Signed up for Premium Membership - RD races for beginners?

[Steve D]

Hi,

After hovering around for a little while and getting some really great advice and help from others on various subjects, I'm now a newly signed up Premium Member and would like to slowly start getting involved in online racing.

Whilst I've been dabbling with various race games and sims for many years, (blame Sir Geoff Crammond for that one), I've only recently taken a more serious interest, (kids all grown up, a little more spare time etc) and built myself an 80/20 rig with a triple-monitor set up, bought some Fanatec gear and have experienced the immersion of Oculus VR.

I'm playing R3E, Project Cars 2 and Assetto Corsa, (plus Dirt Rally), pretty much in that order and these are all now nicely configured in terms of system performance, visuals, force-feedback, (a work in progress) and FOV.

So I'm ready to go!

However I want to make sure I start 'at the bottom' whilst I slowly find my feet, learn how the different cars handle and the layout of various tracks, which means I'm fairly pedestrian right now, whilst I go through the process, albeit I'm already seeing improvements. However I'm extremely wary of being mindful and respectful of others and not wanting to ruin anyone's race and am possibly overly cautious as a result. For example I started nicely in an R3E mp race yesterday but backed out and pulled over and out of the way to avoid creating T1 carnage as I knew I would be braking a lot earlier than the rest. (For info there was still T1 carnage, which I avoided so I didn't lose out too much! )

So my question is are there races for a beginner / noob like me, in cars which are more suited and more forgivable, from which I can gain experience and confidence through competition, get to know my fellow drivers and build from there?

Also are races held where the default set up is run? Individual set-ups aren't really my concern right now and I appreciate this may well hold me back and make me non-competitive, albeit I'm willing to read-up, learn and experiment. One step at a time and all that.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[UMC 22]

Welcome to the world of online racing!

First of all, here at RD it doesn't matter whatsoever what your experience or skill level is. Every single event you see in our racing clubs are open to everybody, from first-time newbies to racing veterans. There are no points, no prizes, no pressure. The clubs are all about friendly, relaxed racing for everybody. So if you see an event you like the sound of, get yourself signed up and jump on in!

As for cars, in the R3E club we often build up the speed through the week. Tuesdays tend to be "slower" cars, Thursdays are "medium" cars, and Sundays are "fast" cars, though it does vary sometimes. Dive into whatever you feel most comfortable driving. Once you're in the event and on TeamSpeak, you will find that both staff and other members are more than willing to help you out with information and tips, as well as answer whatever questions you may have.

About setups, forget them! Seriously, if you're just starting out then they're the absolute last thing you need to concern yourself with. I've been racing for years and still routinely use the default setup for most cars, which in R3E tend to be pretty good and stable anyway. Concentrate on learning how to drive and build up your race craft, and leave setups until you have a solid foundation to build upon.

As for getting in people's way, that's one mentality that you need to try and overcome. We all get it when we first start racing, petrified of hitting someone or slowing them down. Of course you need to be careful and try not to hit people, but this is racing. Accidents happen, and we all know and accept that. For club racing we have something called the Golden Rule (you can find all our club racing rules here) which is specifically designed to allow for accidents while keeping any frustration to a minimum, and it works!

So put aside your worries and jump on in! The more races you enter, the more confidence you'll gain, and the quicker you'll learn. The main thing isn't your speed or where you finish, it's just about having fun. You'll always find people of a similar level to battle against in our races, and you'll always learn more about racing by watching and driving with real people than you will against any sim's AI. Head over to the racing club and get yourself signed up... there's an NSU race this Tuesday with your name on it!

See you on track!

 

[Steve D]

Cheers Ross and many thanks for the warm welcome. That's about as perfect a reply as I could have expected!

Tuesday might be a bit too soon due to work commitments but I'll know more later today and will sign up if I can make it.

Thanks again for the reassurance!