We were doing our usual the other by doom-scrolling Reddit and came across an iRacing car guide that we thought was very well written and exceptionally informative. We had a look at a couple of the guides that the author had written and realised that we need to spread the word about this amazing new resource.
The Writer
There are currently six guides in the series and they’ve all been written by Tom Noakes. He has an iRating of over 5000 and therefore knows a thing or two about driving, fast.
Current Guides
- Mazda MX-5
- Ferarri 296 GT3
- FIA Formula 4
- Toyota GR86
- Ray FF1600
- Dallara P217 LMP2
His guides cover areas that most guides don’t. Notably areas like how the car behaves when trail braking and how positive the feel is when trail braking.
The Guides
The guides are free to download in a handy PDF format and are broken down into sections that cover the main areas regarding the car's handling. Here’s a small excerpt from the Formula 4 guide:
We’ve driven a few races in the little F4 and it’s probably our favourite car at the moment in iRacing. This guide cements what we already discovered about the car as well as highlights a couple of points that we weren't 100% sure of. For example, we always felt that the car could be pushed hard with a tendency to overtseer slightly at the limit but it can be controlled with the throttle. The guide not only covers this but explains methods on using this to maximise the potential of the car.
Driver Coaching
Tom is an excellent writer with an amazing ability to transfer his knowledge into the written word. However, we think that his coaching ability is even better.
His aim with driver coaching is to provide one-on-one lessons at a price that is significantly cheaper than most other coaches. He charges £20/$26/€24 per hour and we recommend that you consider this if you feel that you want to take your driving to the next level. If you're struggling to be consistent with trail braking or just want to find some improvements in general, Tom will help you improve in a way that you can go faster, permanently.
Here's a video of one of his recent coaching sessions that gives you some insight on his methods:
You can join his Discord here and not only have access to the guides and book a paid coaching session, but also have free access to racecraft sessions where you race with other drivers and Tom will provide free advice on defending, overtaking and incident avoidance. Tom has also launched a new website if you're not a Discord fan.
Final thoughts
Tom's one-on-one coaching is significantly cheaper than the prices charged by coaches providing similar services but it is still a substantial outlay, especially if you're starting out in sim racing. We suggest that beginners join his Discord and watch the videos, read the guides and join the free racecraft sessions before committing to a paid session.
That way you can make sure you're getting value for money in a hobby that tends to become expensive very quickly. However, we have been very impressed on what Tom has to offer already and really appreciate the free guides and all the other effort he is making to help us become better sim racers.
