Race Control's Thoughts Following Laguna Seca

Laguna Seca was a race with a lot of good driving, but also a race with easily avoidable incidents. These incidents were primarily caused by unforced errors, overzealous passes and miscommunication between classes resulting in a discussion on Discord that we as organisers don’t like to see. We would like to address both of these things separately, as we believe they fuel one another and as such could create a vicious cycle of an ever worsening competitive environment - something we don’t think anyone wants to see develop. Finally, we will list some recommendations that hopefully everyone will take to heart.

It’s important to remember the ClubSport Series was set up for drivers that want to start out in endurance racing. This is why we have two free tracks (or had before we had to switch Daytona) and why we have two free cars to choose from. This is why the promotions to the DGFX Endurance Series are awarded to the Am Teams. There will be inexperienced drivers in the field, who have joined the series to learn the skills required in multiclass racing.

A general philosophy of ours is that a large amount of learning can take place following mistakes. This is why practice is critical when preparing for an endurance race; mistakes in a race will cost you time, you may take someone else out, and you may get a penalty, whereas making these mistakes in practice has no similar consequence. So far this season we have not seen the participation in practice that we would like to see for these kinds of races, and some of the driving we have seen in the race seems to corroborate this. With this in mind, we would like to quickly go through what practice for one of these races could look like.

There are several things you’ll have to practice for when preparing for an endurance race. First of all, you’ll need to know the track. This seems obvious, but in traffic you may end up in places you would never end up in if were you only driving by yourself. So you’ll have to drive the track, try different lines into corners, see where you can brake if you approach the corner from a less-than-ideal line, and most importantly: learn from your mistakes. If you spin, go back into the replay and figure out why you spun. Don’t just run laps safely within the limit, because you won’t learn anything. This is indeed the primary purpose of practice - to find out, with no consequences, what the limits are so that during a race you can operate within them and don’t inadvertently cross them.

The second thing you’ll have to practice is running a stint. Once again this seems obvious, but it’s important for several reasons: Firstly, the car will change throughout a stint: the tyres will wear and the balance of the car will change with the fuel burning off. Running a full stint will tell you if your setup is tuned correctly for driveability throughout an entire stint and whether you are able to complete a stint without making unforced errors. Once you are able to drive a full stint without making mistakes and are able to drive with confidence and consistency throughout a stint, you have more time to focus on the traffic around you instead of focusing on the just driving the car.

This is where practicing with traffic comes in. You will not be alone out on track during these races, so you will have to learn how the traffic behaves. What are their braking points? What lines do they take? What speed do they carry through the corners? Where can traffic sneak up on me? Where do they like to pass? This is really what the official practice sessions are for, and where we have not seen the participation we would like to see. When in these sessions, try moves on traffic to see if they work. If you’re not sure, ask! The other drivers will be more than happy to explain that they don’t like being passed somewhere - we have found in our own endurance racing that talking to other drivers on track through the iRacing sim and asking about how a certain pass felt or worked is a great way to help get everyone on the same page. Sometimes you will even start to work with another car class in Free Practice to try passes on each lap in the same sector to understand what works and what doesn’t. The most important thing here is to learn and remember which moves will work, and to stick to these moves only in the race. Even when you’re in a battle, don’t attempt a move you know doesn’t work. It’s far better to lose a position than it is to lose a race.

With respect to the discussions that occurred during and after the race, we would like to remind you of our closing paragraph in the Sporting Regulations and add another thought here: we expect a more mature environment than that which was shown during Laguna Seca - one in which people feel comfortable asking questions, not feeling like they are going to be ripped in to if they make a mistake, and can have a civil conversation about what happened in a particular instance. There is nothing to be achieved by lashing out at another driver, team or even an entire class in general. We understand you are frustrated if you are taken out from a race, but keep in mind the other driver will be equally frustrated that they made a mistake. File an incident report, let race control decide what to do and move on from there.

If you absolutely have to comment on the incident, don’t just call people dangerous or idiots but instead be constructive. Make suggestions on how to improve, maybe even look at yourself to see if you could have done something to avoid the incident. If you are using your energy to focus on pointing fingers at others during a race, you are taking that away from spotting your current driver, your strategy, and what you are going to do to correct your race following an incident. The winning team in the Proto class had 5 minutes worth of repairs at the end of the race, as we’re sure many other teams had. They focused on what they could do to keep themselves running, what their strategy was, and what traffic was doing around them, so that they could finish the race in the best possible position, instead of taking that time and energy to - what amounts to - yell at another team about an incident that has already happened and they no longer have any control over. This is a more constructive approach for everyone involved.

