rec.autos.simulators

Tom

Oh I hope so Mr Oster. I hope so

Is there any way you could tell us how you're so consistently fastest
every week?  You win almost every race you run in, even with fairly
substantial damage (thanks in no small part to the amazingly weak
damage model in the sim).

Well, we have our moments...

Hmm, whats that supposed to mean?

Brian Oster

John,

Really, all I can tell you is seat time.  Mike would tell you the same.  I've been racing so long online that even when a new sim comes out, it's just a matter of adapting.

I will tell you there are plenty of people who are easily better than I am.  I just joined OLR and have only raced there a few times.  At Phoenix two of them waxed me.  One guy left me in a draft at Texas !

And don't forget what Krol did to Mike and I at Charlotte; man that was embarasing.

I know people online cheat but unless I have proof it is pointless to wonder about it.  If I want it bad enough I'll just have to work harder.

(I do know for a fact David and Mike don't cheat lol  - David is one of my closest friends and I built his pc and have access to it all the time since he is not that pc literate and I've known Mike for years - his reputation proceeds him)

But a few thoughts to ponder about skill versus experience:

Wheel lock:

    With any setup, especially fixed racing, lowering it makes you fast in a sprint but kills your tire wear.  So unless I'm goofing, I only lower it for qualifying.

    The reason Papy lets you change the lock in fixed setup racing is to cover (in theory) the many different wheels available.  But in the game, and I think N2002 overdoes this effect, the wheel lock for any given setup is fairly specific to that setup, or whoevers style who created it.  Basically this means someone can setup a car with a very loose lock and it runs good but if you change the lock too much you won't be able to drive the car at all and vice versa.

    But what is also true about wheel lock, and especially for fixed setups, is if you can raise the lock about 2-3 clicks from where it was designed, and still turn the car, then whenever the car gets out of shape and you have to brake check, the car won't spin out of control.  It absolutely will if you lower the lock.  This really helped me at Rockingham for example when I would get too close to the apron and hit it in 3-4.  I wouldn't loose the car.

    I know Mike also has an ECCI wheel like I do, and I'm sure he can use his better than I can use mine, but with it you can adjust the spring load tension in it, giving you a way to fine tune the steering control, without having to lower the wheel lock or even be able to raise it.  For tire wear, or oversteering a car, the game only knows how you turn the car based on the wheel lock, not how freely your physical wheel actually turns.  I can calibrate my wheel with a very low range which is supposed to be better for the sim.  For these reasons I'll never sell this wheel.  Not even an $800 TSW like David's can do that.

    At Homestead I ran a 15 lock for qual, and did a 46.  In race trim I raised it to 19.  The default is 18.  The one time on Saturday I self spun by hitting the apron in 1-2 trying to get underneath Brian on fresh tires.  I gased it, did a 360 spin, barely tapped the wall with no damage.  As it brought out the caution I checked my tires and they looked like I hadn't spun at all.  Technically, I didn't have to pit.

Game Options:

    For reasons unknown to me, certain auto help options are an advantage at certain tracks.  This was not true in earlier sims.

    At the Glen, when I got the pole before we had to restart the race I had either steering or tracking on, I can't remember which.  I couldn't turn the very fastest laps but my lap times were so consistant it was scary.  But I used common sense: remember when we had to restart that race?  There was no way I belonged up front so I purposely backed off in qualifying since it was so obvious I would hinder the truly fast guys.  I started 7th, and ended up finishing 3rd I believe, right about where I belonged.  Without the auto help, I could have been just as victim to inexperience with 11 turns as anyone else.  And consisitency always beats speed at a road course.

    At the Rock I used braking control, and I used it at Phoenix.  In N2, even N4, if you used any of these controls you'd get left behind but Papy so screwed up the modeling in N2002 I feel it is my job to make a mockery of it.

