Episode 0533 - iRacers Lounge Podcast

5/21/2026 – Cute DDU – Episode 0533

iRacers Lounge Podcast – Conversation Topics

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Welcome to the iRacer’s Lounge, I am your host “XXX”. iRacer’s Lounge is a podcast for the iRacer, where we talk all things iRacing in a casual setting.
Joining me are the usual characters, ————

Show Introduction

And remember you can follow along with us on your PC or mobile device in real time as you listen to the show and see for yourself all of the great topics and products we’ll discuss by visiting iracerslounge.com and selecting show notes. Hope to see you there..

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Topics

iRacing Indy 500 By The Numbers

https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/95817/iracing-com-indy-500-statistics

Drago: What Happened?

In this video, professional sim racer Kevin Ellis Jr. delivers a raw, unscripted breakdown detailing the sudden closure of his racing team, Drago, and analyzes the broader, worrying state of the sim racing esports industry.

🏎️ What Happened to Team Drago? [00:11]

Kevin reveals that after only four or five weeks with the team—and right after completing his first major event for them at the Nürburgring 24 Hours—the drivers were called into a meeting and informed that Drago has completely ceased all operations.

The Reason: While he notes he cannot share every detail, the primary driver behind the shutdown was financials. However, he clarifies that it wasn’t a case of the team “running out of money,” but rather a deliberate financial decision by the owners not to continue backing the project.

📉 The Massive Regression of Sim Racing Esports [01:24]

Kevin expresses that he has never seen the sim racing esports scene in such a poor state in his 8 to 9 years of competing. Despite the player base of simulators like iRacing continually growing, the professional competitive scene is rapidly moving backward:

Shrinking Prize Pools [01:52]: Current prize pools are only fractionally larger than they were in 2018, and actually smaller than they were in 2019.
The “Sim to Real” Pivot Frustration [03:11]: The Porsche Esports Supercup (PESC) recently dropped its prize pool down to just $30,000, shifting its grand prize to a chance to become a real-world racing driver. Kevin explains that 99.9% of sim racers cannot afford the immense stress and financial burdens of real-life racing budgets. He, along with many other top pros, have zero interest in real-life racing; they want a viable career path in sim racing based purely on talent, not real-world sponsorship hunting.
Flawed Regional Formats [05:40]: New qualifying structures are cutting out highly talented drivers from massive sim racing markets (like Europe and America) to force equal regional representation for marketing purposes, diluting the overall skill level of the grid.

🛠️ Why is the Scene Stagnating? (And How to Fix It) [06:56]

Many blame a “post-COVID crash” for the decline, but Kevin disagrees, stating viewership numbers didn’t spike massively during the pandemic anyway. Instead, he highlights deep-rooted structural issues:

Boring Broadcasts [09:13]: Most modern live streams simply go up halfway through qualifying, show cars going around in circles with very little overtaking or strategy, and end with a 30-second driver interview giving an “AI-like response.”
The Solution [08:22]: Sim racing needs a complete production overhaul. It needs storylines, preseason build-ups, and documentary-style media (akin to Formula 1’s Drive to Survive) to build organic drama and hype that keeps viewers engaged.

🔮 What’s Next for Kevin? [09:31]

Because he considers the rest of the 2026 esports season to be “chocked,” Kevin is stepping away from major championships like PESC and Rennsport. For the remainder of the year, his sole focus will be on coaching, streaming, data pack creation, and launching several major content projects over the next few weeks.

He concludes the video by heavily praising the management, engineers, and drivers at Drago, thanking them for a welcoming, ego-free environment that helped him get back up to speed on iRacing.

Shoutout To PRS’s Own

Three Second Rule

In this video, sim racer JACKZER blends sports psychology and psychotherapy concepts to introduce “Simracing’s 3-Second Rule.” He explains that a driver’s race doesn’t unravel because of the initial mistake itself (which usually only costs a tenth of a second), but rather because of how they handle the 3 seconds directly following the error.

