Search the forum, because there is a LOT of discussion and information about this topic. But in addition to the above post (defensive driving), this is also an important point:

Quote from STCC licence page :

Overtaking
When overtaking, the car on the inside must achieve ‘significant overlap’ with the car on the outside in order to have the right to the corner. Significant overlap is defined as the front of the inside car being level with or beyond the rear edge of the front door of the outside car. This measurement is taken at the normal turn in point.

Quote from bbman :

You can do almost anything if you're the one in front... Question is: Would you really risk losing your position and even your race to fight someone who is already behind you? You have nothing to gain, but much to lose... Would you take the risk?

This is a good point, but IMHO, apo3d, you handled it exactly as you should have done. I've seen this happen many times, but its an especially useful tactic on the FE tracks: if you can hold your position against any impatient driver, its odds on they'll launch themselves off the kerbs or through the tyres and you're unlikely to see them for the rest of the race....

Just catching up:

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=315495#post315495

I'd believe what the operators say about GPL: "We have made great strides in making the immersive experience of GPL accessible to a broad audience without compromising realism"

I think much of GPL's hard to drive reputation comes from using the default set ups, which don't do anyone, noobs or aliens, any favours. If they can run the 69 cars, then within a lap or two I guarantee that any experienced sim driver will be able to dial themselves in to becoming competitive.

Hell, I can drive them and you lot are going to beat me whatever we race

I wouldn't be too nervous about racing GPL. I take the point made about the 65s, but anyone who can put in consistent laps in the Sauber should be able to adapt to the 69 cars. Make the circuit somewhere like Kyalami (challenging, fast, but with a relatively small number of corners to remember) and I think even someone without any sim experience would be able to complete a race and get something from the event.

In Performance Bike magazine recently, they stuck a heart monitor on one of the Phase One (endurance team) riders - I don't think his heart rate went below 163bpm for the entirety of his stint on track. But maybe that's just indicative of the physical exertion and the state of awareness that's required for racing.

I'm kind of used to driving in the middle of the pack, so its only when I find myself upfront that I get nerves. Its counter-productive: you find yourself in a new situation; you say to yourself, "OK, now don't screw this up; so the first thing that happens is you screw it up

Its a version of target fixation. Racing is all about peripheral vision - once you get get stuck on foveal vision, its not going to end well. Where you look is where you'll go, and if you're looking at someone's rear end as you chase them down - odds on you'll hit them in a slow corner. Same thing with new-situation-nerves: concentrate on not making a mistake, and the mistakes will come thick and fast.

The more often you experience the situation, the more time you will be able to give yourself to respond to problems.

If anyone attending has never driven GPL, it might be better to use either the 65's or the 69's. IMO, they're more pleasant to drive than the originals anyway (less in the way of grip anomalies...).

Quote from Linsen :

I might have taken them, but it's also possible that I would have been very bored very quickly.

They're very tedious and repetitive - I guarantee you'd have done what I did: "oh... that looks interesting, let's have a go... oh, that's three cars done and it's not been in the least bit interesting... I hope it gets better than this..."

It doesn't and you never open that part of the program again.

BTW, @whoeveritwas.... PBs for single laps mean nothing... I'm as slow as drying oil paint, but still finish ok, because I can stay on the track for more than four laps in a row. I do most of my overtaking of faster drivers as they go searching for a quiet spot in the countryside for the nth time....

Quote from z3r0c00l :

I know everyone's got a right to the content, but, in terms of realism, they do not let 8 year olds drive DTM cars, for a reason, because...

...that would be dangerous. Crashing an animated car is not even remotely dangerous.

Public servers should be public: money down, let's go racing, learn (or not) along the way.

The licensing system creates an alternative ladder, and organised leagues provide for a 'filtered' quality of racing (or should do...)

There's just no reason to make the lessons obligatory (the fact that seasoned LFS drivers have no racecraft is just wrong, but no tutorial is going to make them learn if they can't even be bothered to interpret the few rules and guidelines that exist anyway)

Quote from Jakg :

I drive the XRG on the bronze servers, it rocks!

Yeah, couple the XFG/XRG differences with plenty of cornering respect and I've been in some great, last corner exit, three abreast, drags to the finish line.

Quote from Bean0 :

the car I am in simply cannot corner as quickly as they can (STCC servers, XRT v FXO).

You ought to be used to that from the bronze server - did you use the XRG much? I haven't had too many chances to race recently, but driving the XRG for the first few times, the sight of an XFG nipping past my shoulder on the inside soon got boring.

I am learning the lesson: never enter a corner so quickly that you can't take a really tight line to the apex. You will pay for it. Keep the little bugger behind you, no matter what. He'll disappear on the straight.

Quote from Gener_AL (UK) :

I`m sick to death of political correctness.

'King makes me laugh everytime I hear that phrase.... Its become the worldwide euphemism for "I'm a miserable old git who has given up, because its all become too complicated for me."

dabs.com have them at £149.50 - they just sold out a batch, but more due in a month or so.

Quote from Gunn :

Common sense, patience, and empathy are the best tools you can use in these situations.

And the replay facility.... Its an instant palliative to most situations if you review the incident from the other drivers point of view (or from above). On more than one occasion I've played back an incident that I was certain was the result of poor judgement from another driver, only to witness my own limitations written just as large

Quote from apo3d :

Is there a rule i didn't read that states otherwise?

No, you read the rules correctly. It was the spammer who needs to spend some quality time with the rule book...

Your experience is in no way unique. An cool headed driver can easily start from last place on the grid and achieve a relatively high finishing place, just by driving consistently. I wish more people would realise that while single, pb laptimes give you a rush, its the total time that gives you a good finishing position.

There's no point being a few tenths off a WR, if you spend every third lap spinning your wheels on grass or gravel.

Quote from ayrton senna 87 :

if the driver in 2nd is close, then ill fire the backmarker wide and he can carry on with no damage

Why would you do that? It can't be to your advantage to open the gap for your opponent too. Better to slow the pace down, pass the backmarker when it suits you (ie. before a complex of corners where it'll be difficult for your opponent to follow immediately), and ... with a bit of luck ... 2nd place won't be so close to your tail anymore.

This is the trouble with LFS pick-up races. Most are just a series of hotlaps strung together in the hope of getting to the finish first.