Lionheart IndyCar Series: The Iowa "Corn Mash" 105 Race Recap

(This will be a post where I list things that I learned I need to work on in order to take advantage of my qualifying and many practice sessions)

Well what can I say. Fuel calculations you mean witch (to be PC!) I can not believe that this will be the 4th race in a row where fuel comes into play with my race. I am either having to splash and go with just a hand full of laps to go or I run out of fuel on the back straight and the car shuts off crossing the line like at Indy. And this time my mind is tell me one thing and the DashMeter Pro is telling me another.....and I listen to the stupid technology! Any way let get to what happened.

So another good qualifying session by me if I do say so myself. I qualified 3rd which I believe ties my best qualifying position so far this season. However it would be great if I could hold on to those spots. Being a very road race concentrated driver with about a season or 2 of Indy oval fixed under my belt, it makes one feel good when they out qualify people who have many more oval races under their belt. However what gives them the edge is the number of races under their belts. You can be the best qualifier in the history of any series but if you don't know how to handle traffic, draft, passing, clean driving and FUEL (HINT TO SELF!!) it doesn't mean anything. Got to first the race to have a chance at winning the race. So there I am sitting in 3rd thinking to myself. Alright given the fuel runs you have done, not in draft, you will run out of gas at 68 laps. So that is a one stop race. However the tires will last between 20 and 40 laps depending on how hard you drive and what line you take. From the practice rooms and listening to the other drivers, hugging the bottom burns up the tires quick. If you run a mid line around the track then they will last to about the 40th lap before you have to start lifting. Okay pace lap over, pace car in, leader goes and I floor it in 2nd!!! (I have to start practicing which gear is best for starting out based on which track we are at.) I hold my position with some luck but the front 2 get a jump on me probably starting in first. So again I will not give a lap by lap account of everything but the major points and what I took away from this race. Good clean racing till lap 26, the first caution of the race. Starting at about lap 20 maybe 21, Rick Music had caught up to me and we had a close battle for 4th I held him off up to lap 26 then the caution came out. However it must have come out the moment he passed me cause I got my position back. Okay Jeremy lets to math, 120 laps total minus the 26 we just ran leaves 94 laps left. I will run 67 laps then get gas. So that leaves me with 27 laps that I need fuel for after this stop. So a splash for about 7 gallons to be safe.

Alright so here is another part of work that I need to do, PIT STOPS!!  I come in sitting in 4th, fuel 4 tires I leave in 7th. And iRacing is good about simulations but all the "Pit Crews" are the same. So where am I losing time? Well after watching the replay that Tony Lurcock does for us every week on YouTube Lionheart Racing Series YouTube Channel (and sitting in 4th didn't hurt LOL) I can see that I come into the pit some what timid. I have the fear of overshooting the pit or sliding into the pit wall. Why do I have this fear.....cause I have done both multiple times. And why have I done both, cause I don't practice my pit stops as much as I should or even at all during practice sessions. And leaving the pits even with the pit limiter on I am nervous of spinning out and into said pit wall LOL. So losing .2 of a second could be 3 places easily. Also I am still getting use to the macro fuel settings you can do in the middle of a race. And after the race that I didn't take tires but didn't know that the tires were unchecked when I thought they were checked. So It is the lack of practice that causes me to lose these little seconds which add up. So out 7th....lets see what happens or I should say where my mind loses all of its smarts.

Up to full throttle again and we are going. Now all my fuel calculations this time are not taking the caution laps into consideration cause I look at those as laps in the bank. WRONG!!! Clean running, then caution 2 comes out. Okay lets run through the math again. Lap 49 plus 67 laps for a full tank run equals 116. Plus the caution laps should be enough to make it without stopping after this. I will just have to conserve my tires as best as possible to have some left near the end. I got this it is taking a chance but the math is sound (in my head). Again due to the same pit fears I come out in 11th. I lost 2 positions before the second caution. Okay starting 11th with a strategy that I feel like will give me a chance to win. Green flag waves and off we go again.. 22 laps later the 3rd and what will be the final caution comes out. Now this whole time I have been running the math for fuel in my head. This time for some unknown reason I look down at my DashMeter Pro, and it tells me that I have enough fuel to make it to the end. Lap 71 to lap 120 is 49 laps. I got this with the fuel I have left according to DashMeter Pro. So I stay out, back to 4th I know I can hold on to 4th so this is going to work. Green flag flies, heart is beating, could this be the first win for me in the series, could my fuel math finally work? HELL NO!!  I look down at my DashMeter Pro after getting up to speed and burning fuel. I look at fuel consumption and fuel remaining versus laps left = short 3 laps. But I look at fuel add (which is the fuel that DashMeter calculates I need to finish the laps remaining and it says 0). This is where the brain goes "Jeremy you have messed up 3 times with your fuel math so the DashMeter is right because it is taking caution laps into consideration.....AGAIN WRONG COME TO FIND OUT STUPID BRAIN!) And here I am for the next 45 laps watching the remaining fuel be 3 laps less than the remaining laps. Now I wonder if anyone caught the other mistake I made with the number of laps. In a race that has rolling starts according to DashMeter Pro, you complete 1 lap at the start of the race even though it is the pace laps before the green flag. So a 120 lap race is actually a 121 laps race according to DashMeter Pro. So I am thinking I am going to be 3 laps short actually I am going to be 4 laps short. So with 4 laps left I have to pit. I come into my pit stall with just .09 gallons left. Take 2 gallons and go back out. And where am I after coming back out.....2 laps down and in 14th place!!! I am so upset with myself. I watched the math on DashMeter Pro for over 40 laps and my brain explained what I was seeing was wrong and the add fuel to finish was right. I will have to try again in 2 weeks cause the next official points race will be on the iconic road course of Long Beach. FINALLY A ROAD COURSE.

Well even if I finished in 14th it did take me from 17th in the standings to 12th. I learn some lessons (I hope) and the biggest thing was I had fun (except at the end cause of my mistake). Please check out the video of the race at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqkk57yUMnk. And look out for next weeks race recap of Long Beach, wire frames and all LOL

CONGRATUALTIONS TO THE TOP 3 IN THE TOP SPLIT RACE:
1: Richard Behr
2: Jeff York
3: Danno Brookins

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP 3 IN THE BOTTOM SPLIT RACE:
1: Chris Lanini
2: Korey Connor
3: Vincent Bluthenthal

Lionheart IndyCar Series: The Indianapolis "The Half Quart" 250 Race Recap

Coming off of my iRacing Indy 500, gave me plenty of time to no how the car would handle on the track, what type of gas mileage I would get and real good data that I feel like will make a difference. We were going to use the exact same setup that I used in the Indy 500 for our Fixed Setup so I already had 4 hours and 500+ miles on it. This will be a perfect time to use the mistakes I had in the Indy 500 race to my advantage. Oh but 2 cars before the race on Wednesday, iRacing releases the new build with the Official fixed setups and that is what we will use as we are a fixed series. So time to start all over LOL. Now from what I have heard that the official setup is almost just like the one we were going to use that we all worked on and built from CCM. So I still had hope.

Race day was here. I knew that it would be about 2 hours of racing, so I was prepared with my water, already ate (cause it starts at 11:50pm my time) and restroom break. Qualifying went okay not great. Started in 12th. Now in the Indy 500, I didn't get a chance to qualify so they started me in 14th which I then decided to start from the pits cause I didn't know anyone that I was racing with. This is where this great league comes into play. I felt very comfortable driving against the drivers in the top split, so I was very comfortable to be starting in 12th and on the track. Great start worked my way up 1 spot to 11th then the first caution came out which with a couple of drivers pitted put me into 9th. Just to give you an idea what great racers we had, in a 250 miles 100 lap race, we had only 2 cautions in a normal race in iRacing that would not have happened. Just lets you know the class of drivers that are racing in the top split of the league. So again not to do a lap by lap detail of my race (that will come later). I had it set up to pit twice to make it with just enough gas to finish according to Dashmeter Pro. Now speaking of Dashmeter Pro, if the race you are going to do is a rolling start put in 1 lap more than what is scheduled LOL. As an example this race was 100 laps with one pace lap so actually 101. So if you enter 100 laps, Dashmeter Pro will calculate your remaining fuel and fuel needed to finish based on just the 100 laps not including the pace lap. Why am I making a point about this CAUSE I RAN OUT OF GAS ON THE BACK STRAIGHTWAY!! Now when you are going 226 mph it allows you the ability to coast a mile to the finish line. However being mindful of me slowly down and having to coast to the finish line, I dropped down to the access road at turn 3. The downside is you can't take the access road at 225 mph so I had to slow down, so I had to use my brakes which slowed down my coasting ability. When did I realize this? When I got in between turn 3 and turn 4 and thought to myself I might not make it to the finish. I could feel myself starting t raise up out of the seat and kind of scoot my chair forward thinking that would help. As soon as my nose touched the start finsh line the car shut off, I just made it and stayed on the lead lap LOL.

