can pose problems for everyone, especially in these cars.  It is harder to get them to transition or turn quickly for the bus stop is why.  For our newer drivers understand that we are not going to penalize you for missing the bus stop.  However, you must indicate an attempt to make the bus stop.  If we see you repeatedly straight line it and have no clean laps the whole race, you will risk a penalty.  

Again, there is no blocking allowed except after the last corner of the last lap to defend your finishing order.  Blocking is defined as moving off your regular racing line to impede the car behind you from overtaking you.  We don't allow this in the IFCA.  

In general blatant blocking is not actually allowed in any form of racing except NASCAR.  The reason it is accepted in NASCAR is that you are at a steady rate of speed in a group of cars nose to tail making it a none issue for the kind of racing that it is.  But in general, very little blocking is allowed on road courses and the blocking that is allowed such as in F1 is very limited.  F1 only allows 1 blocking move.  The IFCA is somewhat similar taking it a step further.  We only allow blocking after the last turn of the last lap in which case you will probably only get 1 chance to block.

Additionally, there is no passing below the double yellow line at Daytona just as there is no passing through the grass at a road course.  It's important for our veterans and new drivers to take in the spirit of what we are attempting to conduct here at the IFCA.  This is not a win at all cost league.  It is a win if you are clean doing it league.  We strive for clean and fair driving and with the pretend attitude that our cars and safety are at risk with any contact.  Contact will still happen, and our penalty system will be applied, but when everyone is agreeing to race clean, the contact is less frequent, and the penalties less numerous. More importantly, the trust from each competitor is raised because they know nothing was done on purpose when something bad happens.  In turn, this reduces the desire to retaliate and makes the racing both friendlier and fun.  

Having a solid penalty review system in place apart from having to file a protest gives everyone the feeling that something will be done to penalize poor driving decisions without their demand for retribution.  This too makes it easier for everyone and keeps the blood pressure at lower more manageable levels when things go wrong.

Everyone gets penalized here at the IFCA.  Even our Great Leader the Benevolent Dictator GTDon is not above the rules.  He's had his share of dumb incidents and paid the price. So when you do get a warning, don't feel special and don't get mad.  Be glad that it is a fun aspect of the actual racing experience even when it happens to you.  If we didn't have some kind of penalty system in place it just wouldn't be racing.

https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6704-triple-crown-track-poll

Be sure to vote on which 3 tracks you want for the upcoming IFCA Triple Crown!

Sign-ups here:
https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6702-2021-ifca-triple-crown#138185

Don't delay, grid is limited to 8 three-man teams or 24 drivers first come first serve!

A tough track and car combo for everyone.  However, there was one incident that I am forced to say something about between creech and nova.  I normally have little to say about Wed nights because it is supposed to be JFF practice.  There are no penalties on Wed. And this is a good time to explain how things go without making anyone mad.

In watching the replay you could see that nova and creech were both bumping each other as they were going side by side early in the race.  It was an equal amount of minimal contact at first and nothing that would be more than perhaps a warning at most. 

Typically when two cars are battling and making small contact without advantage I won't throw a warning, I'll just let them race hard.  But, nova ended up getting booted off the track by creech.  Then creech overshot turn one and forced Sox off.  This allowed nova to catch back up to creech.  Nova did not retaliate and passed creech clean even though they both went off the track a little.  The replay doesn't indicate any contact from nova during the pass.  But then going into turn one creech purposely plowed into the back of nova.

I'm not sure why creech did this since it was nova who was knocked off track in the first incident by creech.  It should have been nova looking for revenge one would think.  But nova caught up and passed creech cleanly only to have creech smash him again at the end of the straight. Sort of the reverse of what you'd expect.

There is no penalty for this but it is not the kind of driving we want to see even in a practice race.

Many times I have had close battles and minor contact with fast people and when it is close like that you have to expect some bumping because that's racing.  You aren't in 100% control of your car and neither are they.  The car is going to move around a little and so is his so you have to expect some touching.  As long as no one uses the contact to gain an advantage you are good.  We don't allow bump and runs here at the IFCA.

Sometimes even a small bump can seem overly aggressive and tempt you to retaliate but this is more of a perspective thing.  When you feel like you are getting hit hard or muscled off the track, unless you actually go off because of the contact, you should caution yourself and cool your temper.  You're still on the track, he's still side by side with you, and nothing bad has actually happened.  It may be annoying and impolite to you, but the contact hasn't actually done anything to your position relative to his.  This is why you should not retaliate.  Let the race director decide what the penalty should be.  Because you know how it goes, it's usually the guy who retaliates with a punch that gets the bigger penalty.

I guess I do like to comment somewhat on the practice races.  As I said, most of you most of the time did pretty good out there today as I spectated the whole race (thanks Fanatec).  

I'm not sure that everyone quite gets that the practice race is just that, a practice.  It's an exercise that allows us to get a feel for the cars and what they can do at speed.  It's not really a race that you need to win in other words.  It's a race to make notes, collect data, try out different cars, and get used to the kind of speed that you will see on race day.  

But, some of you, maybe a lot of you, see it as another race to win even though there is nothing on the line to gain from winning.  We will have to work on this and change our mindset a little on Wed.  For the fast guys, you should use it to practice patience and clean passes.  For the slower guys, you should use it to practice holding your line and being steady.  The pace really should be at a 8/10ths pace, or maybe 9/10ths and save the 10/10ths stuff for race day.

