rec.autos.simulators

I just finished first in a full length race at Daytona to kick off my new
offline season (against AI).  Not just that but how the race unfolded is the
good part.  I qualified fairly well (5th i think) and took the lead after only
about 15 laps.  Ran pretty much a normal race untill the first round of pit
stops.  Then it became a 4 car race between me, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte, and
Ricky Craven (yea i know...Craven?!).  But aside from that it the four of us,
after pulling out about a 7 sec advantage over 5th place, swapped the lead 26
times over the 200 lap distance!!  Most of the passes coming on the track and
not in the pits.  After the last round of pits stops i managed to break away by
drafting Presley who was clawing to stay on the lead lap (and actually did
though i more or less let him go the last lap).  But those 170 laps in between
were quite exciting...i wish i had remembered to save the replay (DOH!!)  Heres
the final results (through 10th place)

Fin Str       Driver                     Laps   Led   Pts     Qual       Reason
Out
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
 1   2  100  Chris Weber            200  101   185   190.338      Running
 2   1   18  Bobby Labonte         200   44    175   190.748      Running
 3   9   50  Ricky Craven            200   17    165   189.121      Running
 4   4    6  Mark Martin               200   26   165    189.895      Running
 5   3   20  Tony Stewart            200    0     155    189.922      Running
 6   5   22  Ward Burton             200   10    155    189.716      Running
 7   7   12  Jeremy Mayfield        200    0    146    189.568      Running
 8  12    3  Dale Earnhardt          200    0    142    188.733      Running
 9  14    4  Bobby Hamilton         200    0    138    188.564      Running
10  18   88  Dale Jarrett              200    0    134    188.095      Running

Race time - 168:29.692
Average speed - 187.307mph
Margin of victory - 5.091sec
Caution flags - 0
# of lead changes - 26
Weather - Cloudy 77^ S 7mph

Chris

Interesting race Chris.  I noticed that there were no yellow flags involved.
I am new in this sim racing and I would like to know what settings you used,
(Damage on/off, Flags on/off, car settings your own or the one from the
game, automatic shifting/braking on or off ).  Just like your opinion on
this.  I am presently practicing with arcade damage on but always seem to
get into a serious crash within 30-50 laps.  I would like to start a career
but I want to make sure that I have a chance to compete and have fun doing
so.  Thanks for your input or anyone else on this.

I'd say, go with realistic damage. It makes it a bit harder (and pisses
you off when the CCs knock you sideways entering the pits and into the pit
wall), but with a balanced setup and a bit of caution (no pun intended) it
should be possible to drive through a 100% race without a serious
accident. Just make sure you feel comfortable lapping with your car in
traffic, and DON'T fight for every position until maybe 75-50 laps from
the end.

And if the worst happens and you ram the wall, well, like they say,
"dat's-a-racin'".

--
Toni Lassila

To answer a few your questions i was running with realistic damage, yellow
flags were on (though you wouldn't know it), i used auto shifting but use
manual braking.  I used a setup i twaked from the original Ace setup to be a
bit more to my liking.

Like its been said...if you get shoved into the wall and damage your car; oh
well.  It happens.  I remember many a race in N1 and N2 where I was wrecked
with about 10 laps to go while in the top 5.  It definately adds to the
realism.  You might try running a few races with no damage so you can
concentrate on how the AI behaves, where to make passes, etc.  Once you get an
idea of what you can/cannot do start running with full damage.  Most likely
your gonna do quite a bit better.

Chris

        My _personal_ preference is Arcade damage, yellows, pace lap,
breakdowns all on, weather on Random.  Since I'm CERTAINLY no pro
(rarely in the top 20 at 97%), I think Arcade damage is a good place
to start.  Yellows can be a REAL bummer when you can't stay out of
trouble, but they don't fly quite as quickly as they do in real life.
Player breakdowns are REQUIRED, IMO.  I'm on race 3 of a Championship
and I suck, but it sure as hell is FUN!!!!!!

Gunner