I'm mental, and if I race in an open setup series I do it like this: 1. Start a lone practice session, learn the track, familiarize with it and make sure I drive consistently without too many mistakes at a reasonable pace for 20+ minutes. Fuel and tyre wear on, damage off if possible. Almost always finish the stint by returning to the pit box so I also practice that. 2. Do an AI race, if the game I'm playing has reasonable AI. Between practice and qualify I spend 1 hour and 30 minutes. Then do a race with at least 1 pitstop. This means that the race is gonna last at most 2 hours, usually. It will also help me practice racecraft quite a bit. 3. Feel all sore and wonder what the fuck am I doing with my life. At this point I should be well aware of how the car handles and what I should be changing to make it feel as I want it to. Generally (but not always) baseline setups are very stable but too safe, so what I'd like to have is more general oversteer. 4. Here's the (most) mental part: start a lone practice session, no damage, fuel and tyre wear on, fixed weather, time of day and track condition, set fuel in the car to last 20 minutes (not any lap less or more) and start tweaking the setup by one value at a time. First stint is gonna be with the baseline setup, I write on an excel file the average lap time and the best lap time. 5. After that, I do a 20 minute stint for every value I adjust in the setup. If the average lap time is less than the previous best, I'm going to adopt that setup change, then incrementally change that value until I'm no longer faster than the previous change. As an example, let's say I change the rear wing position. Baseline position is at 5, first I decrease it to 4; the average lap time is worse after the 20 minutes stint, so I go back in the pit lane, box, and change it to 6. If with 6 the average lap time is better, then I adopt it and save the change. Then I try position 7 and increase it until I start getting slower, then I focus on something else. The next reference lap that I have to beat now to approve a change is no longer the one from the baseline but the fastest one I've achieved. Not always increasing or decreasing a value is gonna make me faster, if that's the case it will stay as is. 6. Rinse and repeat with every single value there's on the setup. I also do races between all the time spent testing with the fastest setup I have at the time, so I don't just practice all the time. This obviously takes a lot of time and is not recommended if you're not a loser who's got nothing better to do with your life like me. (Joking, obviously... well not about myself) Having said all this, I'm still slow as fuck. But at least I do gain quite a considerable amount of lap time with all the changes I make to the setup of the car. I was able to improve my lap time by about a second on average on Brands Hatch with the Audi GT3 from the Coach Dave setup, for example, on iRacing Apologies for the very long comment. And good video by the way

might help to add that the Active Reset feature works only for private solo practice (via Test Drive). So you compromise either opportunity for racecraft in a public lobby, or mastering corners in a private session, but you can’t do both at the same time

Well, there is one important thing, Dave did not mention. After 10-15 laps on track, go into pits and watch replay of your fastest lap. Do you turn in where you should? do you take so much curb as possible? etc. just watch your lap and look for mistakes. In-car view can be missleading, if you watch your car from behind, it gives you more information about your line and track usage. Also, if your line differ significantly from the rubbered dark part on the track, may be, you doing soemthing wrong there :D

Your bloody good for the sim racing community Dave. 👍🏻

Honestly man your content is amazing, the way you explain the stuff you say is so natural that it makes it even easier to elaborate. Keep it up, really love your work

One of the most informative iRacing videos I've seen .... ever (and I've been watching them for 7 years). Facts, facts, facts and more helpful facts. (Take note, racing friends!) Thank you Dave!

Thank You, Dave. I am in my first month of Iracing and only finished my rig a few Days ago Before this I was doing laps with one free Monitor that I didn't bother too properly program. IRacing knowing I was new gave me the Formula Vee and Lime Rock and said "Get to it Kid". I learned about car rotation and how boring life must be around beautiful Lime Rock. I was also told by I think you and others to not muck about driving a bunch of different stuff but to learn one thing right to get muscle memory going someplace familiar. A few weeks of that was pretty boring so I purchased a track I thought would be more challenging and a car more exciting, although learning about car rotation with the Vee was valuable. So now I have a BMW LM Hybrid and the track this genus chose was Nordshclifer. It was days later that I completed a lap without incident. I took all this personally as I watched others do four-hour stints at a place I could not complete a lap on.Soo much to learn, Gaming in general, PCs, Rig,s, Peddles motors and wheels and Monitors and Iracing then the tracks and cars. When my VR arrived the "fix" was in the mix. After getting it loaded into my PC the crashing stopped as if someone threw a "stop fucking up switch". (which was very welcome) I feel as though I have learned a very challenging track under less-than-ideal situations. When I finally decided that I could pass or be passed without causing incidents I got in the free Mazda that I would be doing my rookie stints in and holly fuck it is more fun to drive than the Vee for sure and I might be a bad Ass in it. I bet if my first race was the Nords I could leave from the pits and likely see half the field parked in turn one. Also this,...Practice getting your busted shit back to the pits. You know you will crash at some point and if it is a race you can't just push the reset button. You have to somehow without causing more damage to Others,. Your Car, Your I Rating, Your safety Rating, and lastly the race you are in return to your Box. I would drive my bent Beemer halfway around the nords before climbing out and leaving to Jim and locals to hammer out while I grab a Cuppa..Don't wait until race day to sort out how you handle this. Sorry this was long I suppose I should get out more..Cheers--P

I also like to mix in "Disaster Preparedness" by intentionally going partially off-track or taking corners at terrible angles as if there's a Helmet squeezing me off track or an incident I'm trying to avoid. I don't spend a ton of time on it, but it really helps to see what way a car gets unsettled and how to recover from it in different circumstances. Obviously in a real race when things go sideways it's going to be in a unique way, but putting some time in to practice recovery has helped me keep things together during my races.