If the faster guys can be more patient and not spook the slower guys, and the slower guys can be more predictable by staying on one line rather than randomly going back and forth across the track, everyone will be able to race a lot cleaner and more like a professional.  This should be our goal.  That way it becomes a good habit thus affecting better racing on race day.

Nonetheless, congrats to DinoGrumps for a nice win and fastest lap in his Jag, well done!

Just a reminder we will do a practice race at Watkins on Wed before the final. This was unexpected due to the unstable connection we all had last Saturday.

The intent was to use this week as a recruiting week or pause before we begin the 4th season of the Forza Masters on April 3rd. We still need to get some fresh meat so I'm asking everyone to recruit some new drivers this week.

Just a reminder, tonight's practice race (28laps @ Daytona) is on.  Some have asked if it will ever be a rated event again?  The answer, probably not. It seems to make more sense to not rate it and to keep it as a JFFR for now.  It seems to work well this way and opens up a time for bringing new drivers into the series too.  

Speaking of which, we really need to do a recruiting drive over at the public lobbies and get some new blood in here.  Again, if each of us would commit to recruiting just 1 new driver we could double the grid easily.  With this in mind, the recruiting bonus is now active for Season 5!  For every new recruit you get into the opening round you will earn 1pt (May 8th Sport Touring S-Class - Brands Hatch GP). If that recruit stays the whole 4 race season you will get an additional bonus point!

I realize that this is different than race points or practice points, but it is as important or more important to the series and the IFCA to get new drivers involved.  Otherwise, the ranks will shrink to nothing and there will be no racing at all.  

Keep in mind, a large number of you were recruited from the public lobbies.  You didn't know GTDon or the IFCA, didn't even know there was such a thing as organized racing.  So, go do what was done for you and introduce the series to some guy you don't know.  Go to the public lobbies, spectate, see which guys drive clean, give them a compliment, and then ask them if they would like to race with you?  It's that simple and is how many of you were recruited.

Hello all, this isn't the perfect place to post this but it's as good as any I suppose.  Some of you may have heard or listened to some friendly suggestions coming from SimR to change the format here at the IFCA.  I guess the complaint is that the IFCA formats tend to be too tuner-like or tuner-intense because we do allow you to build the cars and tune the cars however you like in general.  "They" also say that we use too many cars with too short of seasons and we change cars too quickly. 

In a more locked Spec format there is no building, little if any tuning, and if you don't like how the car is, too bad, you are stuck with it week after boring week for weeks on end.  Not only that, but everyone is in the exact same car regardless of skill.  Fast guys will always be at the front, slow guys always at the back.

Here at the IFCA things are different, you'll still get the faster guys at the front and the slower guys at the rear, but it's not because of the car build or tune that this is so. It's entirely because of the relative skill or lack thereof. 

With the IFCA formats we offer the slower guys something SimR and others don't.  We offer "hope."  Unlike anywhere else, there is hope here at the IFCA that if you apply yourself you can and do have more of a chance to be competitive.  Why?  Because we intentionally give you a better car than what the fast guys get.  It's not a ton better, but it is better.

Take this season for example, 2 of the 4 races favor Bronze level drivers and this is about the most Spec-like race we've done in some time.  It's actually more realistic than in other leagues because if you know anything about SCCA Spec racing there are plenty of options and tuning that are allowed.  True Spec racing is really an open Spec format when it comes to tuning and in some cases the builds.  

Be this as it is, here at Daytona the better car is the Silver build, which the Bronze drivers are allowed to use if they think it will be better for them.  With such an option it is hard to say that we are not being fair to the slower drivers.  The reality is the Bronze level build can run a 1:53.3 as noted on Rivals, but this is faster than all the Bronze level drivers and even some Silver drivers. The point being that time and time again Bronze level drivers do not take advantage of the extra performance even when they have it.  For example there are 10-11 drivers who can not run a 1:53 no matter what car they use.  Is this a fault of the car or the driver?  What it says is that most drivers don't put in the time needed to run such a lap.  If all you do is run a few practice laps, and show up for the race, you will never realize the extra performance you are leaving on the table, which in this case appears to be about 2sec per lap.

The reason why we did a Spec format this one time was to cater to those who wanted to have a more level playing field by stuffing everyone in the same car.  There is some merit to this, but as you can see it doesn't really change the finishing order very much.  Not only this, but some people hate the cars that are picked and are forced to race.  It's not that the cars are bad, it's just that drivers are not familiar with them, never drove them before, and feel handicapped as a result.  This is why we don't do a lot of Spec-like racing.  Instead we always offer a wide range of cars via Forza Divisions so you aren't stuck in a car you hate.  Our seasons are shorter so that you have more opportunity to get into a car or two that you really like.

As for SimR, I suppose if I were to follow their advice I might just as well become SimR. lol  But honestly,  I'm not always a fan of what they do, and not too long ago one of their leaders told me they hated me and the IFCA in no uncertain terms.  This came as a surprise since I've raced with them many times and have always tried to get them to move outside their comfort zone by doing some interleague things.  But they aren't having any of that.  So I'm not sure that it is a wise thing to listen to those who want to destroy what you are doing.

The name of our series is the "Forza Masters" and this is for a reason and purpose.  It is suggestive of the fact that the game has been around for a long time and that everyone has had plenty of seat time to figure out what they think works and what they think doesn't.  It's the perfect time to put that expert knowledge to the fullest test which includes building and tuning cars.  It's high time to take the training wheels off and really lay it all on the line before Forza 8 comes.  If this seems too daunting a task for the good folks over at SimR, so be it.  Maybe they aren't the masters of Forza they think themselves to be.

GTDon