Endurance Racing Strategy And Tactics – IRacing is made up of a huge number of cars competing in multiple different series types over a wide range of racing distances. Races can last as little as 20 minutes or last up to 24 hours. Strategy isn’t essential in short 20 minute races, but it can decide whether you win or lose when it comes to longer races.
There’s no point in being super fast at the start of a race. However, you fall off a cliff due to poor tire management and end up in a much lower position than expected or, worse, make a pit stop when everyone else doesn’t stop.
Endurance Racing Strategy And Tactics
IRacing uses an advanced tire model that simulates tire wear similar to real-world racing. It is therefore essential to have a car setup built specifically for the race and a separate one for qualifying. Coach Dave Academy provides these types of setups for the most popular cars on iRacing that are tried and tested to give you the speed you need in qualifying and the consistency required during a race.
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Locking your brakes is one of the fastest ways to ruin your tires and force you to pit earlier than expected. It’s very tempting to enter a corner as fast as possible and load up a tire in the hope of gaining an extra tenth or so from sheer, brutal cornering speed, but the unloaded tire can lock up very quickly, resulting in high wear.
It is therefore of utmost importance to develop a smooth riding style that reduces sudden changes in weight transfer to minimize the chances of a lockout. Strong acceleration can cause the rear wheels to slip, increasing wear. This can be reduced by downshifting earlier than normal, and smooth application of the accelerator can also be of benefit.
Turning the steering wheel too much can also overload your tires and increase wear. This can be combated by following precise running lines and maximizing track width, thus creating a larger turning circle and consequently reducing tire loading.
The techniques we have mentioned all form a smooth but fast driving style when performed together. You may not find this exciting at first, but it will be the most effective way to take care of your tires and give you the results you were looking for.
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Tire compounds are essentially divided into two main types: fast but quick to wear and less fast but slower to wear. For example, a soft compound may be fast at the start of the race but decline rapidly in performance towards the end of its life. A medium or hard compound will be slower than softs during the first phase of a stint but will maintain its level of grip for an extended period. There is therefore a trade-off between levels of adherence and longevity and the best way to know what works for you is to test, test and test some more.
It should also be noted that in endurance racing, tire pit stops can be the deciding factor between winning and losing, and it is therefore vital to be fully aware of how far you can go on a set of tyres.
Take the European Sprint Series, which lasts an hour and includes a mandatory pitstop. You don’t need to change tires during this stop, but you will need to refuel. You could change the tyres, but this would only increase your pitlane time, thus losing your position on the track compared to drivers who keep the older tyres.
This strategy becomes even more important in longer races. When sharing a car during six-hour team races, double tire shifts are the way to go. Not only will you reduce your pit stop time, as mentioned above, but you will also need to take care of your tires to ensure they can last two full stints. This time savings over a six-hour race adds up quickly and can make a huge difference in the outcome of the race. Some series limit tire sets for the race, so you may need to use this type of tire management just to get to the end.
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Saving fuel during a race of an hour or less makes very little difference and is essentially useless. However, fuel economy in longer races is critical and essential to a potential winning strategy. Some series on iRacing also have smaller fuel tanks than expected, which was done deliberately by iRacing to force pit stops and reduce the track speed advantage of typical cars such as prototypes.
A very effective technique for saving fuel is to lift and coast. This method involves releasing the accelerator, ideally at the end of a long straight, well before the normal braking point. The car’s engine braking will slow it down a lot and you will therefore have to brake for the final part of the braking zone. Since you will be out of gas for a good stretch of the track, the engine will consume less fuel with minimal loss of time. The fuel saving isn’t much initially, but it adds up over the race distance.
Fuel savings can help you synchronize fuel stops with tire stops and, if planned correctly, could even save you a pit stop. A pit stop takes a huge amount of time and the loss of time due to lifting and coasting, if done correctly, can make up for this and give you a potential winning advantage.
The IMSA iRacing Series is a forty-five minute race, but take the BMW LMDh for example, which has a fuel tank that isn’t large enough to go the entire distance without stopping. A good strategy in this case would be to start the race with a full tank, run until it is empty and refuel during the mandatory stop to get to the end. This means you’ll stop at about 65% of the race distance, refuel, keep the old tires, and race to the finish in a lighter car than at the start, but with older tires. The loss of time incurred when changing tires cannot be compensated for by the speed gained from the fresher tire when on the track. You might even try to use less fuel at first, but ultimately you won’t have the benefit of a lighter car combined with a rubberized track.
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There are numerous tools available that can help you before a race, during testing and during the race to ensure you maximize every opportunity to achieve a winning strategy. iRacing, by default, doesn’t have a very accurate fuel calculator, and the method used to tell your pit crew what you need to do at the next stop can also be quite complicated.
The Crew Chief app is generally used to provide a virtual race engineer who will provide you with information such as lap times, track temperature changes, yellow flag warnings, etc. However, you can also add a second observer voice that will alert you when there is a car near you to help you overtake safely. There’s also the option to use the app to plan pit stops so your iRacing pit crew knows exactly how much fuel you’ll need at your next stop, as well as whether or not you need to change your tires. The app can be controlled by voice, so you don’t have to take your hands off the steering wheel and try to press buttons on the keyboard.
This app provides a series of beautifully crafted overlays that show you a wealth of information. One overlay we highly recommend is the fuel calculator as it shows your usage per lap and potential pit stop window, making strategy planning very easy.
This isn’t our subtle way of calling your teammates a bunch of tools, but it’s a real and valuable asset in team racing. While on the track, it is much more effective to focus on driving and have some reserve capacity to avoid accidents and other unexpected events rather than worrying about when to stop and how much fuel you will need at the next stop. This is where your teammates come in.
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IRacing has a very useful observer interface that your teammates can use to allow them to act as an observer and race engineer. They can plan and set up your pit stops for you by informing the pit crew of your needs. They can also monitor gaps in traffic to try to find the best time to stop to give you a chance to exit the pits in clean air.
No matter what you run, no matter the race distance, a strategy is always necessary. While a twenty-minute sprint race may require very little strategic planning, you still need to be aware of, for example, how the car will feel on low fuel and worn tires towards the end of the race. This change in handling can be completely different than having new tires and a full tank.
This example can be amplified if you consider all the permutations that need to be accounted for