rec.autos.simulators

I have a question about yellow flags, restarts and pace laps in
ICR (the first, not II).

I have noticed that when under a yellow flag the speed that the
race leader goes is very inconsistent (or at least the speed of
the car in front of me).  One second we're tooling along at 90
and then I have to stomp on the brakes to avoid a rear end.  Then
the car in front will accelerate like it's got a jet engine under
the hood while I race to catch up.  Then without warning and seemingly
in no relation to the S/F line the green flag will come up.  Very
difficult to plan for a restart this way.  I have the same problem
with a pace lap.  There is no coorespondence between when the
green flag comes out and the S/F line.  

The manual doesn't discuss this issue at all.  Does anybody know
the explanations for this seemingly unrational behavior?  It's
certainly not simulating reality as I see it on a real race track.

An ICR II upgrade is soon in my future.  Does it handle this issue
better, either through a good discussion in the manual or through
actually implementing it better.  Is there warning of impending
green as there is in real PPG racing?

Thanks.

--

--

   Calling up dim, dark memories...  ;)

   Is this more common when you're further back in the field?  The
cars can't run the full pace speed on all tracks with tight turns, so
the speed fluctuates.  Further back in the line, you'll get more of a
lagging, hurry-up-and-wait effect.  

   As far as odd starting points for the green flag...  If you're back
in the pack again, you might not be fully caught up with the leaders.
The flag *should* be thrown shortly before the leader crosses the S/F
line.  One possible idea -- some of the tracks (Mid-Ohio, Detroit, and
Indy, I think?) had some bugs in the first release of the TRACK.TXT
files, some dealing with flagging points.  You might look for a patch
for these if you haven't already done so.  Either the old Papyrus site
(http://papy.com) or Peter Burkes ftp (ftp://didnt.doit.uwisc.edu)
should have these small patch files (the URLs are from memory, email
me if you have trouble with them).

   Better implementation, but not perfect.  Then again, reality ain't
always perfect either... ;)  ICR2 has warning that you'll be going
green on the next lap.

Pick one or more: Model Rockets (competition-NERCB) / PCs (even Atari!) /
Papyrus ICR-ICR2-NCR / Who needs a life when you have multiple non-lives?