iRacing Basic Training: Keeping Your Cool. Chap. 9 ( I’m not good at it )

iRacing Basic Training:Keeping Your Cool

This is chapter 9 of the “iRacing Basic Training” series. In this week’s Basic Training episode Bryan Blacford talks about frustration and keeping your cool when things don’t go as planned.  Every now and then you will run into trouble while racing. It might be your own fault, or worse, without you doing anything wrong. Either way it will be very frustrating. When your race ends because of a wreck, or an incident that happened beyond your control, human nature can take over and make you want to react in a text or voice chat feature. This is usually the wrong thing to do. You will have to remember that even tough your race is over, other people are still racing. The best way would be to review the replay and make sure you have a good insight of the situation you experienced. You might even learn a few thing. In the worst case scenario, you might want to protest a certain move or incident. The iRacing online service has a feature to do just that.

Now i feel a little weird… Yours truly feels somewhat of a hypocrite writing this text. I do realise it is better to keep your cool, but it is all easier said then done. Because incidents do deduct point of your safety rating, and the safety rating has an influence on your licence, things do get a little more real. When somebody wrecks you, you actually lose something. The iRacing races are pretty intense, meaning that when things happen, you will probably react before thinking. When i get taken out, i cant resist the urge to hit the chat button, and tell the offending party what i think of them. Not smart i have to admit. Neither am I an aggressive person, but i was born with a big mouth. Always tell it as you feel it… It’s just the way i react to certain situations. The good news is that it all passes pretty rapidly, and i am not afraid to say sorry in public.  The reason why i mention this is because i feel that there are allot of nice people out there who do seem to react the same as me. Therefore i think this kind of behaviour is not so uncommon. I also noticed that drivers who do divebomb, drive wrecless, or plain cheat don’t like it when it comes in the open. If nobody says anything, they keep happily racing ever after and score their wins in a not so nice way. When you call them out they often stop doing it. I guess that’s another aspect of human nature. Nobody wants to get caught doing nasty stuff, but when people can do something incognito you might be in for a surprise.  End of the story, when somebody gets punted out of a race because of unfair behaviour, i don’t usually mind the person in question reacting to it. Then again, be carefull, You could end up being sanctioned for what you say, while the offender can keep doing what he did.

That said… This was just me venting some opinions, but it is rather obvious that keeping your cool is the better way to handle things. This video is showing you what you should do, and how you should behave if you end up on the unlucky side of an incident.  Like i said, it’s easier said then dong, but it is most definitely the smartest way. In a race incidents will happen, names will be called, and sometimes real virtual fights are the result. It shows you how similar virtual racing is to its life counterpart.  Where there is competition, there will be emotion. good and bad.

If you are not yet an iRacing member and want to have a go at it, you can still use Promo Code PR-YOUTUBE and get 3 months of the price of 1. Only $12! That’s 60% off the regular retail price.