You know me as Redneck-Stig on S2. If you've been around for any period of time, you've probably seen me. I drive with a G25 wheel and mostly the FXO.

Now the point of this thread is state my views on how a person should race on the S2 server, mainly the whole blue flag issue. It's amazing how many people whine about the blue flag like it's some sort of free pass card given to higher class drivers when in fact it is not. A lot of racers seem to think that a blue flag on a slower car means "get the hell out of my way so I can get a pb on this lap", or "move off the track completely so I can get by and ruin your attempt at a pb time." This isn't how it works folks. The blue flag responsibility falls on both cars. For the slower car it should mean that when you see a blue flag message, check your mirrors for the fast approaching car, stick to your line until the faster car gets close enough to pass. At this time, if you are approaching a series of turns you can adjust your line slightly to allow the faster car to get by with minimal loss of speed to yourself. In most cases this works very well for both parties.

For the faster cars, your responsibility is to not wreck the slower car off the track. You are in a faster car (most times) and can more than likely go faster around every single corner due to downforce or just sheer power or skill. You must recognize that the slower car, FXO for example, cannot turn on a dime or switch driving lines at will and your passing line should show this. If I am on the inside of a turn and a GTR is on the outside, do not cut to the inside and cut off the slower car. Many GT2/GTR cars like to dive-bomb slower cars into turns. Dive-bombing is pretty much cutting the other car off in a turn forcing the slower car to go wide. This is especially shown in South City courses on the chicane. The slower car gets to the chicane first and begins his turn in to the chicane because the GTR was not close enough to warrant a free pass, yet the GTR driver will go full bore into the chicane at the same time as the slower car, often leading to a crash. Two cars cannot go through this part of the track at the same time, don't force the issue. I wish I could provide examples in video, maybe I will later. Dive-bombing pretty much boils down to cutting people off. I've seen many situations where the faster car would cut in front of a slower car and get spun out (pitted) when the slower car couldn't be any more to the sides of turn. The faster car then proceeds to yell at the slower car for spinning them out when in fact it was the fault of the faster car.

This all gets very frustrating when you are the slower driver. I try to let the faster car through but if I get to the turn first and I am already in the apex of a turn, I'm going to finish my turn. If you are behind me I'm sorry you will just have to wait until you can pass safely. I will make an attempt to give you room to pass before the next corner so hold your horses for a second or two and pass with care. You don't have to wait for a straight but you also don't have to be all aggressive and start pushing or bumping the other cars to stress the point that you want to pass, we know. Just because you are in a faster class car does not give you the right to use the blue flag as an excuse for your piss poor driving. You don't own the track because you are in a faster car. Some tracks are worse than others for sure, but there are tracks for which you can go 2 or 3 wide.

If you start a race and are squeezed by other drivers on each side of you, do NOT force your way over to the apex of turn 1 or 2 or whatever. If you are on the left, stay on the left. If you are on the right, stay on the right. If you are in the middle, recognize that you should give some room on your left and right for those other racers to have a line to race on. I use '4' (the driving line) for just this reason, so I know where the driving line is, and can adjust or keep my line when racing others. You won't be considered a newb or crappy driver if you use the racing line option. In fact, many of you need to turn this on.

Turn 1 on any track can be the end of many racers race. Most often it's racers that may be unfamiliar with the layout of the track that come screaming into turn 1 at full speed and wreck lots of people off and generally make it a bad day for many. I don't really have a fix for this type of thing but one thing I can say is BE CAREFUL! Your tires are COLD on lap 1! You aren't going to be able to brake or turn as well as you will on that same turn by lap 2. Brake a little earlier and just avoid ramming into the back of others. It's also wise that you not be right on the bumper of the car in front of you thinking they use the same braking spots as you because they probably don't and you will just end up hitting them in the rear, causing them to hit someone else in the rear, and you know how the rest plays out. You don't NEED to be the 1st into the turn to be the 1st out of it or even finish 1st in the end.

Blocking. There is a difference between taking away the line for someone to pass and purposely blocking them. This happens in real life racing ALL THE TIME! If you are trying to pass me, I may take the inside line away from you preventing you from passing. This is not blocking. Blocking is for example someone weaving back and forth on a straight preventing a faster car from going by. It doesn't even have to be the straight either. If you can get beside me or get your nose in before I can take the inside line away, then I won't cut in front of you and will likely adjust my line a little bit to give you some room to 'try' your pass. There are many tricks you can do to get by someone that does this. For a chicane this works well when the car in front tries to keep his position but end up messing up the apex. Switch your apex up a little and you can probably pass them on the exit by going inside or outside of them. It's hard to picture this scenario but most racers will know what I mean. There are some racing terms for this but I can't remember them right now.

Ok so I've ranted for a bit about how to be a gentlemen (or gentlewoman?) while racing. You probably stopped reading after the first paragraph anyway right? Let me clarify before anyone comments on this post that NO, I am NOT the best racer ever to grace the game of LFS. I don't claim to be the best nor do I have any WR times on any tracks. I AM however a clean racer. I watch real racing on TV and I know how their flags work and I try to drive to those standards. I can't always avoid crashes though as I'm only human, and well a little rubbing is racing in my opinion. I will slow down to avoid a crash so please do the same thing for me. If I know I just caused you to wreck through a mistake of my own doing, I will apologize and explain myself at the end of the race if I can continue racing.

I tend to rant, I am sorry for that. If you read this whole thing through than congratulations. I hope some of this wall of text helps make you a better driver and your experience playing LFS is better when you aren't always being wrecked or causing wrecks. See you on the track!

"Some say he once wrestled with a bengal tiger and won. All we know is.. he's NOT the Stig, but he is the Stig's America redneck cousin: Redneck-Stig!"

I am afraid most if not all, did that.. Yes.

Problem is that most kids don't know much about driving and racing and that blue flag thing is a real issue because of that, yes


Only good solution to make your point.

On a side note... You know GTR is not possible to drive anymore on the S2 server? (aka as GT1).

It's still the same way with the baby GTR's (GT2) Last I logged in they were still being driven. Half the field consisted of them. On some tracks it's not so bad as they are too long to really catch up to the other classes, but it seems most of the racers keep choosing smaller tracks for some reason...

It's not that I'm complaining, just pointing out some simple things to avoid most of the drama they have caused before.

GT2 usage is limited nowadays on the S2 server. If the connections rise above a certain level (38 at the moment), new racers aren't able to select GT2 anymore until it gets less busy.

Ah, that should be helpful.

It is. Had yesterday some good races with something like 10-15 participants in NGT-class; was a good ride!

Regards,
FW-05