This was a great video thanks Dave! I’d love to see more like this one

I used to have really bad performance anxiety especially during standing starts, on cold tires, and in heavy traffic. I set a goal to keep a level head during all practice sessions and I focused my driving on what to do in those scenarios. You can practice a mind state at the same as you practice the technical things. Eventually they will carry over into your races. Not being anxious and being able to keep a level head during an entire race is a learnable skill.

This was excellent - thank you! I've never been able to find the previous race results and watching faster drives is a great idea. Also practicing off lines and passes is really helpful although there are a lot of people that only want to do hot lapping and can get annoyed if you race them. I generally try to do practice the weekend before for the next weeks races. So I do some laps and then go into Garage 61 to see where I am slow compared to others and get a better setup. Then do some more practice focussing on the corners I am way under.

You’re a beast Dave!!! Ever considered doing a set up video going over wheels your recommend, settings you should have on and off, and monitor setup?

The series results tip is golden….I use it all the time

Sim racing to me was always about working out frustration. Nice to know that Dave does that too.

Useful tips. I'm glad you mentioned behaviour on an out lap, too many times someone on an out lap messes up a lap.

Really useful knowledge has been shared here, thanks a lot Dave!!!

Thanks Dave, didn’t know you could do this, you’re a legend. I always wondered what the ettiequte was if you should race people in practice.

Great summary on testing approach! I think you could have just added the ghost/watch session. It's very nice to jump in what would be your split and try to follow the guys that would be your goal. At the same time you can see the lines they're taking very closely because you won't crash into anyone.

I don’t like practicing alone. I don’t like to tinker with setups (have not much of a clue about it either). What I do is joining a group of guys every Monday to do some guided practice in ACC. Where the people have fun in voice chat and we learn from each other… that’s were I feel home. I just like to do races and I learn a lot there. Sure, not destroying other drivers experience is top on my list, so I try to drive accordingly. For me it’s all about the event… coming together with others! I’m also good with the lap times I can achieve, knowing it’s not top shelf. But hey… the travel, the way I’m on is always the goal. Hope you get me. Have a great Sunday, Dave. 👋

I saw you comment on someone about this on reddit a couple weeks back. Works well.

I messed myself up for a good week trying to alter my braking, entry and point of rotation chasing lap times. I’ve gone back to the standard driving line yesterday and immediately dropped my fastest lap by .3 after 4 laps. I literally lost a week overdriving spinning and ruining my races. I do a ton of TT and solo testing. Oh you can also choice a empty lobby in the practices by selecting Entry then pick your own lobby in the pop up box.

Great content!! You inspired me to play sim racing again!

This is good advice. Thanks Dave!

the other reason I practice is to adjust setup. I love your content! Keep up the good work

Great video Dave, lots of good advice

Really like watching your video, great job 👍

Great stuff! I use the AI single race practice, for 11 minutes, practice live for 2 laps with qualy set up, then go to the AI race, usually set AI to 44% and when I get a podium finish dial up the AI 5% and repeat.

Hi Dave, you should do a tutorial about this topic for beginners and advanced sim drivers. Congratulations for the good video

Thank you for sharing your strategy, I picked up a good little tidbit from you about checking the previous race times to get a benchmark. One thing that I do after practicing in test drive is to run a AI race and my turn up the talent on that aunt that allows me to take a few laps aunt try and figure out some overtaking opportunities or practice my defense.

thanx, very good tips

Good tips my dude

If it's a circuit that I'm racing on for a very first time i typically do 20 to 30 minutes until i can get around the track cleanly and at least reasonably quickly (using active reset if there's any corners that are really giving me trouble) but from there I just jump into the race. I find i learn way more from racing than practice, and i think as long as you're not a danger to those around you, that's fine.

How i've been practicing is, ill go in a session, i do a few laps, if i notice a guy much faster than me i get out of the car and spectate them for a couple of laps to check their line, then i get back in the car, but i don't apply all of the new line, i apply it each corner at a time per lap, that way i can more easily compare how much im losing with the new vs old line, then i try to get some consistency going and after that i try pushing a little more each lap until i find the sweet spot for consistency and speed.

Great video!