🧠 The Science Behind the 3-Second Rule [02:04]

When you make a mistake—like locking up, missing an apex, or scraping a wall—your nervous system gives you a brief 3-second window before a panic/stress response fully locks in. If you don’t intervene, your inputs automatically become jerky, your decisions become overly defensive, and you enter a psychological spiral that bleeds into the next corner, the whole lap, and ultimately ruins your race.

Most “stay calm” advice fails because it is applied after the nervous system has already committed to a panic state. The 3-second rule is about disrupting the stress loop before panic takes over.

⚓ Step 1: Fire an “Anchor” [03:06]

To interrupt the brain’s stress response, you must execute a deliberate physical or verbal action—an anchor—within 3 seconds of the mistake. Your brain cannot process a deliberate action and a stress hijack at the same time. Examples of anchors include:

The Breath [03:29]: One slow exhale through the nose to signal safety to your nervous system.
The Phrase [03:39]: Speaking a short phrase out loud (e.g., “Head down, push on”). Saying it out loud forces your prefrontal cortex back online.
The Tap/Release [03:52]: Patting the top of the wheel or briefly loosening your hands and regripping. This gives your brain a micro-movement demonstrating agency and control.

The trick is to pick your own anchor and repeat it every single time you make a mistake until it becomes an automated muscle-memory reset.

🏁 Step 2: The Next Corner Protocol (Bonus Technique) [05:14]

After firing your anchor, the absolute worst thing you can do is try to instantly “magic” your lost time back by braking later or pushing harder. This instantly triggers a secondary crash spiral.

Instead, take the very next corner slowly, smoothly, and deliberately. Aim to take a “boring” racing line and nail it right, not fast. This serves two vital purposes:

Psychological Proof [05:59]: Taking a clean corner proves to your brain that your hands are smooth, the car is responding normally, and you are back in control.
A Litmus Test for Damage [06:12]: It allows you to feel if the car has mechanical or aerodynamic damage. If you try to send it at maximum speed immediately after a hit, you won’t realize the car is broken until you spin out.

Summary of the Protocol [06:36]

0–3 Seconds: Fire your custom anchor (breathe, speak, tap) to disrupt the physiological stress loop.
The Next Corner: Drive deliberately and slowly to close the panic loop and check the car’s condition.

By training recovery as a separate skill, your brain will build a default mechanism that resets instead of panicking, separating drivers who finish races from those who completely unravel.

Want To Be A Pro Sim Racer?

Biggest Flaws?

In this video, sim racer Joey Lotrecchiano breaks down the biggest structural and physical flaws currently hurting iRacing. While praising the simulator as the undisputed king of consistent and highly competitive online racing, he outlines four massive issues that continue to break immersion and ruin the driver experience.

1. Netcode Collisions [01:02]

The Issue: “Netcode” refers to how the servers predict car locations to make vehicles look incredibly smooth—avoiding the choppy, lateral “teleporting” seen in other simulators. However, a small connection lapse can cause the server to falsely detect a physical collision even when the cars are visually feet apart.
The Reality: While frustrating, the alternative (laggy, un-sim-like skipping cars) is arguably worse. Drivers simply have to tolerate the occasional invisible wreck for the sake of overall smooth multiplayer visual latency.

2. Missing “Curb Drop-Off” [04:56]

The Issue: Real-life race tracks develop deep, brutal dips in the dirt immediately off the edge of track curbing due to drivers continuously over-utilizing the track limits. Dipping a wheel into a real 5-inch curb drop-off can bottom out a chassis, blow a tire, or bend a rim.
The Reality: iRacing’s laser-scanned tracks are mathematically flat in these off-track areas. Because of this, sim racers can unrealistically put their tires completely into the grass/dirt past the curbing to gain extra lap time without any physical penalty or threat of crashing.

3. Lack of Safety Cars in Endurance Racing [08:35]

The Issue: In real-life 24-hour endurance races, safety cars continuously bunch the pack back together, leading to incredibly close finishes. In iRacing, a single mistake early on effectively ends a team’s race. After a few hours, cars are scattered miles apart, forcing drivers to drive lonely, boring “hot laps” for 20+ hours.
The Reality: Slapping real-world safety car rules into iRacing would invite massive exploits (e.g., sister teams intentionally crashing to trigger a yellow right before a pit window). The creator proposes a strictly randomized safety car interval mechanism to mimic real-world unpredictability safely.

4. Flawed Damage Model and Inconsistencies [12:15]

The Issue: iRacing’s physics engine handles impacts terribly. Real tire barriers absorb kinetic energy to safely capture a car; iRacing’s tire barriers behave like hard trampolines, bouncing cars violently back onto the active racing surface. Furthermore, aero damage is overly punishing (losing 1+ seconds a lap over minor scuffs).
The Inconsistency: The damage and incident points systems vary wildly between cars. For example, a minor graze in the Porsche Cup 992.1 can instantly trigger a heavy “4x” collision penalty and fall apart, while the newer Porsche Cup 992.2 can handle much harder, realistic bumper-to-bumper racing.

Conclusion [15:59]

Lotrecchiano concludes by reminding viewers that iRacing’s development team is working hard, but they are limited because the game is still fundamentally running on a foundational core game engine originally built back in 2008. Overhauling these deeply rooted structural elements requires monumental development time.

Overlooked Tips & Settings

In this video, sim racer PitLanePete shares six overlooked iRacing settings, tips, and configuration tricks he has learned since 2019 to improve immersion, optimize consistency, and lower lap times.

The 6 Hidden iRacing Settings & Tips

6. Ghost Practice in Official Sessions [06:42]: If you want to practice with the exact track conditions (temperature, rubbering) of an official multiplayer session but don’t want traffic, you can move groups. Go to the replay screen, click Results -> Entries, and select a completely empty or low-population group letter to get a completely open track to yourself.

1. Turn Up Tire Sounds [00:14]: By lowering all audio sliders (like engine and environmental noises) down to 50% while leaving the Tire Volume and Master Volume high, you gain a massive audio advantage. It allows you to immediately hear when the front tires lose grip and start to understeer, helping you find the absolute limit of traction faster.

2. Use the FOV Calculator + Free Projections [01:14]: Setting a mathematically correct Field of View (FOV) ensures your braking points and sense of speed feel natural. Under the Display tab, input your screen measurements and viewing distance. If you use a highly curved monitor, enable “Render scene using free projections” to prevent your side mirrors and dashboard from looking stretched.Note: For Nvidia users, enabling Simultaneous Multiprojection keeps performance loss minimal. AMD users may see a 15-20% drop in FPS with free projections.

3. Perfect Your Seating Position [02:56]: While FOV dictates world perspective, your cockpit camera changes your perspective inside the car. Go to live replay, press Ctrl + F12 to open the camera controls, and adjust the camera so the virtual steering wheel perfectly matches the size and height of your real-world wheel. Don’t forget to click “Save Car” so it saves per-vehicle.

4. Turn Off High Dynamic Range (HDR) [04:21]: The in-game HDR toggle doesn’t enable true hardware HDR monitor output—it mostly adds visual bloom and aggressive sun glare. Turning it off removes distracting glare that blocks your view of track markers and saves PC performance. The one exception is driving in the rain, where HDR can actually help you see a bit clearer through water spray.

5. Map the “Active Reset” Feature [05:21]: Perfect for practicing long tracks like Le Mans, this feature allows you to save a snapshot of your car (including tire temp, position, and speed) on a straightaway right before a tricky corner. Map buttons for “Set Start Point” and “Reset to Start Point” in the keybinds tab to teleport back and instantly practice the same turn over and over. Only works in private practice.

Highest iRating Race

In this iRacing video, professional sim racer Moritz Löhner takes viewers inside a rare, elite-level race: a qualifying round for the Porsche Esports Super Cup.

