So you’re looking at the title of this article and you’re probably thinking, has Jeff gone crazy? Well, yes I have, but that happened long before I wrote this.
As you may know, you can lose your iRacing license through demotion if you let your safety rating fall too low. If your safety rating happens to be lower than 2.0 at the end of the racing season, you will be demoted to the next lower license. If your safety rating ever drops below 1.0 at any time during the racing season, you will be demoted instantly. I don’t think iRacing refers to it this way, but I call this fast track demotion.
But what if an iRacer wanted to drop down to a lower license? Now again you’re probably wondering if I’ve lost my mind. I already covered that above, but read on if you’re interested.
There is absolutely no benefit and nothing to gain by moving up in license level unless there is a car that you want to drive that is only available to the license level to which you are trying to advance. In fact, there is a negative effect by moving up to the next license, and you will see that effect in terms of your safety rating. With higher licenses, it becomes much more difficult to gain safety rating and much easier to lose safety rating.
I currently own an iRacing B license. I was happy to achieve level B, but I quickly found that if I decide to go have fun in the iRacing Advanced Legends Series, I stand to lose a lot of safety rating if I have any minor incident and gain very little safety rating if my race is incident free.
I got my B license by competing in the iRacing Street Stock Series (Class C). I really don’t need a B license to compete in this series. I don’t need a B license because I don’t like big race tracks. I’m a short track guy. I like racing Late Models and Street Stocks. After looking at the iRacing 2013 season 3 schedule, I don’t think I’ll be running any street stock races next season. (It’s a good thing iRacing is just a racing simulator because the street stock tour bears no resemblance to reality). Again, after looking at that Late Model schedule, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be running a Late Model all season long. I’ll also run a few Legends races when I’m bored for fun.
So I’m going to run Legends (Rookie License) and Late Models (D License). Why in the heck do I need a B license? It can only negatively affect my safety rating. That’s all it’s good for since I don’t plan to run any B class cars. Now do you see why I might want to be demoted to a D or C license? But how do I get demoted?
The way to get demoted, of course, is to lose safety rating. As you probably know, I can only do that by having incidents occur during official time trial, qualifying, or race sessions. Here’s the rub: If I make incidents occur during these official sessions, I stand to lose other ratings. If I go spin out and run off course during a time trial, I’ll lose ttRating. I don’t want that. If I have a lot of incidents during official qualifying or race sessions, I can say good-bye to my iRating. I surely don’t want to do that. So what is the answer?
The answer is unofficial races. I mentioned that I’ve been running a lot of Street Stock races this season. There is no shortage of unofficial races in the iRacing Street Stock Series – Class C. The same could be said of some of this season’s Late Model races.
Last week I took my Late Model ride to the Charlotte Legends oval for an unofficial race session, of which there were plenty. I spent most of the time in the grass, spinning out and running off course. I did the same at Langley in an unofficial Street Stock race. I lost almost 2 points off my safety rating. It had no impact on my iRating at all. I did get my safety rating down below 2.0 in preparation for my week 13 demotion, but I have somehow managed to get it well above 2.o again. I guess I’ll have to enter an unofficial Street Stock race at Stafford Motor Speedway towards the end of this racing week.
So if you see me with a very low safety rating, never fear. I’m not on a wrecking rampage. When I actually race I’m still careful as I try to be competitive. I just don’t want this B license any more. I’d prefer a D license but I know I’ll just bounce back to a C license as I run the iRacing 2013 season 3 Late Model Series.