Thursday Series - Next Season - New Car?

[TRG]

Tonight before the race we discussed next season. The goal will be to get long term participation to improve. We tend to start seasons with a full grid, but now we are half that. 
Some of the suggestions were to change up the car we are running. We are open to this if this is what the majority wants! Myself, I will drive anything. So please vote below and provide comments.
Additionally - please use this thread to discuss any and all changes you would like to see heading into the next season. I will open up another thread for track selection in a few weeks.

 

[Gunner]

I will stay with the league no matter the choice. I will drive the skippy if that is a popular opinion, but I am not a huge fan of the car to be honest. I really really wish there was some middle ground between the ProMazda and the F1 cars. (the lotus 79 is very difficult to drive, I don't see it bringing more people in)

Personally, I like having the ovals in. It makes for really close racing. I know the official series guys HATE them, but is that maybe because they tend to turn into a caution fest? Typically that isn't a problem for us, but shit does happen. Again, if it improves participation, we could axe them.

Otherwise, I'm not too sure what to do to increase the #'s. Some guys get busy with other stuff and miss some races I get that, but I do thing Jeromes message at the beginning of the season still holds some weight. We had a number of guys join, run a few races, and when they saw they weren't just going to run away with a championship, they up and disappeared. There will always be people with the "win or nothing" attitude,(can we call it Ricky Bobby syndrome???) and I don't think there is much you can do about it really. I do think we have a great community here, so hopefully more people see that and choose to stick around.

 

[Bill116]

My vote is I will buy and run any car that the majority chooses. As the perennial back marker, am slowly feeling comfortable with the Mazda. Would like to stick with it and NOT have to learn another car, but that may actually help me!
But, given this great group of guys here I will drive whatever the choice is. I do enjoy the ovals, as it is a race where I can stay in a draft and be semi competitive.   Bill

 

[Carsten Quint]

I voted FR 2.0 but will drive whatever we choose.

 

[TRG]

How does the FR2.0 compare in pace to the PM?

 

[jeromef1]

How does the FR2.0 compare in pace to the PM?

More downforce, less speed, but 7 gears. 

 

[TRG]

What if we ran both cars? Would they be competitive depending on the track?

 

[Carsten Quint]

They might be yea.. They sometimes run that as a week 13. Battle of the Little Wings

 

[Carsten Quint]

We could run a few test races to see.

 

[Gunner]

I would be down for a test, could be really cool to have both cars.

 

[TRG]

Okay I think we will run a test and see. Maybe host a practice to see how close they are. Likely some additional info available via Reddit or the iRacing forums.

Could make it interesting. The PM would likely excel at the faster flowy tracks, while the FR would do better at the tighter more technical tracks.

 

[Carsten Quint]

I think the 60 plus league uses that format but I'm not sure. I think Jim Oliver races in that.

 

[TRG]

Well - if there are leagues out there using the FR/PM format, it must work to some degree.

Kind of reminds me of the Pro league we ran here at PRL with the McLaren MP4-30 and the Williams. I would love to do that again.

 

[SharkV]

Hi,

We had a down of participation for the last 3 season. We need to have some changes to attract new drivers. We have a good 12-13 drivers. All we need is to had 6-10 regular drivers and have a field of 16-20 each week, like we have on the Tuesday GTE. I don't think that going to Skippy would be a step up for this series. I think FR 2.0 could be good, and it could be fun to have PM and FR2.0 series....

 

[TRG]

I'm with you Dany. I think that having two cars in the same series will really mix it up and get some fresh blood / interest. With some testing, I will strongly vote for it.

Besides, what is the worst that happens if we try it. Not much, ultimately.

 

[Carsten Quint]

Yea, I just did a really quick test to see.. 4 laps with each at Nurburgring GP using baseline setups for both. I was .5 seconds faster in the PM which is probably because i haven't driven the FR2.0 since the thursday series used to run it, so probably over a year ago. Could definately be interesting.

 

[mclachlanol]

I've done the Week 13 Battle of the Little wings a couple of times and the PM always beats the FR (at least that was case for the tracks we were running on), but I think it still could be fun to have them together. Can the FR run on ovals though?

There are a few leagues already for those cars which may limit how many people are coming here. If were looking for something fun and unique so we don't compete with other leagues we can try other cars like the radical.

I'm up for driving anything though.

 

[mclachlanol]

Another idea would be to run a six week oval series every other week and a separate six week road series every other week. See if we can get some of the NASCAR guys to join us for the oval series.

 

[paulwildridge]

I think there are a bunch of good suggestions on here. And sorry for being out the past 2 weeks.

1 thing i know that i have struggled with this year is setups. I don't have much time to spend on a setup and with these races with the competition and skill setups are a big key. What are the thoughts of doing both pm and the r2.0 but making one of the cars fixed setup? Maybe do the pm in fixed to even the playing field a litte.

Another thought would be, it would be really cool if the fuel load was even smaller to the point where you could run full bore and do a 2 stop strategy or fuel conserve and run a 1 stop strategy.

Lastly, and this will create a mob wanting my throat. What are thoughts on no fast repair for road races? And even possible cautions. It would give an aspect to the racing that other leagues dont have.

I really like this league so i plan to stay no matter what just wanted to throw a few ideas out there that may be different.

 

[JimO]

A few seasons ago the 60s plus league ran both the PM and FR in the same season. We were provided fixed setups at each track to try and balance the lap time for the two cars since the PM was faster at some tracks and FR was faster at other tracks, Without having fixed setups I would think that one car would be superior at a given track and the other car not be competitive. After that season, the 60s plus league just used the PM by itself except for a season of multi-class racing with the HPD.
I will go along with whatever the majority wants since I am not really competitive for podium finishes and due to scheduling conflicts will miss my share of races. I can enjoy any car- given enough time to practice.
jim