[Nick Catsoudas]

The three-point penalty for car contact in terms of championship points is designed to be severe. One tiny bumper-to-bumper touch can cost you more than losing a position. If you care about points, then go ahead and sacrifice a position to stay clean. You might find that you finish in the standings ahead of the car who passed you on track.

You will still find people who don't care about anything or anyone, and think they are playing the first GranTurismo where your "fast line" was to divebomb the AI car, bounce off, and keep going. (That's not SRS's fault; those people are everywhere.) But if you avoid causing incidents yourself, you can minimize your penalty points and finish well in the standings over time.

Hmm, that's an interesting perspective... I didn't even know simple paint-trades detracted from your championship points. I didn't have enough time to actively work towards championship points because I could never participate frequently, but now that I do have the time and do want to battle for top 10 in the championship standings, I will take that into account. Thanks for pointing it out!

[Jason Jones]

I think the best way to avoid any kind of incidents on the racetrack is to invest in VR and use Helicorsa. The reason is simple, VR allows you to look much further up the road than people with a single screen. Looking as far ahead as a you can on the track gives you the best chance to avoid incidents because it gives you more time to react. Helicorsa allows you to see a lot more information than you can from just using your mirrors, which is key if you want to give yourself as much time to avoid incidents as they happen. Keep in mind that people with a single screen often don't have the correct fov to even see the mirrors on most cars.

Always choose the inside or outside line when the whole pack is trying to make it around a corner. If you're in the middle, your in trouble. If someone is trying to pass you on the inside, be wary that they will likely understeer into, and if they try to pass you on the outside they will likely squeeze into you at the apex. Positioning your car properly for defending and attacking is a skill and it takes practice.

When practicing for a race don't only concentrate on perfecting your hotlap time because you won't always be able to drive the racing line in a race. Its important to practice driving on the outside of the all the corners, learn the braking points and turn in points for the corners when you leave enough room for another car beside you.

The last bit of advice I can give is to learn how to drift. I know its not necessarily what race drivers want to do but I became a significantly better driver once I completed all the drift events because if you do get hit and it causes you to spin you'll have a lot better chance of catching it.

If you can put all that advice into practice then you might have a race like this. I started DFL and ended up 4th. Within the first lap or two you'll see how important looking ahead and using helicorsa at the same time is so important. I did make one mistake and misjudged the slide of the guy infront of me and I punted him I didn't use my brakes like I should have. Keep in mind that slowing down and driving around incidents is the best way to avoid them. If you happen to get punted from behind then you should protest that.

https://youtu.be/INNbg7_gjDI


As its been said before you can take two directions with your SRS membership, you'll either care more about your overall standings and incident rating, or you'll only care about winning championships. Either decision will have an effect on your stats, and it only matters to you which is right.