Why I finally quit League Racing
For many years, I organized several iRacing leagues. Starting with the 60PLUS Racing Adventures for drivers over 60 years old, then later to Team Racers for Christ, and Fair Chance Racing. Finally the Senior Sportsmanship League. I focused on elderly "senior" drivers intentionally as I guessed they might be more open to my message.
The goal was always to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the command to Love Thy Neighbor. Loving Thy Neighbor in racing competition, in my strong opinion is restraint of aggression and the avoidance of any action that will slow down your competitor.
Unfortunately, most men who engage in competitive racing see it as "fighting" or at the minimum, "friendly conflict and struggle". Their reaction to my Love Thy Neighbor message was "that's not racing!". One league actually advertises having “fierce competition” with non-aggressive driving. Not sure the two ideas are compatible. When you are “battling” you are fighting. And “fierce” seems a bit unfriendly.
Open iRacing competition uses a unique algorithm for a Safety Rating or "SR" that to some extent restrains excessive conflict and aggression. League racing does not have any formal method other than recording number of incidents. This SR and IR rating system provides goals that rival the sole goal of high finishing position available in league racing. The top performers in “open” racing are just as wild and predatory as those in league racing but optimizing SR and IR allows one to place finishing position as less important in the long run. When in the “world” it is prudent to be wary of others but amongst friends, wariness and the need to defend against predators should not be necessary.
The league concept is that you race against people you are familiar with rather than strangers. Many leagues promote "friendliness" but never seem to eliminate the worst temptations to fight with what is often called "clean hard racing" which is just another word for "friendly fighting". Mostly it becomes like a bar room brawl where everyone sort of celebrates with a "wasn't that fight great fun". Some competitors are more vicious and aggressive than others. Members do form a sort of community which they value, but on the track most see each other as enemies that they need to defeat. It may not be Heavy Weight Pro Boxing or UFC Battles but it is always as least as much of a fight as Olympic Boxing.
The goal for most is to finish ahead of others rather to finish in the least amount of time. If you are fighting for position with other drivers throughout the race, everyone is essentially slowed down and not finishing in the least amount of time. The best racing is more like a “Time Trial in Traffic.”
The best example of this is the lack of respect given to qualifying positions. Qualifying is intended to “signal” the relative speed of the participants. Those that see racing as a “fight” will almost always try to pass the car who qualified faster on the first lap-even on the first corner. This slows everyone down and often results in needless collisions. It is high risk as tires are not at their optimum on the first lap and aggressive driving is high risk. Absent mistakes, the faster qualifier is the faster car. Lack of respect for qualifying positions on the first lap does harm to the entire field.
Ten years of doing my best to change this attitude and I finally concluded that the goal was unattainable. (See Struggles of a Christian Racer". ) The Bible clearly instructs Christians to depart from a group after a clear rejection of the Gospel message.
This does not mean we depart from the racing world completely. Christians must be in the world but not "of" it. Passive interaction with the “world” is quite different from that with a small group to whom you have personally and actively offered the “message” of Love Thy Neighbor repeatedly over time—and who have rejected that message.
I am careful to avoid the self righteous judgment that the "normal" behavior is "evil". Many of those on track that are fighting most probably see themselves as Christians. "It's only a game and a way to have fun!" I am simply indicating that "Love Thy Neighbor" in racing does not include overtake attempts during corner entry (a sort of theft) and does not include following so close during corner entry that the possibility of collision is high. The first always forces the other driver to slow and both actions dramatically increase the probability of collision, ruining the other person's race. Great racing is still possible without these behaviors--passing in the section of long straights from corner entry ending several car lengths before the braking zone is great racing-passing in corner entry is fighting. Many racers do not see iRacing as a game-it is a serious endeavor illustrating advanced car control--to these, the "clean hard racing" is an annoyance.
I have determined that the open iRacing events are no worse in terms of excess aggression than racing leagues. In fact, relating to a control “system” for fewer collisions, the Safety Rating and fear that collision incidents may cause a loss of iRating seems to be equal or better than the "community and hypocritical claims of good intentions" by the top performers in even the most friendly leagues. (One recent league race on an oval track had 7 yellow flags-one about every five minutes. And I was rear ended by one of the top performers on corner entry. I had earned the pole P1 position from qualifying, made a mistake and was a lap down because of a “no passing” penalty but was in the position to return to the lead lap and this guy decided to try to dive bomb on the inside entering a corner, colliding with me. There was no rational reason for him to be aggressive at that time. On the restart he anticipated the green and “jumped” the start, rocketing pass me on the outside—a very aggressive and dangerous move.)
There are exceptions, but the top performers in most leagues are born lethal predators seeking a "win" almost “at all costs” in order to validate their self esteem and superiority. There is nothing wrong with the desire to win, but winning at others’ expense is not consistent with the Love Thy Neighbor command.
I have made reasonably friendly relationships with many league racers but the racing is no more fun than open iRacing. In fact it is often more frustrating when some people pretend to be your friend when in fact they see you as prey to defeat and dominate on a regular basis.
I pray that the seeds I have planted will some day bear fruit.
As I have mentioned, even if I looked at a league without the specific goal of promoting a Love Thy Neighbor concept, I still find open iRacing to be more attractive. The top performers in leagues are generally just as aggressive as those in open racing and I find the “splits” in open iRacing in general creates a more fair competition. In a league where there are some with an iRating of 4000+ racing against drivers with an iRating of 1500, the race is really not very “fair”.