Again another great race, ran with the professionalism and sportsmanship of the Lionheart Racing Series league. If you get a chance, please look us up on iRacing, on our website at http://www.lionheartracingseries.com/ and now on our YouTube channel at Lionheart Racing Series YouTube .

My iRacing Indy 500 or as I call it my pit strategy failure again LOL

If you have been reading my post for a little bit, you would have remembered me talking about how iRacing back in May tried to have the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600 at the same time. Well the Indy 500 servers crashed and they canceled both Friday and Saturday races but kept the Coca Cola 600 going on Saturday. For whatever reason no one knows. So they rescheduled the Indy 500 for this past weekend. Now luckily this week's race in the Lionheart IndyCar Series , is at Indy so we had practice and a practice race first on Thursday of last week. Chris Miller shared his setup which along with Anthony Lurcock. They were 2 completely different setups but felt almost exactly the same. However for the iRacing Indy 500, I decided to use Chris's setup since that is looking to be the one we will be using for the race this Wednesday.

I did a couple of fuel runs to see about distance and tire wear so that I could get the data that I could use to come up with what I thought was a good strategy for the race. However after Chicago, I thought to myself "Self, you can do better this time". Why do I lie to myself like that LOL. So I go ahead make sure I have Chris's setup loaded and ready to go. Get another fuel run in before the start of the race. Then formulate a plan: I will break this into 8 25 laps stops getting tires each time cause I get 28 laps on a full tank, and after a full run I have about 75% tires left on the right side. So that is the plan, it will be about 4 laps under a caution to equal saving 1 full laps of racing. Okay keep all that straight in my head while racing 30+ drivers and surviving.

So time for the race. My teammate and me both signed on at the same time, and it said he was 3 minutes ahead on the list compared to my time. Once I told him that we both thought the same thing " this is exactly what happened last time when it crashed". So as his timer went to 0, I waited for him to say "it has crashed". So when he keyed in on TeamSpeak, he said "we are in the same split. I am 8th and you are 14th" I was excited but still waiting to join the race. So as the time ticked down, I crossed my fingers and..........got IN!!

Alright here we go, I have my water, been to the bathroom and I am ready to go. While practicing and seeing people wreck on just getting on to the track, I started saying to myself  " I am starting in the mid of the pack. Should I start from the pit?". Let me tell you it may sound like this is an easy decision but it is not. Your ego is in such full force that it tells you that you can make it around any wreck, it won't happen to you, etc. So it was time to grid and it literally came down to the final 30 second till grid before I decided to start from the pits. And boy was it a good idea!!

The race starts, the marshals let us out of the pits and it wasn't even 5 laps and the first wreck has happened. And guess where the wreck happened at???? That is right, right around where I would have started if I had not started from the grid. So +1 to me for my strategy. After another 2 wrecks, which one was my teammate cause of the strong areo push it started to spread out and go green flag runs. So I am not going to go over a 200 lap race lap by lap but just give some oversight to want happened. I started pitting every 24 laps, 16 gallons (cause you can not fill up with half gallons) and 4 tires. All of the pits from about lap 40 till the end were green flag so I would go down 2 laps and get them back when the leaders pitted. And it started to look like I would be able to fight for a top 3 if not possiblily a win with this strategy. Now 1 problem that I have with other strategies in anything I do I get set on 1 thing of the strategy and don't think about everything. And this time was no different. Around the 3 final pit stops, I started to realize that the leader was going a couple more laps longer than he was before. So I started to change my last couple of pits strategy. Do I take on 16 gallons and tires, then a 15 lap run instead of 24 then take a full tank and run it out or do I split the last 43 laps into just 1 stop? So what did I decide to do? Instead of 24 laps then 15 laps then 24 laps, I decided to do 24 laps twice then a splash at the end for the last 9 laps. For almost an hour all I was focused on was the fuel. So every pit was fuel and tires, fuel and tires etc. So the final pit comes and I hit the button on my wheel that I have binded to change the fuel from 16 gallons to 10 gallons. Come to a stop perfectly in goes the gas but why isn't my tires being put on. Fuel is done still no tires, what is going on, check tire page on F3...NO CHECK MARKS! WHAT THE CRAP HAPPENED!! Okay hit button again to check the tires to change, alright tires are going on.....DANG IT THAT MEANS FUEL IS GOING ON. So I leave the pits 2 laps down and a full tank and actually made 2 pits stops instead of one. I would get 1 lap back but not both laps. The leader who had been saving fuel for almost 70 laps if not more. Ran out of fuel with half a lap left, he lost the lead and I caught him on the front stretch. 1 lap down and finished 5th all because I didn't focus on all parts of the pit stop and just fuel. Plus another thing that everyone should do it PRACTICE PITTING. I would slow down too much the first couple of pits that would make me lose more time than I should have.

So to sum up. Practice pit stops in practice sessions, make sure to think about all aspects of the pit stop. My tires could have made it the last 9 laps but cause every stop was fuel and tires when my tires didn't go on it threw me off. Be adaptable during the race and save fuel when you can. My butt was numb, brake foot was hurting cause it feel weird for me to race with my left foot on the ground instead of in a normal position in case I have to brake and my left wrist was shot from all the left turns. I am proud of how I finished and for racing the whole race minus a lap. I can't wait for the Indy race this Wednesday but I am so excited that season 3 starts next week and I will be back to racing with Jon in the DW12 both road and oval.

700 views this time in 3 WEEKS!!! I am beyond humbled and touched!!!

I am amazed and so humbled by this. I hit 700 views in a month. This time not even my second full month of having this blog, I already hit that number and it is still climbing. THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE! Whether if you looked once or everyday, I am speechless. I am preparing some things that will take this blog to another level. Please stay tuned for more and more things to come.

Tonight is the rescheduled iRacing Indy 500 at 8pm EST. I will be running that tonight plus getting a ton of League of Legends in this weekend. I offered to give any little bit of help that I can to Joe Hassert in Spec Barber Ford at Brands Hatch to help him win his division. So that is Saturday night. Plus I have my kids this week so there will be Call of Duty Ghost and Black Ops 2. Also for their birthday this year, I reactivated the World of Warcraft account so they will be doing that I am sure. Plus my longest ride to date and run on Saturday morning. So lots of things to post about this weekend and will try to post during the weekend to keep everyone up to date.

THANK YOU AGAIN SO MUCH AND STAY TUNED FOR A TON MORE TO COME!!

Lionheart IndyCar Series: Chicagoland "Deep Dish" 150 Race Recap

I added the Deep Dish part LOL!


Waking up in the motor-home to the sounds of 700 HP beasts chasing each other around a 1.5 mile track, saying to myself  "I love the smell of Ethanol in the morning!! That smell, you know that E85 smell. Smelled like 1st place." Well that is what happened in my head at least when I sat down and got ready to warm-up for the race LOL. Tuesday night, I got into the practice server to get a good fuel run in order to come up with a good strategy and more than likely different that what every other person would have. I did a full tank run which let me know that the right side tires really took a beating and when they finally dropped off, they dropped off quick. So I came up with almost the same strategy that I had for Miami, which I did not post a blog about (and for that League Members I AM SORRY!!). That strategy was for this race 34 laps pit add fuel to give me just 13 gallons and 4 tires, 13 gallons would give me about 34 laps. So I was looking for a 2 stop race each time going into the pits with about .4 gallons left. Now the strategy was a gamble and that would be what I would have to do cause I didn't have the speed like I had at Michigan and Homestead. During practice myself, Anthony Lurcock and C.C.M (Chris Miller) were doing practice qualifying runs. Now definitely not to brag, but if my memory is correct I qualified ahead of C.C.M for the first 2 races. I knew from Official Series races that he was a great qualifier, so I thought I would be at least close to his Q time. Not even close. The best I could do in practice runs was .8 away. So I knew I had to come up with a strategy that would hopefully let me pit early enough so that "when" a caution comes out I could be lucky enough to be on 1 or 2 lap tires with the fuel I need. However the downside to not practicing on Monday or with a lot of people in the servers, no pack running. So with the help of Anthony Lurcock just telling me it has aero push behind another car and it can push you to the wall, I knew I would have to either lift at turn in or pop out some of the car to catch air, like in NASCAR when they are pushing the car in front of them and have to get air on the radiator.

Sitting in the car, at pit exit, I had my pitting strategy that me and my engineers came up with (okay okay the voices in my head told me it would work with cautions LOL). Qualifying was about to begin. Starting with this race, in order to over come the issues with so many people filling up one room and having to build quickly another room, the admin came up with what I think is a great idea. We would have a Top Split room and a Bottom Split room. The basis of which came down to the top 20 in points would be Top Split and the rest would be Bottom Split with the exception of a Last Chance Qualifier race that took place on Tuesday night where the top 5 would move up to the Top Split. So I had run a 24.690 in Tuesday's practice session, I said to myself "you can good enough, smart enough and you can do better slacker!" LOL. Anyway practice Q and real Q has always been different, 24.729 put me starting 12th. I was where I had never been before starting outside the top 6. So then the aero push popped up in my head. How bad was it? When did it start and when did it end? Is it faster to lift get down then wide open? Or is it better to pop out and get air on the front to bring it down? Yep my friends this is what practice is for!!