Finally, we’d like to offer a few recommendations we hope everyone will follow going forward:

• Be prepared to lose time in traffic. Both faster and slower classes will lose time in traffic. Multi-class racing is about how to lose the least amount of time, not about losing no time at all.

• Remember the big picture. It is far more preferable to lose a second than it is to make a dangerous move, be damaged and lose a second every lap for the rest of the race. To finish first, first you must finish.

• Use the tools available to you. iRacing has a virtual mirror and an F3 relative box that help you locate other cars around you on track. We recommend a large FoV on the virtual mirror, which will allow you to even see cars that you are side-by-side with. Place it somewhere in your peripheral vision so that even when cornering you can keep an eye on the cars behind you.

• Be aware how the body language of your car looks to another car.

• For the slower cars (note: this means any slower car, not any class in particular): if your car is drifting to a certain side of the track, the faster car will go the other way, even if that would take away the racing line from you. Similarly, if you don’t fully track out, the faster class will think they can go around your outside. Being passed is a skill: good drivers are able to lose less time by facilitating passes instead of just driving their own race.

• For the faster cars (note: this means any faster car, not any class in particular): don’t move toward the inside line if you do not intend to pass going into a corner. Similarly, if you intend to pass, signal your intent early to the slower car. If you are going to pass, make sure you can pull of the move without overshooting the corner. Even passes on slower classes need to be set up, the same way you would set up a pass for position. Take a late apex to get a run on the car in front instead of diving up the inside compromising your exit.

• Place yourself in the cars around you. Be aware of what is going on in their races, especially of those in the other classes. If they are battling, they may not be as willing to give up time either passing or being passed. Is their car damaged, how has that driver been behaving in traffic?

• Drive the other cars. Hosted practice sessions in the weeks leading up to a race can be an invaluable tool for taking the time to get in to the other car classes which you do not drive to help you better understand what those drivers see and how they respond to, and in, traffic. This will also help you understand the limitations of the other cars, and help you to decide what you can and cannot force them to do in traffic.

• Have a spotter. It helps a lot to have someone talk to the driver, to keep them up to date on the traffic coming up, to calm them down in stressful situations or to spur them on. If you do not have a teammate available to spot for you we recommend apps like Crew Chief or Digital Race Engineer.

• Report incidents you are involved in. We have an infraction system in place for repeat offenders, precisely for races like Laguna Seca where cars are being overly aggressive. We police the incidents you want us to police, so if we don’t get an incident report, we can’t do anything about it unless the incident is egregious. If you cannot file an incident report during the race within 30 minutes, please do still file them post race so that we can gain a clear picture of all the events from a race.

A few closing thoughts: Taking a step back and looking at the big picture this is the first race we’ve had from our two seasons that truly requires discussing some discrepancies we see on track. A portion of this has to do with the nature of Laguna Seca - we think everyone, including ourselves, were slightly tentative on what this race could become. In truth, it started off extremely well and there was a lot of great racing throughout. There were also several incidents and actions that indicate to us that there are some drivers who could benefit from further learning in multiclass racing. And that’s alright! That’s why we’re here, and that’s why we are considered an “entry-level” tier in endurance racing - so that both beginner and experienced drivers can commingle and learn best-practices.

This league has always functioned and operated on the philosophy that it is better to allow people to learn from their mistakes, and to let them ask questions, without fear of ridicule. No one can feel confident to act or make mistakes in an environment in which fear of ridicule or persecution dictates actions. We have not had an issue with this until now, and it is definitively one that we do not care to have beyond Laguna Seca. In some instances, we individually need to realize that if we are moving to a text channel to call out another team it’s likely an emotional reaction that you are using to in some way reduce the anger of your situation by projecting it somewhere else. We get it. We’ve been in these situations before as well. Complaining and pointing fingers at others accomplishes nothing. If you allow yourself a second to step back, and in some instances take a 24 hour cool off period, we are extremely confident that you would approach the same discussion or topic the next day in a completely different manner. We are confident that everything will return to the form that we, and you, expect to see at Silverstone. We have provided recommendations which will help in people’s preparation for endurance races and have further tools in mind. Laguna Seca was less than ideal for many people. Let’s all realize that, reflect on it so that we can learn from what happened, and leave it behind us as we continue on to Silverstone.

Picture courtesy Fischer Motorsports