2014 Season 3 Star Mazda Championships

I think I can declare that the Star Mazda series has become my favorite. I find that I'm able to set up the car in a way that makes it very easy and predictable to drive, and not too far off the pace that I can't get in amongst some good racing action.

Initially I was focusing on doing the Star Mazda races because it was an easy way for me to make up the Safety Rating I found myself losing as I took part in the lower series. Now I find myself setting up for iRacing sessions based around the Star Mazda schedule.

Entire Season Average Per Race
Points	Finish Pos	Inc	iR	SR
43.5	9.2	8.1	-3.5	0.2

					Weekly Average Per Race
Week	Races	Wins	Top3	Pts	Fin Pos	Inc	iR	SR
1:	2	0	0	30.0	10.0	6.0	-17.0	0.23
2:	3	0	0	40.0	8.3	11.7	-5.0	0.12
3:	3	0	0	55.0	10.7	7.3	-13.7	0.06
4:	8	0	0	72.5	9.4	8.0	-0.4	0.17
5:	1	0	0	59.0	5.0	5.0	34.0	0.21

Broken Wheel Clamps

Yesterday, for just the 2nd time since I started on my iRacing addiction, I removed my wheel from my desk. When I was reattaching it I was apparently a little too eager to get it clamped down super tight; I snapped one of the clamps on my G27. To compound my stupidity, I then attempted to tighten the remaining clamp even more super tight hoping that it would be enough to continue with. Of course the 2nd one snapped too. Googling around showed that this is a pretty common problem. A quick trip to the local hardware and the purchase of a couple of small G clamps got things back up and running again. The only down side is that I now have a serious "knee destroyer" waiting for me to carelessly smash my legs into when I sit down to play.

2014 S3 Week 4

Series	Races	Best Fin	Points
Star Mazda Championship	8	6th	72
Mazda Cup	8	1st	86
Advanced Mazda MX-5 Cup Series	4	1st	80
iRacing Spec Racer Ford Challenge	3	10th	31
iRacing Grand Touring Cup MC	1	10th	65
iRacing Global Challenge	1	17th	21

Total Driving Time:	9 hrs 39 mins
Starts:	25
Finishes:	21
Disqualified:	2
Disconnections:	2
Total Points:	1238
Wins:	2
Podium Finishes:	5
Top 5 Finishes:	6
Average Finish Postion:	8.0
Total Laps:	342
Incidents:	237

ID	Fin Pos	Points	SOF / iR	Fast/Avg Lap	FPR
11676442	2	71	75%	98%	84%
11674493	17	21	97%	94%	69%
11670334	11	31	132%	95%	87%
11669843	10	65	89%	98%	65%
11669314	12	27	100%	87%	71%
11668783	1	67	68%	98%	76%
11668029	6	80	104%	98%	82%
11665205	5	55	94%	97%	71%
11664782	8	71	130%	97%	95%
11664444	10	31	94%	90%	70%
11660792	8	74	151%	97%	106%
11659296	6	65	105%	97%	85%
11651901	12	52	140%	97%	93%
11649775	2	76	95%	98%	83%
11646981	10	22	130%	95%	81%
11646146	11	49	125%	98%	95%
11645295	8	31	112%	97%	82%
11635259	2	86	102%	98%	87%
11628899	9	43	84%	95%	63%
11628572	1	85	96%	99%	90%
11628158	7	46	131%	98%	92%

2014 S3 Week 3

I really enjoyed Week 3!

Series	Races	Best Fin	Points
Mazda Cup	8	1st	83
Advanced Mazda MX-5 Cup Series	4	5th	54
Star Mazda Championship	3	10th	55
iRacing Spec Racer Ford Challenge	2	6th	54
Skip Barber Race Series	1	10th	42
iRacing Global Challenge	1	18th	22

Total Driving Time:	7 hrs 16 mins
Starts:	19
Finishes:	16
Disqualified:	0
Disconnections:	3
Total Points:	919
Wins:	3
Podium Finishes:	5
Top 5 Finishes:	7
Average Finish Postion:	8.1
Total Laps:	289
Incidents:	145

