Practice etiquete - is it okay to fight for position?

[Gonira]

hi. i'm new to simracing and sometimes in the practice sessions i get myself in doubt if i should let the faster cars pass me or if it is ok to fight and try to mantain my position.

i personally like when someone does fight me, it helps me to learn the overtaking opportunities of the track, etc. but i don't know if there's any sort of etiquete regarding this. and sometimes the guys behind me are soooooo much faster that i actually feel bad about messing their lap times. what do you think?

 

[Dario Jagar]

practice sessions are not (or shouldn´t be) about hotlaping, they are suposed to be used for practicing different lines, avoiding slower cars and in general to drive in traffic, of course there are always poeple which likes to be left alone while practicing and there are others who use this oportunity to get better and more relaxed feeling about track

 

[Josh Pruett]

Well it kind of depends in my opinion. If you just got on track and are on your warm-up lap then yes get out of the way if someone is on their hotlap trying to improve their time. Practice server or not, that's why you practice right, to improve your time on a track. Learning the corners better. Also if you are on your hotlap and an obviously faster driver keeps gaining on you then the polite thing to do is let them by. I find I learn more by following the faster drivers and watching their lines than I do trying to hold them off.

 

[Glenn Petersen]

I'm the same way. If a driver is faster than me and trying to get by, I let him. Then I'll do my best to follow and learn from them. If we seem equal, then I'd let him by, and then race him and possibly practice my passing on him. I won't push too hard or block during practice. It's more about getting used to the others around you and how they and their vehicle behaves in traffic.

 

[Andrew Macpherson]

I'd say it's great to fight for position - it's your only chance to practice this important skill outside of a race. Like Dario says, practice sessions are not for hotlapping. If someone wants to hotlap without anyone getting in their way they should be doing time trials or private testing.

 

[Eric Estes]

As long as there is no serious blocking going on, I don't mind having to fight for a position during practice. Learn more that way about what the car can handle outside of the normal line.

 

[Don Davis]

practice is where you can crash each other battling it out and have a laugh about the outcome.....trying the non race line, while trying to hold position is what practice is for imo.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

I've used practice for messing around, doing stupid things and just experimenting with situations. After a few races that i should have won, if not for some nasty situations with other cars, i thought it best that i re-evaluate the way i drive, especially around other cars and test out different things. Ok a lot of the stuff can be done in the test practice sessions alone, but there are situations you can recreate in practice around other cars, and learning to deal with those may make the difference.

For what its worth, after a few disapointing races with incidents (finishing 8, 1, 8, 5, 2, 7, 1) i went in after the practice session and won the race from pole with an 18second lead in the Mx5 at limerock, without many incidents apart from the slight offtrack from being slightly wide on the line (which can happen if you're pushing for deeper/wider lines to go faster), gained .16 safety rating.

Had i gone in without having done the practice session experiments, i probably would not have won the race. I am new to iracing and only signed up friday, i've been enjoying it but with a lot of frustration, especially with other drivers when i lost races and safety rating, but i was going into it with a different view, it seems just being good at avoiding incidents can win you races at these rookie level races.