Starting 12th mid pack, I already set tires to be replaced and put in my 13 gallons already to be put in. Settling your button to these settings makes it so much easier. Push one button and BAM 4 tires and 13 gallons. Now if you get caught up in the racing and don't stay up to date with what is going on you will pit and start putting in 13 gallons ON TOP OF WHAT IS ALREADY IN THERE! I learned that last race so as we started I would remove 1 gallon at a time to do the math. Now if you remember what I said earlier, the strategy , to me, would work IF there were cautions. Yep you guessed....NOT A SINGLE ONE!!! Which made for some great quick racing but messed my plan all up. After just a couple of laps I saw someone go mow the front straight grass and I thought to myself, nice caution. NOPE!!  So then I heard Joe Hassert say "I tapped the wall" again I thought, nice caution. NOPE!!  So first stop was going to be at lap 34 under green. By the set rules, I would pull off on the back straight go on the apron of turn 3 to get to the pit. Now pitting has always been something I need work on, cause every time I have needed to pit there has been cautions. Again never ASS-U-ME there will be cautions LOL. And don't DON'T NEVER pull off half way down the back straight and slow to almost pit speed by the middle of 3, stupid move Jeremy. I had to speed up to get in the pits. However when I pitted I had 13 gallons still in the tank, so I unchecked the gas button and just took tires. In and out in no time, back up to speed and out on the track. Now like last recap I will not go lap by lap, but I will say my strategy gave me false hope. About 10 to 14 laps later all the other racers that didn't pit with me or Joe (again for the wall touch), started to pit. When I came out I was 23 2 laps down. Once the other racers pitted I was 12 on the lead lap. So I had only 16 or so laps on my tires and had burned by then over 6 gallons of the 13 I had left. Tires were fresh and I was lite, which mean I was running down people. I just kept saying to myself come on I need a caution, but that last just a couple of laps cause as I got close to having to pit again if one came out then everyone would be the same. So in the pits I go again, 12 gallons to equal a little over 13 total 4 tires and 2 laps down. I had only about 22 laps to go, now time to power it down and watch the other racers start pitting. While I was waiting for the pits to start me and Dennis had some great racing. He was a lap ahead of me but I knew I was faster just cause of newer tires. It took me about 4 laps or so to finally get around him. I mean I tried high runs, low runs, over/unders, under/overs. And finally an over/under out of 2 and staying low got me around him in 3. That is what is so good about this League and the Top Split. I was not worried about racing Dennis so hard. So on to waiting to see the leaders start pitting. Each lap as it got closer I said come on start saying "pitting in". Come on let get started, Come on pit. START PITTING DANG YOU GUYS. Nope it never happened. They went to fuel conservation mode and made it on 1 stop. If the race was about 2 laps longer it would have been an amazing strategy. Finished 17th 2 laps down. 2 laps down is exactly how many laps I went down by pitting. What a great race and NO CAUTIONS WHAT SO EVER!!!

What to take away from this race. THE ADMIN DID IT!! All bugs were worked out, the rooms worked great and it was great fun exciting racing. AND I KEPT MY SPOT IN THE TOP SPLIT FOR AT LEAST ONE MORE WEEK. Next up for me is the Indy 500 Friday night with my Teammate Jon Carrigan then get ready for Monday and Tuesday practice for Indy 250 with the Lionheart IndyCar Series on Wednesday night!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP THREE IN THE TOP SPLIT:
1. RICHARD BEHR
2. ANTHONY LURCOCK
3. JEFF YORK

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP THREE IN THE BOTTOM SPLIT:
1.ZACHARY TRULL
2. BRIAN SULLIVAN
3. JORGE ANZALDO

GREAT RACE AND JOB GUYS!!!

iRacing Lionheart Series: Michigan Season Opener Recap.

Before I get started into the practice, qualifying and racing; I just wanted to say THANK YOU TO ALL THE ADMIN FOR PUTTING THIS SERIES TOGETHER!!! So after hundreds of practice laps, fuel mileage runs and spending most of yesterday at work going over the perfect pit strategy I was ready. I got in to the practice server with only 6 minutes after it opened to make sure there was no way I was not going to get a spot. I saw some of the normal names that I have been practicing with over the past week. John D, CCM, Dennis N, Jorge, Joe, Zach, however I saw a ton of names that I have never seen in a practice server. And quickly I realized they had no idea what the racing line was here at Michigan and with this setup. This was going to be interesting race to say the least LOL. So there was so many racers from the league that 2 qualifying servers had to be setup.

Now like I have said before, this is a new car in a new league. And with any new undertaking there is going to be little hiccups the first couple of races. And there where a couple of small ones that happened, however the Admins where all over it and came up with a solution very fast given the problem that so many people had wanted to race the series that 2 qualifying sessions had to be created. That lead to some people being able to get into the qualifying session and some not. And like some of the other practice races we had my Arch-nemesis John Downing took the pole from me on the last lap beating my time by .012!!! However due to the issues the Admin had to enforce the dual session reset. So we had to redo Qualifying all over again. So I would get my chance to try and find .02 seconds to take the pole. However like the last double header race with a Qualifying session before each race my second Qualifying session was slower than the first one. "Dang it" I yelled LOL. My second Q time was .04 slower than my first which put me starting in 6th. John "Arch-nemesis" Downing's time was almost the same time he ran in the first qualifying session. So the task of setting the grid fell on to Joe Hasserts shoulders. Which I didn't envy that at all for him. So in order to accommodate over 43 racers racing this first race of the season, 2 race session were put up.

Now I am not going to give a turn by turn account of what happen, but I will cover the race from my standpoint with my views and opinions as always, I will cover what I consider the highlights of the race to me. Now you will have to realize that this race got done around 2:00 am for me and I had to be up at 6ish so some parts are a blur still to me LOL. Starting 6th, got a real good start got to the bottom as soon as possible cause that is the racing line at Michigan in this car with this setup, however I could see that the 4 cars out of 5 cars in front of me didn't run any or many practice laps with us cause the were taking a high line on the back straightway not hugging the inside line the whole way around. The only person that was trying to get the low line going was John who had done as many if not more practice laps than me. Even if the draft was up high, you would still hold your place staying low. 3 laps in first caution. The person who caused it never before seen their name in a practice session. I am just going to go ahead and cover this. Almost every wreck that happened was from someone who I had never seen in a practice session. Now I could have just overlooked them but I feel comfortable saying that right now. Again this is with about 3 hours of sleep LOL. The first 2 cautions were within the first 7 laps. Just people racing too hard for this early in the race however I say it is lack of practice in our practice servers and races. Now in real iRacing, all the races have double file restarts with lapped cars in the back. Like I have covered before, this series have single file restarts with lapped cars where they are in the line. Now haven been a lapped car 1 lap down during a race, I have been all for this. However there was a hand full of racers that as soon as they saw this they started complaining which showed a couple of things: 1. they didn't do any practice races with us and didn't read all the rules of the series. After the second caution I had made it to 3rd and the first 2 cars came in to pit so I had the lead!! I was excited I knew I had a chance at winning going into the race. Now here is where an issue I have with myself in certain situations. I knew from my calculations that I would have 2 full fuel stops with a 6.5 gallon stop near the end, that was also if we went green the whole way which I knew wasn't going to happen. So I just knew if I could get to 12 laps or more into the race, I would pit which would cover the splash pit at the end early. 3rd caution comes out I am in the lead then the issue comes out. In my head all I thought about was the fuel strategy in my head. So here I am in the lead EARLY in the race and I pit. Hindsight is a BITCH!!  What a mistake. But that is racing and once you turn down for the pits you might as well go ahead and follow the plan. So new tires and topped off, it just became 1 more stop race for me. So back out in 10th ready to go. Now here is where I flip on the lead lap position. Being fast enough to lead and knowing that I can get back to the lead having a car start in front of us 4 laps down already hugging what is the racing line there and being involved in the first 2 wrecks, they should get out of the way of the pack 5th thru 11th racing to catch the lead pack. But no unfortunately this person didn't want to do that so after they slid up coming out of 4 there is the wreck that caught me up. So gutted in that. This also brings up a small over look in building the race servers so quickly. How could someone that was involved in 2 wrecks still be able to race at those speeds with only 1 fast reset. I found out afterward that the resets were set to unlimited. So again a small oversight that we learn from and move on. So that person wouldn't even have been racing if it was set to 1 fast reset but got to move on learn and get better. So that was about it for my race expect having a great race with Jorge Anzaldo for 14th and 15th position at the last 5 laps. Which he came out on top, DANG YOU JORGE! LOL.

So in conclusion to me, it was a very successful first race for a new series in a new not really completely finished car. The admin team did a great job handling the issues that came up as fast as they could. I really liked it how they kept us up to date with what was going on. You are always going to have people that are use to a certain type of settings in races ie single file vs double file restarts, that they  aren't going to like it cause they aren't use to it. If you would have done practice races with us, you would have know about the way it was setup. I think it was an amazing turn out.  Now we will see how many people show up for next weeks race. You will lose some people just from them not liking something about the series cause they can't adapt to things that they are not use to racing with or rules they aren't use to. So the ones that really believe in what the series is and the people showing up, helping out and really supporting the series will be there next week. And to that I say 'I LOOK FORWARD TO RACING WITH YOU NEXT WEEK!"

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP THREE IN RACE 1 ROOM 1:
1. #31 Michael Chin
2. #22 Marc Melcher
3. #14 Sam Bonsett

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP THREE IN RACE 1 ROOM 2 (MY ROOM):
1. #14 Danno Brookins
2. #18 Kouichi Kitamura
3. #19 Jeff York

iRacing Lionheart Series: Finally a win/ Honoring Dan Wheldon

If you have been keeping up with my previous post, you know that the DW12 has come out for iRacing. They released it just before the real Indy 500 for their iRacing Indy 500 that was cancelled and rescheduled for July 17th and 18th. So when Jon Carrigan and I saw the DW12, we knew that was what we were going to race next season. They would have official setups for both oval and road. So I thought to myself, it would be great to get extra seat time in it in a league. That is where I came across the iRacing Lionheart Series. So not only were they running the DW12 for 16 weeks with 12 oval and 4 road, but they were also honoring the man who helped develop this car for the safety of his fellow drivers who tragically lost his life doing what he loved in October 2011. That right there was all it took for me to join up.

From what his best friends in the racing community have said and of course from his sister Holly and wife Susie Wheldon, Dan was a great father, husband, friend and of course driver. His lost is still felt in the Indy community to this day. And if you look at it, if it wasn't for Dan's work on the DW12 (which stands for Dan Wheldon), Dario Franchitti's accident last year at Houston could have been a lot worst. Over the past 2 years, every accident that someone has been in and walked away from in the DW12 is cause of Dan's work on the car and what I like to think him watching over the ones he loved, his racer friends. So Dan, thank you for your work and dedication to keeping your buds safe! Keep watching over Sebastian as he is racing and following in your footsteps. I know that Susie, Holly and the whole Wheldon family are very proud of both Sebastian and Oliver. Look for a link on our Facebook website very soon to The Dan Wheldon Family Trust Fund. https://www.facebook.com/lionheartseries Also wanted to include Dennis Nicoll's car that he will be running in tribute to Dan Wheldon.

Okay now back to my first WIN! I jumped into the practice session with about 9 minutes to go. I didn't go in with any expectations what so ever. I was just hoping to be able to finish this race with no accident at all LOL. Practice was over and Qualifying go started. I did something that I heard from John Downing, which he said he ran 3 laps on the high side then the last lap down low. I did it different though, I ran 2 laps up high and 2 down low. After my 3rd lap, I was sitting on the pole. I had my eye glued to the Standings black box and I held pole until turn 1 on lap 4 LOL. Jorge Anzaldo was ahead of me by .03 of a second. By the time it registered I was already on the back straightway +.3 off my already pole time, so I knew I would not have the pole but hoped I could hold second. Which I did!! Every race so far I have been qualifying in the top 5 or 6 to the best of my memory. Sitting outside lane on the grid, I started thinking how to handle this. I am a very forgiving and cautious driver, I just thought I need to get behind Jorge as soon as I could so that I would not give up 2nd. Waiting for the pace laps, Jorge just disappeared. I late hear him say he lost power and got disconnected. So the 3rd place driver pulled up and took over 1st place. Sticking to the same strategy with what I was going to do with Jorge, I go behind him and just held there till I could make a move on him. After a couple of laps the spot opened up and I was in first. I held first for about 14 laps, hugging the bottom line like an AirTitan LOL They were starting to shuffle around behind me and another racers replaced second right behind me. As soon as he got behind me I thought to myself, he is very close.....didn't even get the thought out of my head when I see my nose angle to the left and toward the back straightway inside wall I was heading. Car Contact 4/17. I remembered what I had read a while ago. You will steer where your eyes look. So I started looking at the grass at turn 3 at 200 mph. I barely touched the inside wall at around 190 and the next thing I knew my steering wheel was at 45 degrees to go straight. Time to think now and test out the car. Can I keep the car straight on the track and take turns, YES but cautiously. Okay am I still on the lead lap? Yes but for how long. So driving with the wheel at 45 degrees I wanted to stay on the lead lap hoping for a caution. I stayed out like this for I don't know how many laps. I heard someone say "it is nerve wrecking at 230" I looked down and saw I was doing no more than 220. Then in the relative box I saw the red names of the leaders creeping down on me. 30 secs down to 12 seconds, I thought to myself I am going to have to pit under green and go a lap down. Maybe if I do it on this lap, I can get the lap back when the leaders pit. "Caution is out"!!! I have never been so excited to see a yellow flag in my life LOL. Into the pits, I knew according to Dashmeter Pro I needed 7 gallons to finish. In the pits, 7 gallons, no tires and the reset and away I was in 10th. Now in previous races I have gotten into accident, been a couple of laps down and went from 12th to fighting with the leaders to get my lap back, so I knew it could be done. Head down, green flag and it was go time. 10th to 7th in 2 laps. Got behind a driver who didn't like being on the bottom at all, so as soon as he had a chance he jumped up to the top line and that put me in 5th. I knew that you could pick up the draft of the car in front a good distance away (not saying how far out cause it is an ancient Chinese secret LOL. So my eyes where glued on the 2 inside red lights on the rpm. As soon as they flashed red, I was into 6th. Slowly I was running down 4th when another caution came out. This was great going to have 10 laps to go at the green. Plenty of fuel. Left front tire had some good wear on it but I knew that it could last only 10 laps. Green flag waves in the air 10 lap shootout begins. Oh leader at the time had to go cause of stuff he had to do, so I went from 5th to 4th before the green flag. So 4th to 3rd, 3rd to 2nd. Just hugging that bottom line waiting for any kind of bobble. Tried to make a couple of passes coming out of 4 and 2. But it is so hard to pass on the outside, then the planets aligned and as I was making another try coming out of turn 2, the leader made a slight mistake. So I am in the middle of a three wide and make it stick to take the lead. 3 laps to go and sweetest words I have heard all day. 'CAUTION IS OUT!! Not the way anyone wants to finish but I will take it! I knew with my qualifying times that I have had I have a car that can finish in the top 3 at least but this just gives me more confidence for Wednesday's series opener.

Can't say enough about how much fun this has been just getting ready for Wednesday's opener. The quality of racers that were in the league member only first race was outstanding which I had hoped it would be. After about 15 laps people were already talking if the race could go green the whole way. Such a night and day between open practice servers and league only server. I can't wait to get started with the season and racing with such a great group of guys. Again thank you to the Admin who are working their butts off getting this ready.

Come and check us out live on Zach Trull's Twitch channel www.twitch.tv/zachttrull23 tomorrow to see live streaming and commentary of the race.

Clarification of Last Lionheart Series Post

First off let me say that I have completely enjoyed the racing in the iRacing Verizon Lionheart Series. Whether some non admin or non member racers kind of rubbed me a little wrong or I was just not in a great mood when I wrote it, after rereading it I realize I left out the whole purpose of the title. What the title meant was that the reason that we have practice races is to work out the kinks and issues that would come up during a official race. That way the Admin Team can get the kinks worked out and procedure protocals in place. Also to be able to work on the setup to get it so that it is not only stable but also competitive. So as far as any setup issues I said, I of course knew that this time is just a research and develop phase for the setup and its setting before the official race on July 2nd. I was just giving my personal opinion because that is what blogs are for. It is my blog so it is my personal opinion. I don't have to take anyone elses feelings or opinions in to account. I am going to be honest not brutal but honest. If my blog post came across as negative to the race series, that is not the case at all and far from it. I understand that all of the issues that I experience where: 1. it is practice and practice only. No championship points at stake, wins or loses matter. So people are going to be trying and testing what and where they can place the car. I completely understand and I understand that during the official racing series it won't or I am going to say hopefully isn't going to be like that. And the reason I say hopefully is cause we won't know who can and can't drive well. That is not a slam or bust on anyone, just a fact of any skill level sport. 2: the chatter during the practice races is not going to be what it will be during a race (again I hope). I have been in official races on iRacing and have had 2 people talk about other races and series the whole race. So I am guessing that it won't happen during the race. One thing I know for sure because of the great admin team that they have on hand, if there is unnecessary chatter during the race they will not allow it at all. However that being said, if what I said in the previous blog post hit close to home, you might need to reevaluate your use of the radio.

So I am ending this one by saying a couple of things again. This is a great group of admins that have a huge undertaking on their hands. Like I said in the previous post, I know on hand how big of an undertaking it is. Again just with real life, not everyone is going to get along with everyone. So far almost all the people that have joined the practice servers have been great. Now the ones that I have had an issue with or just their personallity did not mesh with mine could have not even been a member of the league so I can't say if they are or are not. But we are adults (or I sure say hopefully we are all older and not kids) and we will be able to race cleanly regardless. Once the season gets started the races will be password protected so that will keep non members out of the races. And let me say again and again, the previous post had somewhat of a negative feeling to it and that was not my intention at all. I am very happy with the admin, the series and the racers that are in the practice races so far.

HOWEVER AGAIN THIS IS MY PERSONAL BLOG WHICH I TALK ABOUT A LOT OF THINGS THAT I AM DOING AND ENJOY. EVERY POST IS FROM MY PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE AND THAT WILL NOT CHANGE. CAUSE THAT IS WHAT BLOGS ARE ALL ABOUT!!

Lionheart Series: And this is why we practice races first/www.twitch.tv/zachttrull23

Almost everyone who has decided to take iRacing seriously has thought to themselves, Hey I wish they had this kind of series so I will just run one myself. Before the Road Warrior series I was going to run a League series myself that would mimic at the time ALMS, WEC and Grand Am series. I researched tracks so that I would have the same track that was begin raced in real life, running that weekend in the series on iRacing. I started working on sponsors, points system, rules, qualifying setup, everything you can imagine to make it as fun and exciting. Over 40 people said on the forums that they were going to race. Even going as far as picking their own numbers. I was so excited! This is going to become the most popular league series in iRacing. Now come the day of the first practice race to test out the setup of the hosted session, the qualifying session and race. I was already to just look at 40 people in 3 different classes ready to take on the first ever Endurance iRacing Series. 5 yes I didn't make a mistake 5 people showed up. I was devastated! I even went as far as purchase a domain name and setup up a crude website just to get something up then would work on it before the first race from GoDaddy.com. And that was just me by myself. So I can definitely understand what the group of admins for the Verizon iRacing Lionheart Series are going thru right now.

When you have a series with so many different people at different levels of experience of racing, you can not make everyone happy. But it is up to the individual to understand that there is many different factors that the admins have to take into account. I have been looking at the profiles of many if not all of the racers from last nights dual practice, qualify and single race. It was such a wide range of experience of drivers. Now I am using just iRating as a standard to base this part of off. And trust you me that iRating isn't always nor is Safety Rating a telltale sign of a persons driving ability, however it gives you an idea. (Trust me after lasts nights race, my SR would have taken a beating and like in my other post I will take responsibility for any accident but last night not one of the accidents that I was involved in was my fault). In the series, you have one person that raced last night that is in the 4000 IR and someone who was 900 IR. From a Safety Rating of 4.99 to right at 2.00. Then there is me right in the middle LOL. With such a diverse group of members in the League, how do you appease everyone. The easy answer is you don't. You will have the racers with the high IR that builds their own setups that will want to either be able to build their setups or have a fixed setup that is very loose. Which if you decide to do that then what you will have is the same as the official Open Series. Which means you will have 3 to 4 people fighting for the win and everyone else seconds off of them fighting for the also ran positions. Which will kill the series after just a couple of races cause there won't be a chance of anyone from 5th on back fighting to win the series. On the flip side, you have make a setup that is fixed for the lower IR racers (which is the safest but has it's drawbacks which I will get into) which means you make it with a ton of down force, you have kind of where we are now. And here is where it gets tricky, safe and stable is always going to be the best for the majority of the racers on iRacing. It will drive away the high IR racers cause they will say, "the car has to much down force, it is boring, you can't pass" etc. Now that is a minority of the racers on iRacing. What it will do is it will get the word out to the mid to lower IR racers that there is a series where you can race, fight for a win and get some great seat time. Now the drawback which is where I feel like is where we are right now.  The setup is so stable and safe that you can run it anywhere you want which is what most racers you want but they also want to be close to the edge. So last night I realized very quickly, that if you go to the bottom of the track which is the shortest way around the track, you ALMOST can not be passed. Some people can pass on the outside but it takes the perfect scenario. And the admins can't spend all their time building a setup so you have to be understanding and just use what they give you to the best ability.

Now here are some things that I just observed. There is no malice toward anyone or the series just my observation of certain things that I saw. Somethings I say people could say I am sensitive others I think would agree with me. If you sign up for a series and it says "single file restarts" Don't bitch and complain about the single file restarts!! You signed up for the series already knowing there would be there. Which means that lapped cars could be mixed in with lead lap cars. Also lapped cars that are faster than the leaders are NOT going to slow down for the leader. They are fighting to get there lap back and since now the lucky dog is gone even more so. Also it is fun to talk about the race and small talk during the caution laps, but no one really wants to here if you have some much towing time, how much damage or if you are going to go away from the keyboard because of  you tow time left or damage or anything like that. As you race with the same people over and over, you start getting an idea of how people race. Now that can be a good thing or a bad thing. What I have noticed is who is safe to race around or who I have to be worried about. And I have started seeing the same people cause the same wrecks over and over. Some give a sorry, some don't say anything at all. But they are the same ones that can't hold their line, still can't understand the draft or try and put the car into a spot that they shouldn't be trying to. Now I am not saying I am a perfect drivers, I make mistakes and will cause an accident from time to time, however I will tell you that even to a fault I will get out of the gas so I don't slam into anyone, I will give up a position to someone who is faster than me non draft. I would rather finish 4th than cause a wreck to finish 2nd. I have seen some people that are high up in the league come down so quick that if I didn't lift they would have just slammed into me. Hey that is racing and you have to be on the ball. However most people are not like that! They will try and pass under the white line, on the grass, bump you, intimidated you by acting like they are coming down on you to make you lift. Again that is racing but it isn't skilled racing to me. But many people have expressed that they can't wait till the season start so that the quality of racing improves as people don't have unlimited rests.

Last nights race was a little hard to stomach to me. I want to say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time but I think it is more like people where racing in the wrong place given their skill level. I have witnessed the same person cause 3 wrecks and not get a bit of damage and not say a word. I have seen another person cause 4 wrecks but each time say sorry, which doesn't really overcome that they are a cause of the wrecks. You see this in any racing in iRacing however you might race with that person once a week in the series but in a league race you know you will always see the same person every week in a very small group of people.

Again these are just observation that I have seen. I am not unhappy with the league, the admin or the series. It is a new car that we are learning right now. I have felt very welcome from almost every admin and member in the league. You will always have some people who just don't take a new person coming into their world of friends which you have to understand and just be yourself.

I hope you take a look at this great League with some great people running it. I can't wait till the season starts on July 2nd. Also the race will be streamed live each race by Zach Trull his twitch channel is www.twitch.tv/zachttrull23! Also look out for a race streaming site doing reports Sportcenter style in the future.

New DW12 League Series iRacing Verizon Lionheart Series has begun!

If you have read some of my previous posts, you know that I will be racing only the new DW12 next season. I will be racing this car in both Oval and Road. This is a car that just came out before the iRacing Indy 500 (which we all know was cancelled: more on that later). So I need to get as much time in the car as possible before the next season. I was going thru the Dallara forum and came across his league. And decided to do more investigation into this series.

This league is mostly an Oval strong league with only 4 road courses, however it would give me valuable seat time with no hit to my IR or SR. One thing that drew me to the league is that they will be having a setup that is designed with input from everyone. Which is good cause from what I have heard the baseline setups are terrible and if they let one person do the setup then if that person driving style, iRating and experience will come into play. So for someone like me who has just practice for the Indy 500 as his experience, that kind of setup would be WAY to loose for me. So I got a chance to jump in to the practice race (which they will be running till the first race on July 2nd), I joined the TeamSpeak Server and the fun began!!

I was instantly greeted by Jorge Anzaldo. He thanked me for joining the TeamServer and said enjoy. Told me to download the the setup and gave me the times that the race would start. Now I am use to being on my teams TeamServer with one only other person my teammate Jon Carrigan on there. So it was interesting to have at least 3 conversations going on at the same time plus the race chatter going on. I got about 20 or so laps under my belt. They did a setup change that everyone had to download and use. Then back out for some more practice.

So next was qualifying. Just you on a track for 4 laps. I dropped the fuel to only about 9.5 gallons, cause I didn't get any fuel runs in I didn't know what my fuel burn was so I was being very safe. Any way did my 4 laps had no idea where I was till I got out. I QUALIFIED 4TH!! I was shocked!! I felt great. But there was 1 guy who was a .5 second faster than anyone. And everyone was saying over TS, there is no way that is the same setup. Anyway we started and everyone was calm and curious. The guy in first place after about 7 laps had a 5 sec lead then they told him he was out for not using the same setup. Which just showed what a great race control they had planned to have in place.

I unfortunately was the cause of the first accident LOL. With the TS chatter, race talk and my spotter saying clear, I thought it meant that I was clear below since I could see the car to my right. NOPE! Came right down on someone inside me. Instantly felt bad about it and apologized for it. Unlimited resets and after the tow, I was back out.

Not going to do a lap by lap of the first race, but after running only Time Trials on the Road side for the past 3 weeks trying to build my SR back up after the Skippy debacle. It was great to get the competitive racing spirit back after just one race. They were so friendly and made me feel comfortable about being there.

Unfortunately the second race last night, I couldn't get in cause the way iRacing is once you fill up the pit slots no one can get in afterward even if people get out and don't race. It was very disappointing not to be able to get in and also due to the fact that we have 26 members in the league so my slot was not only taken up by someone not in the league but also didn't even race the race. But it was my fault as well as my triathlon training had me at the gym till about 9:30 plus eating dinner I couldn't get on till almost at Qualifying anyway. Jorge was very very apologetic and it wasn't even his fault. So I just watched the race and helped out watching the wrecks for race control.

They are a great group of racers. I am very looking forward to racing tonight since I don't have any triathlon training tonight. However I will make sure I am the first one signed in to get my slot LOL. Please check them out on the league page.

702 Views in One Month! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT!!!/Product Reviews/Interviews

I am absolutely speechless and that takes a lot for me to be speechless lol. I started this blog a couple of years ago for a job that I had at the time and just posted 1 time. So after I started taking my triathlon training seriously, my iRacing seriously, Competitive Gaming Training I decided to start adding to this blog. However it was after reading Stephaine Johnson's RunTriMom and IronMummy's blogs that I decided to take this plunge. I don't stay on top of it everyday like I planned on doing. But even if it is just a couple of sentences I am going to post everyday. There will be tweaks and changes to the blog as I fine tune how I want it setup. But I just wanted to take this time and say THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! Please subscribe if you would like to get more my posts sent to your email.

I am also really going to try and see about doing more Product Reviews on here. I am trying to see if there is a way of creating different pages for different topics ie. an iRacing Page, Product Review page etc. I will be starting out by doing reviews of products that I have already purchased, however I hope as this blog grows even more that companies will see a benefit of me doing reviews for them. I will posting reviews of Triathlon Products, iRacing, Gaming, App all kinds of stuff that apply to what I am interested in.

I am also hoping as this blog grows to be able to send out email questionnaires to celebrities and very influential people in the industries that we are interested in just so we can get some idea of what is going on with the people that we take time out of our day to follow on Social Media.

Again THANK YOU SO MUCH for you taking your time out of your day and reading the ramblings of this man LOL.

My 24 and half hour 24 Hours of LeMans Journey Grind!/Dempsey Racing/Allan Simonsen Honored by win!

As I said in my blog http://40yroldgamingtriathlete.blogspot.com/2014/06/iracing-using-f1-williams-to-recover-sr.html , I have been watching the 24 Heures du Mans for the past 15 years or more. I would get up and swap out VCR tapes in the middle of the night so I would have the whole race recorded. But this year I would do something that I have never done before, stay up 24 hours and watch the whole race on Fox Sport 1 and 2!!!

Their coverage of the race started at 8:30 am on Saturday and ended at 9:30 am on Sunday. They had a break in coverage between 5:00 pm and 6:30 pm. So in between this time I switched over to RadioLeMans.com to listen to their coverage. So I got up at 8:15 am on Saturday to begin my Racing Grind. I completely forgot about the 30 minute pre-show before the flag waved at 9. SO THAT WAS 30 MINUTES THAT I COULD HAVE BEEN SLEEPING LOL. Fernando Alonso Ferrari F1 driver was the Tricolor waver, which in layman terms mean he waved the green flag. I was sitting up on the couch so excited for the next 24 hours of nothing but racing on TV. Now I can go on and give a some what detailed description of what happened every hour but instead I will just give my thoughts and impressions from the race.

The Toyota Driver of the #8 should not have been going that fast in the rain. I was a stupid mistake that took out the third Audi and come definitely have been avoided with a clear head. It is such a long race to be thinking that you could have gained that much in those conditions.

It was so good seeing Dempsey Racing sitting on pole of the GTE AM class at the start. Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Patrick Long make up such a good team. Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster have been partners for a long time. Adding Patrick Long to the team for the second year is a no brainer. Do to an unfortunate penalty for spinning the tires the team dropped down to 6th and fought hard and steady to finish 5th this year. I look forward to seeing them there again next year. I think the strategy they had this year combine that with some good luck and we could be seeing the Winners of 2015 LeMans GTE AM class. Speaking of that class, it was very nice to see Allan Simonsen's team from last year win this year and honor he in doing so. In case you don't know Allan died last year on only the third lap of the 2013 LeMans driving for Aston Martin Racing. Aston Martin went on to withdraw after his death. So it was great seeing them on the top spot of the podium this year.

Having Porsche race in the LMP1 class this year brings more competition to Toyota and LeMans dominating Audi. The car looks great, unfortunately had some very bad luck at the end with Mark Webber's team car and lost the drivetrain. Can't wait till next year when Nissan joins back and racing in 2015.

So back to me and my Grind. At about 2 am I decided to get online and try and get some more of my SR back on iRacing. I was so jonesing to race after watching so much quality racing on TV. So I booted up the computer. Threw on my Piloti Lmp PRO 17 racing shoes, my Alpinestar Tech 1-ZX gloves and my Turtle Beach X12 headsets and I was ready to go. This is where I learned that I can not listen to the race on RadioLeMans.com and race a F1 car at Silverstone cause everytime I would hear the noise of the race in the background, I would think it was my car. Plus it made me realize how much I use sound to drive on iRacing. But it was still fun to get those laps in finally get back over 2.00 in SR. So after doing the math I realize that I would have to do 10 more time trials to get to 4.99. This is a learning experience and punishment at the same time. So next season season me and Jon have decided that, if we lose SR in a race that we will jump on the time trial to recover what we lost instead of thinking we would race our SR back up like we did this season. It is going to be long and tedious but a good learning experience. We are also contemplating using the Star Mazda practice to work on car control to get ready for the DW12 road series. I was very happy I watched the whole race and I also recorded it on my DVR. As soon as the cars crossed the finish line, I was asleep 5 minutes later. I am hope that next year I will be able to make a trip back to France and watch the race in person. If not I think I have found my 24 hour of LeMans tradition now, and that is Grinding out for 24 hours of Racing Bliss.

So thank you again for reading this post. I am still on the fence if I am going to do 1 or 2 more about this weekend. Definitely 1 more but possibly 2. Until a couple hours later for the next one LOL.

iRacing: Using F1 Williams to recover SR/ 24 hrs of LeMans 23 hr Weekend Grind!!

So after taking a huge beating in Safety Rating (SR) by racing the Skippy at Brands Hatch, We have decided to use the Time Trial to build it back up to A4.99. Now in order to do this, Jon and I are going to have to do almost 200 laps in the F1 car at Silverstone this weekend. If we don't get all the Time Trials done this weekend, then we will have to do the F1 car next week at Suzuka (which I love and Jon hates LOL). I did my first Time Trial last night. The Time Trials are 30 minutes long and you need to get at least 4 clean laps to get on the leaderboard for Time Trials. However we are using this as a way to build our SR back up. So we are having to look at this as punishment for trying to race our SR back up. Also from a mentality stand point, I am now a test driver for a F1 racing team LOL. It is going to be at least 13 to 15 Time Trials to build up to where we need to be. The good thing is that once you hit a whole number on SR ie. 2.00, 3.00, 4.00 you gain .5 instantly. So when you hit 2.00, you go to 2.50, 3.0 goes to 3.5 etc. That will definitely help make the jump to 4.99 and keep my A license. If your SR goes below 1.00 you will lose your license and drop from A to B, B to C etc. F1 is the most detailed time consuming series in iRacing. It is the series that you can actually get a pro license in and compete for $10,500 each year. So needless to say all I did was make a setup that would be very stable and let me run lap after lap. 8 secs off the leaders time from last season is okay with me to build my SR back up. Most people who start racing the F1 start out anywhere from 6 to 10 seconds off the fastest time. It is just how it is with this series. Then each season you take off a couple of seconds. Well I will be having 2 grinds this weekend. First one I will be doing tonight will be the F1 SR Grind, the second one will be something I have never done.

The 24 hours of LeMans weekend grind will be attempted this weekend. Now a little bit of information about me and the 24 hours of LeMans, I have been watching this race for over 13 yrs. Back when VCRs where still being used, I would record the whole thing on Speedvision. I would set my alarm to go off a couple of times in the middle of the night so that I can swap out VCR tapes before they ran out. Yes that dedicated LOL. But what I have never done was watch every minute of every hour of the race that was televised. But this weekend between Fox Sport 1 and Fox Sport 2, I am going for the 24hr of LeMans 23 hour grind! The only hour that is not going to be on TV is the 5 to 6pm time slot. I am excited to see if I can do this. That means if I go anywhere during the day on Saturday, I will be wearing my headphones and listening to RadioLeMans to make up for not being able to watch it. I am excited to get up at 8:00 Saturday morning and watch this great event for 24 hours. Seeing Porsche race again is going to be excited. Of course I will be checking Twitter as well as watching just to get more detailed information about all the teams I follow on Twitter. I will let you know who I am doing on my Saturday and Sunday blog post.

Again I can't say enough about how much it means to me for people all over the country to take their time and read my blog post. Thank you and many more to come.

This weekend part 2: iRacing To some it is more than a game/Netcode & Terrible drivers

I am going to go ahead to say, I have been with iRacing for 2 years. I love it! I am unfortunately at this time not able to race real cars so this is the second best thing that is out there. If you are not familiar with iRacing there is a quick overview: it is a online simulation using both oval and road cars and tracks. From the Legends cars to F1 they have it all. Computer generated cars taken from CAD files, manufacturers telemetry, and pictures that they actually take of the cars. Adjustments from just the shocks all the way to differential settings, transmission settings to every single aerodynamic wing on the car. Unlike other racing sims, they actually take laser scans of the tracks instead of taking GPS points like the other ones. The laser scan is so detailed that if there is a moth that flies in front of the scanner it copies that. So the tracks are the most detailed there is.

So let's get to the title of this blog. Skip Barber Formula cars were at Brands Hatch. Indy oval fixed was at Texas which keeps it in line with the real Verizon Indy Car Series. Me and my teammate Jon Carrigan are always in the top 10% fastest drivers overall. So this race we decided to race together, I started on the pole and he started second. Great start for both of us. As always one of the faster ones who didn't qualify was in this race. Not really go to do a turn by turn cause by the time I raged quit I couldn't remember anything except for what caused me to get out. I am in 3rd position fighting to get back to second. Coming into turn 4 coming up on last racer who was always a lap down. Now in most situations,  the lapped person either brakes early or lifts or lets the ones who are still on the lead lap pass them. But not this guy!! Going into turn 4 he decides to slam the door on me, hitting me in the front left wing and spinning me out. I lose it! "You aren't even on the lead lap or racing anyone!" I yell. His reply even now just amazes me that someone could be this stupid "I was racing so and so who is 10 seconds ahead of me. I am trying to catch him". After that my race was crap. I couldn't even concentrate.  Couple of laps later again a lapped car spins in turn three I go high but the car in font of me goes low clips the spun car which pushes it into me and I just quit. Absolutely disguested! And on top of that since both cars where overseas and their ping was so bad, no damage to their cars but mine is destroyed.  Teammate Jon fighting for 4th having 2 cars behind him that can't pass him on the finally lap. Instead of them just finishing the race in 5th and 6th, one takes it upon themself to just run into the back of him and take him out. Now on to Indy!

After 200 laps go practice plus 2 laps of qualifying, I feel that I am ready to race Indy Fixed at Texas.  That is how I get ready for a race. Many many people take this type of racing seriously and I don't want to be the one that ruins their race. So I sign up, get a couple of warm up laps then grid. On the WARM UP lap I get hit from behind by someone obviously not paying attention to what is going on. I am so shocked that I can't even say a word. Rear wing bent up I find out after looking at the replay. Again he has a terrible ping, no damage to his car. We start the race going into turn 1, I witness the worst netcode that I have ever seen. The car in front of me "hits" the car below him it throws him up the track right into me and moron behind me doesn't even try and avoid me and plows right into me. I lose it again. "How can you hit someone on the warm up?!" All I get is "sorry". "if you can't handle paying attention at 70 miles per hour just go back to legend" His response " it is just a game". I am going to cover the "hit" before my rant lol. There was a whole car width between the lower car and the car in front of me but the game coded that they hit each other! It was unbelievable to say the least! Now to rant!

To most people on iRacing it is more than just a game. They put in hours and hours of practice, use programs with telemetry to get the best setups possible (using the same programs that top tier professional race teams use, it cost us money every month to race not even the fact that every track and car that we have we had to pay for that as well. To race against people who don't take it seriously is just a disservice to us commuted iRacers. If you just want to play a game get Forza or Grand Tourismo and have fun. But not come in and ruin someone who is racing for a championship against 400 other racers!! Even if the wreck isn't your fault your Safety Rating takes a hit. So now because of a hand full of idiots, me and Jon have to do a ton of Time Trails to get our Safety Rating back up to a level that can withstand the moron drivers. So what we have decided to do is to run Time Trails in a car that we feel like it will be the best for us to up our SR. For me this will be the Skippy. I feel like this is the best car to learn car handling and car control. And we will race Indy Fixed Oval for the rest of this season.  Next season the Indy cars goes from the 2005 version to the DW12. So we will be racing the DW12 in both road and oval. I think this is the car that we can both fight for the championship in our division.  With Jon's huge engineering background and the great  telemetry analysis programs we can do it. But iRacing needs to fix it's netcode issue with people overseas joining an American server. And some of the racers use this to their advantage.

Again thank you guys for reading this one as well. I will have one more to cover one last thing that I did this weekend then on to today.

Why I subscribed to EGCrimsix/iRacing at Brands Hatch in Skippy/COD:Ghost

If you look at my other post EGCrimsix shows why he is on the World Championship Team Evil Geniuses!  http://40yroldgamingtriathlete.blogspot.com/2014/06/egcrimsix-shows-why-he-is-on-world.html, you can see that I am very impressed with Ian and his interaction with his followers on Twitch and Twitter. I have been watching his stream on Twitch now for a couple of days. Great content,  again interaction with his fans and he is dedicated to constantly improving his gaming skill. Last night was 2 days away from the XGames in Austin and while Ian and Evil Geniuses where trying to get a Scrim games going for some practice (which they couldn't which tells me other teams are not practicing) another team was streaming the new Mario Kart game. So it is that kind of dedication to improving the teams skill that also has me impressed.  And people wonder why EG is the reigning Champions. I watched and liked about 5 YouTube videos that he has on his YouTube channel. They were very informative and i can't wait to get home tonight and add what i learned to my practice. Please stop by there and subscribe to it. And go to his Twitch channel and support him with a monthly subscription like I did. You will not be disappointed at all. Can not wait till tomorrow and the live streaming of the first time ever COD:GHOST will be at a major non eSport Sporting event like XGames.

Let me tell you about iRacing. Me and my teammate Jon Carrigan did some more practice and then qualified at 9:45 pm so we would have a time for the 10:15 pm race. Got the 4th fastest time in my division so far so I am very happy with my time. Had 2 other people that were higher division than me and qualified a little faster than I did. I watched one of the drivers laps to learn from that was just .3 secs faster than me. So into the 10:15pm race, the 2 guys that were faster than me and my teammate from qualifying were ahead of me. I started 3rd with Jon starting 4th and behind Jon was someone that we know is overseas so has a terrible ping and has run up the back of a couple of drivers a few times and doesn't get any damage from doing it while taking the driver he runs all over out. So get the start fighting for 2nd coming out of 2nd, I was generous and gave way for turn 3 going into turn 4, gave him some room behind him. Now I watched at least 5 laps of his from qualifying and he took turn 4 very smoothly, how ever this time he decided to get hit the brakes in the middle of the turn which he never did before and the first place guy didn't even slow down. Very interesting and convient since it made me have to slam on the brakes which caused me to spin. Can you say brake check? So I spin Jon has to slow down, then here comes Mr. Drive all over you. He slams into the back of Jon and just destroys his car. And the damage to the rammer......NOTHING! I HATE HIGH PING DRIVERS! All of them use to as an unfair advantage. So I get towed and fixed and back out 1 lap down.  Out of 11 I finished 8th. And ironically stayed ahead of the second place driver who brake checked me in turn 4 and actually pulled away from him. So ironic if you ask me. Oh well put him down on the studied list and move on. Some people race with honor someone people have to drive dirty to overcome lack of skill.

Didn't get to the gym yesterday, wasn't the greatest day for me so just wanted to move my workout 1 day just to relax and chill out. But will definitely get to the gym tonight. It is a missing feeling when I do something like that. I am getting my cycle zones to out into my MIO Link. Stay tuned for more to come.

Disappointed with eSport teams/Dropped the ball lol

Sorry I dropped the ball yesterday and didn't get a chance to post. On Wednesday I started a new ab routine into my TRI training and I am feeling the effects today for sure and have to do it all over again today lol. Speaking of training, today is the long ride. 75 minutes plus 5 miles so looking like about an hour and 30 minutes on the bike plus the ab workout. Foot is getting better so looking forward to getting back running. It isn't my strong suit so I really have to get going with it. Swimming is the unknown. Can't join the Y just yet. Starting my new job on Monday, something completely different than what I am use to. I am excited and scared at the same time. My whole life all I have been chasing is the $$$. My self worth has been centered around $$. I think that is why I have stayed in sales for as long as I have. Now this new position is hourly. Early hours but will be done by 1pm each day so it is almost like I will have most of my day available to me. Except I will probably be going to bed by 10pm lol. I get to use my French and it is in the IT world which is what I have been wanting to do. Should take about a week to get my French back to being fluent.  I think a change from sales to just working will be good to help me prioritize what is actually important in this world; Life, family and health.

I will be doing reviews on this blog of many different things that intrigues me and is applicable to TRI training and Gaming. I have been getting great reception from the Triathlon world regarding these blog. Mio Global has stepped up and great things are in the mail coming to me. Can't wait to get started using one of their great products and me doing what little bit I can to promote them. My boys at Prime Nutrition have been great as well. Just to get a response on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram from them or anyone from who I take the time out of my day to write about on this blog. I have become very disappointed in the eSport community with their lack of interaction with its fans or people supporting them. They ask you to follow them, watch their streams, buy the controllers from Scuff gaming but won't take the time to even favorite or re- tweet some giving them a shout out. Again the only person that has done anything as close as interactive on any social media was CrsBurnsoff from Team Curse COD. I have tagged Scuff gaming, Turtle Beach, Tritton Audio, MLG, Optic Gaming, and even a company I pay monthly service to iRacing. Call it butthurt or what you want but it is use that makes what they do possible and they forget that. I have gotten followed by a ton of amateur competitive COD gamers and think that is the way I might go. Supporting the up and comings just like I am an up and coming blogger. 

That is enough for me. I will be uploading my Skip Barber race at Mazda Laguna and I will be running in a leagues Indy 500 and will upload that one as well to my YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/bcutler71352003.

Thank you for all the people who take there time out of the day to read this.  Whether you get something out of it or just think I am crazy.  Wish I knew who read it so I can thank you and give you a shout out of thanks. If you want to subscribe to this or my YouTube channel it would mean a lot.

Great Pool Day/TRI training/Curse COD

Going to be a short one tonight/this morning. I am getting started real late and I am getting very tired.

Had a real good day. Went to the pool for a couple of hours today to start getting a good base tan going. Pretty much going to go to the pool everyday this week. I have some good news that is starting on Monday June 2nd that I will share with you then.

Triathlon training month 2 week 1 day 2. 35 minute cycle ride with an additional 5 miles added on to it to make up for my left foot healing. 12.5 miles total felt great.  Of course had my go to workout drink of Gatorade and Prime Nutrition's EAA watermelon. It is so delicious,  then after the training I immediately go with be post workout drink of Gatorade and Prime Nutrition's Glutamine unflavored.  I also take 6 tablets of ALR's HumaPro for my proteins.  They are great cause they are formulated for humans and your body uses 99% of the protein rather than only like 15% with Whey.  Plus go to www.primenutrition.com and www.alrindustries.com and get some of their great products. Now another Triathlete from Google+ named Jilian Towar shared with me Herbalife's Hyrdate instead of Gatorade. I am also thinking about SOS Rehydrate and Nuun tablets.  I am still talking with her about it and might give it a shot and of course like everything else I will be giving my review of it on here. 

Got home from the gym and got in 2 iRaces driving the Indy Series Fixed at Richmond. Now it has been almost a year since I drove this car.  Did real well for that much time off.  Finished 10th in the first race out of 19. Just took it easy,  got the new race jitters out of the way.  Second race finished 7th of of 18. I realized how much I loved racing wheel to wheel at almost 200 mph. There is always someone to race against. Will be doing a ton more this week and a lot of Skippy at Mazda Laguna. Will also be uploading to my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/bcutler71352003 the first race in the Indy car. 

Finally wanted to give a shout out to @CRSBURNSOFF. He is on the Pro COD gaming team of Curse. Really enjoyed his stream tonight on MLG. Thinking I might be switching from non-fan interactive Optic Gaming to Curse just cause of him and that he interacted with my post on Twitter. And call it childish but if someone takes their time to talk about you in their blog and tags you in it in social media acknowledge them at least.  Very disappointed with Optic right now but maybe that is just a sign that Curse is my team.

Have a great night and will be posting again tomorrow.

Gaming day/iRacing/COD/Optic Gaming

So day off from the TRI training gives me time to get some iRacing practice and some Call of Duty Ghost practice in. Yes I am a kid at heart, a nerd or geek or whatever your term for it is but I am proud of who I am. Be yourself don't let other people tell you what you should be cause of your age, job or anything.

IRacing practice this week is in Skip Barber is Mazda Laguna Seca and in the Indy Fixed Series is at Richmond.  Me and my Flying Squirrel Racing Teammate Jon Carrigan have decided to drop the Radical series cause for some reason this season has gone completely non USA time friendly. Which sucks for us. Jon worked hard during the week between Season 1 and Season 2 to come up with the schedule that they are running during season 2. So we did over 30 minutes of practice at Laguna Seca in the Skippy. I just uploaded the video to my YouTube channel ( www.youtube.com/bcutler71352003 ) so check it out. Just started to upload videos to YouTube so I am just learning lol. We are running easily in the top 10 of our division as far as fastest time is concerned. After Skippy practice we jumped over to the Indy Fixed Series Oval at Richmond. We did over 120 laps and we were right where we left off just tenths of a second off the fast times. I haven't run that series in almost a year and I can say I seriously miss it. Now when I upload the video to YouTube, you will see that it is the 2005 Dallara Car and not the 2013 DW12 car. Well they came out with the DW12 for the Indy 500 race last weekend. Unfortunately the site crashed and they had to cancel the iRacing Indy 500 but they will be changing the series next season from the 2005 Dallara to the DW12 so we are definitely looking for that.  If you love racing but can not afford the 10s of thousands of dollars required to real race, please look into iRacing. Great laser scanned not GPS plotted tracks.  Cars from the manufacturer or from the racing teams so all the details, you could want. A computer,  monitor,  preferably a steering wheel/pedal setup and a headset to speak and hear the noise of your engine, tires and competitors.  Speaking of headsets, I have a X12 from Turtle Beach. These are great beginners headsets. Very inexpensive, comfortable and clear sound.  They are stereo headsets and not surround sound. I wonder if going to a set of Turtle Beach SEVEN or the DSS stereo processor would make a difference. Would I be able to go faster if I could tell if the back right tire was slipping instead of just the right tires are slipping?  I think that would be a good review.

Jump on to Call of Duty Ghost practice next. Now I decided to play COD Ghost and Black Ops 2, cause my kids love to play these games. So it gives me just another thing to be able to do with my kids. Now you know me (or you are learning to get to know me lol ) I want to be very good at any game that I decide to play. So I went on YouTube and looked up videos to watch to get better or at least above bad lol. I found 2 that were very good. One was Drift0r and the other was Nadeshot. Well I also had to choose a team to support since I knew my kids supported a team but didn't know which one they supported.  So after watch Nadeshot on YouTube, I decided to pull for his team Optic Gaming. Come to find out it was the exact same team as my kids. So subscribed to Nadeshot channel, joined MLG, downloaded MLG app on phone, follow whole team on social media; H3CZ, Proofy, Scumpii and of course Nadeshot. Now to watch hours or videos, see they compete in Game Battles and Tournaments on MLG. And will of course watch then at the first Main non eSport event 2014 X-Games Austin. Now I know what people are saying a 40 yr old trying to learn videos games better to a competitive level watching kids that he could be their fathers, and you know what I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK. This is how I am. Now if I could just get better lol I have been practicing as much as I can and been creating new swear words lol It would be nice to get pointers from Nadeshot and the team. By watching them I have learned about Scuf Controllers and Elgato video capture cards. A www.scufgaming.com controller is a normal Xbox controller that they have modified with adjustable trigger stops and paddles on the back of the controller to push instead of taking your thumbs off of the sticks to push the X, Y, B, A buttons.  Now I wonder would a SCUF controller make a difference for me someone just learning the eSport competitive level of play like me? That would be a good review as well. So I am now looking at getting an Elgato capture card which I will do a review on that as well. Listen if watching gaming is right up your alley, go follow the guys at Optic Gaming. Hector Rodriguez is the team owner and has really taken eSport teams to a whole nothing level.

Well that is it for me tonight. More iRacing and COD Ghost practice tomorrow, hopefully the pool if weather is good, then of course the gym. I really miss TRI training on my days off. Praying my foot will be better by this coming Monday. Hope you guys who are reading this like it. Please comment or subscribe if you do. Till tomorrow