Okay guys, I had to bite my tongue last night and clear my head. Now its time to lay it out there and see who remains afterwards.

I made it clear when I started this league that it was going to be about helping people and wheel to wheel racing. I did not see much of that at all last night.

I saw people that hadn't practice come in and wreck, drive in front of leaders from off the track, and lap cars racing with the leaders with little regard for their position.

This is the same sort of thing that has happened in other series I have ran in and the admins folded it up.

This is a way for people to focus on their abilities without having to worry about tuning the cars. I would feel more accomplished in knowing that I raced my way to a win rather than my setup doing it for me and was hoping to attract others in the same fashion.

This became evident to me last night when I asked for a setup with 10 people racing. The only setup I received was from a friend, not another competitor.

Also, I heard comments about R2P rules. This is an Independent Chapter and has its own rules. If you are a racing purist, perhaps this series is not the place for you, there will be sharing of setups, there will be driver aids and there could be 1 restart to ensure everyone has a good time. If you can't handle this, sorry. I do not get a kick out of beating someone by 40 seconds nor do I get a kick out of being beat by 40 seconds.

Furthermore, there was some comments about the race chatter. I was informing cars that a leader was coming, if you do not want to see the chatter, disable it in setup. However, I would feel terrible if a lap car took out the leader because he wasn't paying attention or driving too hard.

I have not gotten alot of enjoyment out of this league so far. I try to race, people complain that not enough is being done to rulebreakers. I try to admin, people complain about the chatter.

As it stands right now, there will not be another Formula Nippon series on the IDC cause quite frankly, it is annoying me.

This series is here for reasons, those reasons have been a bit lost lately. I would ask everyone to figure out what they are here to do. I don't enjoy racing like this, and I do not enjoy having to discipline those who are not driving well because they couldn't get the help that was promised to them.

Additionally, after readin some of the comments in post race, it appears more people had complaints than anything else. No one begs you to race here. I had to delay the start of the race because alot of people were disconnected and we had to allow them back in. Had you been in that situation, you might have appreciated it.

I would love to hear everyones feedback on this.

I am sorry for causing a crash.. This was my 1st race with rFactor. I think that says it all for my race.

Why am I here.

I just joined the site about 2 weeks ago. I am new to Pro Sims Racing. Yeah I am a noob again.

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This is why I joined this community;
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(Posted by JR Sharp at 01:54 PM on Mar 20, 2008 Post #1)

Hello all,

Thanks for joining the International Drivers Challenge. My purpose for starting this chapter is to give everyone a chance to come and learn in a helpful atmosphere without worry of feeling left out.

We will do our best to communicate setups and track specific help in the course of the series. The goal is to make everyone a better driver and encourage wheel to wheel clean racing. That is why everyone wants to race....right?

I hope that you will take the time to join us in our first series, the Formula Nippon 2007 series.

While powerful, these cars have a great deal of control as well. I would consider these an excellent stepping stone to other mods and series such as IndyCar and Formula 1. In fact, Ralf Schumacher was once a Formula Nippon driver.

Enough history...lets go racing. If there is anything that I can do to help you...please let me know!

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I was hoping to learn something here. :(

I came on just like you and asked for a setup and received one from Jimmy (thanks again Jimmy). So, people were sharing. I never saw you ask or I would have done the same if someone hadn't already. However, I didn't get much practice in for the race and during pre-race practice I was just lapping hard and not paying attention to the chat.There is plenty of it during practice (which is expected and fine by me). I can tune out the chatter while I practice because I know nothing there has to be read. During a race, however, since I normally assume there will be no chatter, I must break my concentration to read text in case it is important (such as a penalty or an order I need to heed). That's the only reason I brought it up. I already talked to you directly about it, but for everyone else to hear: I overlooked the fact that this wasn't an R2P event and therefore was not in a place to be saying we shouldn't have restarts or talk during a race session. That said, I do feel that both of these R2P rules are good ones and would only benefit any chapter.

I also don't like seeing people show up for a race incapable of turning a lap without wrecking only to, sure enough, wreck on the first few laps and possibly take others with them, however there's little that can be done to prevent it unless you want to patrol during qualifying and disallow obvious risk drivers from taking part. Then it becomes exclusive and probably doesn't serve the intent you stated of being fun and inclusive and relaxed.

I am also aware that there is a time limit to the qualifying session, but we were finished qualifying well before it was finished anyways (and were last time I raced FN with you guys) and the schedule says: Qual 6:20, Race 6:30. People go in expecting a 10m qualifier and in reality it has always ended up that we're starting much later than expecting.

I like the races and I understand the complaints you have. It's too bad if you don't run another season, but if you don't want to, then all we can do is thank you for your efforts this season and if anyone wants to pick up the baton and run a series, then great.

No one begs you to race here.

Point taken.

According to the timestamp on my replay the race did not start until 11:45am, but the race page said race start was supposed to be 10:30am my time. So either the way R2P is changing the time for me is wrong, or you misread your time stamp.

At any rate, I am always more than happy to help people. The only person whom I saw ask for any kind of help was Justin, and I sent him my setup.

However, sending a setup over 30 minutes before the race is not going to make you fast. The only way to get fast is to practice. You would be better off practicing for 1 hour with the default setup and working on technique then you will be hoping a fast guy throws you a setup during the practice time before a race.

I'm not going to drive slower so the guys that don't want to put in the time to practice can feel like they are fast. I'm also not going to hand out advice to people who don't ask for it.

Your comments here have made me realize this is not the series for me. Best of luck to you guys.

And I offer, though I don't feel qualified, that if anyone wants some help off line I would be more then happy to show what I have learned so far. I can't imagine anyone wanting my help but it's out there if anyone does.

Here is the brass tax of it guys. I want people to not be afraid to come here and race, if that means we have to put up with some wrecks, so be it. That is how we learn.

If you see someone having problems, say something to them, ask them if they need help.

There are people here with alot more talent than me and I appreciate that. However, I feel like there isn't help going around. Its all WIN WIN WIN.

As for the race chatter, all of this BS is over one comment. ONE! The rest was messages typed as a race steward. Sorry for tryin to keep stuff fair.

I don't want to push people away from this series, but like I said...at this point, I don't even want to run the dammed thing anymore.

Jimmy, you are a good driver, I don't mind you racing with us. I built this series to help others enjoy the normally frustrating road racing as well...but it seems like we all are guilty of not helping, even myself.

Just a further note, the timestamp said the race started at 9:36 my time, which is the normal time for start after the 5 minute drivers meeting.

At this point, I am asking you what you want to do from here on out? I do all of this for the community out of my own pocket and it seems like every week (except when Tom won) the winner comes in, kicks everyone's ass and leaves. To me that is far from cool and gives no one any cause for racing.

What do I want to do? I want to move on to mid-ohio and have a fun race. I like that track. Seems like a lot of ado about nothing. Just maybe ask from now on that people be prepared for the race and once again, I have no problem sharing a setup (which I got from Jimmy anyways) I just didn't see the request. Next time I'll keep an eye on it.

Speaking of all this though, is there a problem with the results? Still not seeing them up.

heres my aspect from being a new online racer.
i came here to race have fun and make new friends . I have found i have more fun practicing and b-s-ing than the actual race. we run laps till we crash laugh and get another car and do it again. While in a race,I am so worried about wrecking out the point leader or making rookie mistakes . So for this reason if Im not feeling like a top 5 car i just pull out. I also been trying to learn setups. its nice when the drivers give you ones but i still find tweaking is needed to suit you styles and that isn't going to happen 20 minutes before race. I try to learn off line but the default setups seem junk to me. I think it would help if maybe we had set practice times. I guess what im saying is, if you just want to come in win and leave,Then your missing out on the fun. Last night i got on wanted to run some laps in r2p there was not 1 person in any server i guess i dont need this premium membership.
PS
I want to thank JR for trying to make a fun series and all the setup help.

I personally think everyone is placing way too much importance on setups. The longbeach race we did I used a default setup with nothing changed except for downforce (maxed out) and fuel load. I only asked for a setup for Laguna Seca because I hadn't had any practice time to calculate fuel loads and stuff and it saved some time getting the DF right. I don't know what else, if anything, was changed, but it didn't really feel any different to me than it did when I drove an almost totally default car at Longbeach. All this ire about people not sharing setups, it wouldn't make any difference to me if it was fixed setups or whatever.

You can be certain that George could have gone in with a totally default setup and done just as well as he did because he knows the track intimately and is just damn crazy at open wheel. Worry more about seat time than setup development is my suggestion.

WOW I must have left early or something. What the hell did i miss? lol Well all i can say is i truly enjoy the series. Would like to have it continue. I knew the deal coming in. I must say first JR i didn't see your setup request. I gave mine out a few times earlier and would have had no problem giving it. I also must say in my own defense.... I won the first race and the statement about all being blowouts is false. Look how close the top 3 finishers are. That was one of the more fun races i've had yet. Non stop pressure. Thats what i thought this series was supposed to be. So besides this race and all the BS that came with it...... Whats the real problem? Been great so far. I knew what kind of series it was. I knew that free chat was going to happen. So it didn't bother me one bit. A lil distracting, but if it was a problem i would turn it off!! Simple! I think this is a great option for here and personally would like to see it continue and offer my help to you JR to make it better and possibly keep it going. Don't give up on it. Just let your intentions known( like you did), and if people can't dig it, then move on. Plenty of people who do like it will show. I just plain sucked that night. Was running second and like a dumbshit forgot to put my race setup back in. Then trying to hustle(The whole time wheel to wheel racing) spun myself and ripped of a wing. So i appologize for my performance. Had a shitty weekend sim'n and just sucked!

I agree with you on almost everything JR. This thing has a purpose. It's your deal. I'm just here to enjoy it. As i do!

I wasn't complaining about the setups from my angle, I knew what I could do and it wasnt gonna measure up. I just "ASS-U-ME"d that it was happening across the boards, so I apologize.

As far as blowouts, the last two wins have been in excess of 30 seconds, but its no big deal I guess.

We need to work together gents, figure this out and move on. I put on this series for everyone and want to make it a success. All of my expenses in doing so are out of pocket so if its no fun, I'll re-pocket the money but would prefer not to.

Thanks Scott for your input as well as Justin and everyone else.