Here’s a video made by Virgil Graham that should help you to correctly execute a slide job when overtaking another car on iRacing dirt.
There’s really no mystery in executing a clean slide job, but some people do it wrong and end up ruining some other guy’s race. This video should help you out with your dirt slide jobs on iRacing.
Virgil Graham is in the #42 car. That’s Tyler D. Hudson in #01. This video is from The One Up Super Series League race at Eldora Speedway on September 13, 2017, just after the Season 4 build with the updated track wear and the release of the iRacing UMP Modified.
The action starts on lap 27. There was an exchange between Graham and Hudson earlier in the race that led up to this point. Graham pulled a slide job on Hudson. Hudson was not able to cross over well enough to drive back under Graham, so Graham was able to maintain the lead.
The video picks up the action on lap 27. Hudson is closing in as the track is starting to go away. Graham has tapped the wall a couple of times. You can see that Hudson is trying to close the gap as the video starts to roll. You can see that, when Hudson closes in, he is just to the inside and has a nose alongside Graham. As he pauses the video you can see the way that Hudson has positioned his car for the slider attempt. He’s very close. That’s the first step to attempting a slider. You have to be close enough to the car in front.
As the slider begins, the inside car has to maintain enough momentum entering the corner so that the outside car can’t pull ahead. At the same time, the driver of the inside car can not overdrive the car as that will most likely end up in a door slam and could lead to both cars being taken out.
In this part of the video, Hudson can see that he might be in a good position to pull the slide job and make the pass. It’s not good enough though, so he bides his time and drives through the corner in the middle of the track. He had a run but it wasn’t quite good enough and he wasn’t low enough to try a slide job. He needed to dive low into the turn while Graham stayed on the high line, taking the long way around. Then he would have needed to slide up on corner exit, against the cushion and directly in front of Graham. He needs to be far enough ahead at that point so that he doesn’t door slam into Graham’s car. If you’re making a slider pass and you slide up into the car on the outside, it’s your fault. It’s your responsibility to make a clean pass. Hudson knew he didn’t have quite enough so he waited until he could get a better run.
He had a better run going in the next corner, and that’s where he made his move. As he dives low, you can hear that he stays on the throttle as he drives on the bottom of the track. He undercuts Graham through the middle of the corner, taking the short path, then slides up against the cushion in front of him. Hudson made a very clean pass, clearing Graham by a mile. He also lost momentum and he is slower than Graham down the straightaway. This is where Graham will attempt to cross over and get back underneath Hudson to retake the lead. It’s possible that Graham could have stayed directly behind Hudson and used his momentum to plow into him, but that would have been rude and disrespectful. Instead, he crosses over and tries to get back underneath Hudson.
Some people would have stayed in the throttle and plowed into the car pulling the slider. A slide job is a valid pass on dirt. If you don’t like it when another driver pulls a clean slider on you, then dirt racing is not for you. Plowing into the back of the car is inappropriate behavior and is protestable. Personally, when somebody pulls a clean slider on me I smile and say, “Hell yeah” as I get ready to try my cross over. This is one of the many things that make dirt racing fun, so you have to deal with it and enjoy it.
The video goes on to show a few more lead changes between Graham and Hudson. Good drivers can slide and cross again and again, lap after lap, and have a blast racing each other. Dirty drivers will spin the other guy out, ruining the fun.
In the end, after many lead changes, Hudson won this race after Graham essentially lost the ability to run the high line due to track conditions.
I should have watched this before our race at Lanier!!