What makes this race exceptional is its astronomical Strength of Field (SOF)—reaching an estimated 10,144 SOF—meaning the grid is packed almost entirely with drivers holding 10,000+ iRatings. The stakes are massive, as the ultimate grand prize for the championship is a real-life Porsche racing season.

Key Takeaways & Milestones

The Power of Preparation [00:48]: Moritz admits he entered this high-stakes race at Spa with minimal practice, opting to stream daily races instead of “sweating” in private practice for two weeks. He notes that at this level, even a two-tenths of a second gap in qualifying makes a massive difference, burying a fast driver back in the field.
An Unbelievable Start [01:39]: The race kicks off with absolute chaos down the Kemmel Straight, resulting in an intense three-wide situation. Remarkably, due to the sheer perfection and skill of the grid, not a single car crashes on the opening lap [01:51].
The Incurable Tracing Train [07:47]: Stalled in P21, Moritz highlights how brutally difficult it is to pass. The front-runners are running lap times of 1:16.2 to 1:16.3, while Moritz in 20th is matching those exact lap times. Without mistakes or crashes from rivals, making up positions is virtually impossible.
The Flawed Points System Explained [09:16]: Moritz breaks down the “broken” championship format. Points are heavily tied to a race’s SOF, but because there are over 600 sign-ups across multiple splits, a driver winning Split 2 or Split 3 can easily walk away with significantly more points than a highly skilled driver fighting for survival in P20 of the Top Split.
Frustrations & Finish [11:33]: As the race progresses, Moritz deals with aggressive under-braking maneuvers from competitors, a driver seemingly under-fueling and slowing down the pack, and a late off-track slowdown penalty [13:13] that solidifies his position toward the back of the pack.

Ultimately, the video serves as a fascinating showcase of what racing looks like when human error is almost entirely removed from the grid—resulting in a hyper-clean, relentlessly high-paced, but incredibly difficult-to-pass “train” of elite drivers.

Zalenski Wins Season Opener

https://www.iracing.com/bobby-zalenski-claims-19th-career-enascar-coca-cola-iracing-championship-series-win-in-coca-cola-160-at-charlotte/

Scan It!

Malik Getting Some TV Time

DuQuion And Springfield?

https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/95800/why-no-duquoin-or-springfield-dirt-mile-tracks

5 Mistakes Ruining Your Setup

Top Split-Fixed

https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/95859/top-split-oval-racing-hilarious

Bussa Giving Back

Gentleman, Start Your Engines

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYcPhgZnDD6

2026 Sim Gaming Expo

September 18 – 20, 2026

The Double

Majors 24

https://majorsseries.com/event/2026-majors-242026

This Week In iRacing

https://www.iracing.com/this-week-in-iracing-may-19th-to-may-25th-2026/

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Fantasy

Hardware/Software

Chad McNeese’s Ultimate Hardware Spreadsheet

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i08zKjBSmSn5G_mCc9cHx07w7XLo03sfoytpVJkqbYk/edit?usp=sharing

Pimax Ultra-Wide

Trak Racer / Porsche

Qubic System Complete Overview

In this video from Podium 1 Racing, host Killian reviews the Qubic System QS-H13 Challenger, a compact 2-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) seat mover designed for serious sim racers who want realistic feedback without the footprint of a full motion rig.

Key Hardware Specs & Design

Type: A “pure seat mover” that moves only the seat while pedals and steering wheel remain fixed. This creates a strong relative motion between your body and the controls, mimicking a real race car [02:04].
Performance: Features 10.4° of roll and 9.45° of pitch with ultra-low latency (approx. 10ms). It also includes integrated haptics (0–100 Hz) for engine vibration, ABS, and gear shifts [09:05], [12:20].
Build: Industrial-grade actuators built in Europe; supports a payload of up to 130 kg (approx. 286 lbs) and runs on standard 115/230V power [02:58].

The “Down Under” Mounting Solution

Killian (who is 6’5″) explains that the standard mounting adds about 7–8 inches of height, which would put the steering wheel at his lap. To solve this, he flipped the mounting brackets and installed the unit underneath the rig’s extrusion [04:11].

