Good to know there are still people below me on the win chart! ;-) (I've won
at 97%, and can reliably spank them at 95-96% most of the time, but 98% and I'm
a dot in the rear-view mirror...)
As for suggestions, I'd say that there are several I'd give, varying with the
type of track.
Talladega: This place is almost all setup. It's very difficult to get the car
twitchy here, so raiste the front air dam all the way, lower the rear spoiler
completely, run 60 pounds in all four tires, stiffen all four shocks all the
way, and if you have the v1.21 patch, you should be clocking around 195 if you
take the tri-oval smoothly. Unless you're MUCH faster or getting really good
traction, if you're catching someone in the tri-oval, you're best off backing
off the gas slightly so you don't have to try and pass 'em in the dogleg. If
you DO want to pass there, it's a pretty good place--try diving to the inside
if you think you can get by before about halfway through, or go for the outside
pass if you won't be past by the apex--but it's risky as hell either way. And
whatever you do, make the tri-oval as smooth as possible. If you slide the
tires through it at all, you'll A) chew up tires too quickly and have to pit
before running out of gas, and B) probably eventually slide up into the wall
coming off, which ruins your chances for being competitive.
Intermediate tracks: A lot of these are rather tricky, narrow tracks that I
don't have much advice for. I can give you one tip each for MIS and C***te,
though. At Michigan, you shouldn't need to brake at all unless you're on the
keyboard; with a joystick or wheel, just roll off the gas a bit earlier than
you would if you were to use brakes, and coast into the corner. Once you've
found the line, gently roll back into the throttle; you should be wide-open by
about halfway through. C***te is handled similarly, but you need to use a
touch of light brake to get into turn three (the second dogleg allows a long
arcing entry into turn one). Be careful, at these speeds, an abrupt stomp on
the brakes tends to spin the car.
Short tracks: Again, there are some *** ones I'm not any good at in here
(Richmond, for example), but I can give some advice for Bristol and M'ville.
First, just like anywhere, be as smooth as you can, to save the tires. At
M'ville, if you can stretch the tires and the race goes green all the way (heh,
right, like THAT'll happen!), you can run one fewer pit stop than anyone else
and win by about two laps. Second, be aggressive, though not overaggressive.
Don't TRY to take anyone out, but if that fellow in the black Chevy just won't
get out of your way, don't be afraid to punt him. Third, unless your hood is
so crumpled that you can't see, or the rear decklid is torn up to the point of
the car being undrivably loose, don't bother fixing sheetmetal damage. It won't
really slow you down, and you'll lose several laps getting it fixed.
Road courses: Lean back, take it easy, don't wreck, and enjoy the pretty
scenery. You're up against an entire field of Michael Schumachers and Jacques
Villeneuves, and nobody's yet figured out a way to simulate the G-forces you
need to feel if the car's on the edge of traction or what, so just sit back,
try to stay on the lead lap, and hope enough people drop out for you to get a
decent finish. (Actually, this strategy DOES work fairly well as long as you
pit ONLY when you need tires and/or fuel, skipping even opportunities to pit
under yellow...) If you wanna try and actually race, remember, be perfectly
smooth and never off-line, because one screwed-up corner can ruin half a lap,
and SLOW DOWN to go faster. (It's weird, but it works. Enter the corners
slower, and your lap will generally be faster...)
RM