ID	Fin Pos	Points	SOF / iR	Fast/Avg Lap	FPR
11626605	7	46	115%	95%	79%
11619339	5	54	86%	98%	80%
11618936	10	42	186%	97%	119%
11617213	1	75	89%	98%	94%
11611804	10	55	131%	98%	97%
11610204	11	34	123%	84%	68%
11609414	11	36	127%	92%	90%
11609034	8	54	97%	98%	81%
11608778	3	65	90%	98%	86%
11604155	6	44	171%	96%	110%
11602505	10	39	92%	98%	70%
11593939	2	81	100%	97%	81%
11586356	5	62	110%	99%	84%
11584803	13	40	117%	96%	83%
11577514	1	85	99%	97%	91%
11568819	1	80	101%	98%	97%

2014 S3 Week 2

Here's a belated update about 2014 Season 3 Week 2. The information below was the output from the new export function I have just finished adding to my iRacing Stats application:

Series	Races	Best Fin	Points
Mazda Cup	13	1st	83
iRacing Spec Racer Ford Challenge	5	3rd	52
Star Mazda Championship	3	6th	40
Advanced Mazda MX-5 Cup Series	3	7th	58

Total Driving Time:	8 hrs 1 mins
Starts:	24
Finishes:	19
Disqualified:	2
Disconnections:	3
Total Points:	1063
Wins:	3
Podium Finishes:	9
Top 5 Finishes:	9
Average Finish Postion:	7.2
Total Laps:	278
Incidents:	206

ID	Fin Pos	Points	SOF / iR	Fast/Avg Lap	FPR
11552589	10	16	104%	95%	71%
11552299	7	58	96%	99%	81%
11551841	1	83	105%	99%	99%
11549773	11	32	105%	98%	69%
11549395	7	30	94%	93%	63%
11548996	8	37	78%	96%	66%
11548622	3	73	117%	98%	86%
11548247	6	40	84%	98%	77%
11547563	9	23	101%	90%	70%
11543547	2	71	99%	98%	91%
11540126	10	16	101%	95%	74%
11539877	7	38	131%	98%	92%
11536982	3	83	112%	98%	92%
11536692	9	26	105%	99%	81%
11527414	2	79	98%	99%	82%
11525869	2	80	104%	99%	97%
11519752	1	87	112%	98%	97%
11519400	3	60	102%	96%	85%
11518208	1	73	106%	98%	97%

100 MX5 Races

Thanks to my iRacing stats program I noticed that I've now had over 100 starts in the MX 5. To my amazement, 12% of those races have finished with me in the lead. I've also just rolled on past 60 hours of race, qualy and time trial driving time.

iRacing Stats Update

I think I'm close to ready to share my iRacing Stats application with a handful of beta testers. I've reworked the tabs and put in a bunch of tweaks to the way the tabs and dropdown menus are updated after a sync.

Here's some updated screenshots.

2014 S3 Week 1

Week 1 of iRacing's 2014 Season 3 has come to a close. I managed to get time to do races in a bunch of different series.

Series	Races	Best Finish	Points
Mazda Cup	3	3rd	66
Spec Racer Ford	3	1st	59
Star Mazda	2	10th	30
Global Challenge Fixed	3	10th	55
Adv Mazda Cup	1	15th	10
Grand Touring	1	17th	18

I thoroughly enjoyed the Mazda Cup and SRF races and they will be my primary series for this season. The Star Mazda showed me just how newb I am in this incredible "game". The fact that there are less runners means that my first races were in a split with some of the top guys in the series. The level of skill and speed shown by the front runners was just incredible to witness.

I really struggled with the CTS and Mustang. I do plan on giving them another shot through out the season, but they'll be races I jump into when I'm looking for a change.

I was pretty disappointed with my attempt at the Advanced Mazda Cup. I started from 4th but messed up the 1st corner of the 2nd lap and had to pit for repairs. I never found the time to jump into another race. I am keen on giving this series some more time and focus as the season goes on. The MX5 is just so much fun.

Star Mazda

Being a massive fan of F1 the Star Mazda really interests me. The fact that the season opened at Spa, one of my favourite race tracks in the world, doubled this enthusiasm. I put in a good amount of practice laps and today jumped into a race. I knew I was a good 5 seconds a lap off the pace. I started last on the grid and kept to myself for the most part.

At the end of the race I was in a 3 way battle for 10th. I finished 11th and had managed to improve my fastest lap time by a couple of seconds just from learning the race line watching the guys in front of me.

I really enjoy driving the Star Mazda but it is obvious that it'll be a real challenge to do any good in this series. The level of competition is intense. The front runners are just so unbelievably quick. The difficulty doesn't put me off, but I don't think it'll be my main focus this season.