Driving Mode:

    I know Mike and David drive incar but I don't, never did.  4 reasons:
    1) I like seeing all the graphics in a game and you cannot enjoy all that from incar :)
    2) I can see a wreck way before they do.  I have a better chance of avoiding problems caused by smoke then they can. (Not saying I always actually avoid the wreck lol)
    3) Most people who cannot drive in arcade mode say so because they cannot judge their rear corners.  And they do not depend on the F2 screen as much as they should.  Since I've been driving this way for 8 years now, I can pretty much tell how fast someone is closing, the difference between a close .1 and an honest .1 second, and I can see your right front fender on my screen.  I can see how smoothly I need to come down into a turn to not hit you unless you don't brake.  Call it playing chicken, but I can watch the bottom left of my screen half the time I am in or near a turn.  Not saying I'm great, this just means I can make you work as hard as I want to to make you pass me without overdriving my car, and, if your honest about it, you'll just think I'm that smooth and fair.
      Having said this, there is no way I think I could do what Mike and David do because they are at least as good at cornering, if not better.  This is just the way I drive.
    4) I can get that car right up to the wall and never have to steer away from it.  I can tell when its okay to actually scrub the wall and it not hurt or damage the car.  If I were incar I would have to either back off the gas or oversteer.  This really helps on worn tires. (Ask Krol sometime about how we met at Texas in the NROS :)

Being consistent and not oversteering:

    David has done the race schools at Lowes, and we watch each other drive with the sim.  It always surprises me how often David remarks about how smooth and how little I turn a wheel, even on his equipment.  This may be a result of all the above factors, but I have never been one to drive a car hard.  I never was competitive in any sprint racing online.  Back in the days of TEN, teammates could not drive my cars because they were so loose.  They were even so loose for me, that at the start of a race, I'd spend the first 5+ laps trying to let eveyone passed me safely without wrecking them.  But 30-40 laps later it was like 'hello remember me?' :)

    All this is to say even though everyone tells you to not oversteer or overdrive a car, and many may think they are at least competent at it, most are probably not; and most probably turn the wheel too much.  Heck I think I turn it too much :)

    Years ago, when I was testing and racing open setups I would, as were many others, test 20-30 hours in one week on just one setup, one track.  You'd get to the point where you would have to make one small change and, say at Charlotte, make a 50 lap run just to see what the tires did on lap 60.

    You know how your driving on a highway, maybe even just coming home from work, and all of a sudden, you realize you don't remember anything about the last few miles, or streets, you don't even remember looking for the green light?

    During those days of testing setups, it'd get to the point where I would loose concentration, almost fall asleep during many laps, so I would turn damage off so to not have to restart a whole test.  What I'm sure happened as a result of this was getting a real experience for what being consistent really means.  Only by habit can I turn lap after lap without wild mistakes.

Braking:

    This can be entirely track dependant but in theory, you should do most your braking before you turn the wheel.  How I try to imploy this is to learn and remember where my marks are, and brake hard, turn, then feather the brake to fine-tune the entry.  Can't always do this either because of the track or traffic, but the more you can brake before the majority of the wheel turn the better.  The real skill in saving your tires in competition in my opnion is to be able to hit your normal marks, with braking then turning the wheel, while racing in heavy, close, traffic.

Easy on fresh tires:

    The only other thing you can do with a fixed setup, other than being consistent lap after lap, is do your darnest not to drive the setup too hard on fresh tires.  I mean to a point of exaggeration.  I tested Rockingham with and without the braking help.  I ran 70 laps both ways and looked at the total time from lap 1 to 70.  With the braking help I was a tick faster early and late in the run so when I checked the overall time I was shocked to see only .3 seconds total difference over 70 laps.  Also, there was only a 2 lap difference where the RF went yellow.  But I stuck with the braking help because of traffic.  When I had to jam that car down low in the middle of a turn it stuck.  Otherwise it had no affect on lap times or tire wear.  Now, at Homestead, although you just lightly tap the brakes there, auto braking actually gave me slightly worse tire wear.  Go figure.

    But at both tracks, I could shorten the time the RF would go yellow by as much as 10 laps in testing by driving it harder.  Not so much dirttracking but just hitting my marks a tick later, braking harder and shorter, and trying to hold the same line thru the turn.

Practice and experiement but once you get to the race, race with what you tested:

    One caution about using auto options, playing with the lock etc:  Some of it is pretty damn tricky to get comfortable with.  One of the guys who was so fast at Pheonix on OLR would just leave my ass exiting 2 and 4 like I was standing still.  I noticed he could not increase his lead on a long run but he was so fast on fresh tires.  He ran a 28.30 qual run.  I think I was a 49 in RASCAR.

    So I watched him in a live replay from his car during another practice and sure enough the pimp was
...

read more »

Would it be okay with you if I posted this stuff on the roster page?

Wow...
  "Tim" <jwhit...@carolina.rr.com> wrote in message news:Vi0C9.59527$hp5.8164738@twister.southeast.rr.com...
  John,

  Really, all I can tell you is seat time.  Mike would tell you the same.  I've been racing so long online that even when a new sim comes out, it's just a matter of adapting.

  I will tell you there are plenty of people who are easily better than I am.  I just joined OLR and have only raced there a few times.  At Phoenix two of them waxed me.  One guy left me in a draft at Texas !

  And don't forget what Krol did to Mike and I at Charlotte; man that was embarasing.

  I know people online cheat but unless I have proof it is pointless to wonder about it.  If I want it bad enough I'll just have to work harder.

  (I do know for a fact David and Mike don't cheat lol  - David is one of my closest friends and I built his pc and have access to it all the time since he is not that pc literate and I've known Mike for years - his reputation proceeds him)

  But a few thoughts to ponder about skill versus experience:

  Wheel lock:

      With any setup, especially fixed racing, lowering it makes you fast in a sprint but kills your tire wear.  So unless I'm goofing, I only lower it for qualifying.

      The reason Papy lets you change the lock in fixed setup racing is to cover (in theory) the many different wheels available.  But in the game, and I think N2002 overdoes this effect, the wheel lock for any given setup is fairly specific to that setup, or whoevers style who created it.  Basically this means someone can setup a car with a very loose lock and it runs good but if you change the lock too much you won't be able to drive the car at all and vice versa.

      But what is also true about wheel lock, and especially for fixed setups, is if you can raise the lock about 2-3 clicks from where it was designed, and still turn the car, then whenever the car gets out of shape and you have to brake check, the car won't spin out of control.  It absolutely will if you lower the lock.  This really helped me at Rockingham for example when I would get too close to the apron and hit it in 3-4.  I wouldn't loose the car.

      I know Mike also has an ECCI wheel like I do, and I'm sure he can use his better than I can use mine, but with it you can adjust the spring load tension in it, giving you a way to fine tune the steering control, without having to lower the wheel lock or even be able to raise it.  For tire wear, or oversteering a car, the game only knows how you turn the car based on the wheel lock, not how freely your physical wheel actually turns.  I can calibrate my wheel with a very low range which is supposed to be better for the sim.  For these reasons I'll never sell this wheel.  Not even an $800 TSW like David's can do that.

      At Homestead I ran a 15 lock for qual, and did a 46.  In race trim I raised it to 19.  The default is 18.  The one time on Saturday I self spun by hitting the apron in 1-2 trying to get underneath Brian on fresh tires.  I gased it, did a 360 spin, barely tapped the wall with no damage.  As it brought out the caution I checked my tires and they looked like I hadn't spun at all.  Technically, I didn't have to pit.

  Game Options:

      For reasons unknown to me, certain auto help options are an advantage at certain tracks.  This was not true in earlier sims.

      At the Glen, when I got the pole before we had to restart the race I had either steering or tracking on, I can't remember which.  I couldn't turn the very fastest laps but my lap times were so consistant it was scary.  But I used common sense: remember when we had to restart that race?  There was no way I belonged up front so I purposely backed off in qualifying since it was so obvious I would hinder the truly fast guys.  I started 7th, and ended up finishing 3rd I believe, right about where I belonged.  Without the auto help, I could have been just as victim to inexperience with 11 turns as anyone else.  And consisitency always beats speed at a road course.

      At the Rock I used braking control, and I used it at Phoenix.  In N2, even N4, if you used any of these controls you'd get left behind but Papy so screwed up the modeling in N2002 I feel it is my job to make a mockery of it.

  Driving Mode:

      I know Mike and David drive incar but I don't, never did.  4 reasons:
      1) I like seeing all the graphics in a game and you cannot enjoy all that from incar :)
      2) I can see a wreck way before they do.  I have a better chance of avoiding problems caused by smoke then they can. (Not saying I always actually avoid the wreck lol)
      3) Most people who cannot drive in arcade mode say so because they cannot judge their rear corners.  And they do not depend on the F2 screen as much as they should.  Since I've been driving this way for 8 years now, I can pretty much tell how fast someone is closing, the difference between a close .1 and an honest .1 second, and I can see your right front fender on my screen.  I can see how smoothly I need to come down into a turn to not hit you unless you don't brake.  Call it playing chicken, but I can watch the bottom left of my screen half the time I am in or near a turn.  Not saying I'm great, this just means I can make you work as hard as I want to to make you pass me without overdriving my car, and, if your honest about it, you'll just think I'm that smooth and fair.
        Having said this, there is no way I think I could do what Mike and David do because they are at least as good at cornering, if not better.  This is just the way I drive.
      4) I can get that car right up to the wall and never have to steer away from it.  I can tell when its okay to actually scrub the wall and it not hurt or damage the car.  If I were incar I would have to either back off the gas or oversteer.  This really helps on worn tires. (Ask Krol sometime about how we met at Texas in the NROS :)

  Being consistent and not oversteering:

      David has done the race schools at Lowes, and we watch each other drive with the sim.  It always surprises me how often David remarks about how smooth and how little I turn a wheel, even on his equipment.  This may be a result of all the above factors, but I have never been one to drive a car hard.  I never was competitive in any sprint racing online.  Back in the days of TEN, teammates could not drive my cars because they were so loose.  They were even so loose for me, that at the start of a race, I'd spend the first 5+ laps trying to let eveyone passed me safely without wrecking them.  But 30-40 laps later it was like 'hello remember me?' :)

      All this is to say even though everyone tells you to not oversteer or overdrive a car, and many may think they are at least competent at it, most are probably not; and most probably turn the wheel too much.  Heck I think I turn it too much :)

      Years ago, when I was testing and racing open setups I would, as were many others, test 20-30 hours in one week on just one setup, one track.  You'd get to the point where you would have to make one small change and, say at Charlotte, make a 50 lap run just to see what the tires did on lap 60.

      You know how your driving on a highway, maybe even just coming home from work, and all of a sudden, you realize you don't remember anything about the last few miles, or streets, you don't even remember looking for the green light?

      During those days of testing setups, it'd get to the point where I would loose concentration, almost fall asleep during many laps, so I would turn damage off so to not have to restart a whole test.  What I'm sure happened as a result of this was getting a real experience for what being consistent really means.  Only by habit can I turn lap after lap without wild mistakes.

  Braking:

      This can be entirely track dependant but in theory, you should do most your braking before you turn the wheel.  How I try to imploy this is to learn and remember where my marks are, and brake hard, turn, then feather the brake to fine-tune the entry.  Can't always do this either because of the track or traffic, but the more you can brake before the majority of the wheel turn the better.  The real skill in saving your tires in competition in my opnion is to be able to hit your normal marks, with braking then turning the wheel, while racing in heavy, close, traffic.

  Easy on fresh tires:

      The only other thing you can do with a fixed setup, other than being consistent lap after lap, is do your darnest not to drive the setup too hard on fresh tires.  I mean to a point of exaggeration.  I tested Rockingham with and without the braking help.  I ran 70 laps both ways and looked at the total time from lap 1 to 70.  With the braking help I was a tick faster early and late in the run so when I checked the overall time I was shocked to see only .3 seconds total difference over 70 laps.  Also, there was only a 2 lap difference where the RF went yellow.  But I stuck with the braking help because of traffic.  When I had to jam that car down low in the middle of a turn it stuck.  Otherwise it had no affect on lap times or tire wear.  Now, at Homestead, although you just lightly tap the brakes there, auto braking actually gave me slightly worse tire wear.  Go figure.

      But at both tracks, I could shorten the time the RF would go yellow by as much as 10 laps in testing by driving it harder.  Not so much dirttracking but just hitting my marks a tick later, braking harder and shorter, and trying to hold the same line thru the turn.

  Practice and experiement but once you get to the race, race with what you tested:

      One caution about using auto options, playing with the lock etc:  Some of it is pretty damn tricky to get comfortable with.  One of the guys who was so fast at Pheonix on OLR would just leave my ass exiting 2 and 4 like I was standing still.  I noticed he could not increase his lead on a long run but he was
...

read more »

If David Krol is running up front he's def cheating, and you can tell
him I said so, and you can also tell him he still sucks on the road
courses......

Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy

"The Pits"    http://www.theuspits.com/

"A man is only as old as the woman he feels"
--Groucho Marx--

Goy,

I've known you a long time.  But I've known David longer.  There is no way he cheats.  He wouldn't know how.  You, on the other hand, have made several comments about how you know how to cheat but I don't see anyone labeling YOU a cheater.

Your talking about a guy who can barely do spreadsheets, once tried to uninstall explorer, and could not tell you what video drivers he uses.  I have PCanywhere set up with him and his office because I consult for him.  If he were even the type I would know it.

And since he is CRS for Flashpoint I would say Joe Lomas doesn't have a problem with him either.  So you can beleive what you want but if you think he cheats you might as well be calling me a cheater as well.

I'm sure someone who can make such a ridicules statement without any knowledge should be at least able to comprehend that there are some people who run fast, and David is not THAT fast, who consider it a compliment when they are labeled a cheater.  David is neither.

Probably you don't like him because he doesn't take ***from people on the track but in either case, perhaps you can keep your personal issues to yourself, offer proof, or otherwise just be petty with someone else.

--
Tim White
www.intracmotorsports.com

  > (I do know for a fact David and Mike don't cheat lol  - David is one of my closest friends and I built his pc and have access to it all the time since he is not that pc literate and I've
  > known Mike for years - his reputation proceeds him)

  If David Krol is running up front he's def cheating, and you can tell
  him I said so, and you can also tell him he still sucks on the road
  courses......

Sure

--
Tim White
www.intracmotorsports.com

  > John,
  >
  > Really, all I can tell you is seat time.  Mike would tell you the same.  

  Would it be okay with you if I posted this stuff on the roster page?

Tim, if you had told David (Dave13) exactly what I said here he would
have had a good laugh over it, tell him that I said hi and that he still
sucks at the road courses :-)

You getting old Tim, thought you had better memory than this ?

Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy <------ex Team Mirage

"The Pits"    http://www.theuspits.com/

"A man is only as old as the woman he feels"
--Groucho Marx--

I mistook your post Goy,

I should've known you were just kidding.  David is having to deal with a lot of stuff with all the responsibility he has right now at Flashpoint so maybe I was probably too sensitive about it.

btw, Team Mirage got to the point where it had so many members I would glady be too old to recall all that lol

My apologies,

--
Tim White
www.intracmotorsports.com

  Tim, if you had told David (Dave13) exactly what I said here he would
  have had a good laugh over it, tell him that I said hi and that he still
  sucks at the road courses :-)

  You getting old Tim, thought you had better memory than this ?

  Beers and cheers
  (uncle) Goy <------ex Team Mirage

  "The Pits" http://www.theuspits.com/

  "A man is only as old as the woman he feels"
  --Groucho Marx--

Eldred
--
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
GPLRank:+6.19
N2002 Rank:+18.91

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

No apology needed Tim, cheating is a hot issue, I was just so sure you
remembered that David and I used to be teammates that I figured it would
be kinda funny

David has always been pretty quick and has no need to cheat, I think it
comes naturally to him or something, don't think he practices that much
really

Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy

"The Pits"    http://www.theuspits.com/

"A man is only as old as the woman he feels"
--Groucho Marx--

He cheat, don't believe a word he says. He's Wilshe and Huggins all wrapped into one. (-: Lol, j/k. Tim has always been a great online racer. It's all in the time you put into it and alot of it is just plain experience. I used to practice 4-5 hours a day, now I just show up and race.

--
Mike Grandy
www.precision-racing.com
  "Tim" <jwhit...@carolina.rr.com> wrote in message news:Vi0C9.59527$hp5.8164738@twister.southeast.rr.com...
  John,

  Really, all I can tell you is seat time.  Mike would tell you the same.  I've been racing so long online that even when a new sim comes out, it's just a matter of adapting.

  I will tell you there are plenty of people who are easily better than I am.  I just joined OLR and have only raced there a few times.  At Phoenix two of them waxed me.  One guy left me in a draft at Texas !

  And don't forget what Krol did to Mike and I at Charlotte; man that was embarasing.

  I know people online cheat but unless I have proof it is pointless to wonder about it.  If I want it bad enough I'll just have to work harder.

  (I do know for a fact David and Mike don't cheat lol  - David is one of my closest friends and I built his pc and have access to it all the time since he is not that pc literate and I've known Mike for years - his reputation proceeds him)

  But a few thoughts to ponder about skill versus experience:

  Wheel lock:

      With any setup, especially fixed racing, lowering it makes you fast in a sprint but kills your tire wear.  So unless I'm goofing, I only lower it for qualifying.

      The reason Papy lets you change the lock in fixed setup racing is to cover (in theory) the many different wheels available.  But in the game, and I think N2002 overdoes this effect, the wheel lock for any given setup is fairly specific to that setup, or whoevers style who created it.  Basically this means someone can setup a car with a very loose lock and it runs good but if you change the lock too much you won't be able to drive the car at all and vice versa.

      But what is also true about wheel lock, and especially for fixed setups, is if you can raise the lock about 2-3 clicks from where it was designed, and still turn the car, then whenever the car gets out of shape and you have to brake check, the car won't spin out of control.  It absolutely will if you lower the lock.  This really helped me at Rockingham for example when I would get too close to the apron and hit it in 3-4.  I wouldn't loose the car.

      I know Mike also has an ECCI wheel like I do, and I'm sure he can use his better than I can use mine, but with it you can adjust the spring load tension in it, giving you a way to fine tune the steering control, without having to lower the wheel lock or even be able to raise it.  For tire wear, or oversteering a car, the game only knows how you turn the car based on the wheel lock, not how freely your physical wheel actually turns.  I can calibrate my wheel with a very low range which is supposed to be better for the sim.  For these reasons I'll never sell this wheel.  Not even an $800 TSW like David's can do that.

      At Homestead I ran a 15 lock for qual, and did a 46.  In race trim I raised it to 19.  The default is 18.  The one time on Saturday I self spun by hitting the apron in 1-2 trying to get underneath Brian on fresh tires.  I gased it, did a 360 spin, barely tapped the wall with no damage.  As it brought out the caution I checked my tires and they looked like I hadn't spun at all.  Technically, I didn't have to pit.

  Game Options:

      For reasons unknown to me, certain auto help options are an advantage at certain tracks.  This was not true in earlier sims.

      At the Glen, when I got the pole before we had to restart the race I had either steering or tracking on, I can't remember which.  I couldn't turn the very fastest laps but my lap times were so consistant it was scary.  But I used common sense: remember when we had to restart that race?  There was no way I belonged up front so I purposely backed off in qualifying since it was so obvious I would hinder the truly fast guys.  I started 7th, and ended up finishing 3rd I believe, right about where I belonged.  Without the auto help, I could have been just as victim to inexperience with 11 turns as anyone else.  And consisitency always beats speed at a road course.

      At the Rock I used braking control, and I used it at Phoenix.  In N2, even N4, if you used any of these controls you'd get left behind but Papy so screwed up the modeling in N2002 I feel it is my job to make a mockery of it.