When I practice I do it 2 ways 1. I pick a track run a few laps. Go to garage 61 compare my lap times and telemetry. 2. I practice using all of the track and not worry about lap times

Here's been my practice regime this week. Step 1: buy CTMP Step 2: register for race Step 3: practice lines etc on quali outlap Step 4: use quali laps to practice. Step 5: start the race and survive the multiclass madness. I went from laptimes in the 1:20 - 1:21's to mid 1:17's - 1:18's. Could i go faster? Absolutely but i don't have the time to practice for any length of time. I've got up to speed (in my mind) pretty quickly with the IMSA track this week considering i've never raced there. To sum up, be more like Dave. IMSA multiclass at CTMP is scary as hell. Only got 2x across two fixed races today, which is wild. I have had a pole position and a P2 start at this track this week, so im reasonably happy.

FYI, there is a search bar at the top of the series listing so you could type the name of the series to find it quicker (or maybe the car you want to drive)

Practice how you intend to race. Words I've been racing by since 2018 and sharing them since probably 2020.

Great info but I've never heard of active reset. I'll have to look into that.

Haha Dave that’s what she said where is it 😂 jokes aside. Thanks for sharing your practice methods. I do all different series and jump in the practice sessions before the races.

Lobe how you mix your content up and keep it interesting by giving us tips to get better 👍. Are you going to spend your own cash on the simicube pedals?

I try to always have an full AI race for practice, on iracing you can create full rosters, so it's quick to set up for a series you ran often. Helps me manage traffic on multiclass series and to get the fuel right

Practice hard, Race hard

AI racing is great for practice. Actually I greatly prefer iRacing's AI instead of racing online lately, but 100% to 125% AI is a good comparison to top split level racing in most series. If you can beat 100% AI on fixed sets and 125% AI on open sets, you're pretty fast.

I just drive around for 20 minutes in a practice session then go racing, but I feel like I always learn way more in the race than I do in practice. I don't care about the irating gains that much, as long as I'm learning and getting faster that's enough for me. Coincidentally I may have just hit 3k irating though so maybe this actually works lol

For gear information, brake points and such I always use the channel of a chap called Dave Cam. He never disappoints. You might know him.

Practice? You guys are practicing??? Seriously, it definitely helps!

Hi Dave, your voice audio, was it done with the microphone on that headset? If so its incredible quality. What headset is it? :-)

Finding a series in the UI like that is a pain 😂 You can filter in the UI to show for example sports car races or open wheelers. Pretty sure you know this already (duh) but maybe some drivers don’t know

In active resets to practice a turn it needs to be efficient and fast, otherwise your just cruising. I set a timer of 3 minutes per active reset, either on my phone or a seperate timer. If by 3 min in i dont feel im faster, i reevaluate. No point to practice if it doesnt help. I need to know my brake zone, turn in, apex, gas and exit line. As i got higher irating instarted to hold myself to making sure my active resets are within .1 of each other for consisitency...fyi dave has slipstream IRL,look at that aerodynamic haircut.

Left field question Dave. Do you still use the slip angle setup? I just came across your video on it from the past but don't see it listed on your rig setup for this video.

I just... spend all of Monday practising next weeks, then do AI races, and if I'm feeling really good I'll race the next day and most days until Sunday or monday then repeat. And before and after races, which I usually will do just 1 or 2 per day, I'll practice an hour or 2 also.

What steering wheel are you using?

Best advice was at the start. I shouldn't bother practicing

Dave have you ever use the AI to practice a variety of start and or race strategies?

Why does no one do time attack?

You make it sound like a job! I practice for....Get this....Fun!!

What do you mean "qualifying setup in a fixed series". Please tell me I haven't been qualifying on full fuel in fixed series for no reason. PLEASE

This isn’t for everyone BUT, if you have not the time to practice, consider getting out of bed at the crack of dawn, while your family etc are still sleeping. When my son was born, I didn’t want to sacrifice time with him or my wife, so I started setting my alarm for 4:30/5am, so I still had time to practice everyday before the day began. Like I said, it isn’t for everyone, but if you’re like me and was wishing for more time to race, maybe that time is already available and you just hadn’t thought about setting your alarm a little earlier than usual. I start work 7:30, so even on those days I still have time to practice.

Well, first of all, I guess I should mention that generally I spend the entire week practicing for that week's race. Depending on how comfortable I already am in that car and track combination, I usually set my race day as sunday, and sometimes Saturday as well. I generally never race during the week unless I am already extremely comfortable. I'm very serious about practicing and getting myself ready for a race. I never just jumped into a race session willy-nilly. That being said, I almost never use the custom sector feature because I like realism. You can't do that in real life, so I don't do it in the sim. Of course there are some things that I do in the sim that are impossible in real life, like resetting back to the pits. But that's only because, in most cases, I have no choice. When I enter a practice session, I simply drive and drive and drive and turn as many laps as I can, and hope that enough different situations are presented to me during those laps for me to practice everything I need for the race.

Must be nice owning all that content lmao

What is with all these unnatural tiny cuts all over the video?