RacePro

　　I've always considered myself a pretty fast virtual driver. Back when I wasn't working the game industry (and, ironically, had time to play games in my free time) I used to run in a league of friends, and could hold my own against pretty much anybody. Without knowing really how or why, I found a way to be fast, whether it was turning laps in TOCA 2, ripping up the terrain in the original Colin McRae Rally games, or burning it up on two wheels in the original MotoGP games from THQ.

　　Yesterday, however, I quite literally got schooled courtesy of Diego Sartori, creative director at SimBin, the studio behind the upcoming simulation racing game, RacePro. If you've been following the development of RacePro carefully, you'll know that this is the studio's first foray into console racing. I last spoke with Diego back in Novemberto talk about the game itself and its development; this time around, it was all about learning how to make the most of the game's intense focus on realistic driving physics. Sartori had a full schedule of topics to cover, so after some introductory remarks, we hit the track.

　　Our rides of choice: The Aston Martin DBRS9. The location: The fascinating and tricky Brno circuit, one of my favorite tracks in the world and one I've spent hours on lapping in other games. Sartori likes Brno too; in fact, he's raced there both in the virtual and real worlds, and is quick to point out the bumpiness of the track as one of the things that makes it so challenging. Indeed, in the middle of some of the key turns on this amazingly fun course, the bumps are severe enough to cause your car to almost "leap" off the racing line as the wheels lose traction with the road. Couple that with curves that almost always come in groups of two or more, and you've got a race course that rewards… no, demands smooth driving.

　　And Diego Sartori is all about smoothness behind the wheel. Practically his first words to me when beginning my lesson were, "We want to take the drama out of racing. Too often people think that the more hectic things are, the better they're doing." Of course, by "drama"Sartori means anything extraneous that you're doing in the car--the superfluous over corrections with the steering wheel, the tap-tap-tapping of the brakes as you look to find the correct speed when entering a turn, the tenuous changing of gears as you try to maximize your revs in and out of turns. As Sartori explained,with some instruction, and lots of careful practice, you can eliminate a huge chunk of that "drama"… and get measurably faster as a result.

　　What it all boils down to--at least to me--is concentration. Now, of course, anyone who plays racing sims religiously (or even the occasional jaunt in Paradise City) must keep a degree of concentration to keep your car in one piece. What I discovered is that, too often, I'm not concentrating on the right things.

　　Specifically, corners.Exiting a corneris arguably the most important aspect of any type of racing and the concept is simple: the faster you come out a corner, the more speed you'll have when approaching the next corner. While the concept is simple, executing on that concept is where things get tricky. After all, so many aspects can go wrong in the middle of a corner. You can miss your turn in spot, you can get bumped by another car, you can accelerate too quickly and spin your car in the process… the list goes on and on.

　　With all of those variables of failure in mind, I began following Sartori around the track at minimal speeds, while he explained the essence of his approach to driving in RacePro. On the importance of corner exits, Sartori had this to say: "At Brno, the exit is hugely important because many of the corners are followed by very long straights. Lacking [2 kmh upon exiting a corner] can cost you half a second or more by the time you enter the next corner."

　　When it came time to start "removing the drama" from racing, Sartori's first step was to set restrictions for our session: In addition to modest speeds at the outset, we would only be using three gears throughout the entirety of a lap: third, fourth, and fifth gear. This was to minimize unnecessary wheelspin when coming out of a corner which can easily lead to oversteer and, in extreme cases, spinning the car outright. Exiting a corner at a higher gear (in our case, third gear) practically eliminated thatunwanted wheelspin, effectively making the car that much more stable coming out of the turn.

　　To put it plainly, this felt awkward as hell at first. As long as I've been racing, my philosophy has been to keepmy car'srevs as high as possible. By shifting up a gear, acceleration out of the corner didn't feel nearly as quick; on the other hand, the car felt far more stable than if I had been in second gear, fighting against the tires as they struggled to keep grip to the pavement. Sartori also introduced me to the concept of short-shifting, which in effect is a modified version of what we were doing on the track anyway. Say you enter a corner in second gear. Short-shifting would be to shift to third gear far earlier than you might normally, essentially keeping the car in shape in the process.

　　The problem with ignoring the lower gears, of course, is that you're sacrificing speed for stability, right? Well, not so fast. If you make the correct adjustments to your driving as you enter the turn, Sartori explained, all of the sudden that third gear exit won't necessarily be as limiting as you think.

　　Which, of course, brings me back to my original point: concentration. Every corner on a race track is comprised of the same components: braking point, turn-in point, clipping point, and exit. When you're learning a track for the first time, or looking for ways to improve your lap time, it's these four aspects that you should be concentrating on in the car. After all, anyone can point a car down a long straight, press the gas and go fast. It's maximizing that momentum through turns that separates the merely "fast" from the truly quick.

　　The braking point is, quite obviously, the point you need to begin braking on a track to prepare for the next turn. Though RacePro has a static race assist line, braking lines can differ depending on the car you're driving and the amount of speed you're carrying into a corner. The first thing to figure out, then, is where you need to be hitting the brakes to maximize your car's momentum.

　　Second there's the turn-in point, which turned out to be my Achilles' Heel at Brno. On most of the corners, I could easily identify the ideal turn-in point; however, it wasn't long before I found my problem spots. Whether due to late-braking, bumpy roads, or drastic elevation changes, it wasn't easy for me to identify the ideal place to begin my turn-in spot. I suspect driving in third-person view in RacePro might help clear up those problems; a wider perspective on the track can help you more easily identify markers you can then memorize for your next go-round on the track. Interestingly, Sartori told me that he prefers the third person view when playing RacePro on a console, but still sticks with the more immersive cockpit view when playing racing sims on the PC.

　　Assuming that the braking and turn-in points are nailed, the clipping point is easy to identify; it's that ideal spot, where the driver can immediately get back on the gas with a minimum of steering correction, letting the car's natural momentum take it smoothly to the outside of the following straight with as much speed as possible. By focusing the braking and turn-in points, I found that, with practice, it was much easier to find and nail that clipping point and carry more speed on the exit of the corner.

　　Higher gears in corners to keep the car steady. Preparing for a turn beforehand. