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So Like many sim racing nerds around the world and like some pro drivers I competed in the iracing Bathurst 12hr event this weekend.

I was in top split of the first session and came p6!

After my race was over I switched on a few live streams

Lando Norris's twitch
Rutgers Kev's twitch because he had teamed up with V8 supercar champion and Nascar race winner Marcos Ambrose
and Jimmy Broadbent's stream.

What struck me was the attitude of Lando and co. regarding the race. It was HORRENDOUS!
They had crash early on (fair enough it happens.. Bathurst is a tough track) their car suffered major damage, it was down on power by about 20-30 kph
They had lost the lead lap and were 15 plus laps down after like 1.5hrs. They then spent most of their time trying to race leaders and block faster cars, joking about the event etc.
Eventually they ended up deliberately blowing up the engine on conrod straight by jamming it into reverse.

For the regular Joe like me, I was very annoyed at their attitudes, sure it's just a game... but most of us are not fortunate to race cars in real life, iracing and the special events it offers is as good as it gets. very disgusted.

Marcos on the other had was super professional about the whole thing, respectful and super fast, he was running in p2 with 25mins to go when a back marker spun at the cutting and he couldn't avoid damage. Kev and Marco's team went on to finish p13.
Marcos then said the best quote I've heard about racing in a long time:

"Well this feeling that you guys have all got, that sorta, that disappointment and the effort that go's in and it doesn't quite work out, that's about 95% of being a professional race car driver, because you don't win many of them, because there are so many ways to loose and only one way to win"

For an average sim racing Joe like me, those are words to live by.

I didn't watch Norris' race, but that is disappointing to hear. I'm sure it's easy for him to just think of it as a game and not take it very seriously, but for all the sim racers - for whom it's as big of an event as they get - that's very disrespectful. I also watched Broadbent's stream, and one of the things I like about him is how seriously he takes the sim racing element. I don't watch racers for their 'personality' or to see them **** around, even if they are big F1 drivers.

I also wouldn't think acting like that would be a good advertisement for Team Redline, since they're supposed to be a pretty serious eSports team. I suppose I'll have to find some clips from the stream and form my own opinion, but it doesn't sound good.

First off. Massive congratulations on p6 in your split.

I watched YouTube's tiametmarduk's stream of his race with Drc jarred and nzryan. It may of been a different split to yourself. Jarred got caught up with p2 spinning and collecting p3. Which caused a massive pile up going up the mountain on lap 2. That caused them too lose 5 laps in repairs. And their steering angle bent too the left by a good few degrees.
P38 I believe and 5 laps behind when they rejoiced. A little more repairs sent them 8 laps down. Regaining 2 of those laps too eventually Finnishing p4. 6 laps behind.

It was a monumental effort by Ben and team. Alot of people were asking about Jimmy Broadbent and landos races In bens stream. Until you realise they are in different splits.
Apparently Jimmy Broadbents split had a pile up on the formation lap. And I heard the news that lando blown up on purpose on Ben's stream. (Ben mentioned that they may of been thinking they would get a new engine as you mentioned they were 40 kmph down on power down the straights.)

Sad to here that you've heard that they were treating the race as a joke. You would think that he would of treated the race as serious as yourselves. I don't have the kind of money too go out and get myself a steering rig and massively impressive pc unit. And I for 1 would love too do i racing. Or other forms of SIM racing. But unfortuantly. My money won't stretch that far. For pros like Norris. You would think that they would understand the fact people do this for a living. As a passion or people like myself. Wish too do things like this.

May i ask What lap times were you running on the course. And what times were Jimmy and lando running may I ask. Watching bens stream. They were consistently running 2 - 4 lap times with 5 - 7s in the hottest conditions. Basically leaders pace with a broken car for 11 hours and 55 mins.

wire2004 wrote:First off. Massive congratulations on p6 in your split.

I watched YouTube's tiametmarduk's stream of his race with Drc jarred and nzryan. It may of been a different split to yourself. Jarred got caught up with p2 spinning and collecting p3. Which caused a massive pile up going up the mountain on lap 2. That caused them too lose 5 laps in repairs. And their steering angle bent too the left by a good few degrees.
P38 I believe and 5 laps behind when they rejoiced. A little more repairs sent them 8 laps down. Regaining 2 of those laps too eventually Finnishing p4. 6 laps behind.

It was a monumental effort by Ben and team. Alot of people were asking about Jimmy Broadbent and landos races In bens stream. Until you realise they are in different splits.
Apparently Jimmy Broadbents split had a pile up on the formation lap. And I heard the news that lando blown up on purpose on Ben's stream. (Ben mentioned that they may of been thinking they would get a new engine as you mentioned they were 40 kmph down on power down the straights.)

Sad to here that you've heard that they were treating the race as a joke. You would think that he would of treated the race as serious as yourselves. I don't have the kind of money too go out and get myself a steering rig and massively impressive pc unit. And I for 1 would love too do i racing. Or other forms of SIM racing. But unfortuantly. My money won't stretch that far. For pros like Norris. You would think that they would understand the fact people do this for a living. As a passion or people like myself. Wish too do things like this.

May i ask What lap times were you running on the course. And what times were Jimmy and lando running may I ask. Watching bens stream. They were consistently running 2 - 4 lap times with 5 - 7s in the hottest conditions. Basically leaders pace with a broken car for 11 hours and 55 mins.

Thanks! It was a tough race. My split was in the first session, held the day before/ 12hrs before the streams you mentioned which cater for the guys in the European time zones. (Im Australian)
top split had people running low 2.02's- 2.0'3 in the warmer/hot weather. some real Aliens.

Our split also had a very high Attrition rate with only 19 cars out of the 50 odd starters making the checkered flag. We avoided the several early lap incidents because we opted to start in pit lane. and gained 20 positions in the first hour. We were running really well and had pace for a mid top ten finish judging by how fast some of the leaders were running.
However I made a rookie mistake trying to let a faster car through at the chase and got collected.

(I lifted a fraction before the braking zone, before the car behind had shown his intentions to pass on the inside. I did this because he was about .500-1 second faster then me, I held my line on the right after the kink, expecting him to stay to the left and dive up the inside, however he stayed right behind me and I didn't check to see if he had made the move to the left yet, he was was 2 laps down on us and really riding my behind, He shouldn't have been riding my bumper and technically being a lap down have backed off, but I also should have used common sense, but it's a learning experience for next time).

Shortly after all hell broke loose and all the super fast guys/leaders crashed out or got taken out my lapped cars within 2hrs. which put us back into the top 10 even after repairs etc.

with 45mins to go, we had managed to get into p5 chasing down p4 quickly (25 second gap. gaining 1.5 a lap). P1 & 2 were fighting within 6 seconds of each other. My mate then however damaged the car and had to nurse it home with bent steering after sitting in the pits for 10 mins. The irony is that first and second took each other out and p3 binned it shorty after. P1 managed to get back on track with minimal damage to win but p2 was wrecked.

If it had not been for that last crash with my mate pushing hard we would have ended up with a podium.

But P6 in top split, I didn't expect that coming into the race so I'll take it.

Yeah, I watched a little of Ben's stream, but tbh he's so used to playing f1 code-masters games that his race craft in iracing seemed poor. from what I saw of his stream, numerous times it was putting the car into really dicey spots, expecting room or being too trusting that the cars in front/ next to him would hold line or not spin. I think that just comes with experience. iracing ia a whole nother level to racing then the f1 franchise or even league that he races with.

PS, the beauty of iracing is that even the most basic PC's can run it. Probably a $500 build. and you can pick up cheap $100 wheel and pedal sets. my mate is super fast.. and he runs an entry level wheel and basic PC.
The cost is that its subscription based service $10 aud a month. Plus you only get to race on certain track and with entry level cars unless you "pay to unlock them" about $15aud each.. so it all adds up.

Nice! Good work!

I am fairly new to iRacing with about 4 months play time. Currently running IMSA at Suzuka with lap times around 1:44.00-1:45.00 Qualy and 1:46.00 race set up. I have to try Australia to see where I am at.

I have found that being fast in iRacing is all about car set up and not over driving If your set up is not on point expect to be around 1+ sec a lap slower than the so called Aliens. I for one dont like pulling set ups from the web and working on one and doing countless practice laps to fine tune takes time. So it pays to be patient and run your race.

Hopefully soon I will get around completing an edurance race.

Shame the way Lando behaved. Reflects poorly on him.

I actually watched quite a bit of it, parts of it felt quite real and other parts not so real, seeing some of the crashes i think some of the drivers may have ended up in hospital, and that's the thing it can only ever be a game when you can't get hurt and therefore more risk is taken, of course it's serious for those that can't race for real, but just a game for those that do race for real.

I missed the start of the race and then of course I was wondering were are Norris and Verstappen, the prime reason for me watching, it was a bit disappointing to find out they had crashed out only 12 laps into a 12 hour race, maybe they were unlucky but in a real race I think more care would have been taken especially if you had traveled vast distances to compete.

It must be quite amazing to take part in such an event for someone who has no chance of racing for real, but I guess it's more of a participation thing than something to spectate?