Topic: Finally! Time For Some Fun at "The Park"... RIVERSIDE PARK!

[J.R.Franklin]

I generally like tracks with less grip but with a tiny track like this I think you need to have the grip level you have in order to race it, and it feels good, some tracks with high grip feel unrealistic to me, but this track it seems perfect for racing it in this sim.

You can spin out easy enough but there is enough grip to do a lot of hard bumping.

It's nice when you are running off the corner low and hard trying to make a pass and push up into the car on the outside and you are only up to the back of his door, you don't spin both of you out, you both get a little sideways but if you react correctly it barely even slows you down.

I ran a 40 lap race with 11 AI cars set to run 12.2's with me starting at the back, I made it up to 2nd place but had nothing left for the leader over the last 5 laps.

It's one of the few tracks I feel like I can just get as aggressive as I want and still be able to handle it, that 40 lapper I ran with YELLOWS ON and we didn't need them, 40 laps green with me and 11 AI running that kind of pace and I don't know about AI, but I had a little bit of everyone's paint on my car at the end


I have been working on my next 10 race schedule at Bear Bait Racing and have looked at well over 100 different short tracks in the last week and this one just really looks good to me, and I have never been to or seen pictures of the real track, I swear I could smell burning rubber and racing fuel when I pulled out of the pits the first time 

Brian, this feedback is EXACTLY what I was trying to accomplish with this track.  Thanks, man. 

In my opinion, NR2003 was built for tracks of 1 mi. ovals and larger.  Even Martinsville and Bristol had problems with the A.I. right out of the box from Papyrus.  It took those of us in the track editing circle a while to figure out how to fix those tracks for "race-able" A.I.  The physics of NR2003 is not suited to little 1/4 and 1/3 mile ovals. There is just too much horsepower built into the cars in this sim.  So in my opinion, the only way to compensate for this is to add grip and reduce the slipcurve so you can beat and bang with the other A.I. without spinning out.  It's very hard to find that perfect balance.  It takes a TON of trial and error.  Testing, testing and more testing.  I guess in the end I got it right based on your experiences.  And THAT makes me feel really good about what we accomplished with this track.

I also labored over the "immersion" factor in this track.  All of the detailing.  You have no idea how complicated it was for Ian Smiff to animate that big Ferris wheel outside of turn 1.  People who understand that kind of stuff will look at the animation of that object and be mighty impressed.  It not only rotates, but every single gondola hinges as it goes around.  It looks so simple and innocent in the game, but believe me, a lot of hours went into the one singular object.

[Brian Peters]

I can tell a lot of pride went into this track versus just making a track to make it.

We run our server with modified core.ini doubling the send/receive rate which has made a huge difference online, we can have a lot of contact between cars without the normal "explosion" of the cars repelling each other, so a track like this has a really good chance of making it on our schedule.

Actually I like the way in runs well enough, I need to test the pitting under caution, people get upset if it's not possible to pit without going a lap down, I don't mind it so much as long as it's the same for everyone, ie. nobody can pit without going a lap down versus only those at the back of a 16 car field going a lap down, it's a tough thing to balance on a little track.

I looked at some other tracks .333 and less but none of them were tuned anywhere near as well as this track.

I would like to try the Riverside NH track for a league race too, it runs real well but unlike this track, the turns and straights blend into each other so much that I am concerned about being able to clearly define when a person is dive bombing.

[J.R.Franklin]

Well, I address the pitting a little in the README file in the track folder under track notes.  You can accomplish a 4-tire stop if you're pretty close to the pace car in the pacing line when you duck into the pits.  Like almost all short tracks, the further back you are in the pacing line, the less likely you can accomplish a 4-tire stop.  But if you're further back, you can duck in twice to get all 4 tires done.  In the end, you'll probably not be that much further back in line after doing so.

The other great thing with this track is how you elect to manage your tires.  You can go all 200 laps (if you guys race a race that long with this track) on a set of tires and fuel  That's not to say you won't be finishing on threads at the end... lol.  You can opt to short pit for tires.  Or take just right sides.  You can pit late.  The possibilities are endless.  But you can make stops without going a lap down depending on what you're trying to do during your stop and what position you were in the pacing line when you dropped down onto pit road.

[Brian Peters]

Oh yeah, I noticed you can run good and hard on the tires.

I hadn't looked in the readme yet, normally I do.

In a way I like the idea that if you are wanting fresh tires you are going to pay a price, or have to split it into two stops like you said.

I think the issue is more perceived than actual but when running points races I try to be careful to eliminate anything that might seem like it gives anyone an advantage or disadvantage.

It's a good point you make though about cars that are deeper in the field maybe having to make two stops to get all 4 tires, first, it's like you said, it's unlikely their position will be affected, if they did lose a position it would be because the car in front of them only made one stop for 2 tires, and the other point about that is in any race at any track, those at the back of the field when a caution comes out have the luxury of pitting every time no matter what where those at the front of the field have something to lose by pitting versus staying out.

You made my think about it more, and I like what I am thinking, I am going to look at my upcoming schedule and seriously consider this track.

 

[KyleS21]

track ran great... i ran a 50 lap PASS race here (well more like i watched lol)... 2nd place dumped the leader in turn 3 with 2 to go. it was good racing all the way around only 2 or 3 yellows.

[Brian Peters]

Good to hear, we added another night of racing at BBR running Whelen Modifieds 9 months of the year and this track should be on the schedule.

[KyleS21]

Ive had some really good races on this track. I did a race last night where the leader had about a 1.5 sec lead... but got too high in 3 and 4, and bounced off the wall and ended up dropping back to 7th by the time the race ended. The only thing ive noticed is that the leaders have a hard time passing lapped traffic...but thats a product to the higher line being the faster line i think (much like ORP in indianapolis).

[Big Guy]

Good to hear, we added another night of racing at BBR running Whelen Modifieds 9 months of the year and this track should be on the schedule.

Like Brian said we added an extra night at BBR with the Whelen Modifieds but it's not 9 months like Brian mentionned it will run 10 weeks starting on August 8  but on three of those weeks we will run doubleheader on short track like a 70 laps race etc and your allowed 2 races drops. and yes Riverside Park is on the schedule i asked JR so many times when , when is it coming out and we will run a 150 laps on October 3rd

[J.R.Franklin]

Glad to hear it, Guy.  And there are several more great Northeastern short tracks being worked on right now that are all regular stops for the WMT, MRS, ACT and PASS cars.  I think think you'll like them all just as much as "The Park". 

[Big Guy]

I know there was a beta version of Oswego Speedway and it wasn't even the right length etc. JR. do you know if anybody is or will attempt to build the Steel Palace who BTW is getting back to being the place to race in the Northeast.