Age vs iRating...

[Nick Kershaw]

Just saw this in the forums, thought it was interesting, goes to show you never know what type of people you are racing against, especially if your in the top splits:

http://members.iracing.com/iforum/th...rt=15&tstart=0

I have to admit i found it a little surprising (depressing) to see so many under 20 somethings with 5000+ iRatings, in fact one kid (15yrs old) has one over 6000 and another 13yr old has oval and road just under 6k! But also very nice to see 40 or 50+ guys with 4000+. I'm amazed that kids so young have the patience and maturity to race fast and clean up to those kind of levels. What do you guys think? Is it because as adults we have preconceived ideas of how a car should drive while sim cars are a different type of challenge which the youngsters can exploit? Or is a case of they just have more time to play with/more talent? hmm....

[davidan]

Wow that is very interesting.

[BryanH]

I'm not the least bit surprised by fast youngins. They learn quick, they have more free time, etc. I wish I was young again.

I think part of it too may be the videogame generation gap, although people well into their 30s now have been gaming since they were children. Those who didn't exercise their hand-eye coordination from a very young age are probably at some disadvantage as well.

[Devin]

More to the point on younguns with high iRatings is straight-up physiology. The human body declines in reflexes with age at a pretty significant rate. It's not chance or burnout that makes a 30 year-old NFL player considered "old".

George Sandman is said to be 50+ (iRating over 5000). Given statistics on physiolocical decline proportional to age - even with factoring in the considerable experience and learning assumed in all those years - he would likely be among the very top (6000+) if he was still in his spry 20s.

Now me... I was still slow at 24 or so when I started sim racing and have only gotten marginally less so with practice and experience in my mid 30s.

[Troy Dalton]

More to the point on younguns with high iRatings is straight-up physiology. The human body declines in reflexes with age at a pretty significant rate. It's not chance or burnout that makes a 30 year-old NFL player considered "old".

If this were real racing, I would tend to agree, although in the real world there are plenty of "Gentlemen" drivers out there who can run the pants off some of those whipper snappers.

However, in the sim world, I chalk it up to the fact that teens and twenty somethings aren't saddled with the trappings of having a real life. Owning a home, running a business, having a family, and a life beyond the internet really cuts into your "play" time.

Take a look a what most of the young guns have in common and you'll find they have gobs of free time to turn lap after lap after lap after lap.

Many of the young drivers at iRacing are joining in excess of ten or more official races each week. Not to mention all the additional practice time they log in between races. Now, that isn't always the case, there are some guys who just have a natural ability to drive fast in the sim world. However, practice makes perfect.

It's not uncommon, that with enough practice, most people can get pretty good at just about any particular task. Next month I'll be 45 years old and I've been sim racing for more years than I care to say, but I get a little bit better every year and I'm confident that if I could invest double digit hours into this little hobby each week, I'd be a helluva lot better.

[Nick Kershaw]

Thanks guys, interesting discussion. From my shorter career experiences with iRacing I would agree with what you said there Troy. There are also ways of driving the sim which make it easier to go fast that wouldn't really apply to real race cars. I think there are a lot of people on there who do whatever it takes to win regardless of trying to remain realistic, which is completely acceptable - if the sim allows something then why not take advantage of it etc. The throttle-braking, clutchless downshifting and flat upshifting techniques being three of them (all obviously car specific). There are also a lot of drivers who are patiently waiting for the day that those techniques are rendered less useful, and according to iRacing staff (on the forums) they will be at somepoint. Then the experienced hands will probably have the advantage for a while. However the details of how they will go about changing those aspects will be really controversial. Its a bit of a shame because iRacing has the groundwork to be extremely realistic but its also got to appeal to a wide audience to be successful. To my mind i think it would interesting to enforce auto clutch for those people without a pedal and introduce transmission and/or brake wear for slamming gears or excessive throttle braking.

Course everyone who doesn't have a clutch pedal will complain, especially if the auto clutch has a tiny bit of delay.... This is how it was back in the GPL days wasn't it? In fact isn't there a mod for rFactor which does this exact thing, enduracers or something? Where the GT cars have to be heel'n toe'd. That always seems a popular mod when i look through the online races available so there must be a demand for it... perhaps this sort of thing is best reserved for leagues.

Sorry, i wandered off topic there a little... i have no doubt that the older folks among us would have very impressive iRatings if they had the time that some of the younger ones do. I also have no doubt that the more the sim imposes real world restrictions on driving techniques the more expereinced older hands will be relatively faster, for a while anyway...but maybe only until tuesday - after the youngsters have been practicing for 98hrs straight, the honeymoon is over

[Joe Owens]

More to the point on younguns with high iRatings is straight-up physiology. The human body declines in reflexes with age at a pretty significant rate. It's not chance or burnout that makes a 30 year-old NFL player considered "old".

George Sandman is said to be 50+ (iRating over 5000). Given statistics on physiolocical decline proportional to age - even with factoring in the considerable experience and learning assumed in all those years - he would likely be among the very top (6000+) if he was still in his spry 20s.

Now me... I was still slow at 24 or so when I started sim racing and have only gotten marginally less so with practice and experience in my mid 30s.

I do not use iRacing,but this age thing is puzzling me a bit,as at 73 I have had 3 poles in real life shifter karts against my own sons and a big field of youngsters in the past 3 years.Maybe it is just will power or something.

[BryanH]

Wait a minute... you're 73 and you still race shifter karts!? Holy cow, you're a hero!

[Joe Owens]

Wait a minute... you're 73 and you still race shifter karts!? Holy cow, you're a hero!

Yep! I love racing,sims and RL, started out doing charity stuff in f2 type cars in the `58s and just can`t stay away from racing tracks,in our young days it was just what all kids did,with bikes,cars...anything for a race.
Don`t do it quite so often now,but karting is still fun.