SSZ: Xtreme Scoring Indycar Series Season 1

Hello everybody, and welcome back to another edition of Steve’s Simracing Zone!

I’ve mentioned before that was getting into Indycar and GTP racing this year on iRacing. With the tire model updates I had delayed GTP racing until they had gotten the model fixed so that there weren’t any F1 levels of grip. I was also waiting on the hybrid system update as well, so I decided to focus on the Indycar.

At the same time I was looking at joining an organized league, similar to what I had done in my simracing hay-days. Eventually I came across Xtreme Scoring and their multitude of leagues they host on iRacing. The one that interested me the most at the time was their brand-new Indycar series. I decided to give it a go and now that the first season has concluded, let’s have a recap!

The series consisted of 8 rounds (5 road courses and 3 ovals) and streamed live on Youtube over at Slow Motion Broadcasting (all race links here). With this being a new series to Xtreme Scoring, sign ups were relatively low. However, the competition were no slouches. With a few of the drivers at or over my iRating on both the Formula and Oval disciplines. I knew it was gonna be fun, but seeing as I was basically brand-new to the Indycar, I was not expecting to do all that well.

The first round was at Portland Raceway; I had practiced for this race a bit during week 13 when the track was introduced into the service. I didn’t realize how much pace I had. I couldn’t quite get a complete lap together in qualifying, but managed 4th. The start of the race went well, I got up to 2nd pretty quickly while on the soft tires and passed 2nd and 3rd while they were on the hard tire.

I caught up with the leader and initiated a battle that lasted until the first round of pit stops. I came out on the hard tire, and unfortunately lost the rear and over-corrected in the high-speed chicane and looped the car into the barrier. That was race over. I ended up down in 16th place.

The next race at Indianapolis Road Course went much better. Once again I didn’t quite get a full lap together and qualified 4th again. This time I managed to complete the race and with good strategy was able to get around one of the leading contenders for 3rd place at the end of the race. This was my first podium and thus was invited to be interviewed at the race’s conclusion.

The next week saw us go the “proper way” around Indy (on the oval). This week aligned with the iRacing Special Event Indy 500, so I had been practicing all week. I had out-qualified everyone for that event out of the competitors in the Xtreme Scoring Indycar series, so I was expecting to be up at the front. I qualified 4th (the 3rd straight time, so that was starting to bug me) which I didn’t mind too much in the end. The strategy was to stay in the draft and save fuel as much as possible to prevent having to do an extra pit stop.

The race was going well, but with one of the green flag pit stops, I accidentally misaligned myself in my pit stall, and lost some time repositioning the car. I still ended up in 3rd place, so this was a great result. At this point I had recovered to be within the top 5 in the drivers standings.

The next race was at Long Beach. This race was perhaps the most unforgiving, as the concrete walls were ever present and loomed large on everyone’s mind. I finally cracked the front row in qualifying, and was looking good on strategy for the race. I started on soft tires, where the pole-sitter and championship leader started on the prime (hard) tire. I got around them on the first lap and started to pull a gap. I managed to save enough fuel on the first stint to only 1-stop and despite a bit of damage after scraping a wall in the middle of the race, I ended up taking the win and leading the most laps!

This, coupled with the championship leader having a rough race at Long Beach allowed me to pull even with him to co-lead the championship!

Going into the next round at Barber Motorsports Park, I wasn’t feeling as comfortable with this car/track combo. I was hoping to have a clean race and just stay up at the front. I ended up qualifying 3rd and got up to the lead by the time the first pit stop came around. Unfortunately I had a couple issues throughout the race, and ended up finishing a distant 3rd place, where I should have finished 2nd. The guy I was battling with for the championship ended up winning the race, so I lost ground on him in the points.

The final 3 races were going to be interesting, as 2 of the 3 were ovals. The ovals are where I seemed to be stronger than the championship leader, so I saw a path to the championship. The first of these was Auto Club Speedway, which is as close to NASCAR-style superspeedway racing as Indycar gets, so anything could happen. I took the pole for the first time of the season, and led the first few laps before ceding the lead on purpose to stay behind a car to get the draft and save fuel. With a timely full-course yellow, I was able to make it to the end of the race without the need for fuel saving, so I could go full-beans to the end.

Myself and the other two members of the top 3 in the points battled it out for the rest of the race, trading the lead between the 3 of us right to the end. I held the lead taking the white flag, hugging the bottom of the track as much as possible as my best strategy of defense. It worked the majority of the time so I banked on that being the winning move. Coming off turn 4, I took to the apron to take the shortest route to the line. However, the car got some wheel spin doing so and I lost just enough momentum that I lost the win by 0.008s. EIGHT THOUSANDTHS of a second. I was gutted. To make things worse, the championship leader was the one who took the win, so we went into the penultimate round with a severe gap in the standings.

At Daytona Road Course, all that the championship leader needed to do was finish ahead of me (didn’t matter where we were in the order). I did the best I could with the limited time I had. iRacing did a physics overhaul of the Indycar while I was away from home for work. I got home the day of the race, and literally only had a couple hours to get used to it. My practice appeared to pay off, as I got my second pole position of the year. However, I looped it on cold tires at the first corner of the race, and then as the official nail in the coffin, my game crashed near the end of the race and I DNF’d. This sealed the deal for the championship, but it was going to be a near certainty that I took 2nd in the championship.

The final round was at Gateway, the last oval on the calendar. Unfortunately, due to low turnout, this race wasn’t broadcasted. However, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I came into qualifying and blitzed the field to pole, and by a large margin (0.25s on a 24.5s lap). I pulled away early and didn’t look back the rest of the race. I ended up lapping the field twice to take the final win of the year. This put me in a solid 2nd place in the championship.

It was a great first season of competition for me in the Indycar and for the Xtreme Scoring Indycar Championship. I ended up with the most podiums on (6 of 8 races), most laps led, tied for the most poles (3), bonus points (1 for pole, 1 for led a lap and 2 for led most laps), and 2nd in most wins (2 of 8).

Looking forward to the next season, which will start in the fall, from the sounds of it. For now I will focus on the Xtreme Scoring Ricmotech World Challenge series in the Ferrari 499P GTP. I will be joining mid-way through the season, so I am just looking to do well in the individual races and get a feel for a full-season attack at some point later.

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