Note: This requires a rig with “feet” to provide about 2.5 inches of ground clearance and involves using five M8 screws per side for a secure “sandwich” fit [04:57], [06:53].

Software & Personal Setup

Using the Qubic Manager software, Killian shared his specific iRacing tweaks for GT3 cars [13:32]:

Disabled “Sustained” Pitch/Roll: He found that leaning back while going up hills or forward on downhills broke immersion [15:05].
Weight Transfer Bias: He adjusted this so that heavy braking wouldn’t jolt him too far into the steering wheel [15:35].
High Sharpness: He increased “Road Harshness” and “Side Slip” to feel immediate jolts when hitting curbs or losing traction [16:16].

Final Verdict

Conclusion: It’s a “smart upgrade” for those prioritizing usable driving information and consistent lap times over the “roller coaster” spectacle of larger systems [24:22].

Pros: Extremely low latency, very quiet (under 58 dB), compact for apartments, and highly communicative for finding the car’s limit [23:53].

Cons: Requires time to dial in software settings and lacks the “flying” sensation of 6DOF systems [24:03].

Green…

DFP15 With USB Pass Through

Zeus By Simagic

Worth Paying More?

In this comprehensive 1-hour and 23-minute review, Will from Boosted Media shares his and Tom’s final thoughts on the Simucube 3 Sport and Pro wheelbases after a thorough six months of testing.

🌐 The Simucube 3 Ecosystem Shift [01:34]

Simucube has moved in a drastically different engineering direction with the Simucube 3 line, taking an approach similar to Apple’s “walled garden.”

The Link Hub: Moving away from standard direct PC connections, peripherals like the active pedals and the wheelbases connect via a central link hub.
Bandwidth and Light Bridge Technology [13:30]: Traditional USB ports can suffer from motherboard bandwidth limitations and electromagnetic interference (EMI). To fix this, Simucube developed Light Bridge technology. This allows high-bandwidth wireless data and power transmission directly through the quick-release mechanism.
The Trade-off [14:27]: While this architecture guarantees a premium, stable experience, it drastically reduces “openness” and third-party compatibility.

📉 A Rocky Launch and Software Fixes [08:58]

Will is very transparent about the fact that the initial launch of the Simucube 3 line was incredibly rough.

The Bad Initial Experience: When they first received the wheelbases, the driving experience was “absolutely terrible.” The bases suffered from severe oscillations, EMI issues, and software bugs where settings would change on their own. Will noted that Simucube originally came across as “tone-deaf” in defending these flawed design choices.
The Turnaround [11:27]: To Simucube’s credit, their software team actively engaged with the community to continuously update the firmware. Over their six months of testing, the software was ironed out, fixing the severe bugs and unlocking the hardware’s true potential.

🏎️ How Do They Perform Now? [00:05]

Now that the software has matured, Will states that the Simucube 3 Sport and Pro provide the absolute best quality force feedback that he and Tom have ever felt in their lives. The refinement, detail, and pure feeling of the driving experience are top-tier, cementing them as true “endgame” sim racing hardware.

👥 Who Are They For? [01:20:42]

Despite the unmatched force feedback quality, Will emphasizes that these wheelbases are not for everyone. Because of their high price point and restricted ecosystem, they feel pigeonholed in the market.

Target Audience: They are ideally suited for high-end commercial sim centers, professional setups, or wealthy enthusiasts who want an “it just works,” ultra-premium, hassle-free experience without worrying about mixing and matching different brand components.
The Innovator’s Tax [01:21:09]: Will defends Simucube’s expensive price tag, noting that they are one of the few true innovators left in sim racing. While other companies copy ideas and drive prices down (which is great for lowering the barrier to entry), Simucube is pushing technological boundaries that will eventually trickle down to cheaper consumer products in the future.

🚫 The Biggest Grievance [01:22:33]

Will’s biggest complaint about the product line is the complete lack of a standard USB pass-through option on the front of the wheelbase. Including this would have allowed drivers who want to use non-ecosystem third-party steering wheels to do so without having to attach awkward external adapters.

Conspit Nano Dashboard

Save Money With A DIY

Apple Vision Pro Deep Dive

Results

NASCAR iRacing Series

Official Series

Wednesday Open -NiS – Coke 600

Mike- P wrecked out about lap 150. Had a lot of trouble off turned four kept slapping the wall trying to spin out eventually I spent out hard and crashed hard.

Tony – RIP ROWDY

David – P1 !!!!!!! had a top 5 car. Brad and Rob Franklin were the class of the field all night, though my car was waking up at the end like it seems to do. Was going to be happy with a p4. Caution comes out with 13 t go. All of us long runners are pissed. I take 2 tires and make big swings on the adjustments. And pass the leader with 4 to go on the inside to take my first oval win in years. I am surprised how emotional a felt for what is supposed to be a “game”

Brad- P4 As David said Rob and I had the quickest cars all race on the long run. Had the race played out with it running green to the end I really felt I had speed left to pass him for the win. But a late race yellow would put us on two tires and I did not take a big enough swing at freeing the car up. Congrats to David but really felt like the racing gods took one away.

A Open

Brad W – P3 (Charlotte) started p5 and was in a good spot until an early caution. Restarting in p5 when the car in p3 decided to restart in 1st gear. He spins to the inside and I get a black flag for passing on the left. Go back to green and serve my drive through. Come out with leaders and get a lucky yellow that gets me back on the lead lap. From there it was drive back to the front. Ran the tires way too hard trying to make up ground but drove back to top5 before a late yellow would send us to the pits. Restarted in p5 and would drive up to p2 before getting tight off of t2 and brush the wall. Dropped back to p3. A good practice for the 600.

Ring Meister

Mike – P Toyota GR 86. Started second was running second on the white and screwed up the carousel and hit the wall hard DNF.
Started fourth on lap one the 2 L had tangled going through the quiddlebachher hohe. I sneak through but got wheel damage. We turned about 5° to one side. About a four second gap at that point was able to hold it and finish off the race and win my first win of the week winner winner chicken dinner. Number 152.
Then started first had several cars behind me for the longest time than one guy kinda sideswiped me and runs me off the track to take the lead. I fall back to fourth and have a good battle for third at the end where I caught him and got to his outside and then he ran me into the grass and then we wrecked pretty hard, but I got a P4.

Lotus 79 Grand Prix series

Ellis- P at mosport. I thought this race was only 45 minutes, but it turned out to be over two hours long. I made it to lap 24 before I basically fell out of the seat. Parked at P 11 out of 14.

IMSA

Hall – Two wins at Road Atlanta – one by a guy being DQed for cheating at the start

Indy 500

David- Friday wrecked out on lap 7. Saturday p12, should have been top 10 but walled it with 60 to go enough for 5 minutes damage. Sunday, wrecked out by a guy passing under, letting him go and he still washes up. Apology not accepted
Tom D – P2 after a 94 green flag run to end it. Did not have enough speed to catch the winner. Had a blast though
Tony P12 friday night was doing ok was 9th with 50 to go and going in for a green flag stop and was mirror watching a guy in my ass drafting me into the pits and sped and slam on brakes and walled it. Wrecked out sunday

Final Thoughts

Words Spoken in Closing Audio Clip -“”Thank you for listening to the iRacers Lounge podcast make sure to go subscribe to us on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Google Play, Facebook & Twitter, See You On The Track .”

TITLE

Cute DDU

Description

He honor the passing of Kyle Busch, and many other iracing topics. David tells us how we won the Coke 600, and we seem to like Conspit’s Cute DDU.

So sit back, relax and join us on the iRacers Lounge Podcast.

iRacers Lounge Podcast is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, Podbean, Spreaker, Podbay, PodFanatic, Overcast, Amazon, and other podcast players.

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Kris Randall – https://www.signalcraftstudio.com/