  Driving Mode:

      I know Mike and David drive incar but I don't, never did.  4 reasons:
      1) I like seeing all the graphics in a game and you cannot enjoy all that from incar :)
      2) I can see a wreck way before they do.  I have a better chance of avoiding problems caused by smoke then they can. (Not saying I always actually avoid the wreck lol)
      3) Most people who cannot drive in arcade mode say so because they cannot judge their rear corners.  And they do not depend on the F2 screen as much as they should.  Since I've been driving this way for 8 years now, I can pretty much tell how fast someone is closing, the difference between a close .1 and an honest .1 second, and I can see your right front fender on my screen.  I can see how smoothly I need to come down into a turn to not hit you unless you don't brake.  Call it playing chicken, but I can watch the bottom left of my screen half the time I am in or near a turn.  Not saying I'm great, this just means I can make you work as hard as I want to to make you pass me without overdriving my car, and, if your honest about it, you'll just think I'm that smooth and fair.
        Having said this, there is no way I think I could do what Mike and David do because they are at least as good at cornering, if not better.  This is just the way I drive.
      4) I can get that car right up to the wall and never have to steer away from it.  I can tell when its okay to actually scrub the wall and it not hurt or damage the car.  If I were incar I would have to either back off the gas or oversteer.  This really helps on worn tires. (Ask Krol sometime about how we met at Texas in the NROS :)

  Being consistent and not oversteering:

      David has done the race schools at Lowes, and we watch each other drive with the sim.  It always surprises me how often David remarks about how smooth and how little I turn a wheel, even on his equipment.  This may be a result of all the above factors, but I have never been one to drive a car hard.  I never was competitive in any sprint racing online.  Back in the days of TEN, teammates could not drive my cars because they were so loose.  They were even so loose for me, that at the start of a race, I'd spend the first 5+ laps trying to let eveyone passed me safely without wrecking them.  But 30-40 laps later it was like 'hello remember me?' :)

      All this is to say even though everyone tells you to not oversteer or overdrive a car, and many may think they are at least competent at it, most are probably not; and most probably turn the wheel too much.  Heck I think I turn it too much :)

      Years ago, when I was testing and racing open setups I would, as were many others, test 20-30 hours in one week on just one setup, one track.  You'd get to the point where you would have to make one small change and, say at Charlotte, make a 50 lap run just to see what the tires did on lap 60.

      You know how your driving on a highway, maybe even just coming home from work, and all of a sudden, you realize you don't remember anything about the last few miles, or streets, you don't even remember looking for the green light?

      During those days of testing setups, it'd get to the point where I would loose concentration, almost fall asleep during many laps, so I would turn damage off so to not have to restart a whole test.  What I'm sure happened as a result of this was getting a real experience for what being consistent really means.  Only by habit can I turn lap after lap without wild mistakes.

  Braking:

      This can be entirely track dependant but in theory, you should do most your braking before you turn the wheel.  How I try to imploy this is to learn and remember where my marks are, and brake hard, turn, then feather the brake to fine-tune the entry.  Can't always do this either because of the track or traffic, but the more you can brake before the majority of the wheel turn the better.  The real skill in saving your tires in competition in my opnion is to be able to hit your normal marks, with braking then turning the wheel, while racing in heavy, close, traffic.

  Easy on fresh tires:

      The only other thing you can do with a fixed setup, other than being consistent lap after lap, is do your darnest not to drive the setup too hard on fresh tires.  I mean to a point of exaggeration.  I tested Rockingham with and without the braking help.  I ran 70 laps both ways and looked at the total time from lap 1 to 70.  With the braking help I was a tick faster early and late in the run so when I checked the overall time I was shocked to see only .3 seconds total difference over 70 laps.  Also, there was only a 2 lap difference where the RF went yellow.  But I stuck with the braking help because of traffic.  When I had to jam that car down low in the middle of a turn it stuck.  Otherwise it had no affect on lap times or tire wear.  Now, at Homestead, although you just lightly tap the brakes there, auto braking actually gave me slightly worse tire wear.  Go figure.

      But at both tracks, I could shorten the time the RF would go yellow by as much as 10 laps in testing by driving it harder.  Not so much dirttracking but just hitting my marks a tick later, braking harder and shorter, and trying to hold the same line thru the turn.

  Practice and experiement but once you get to the race, race with what you
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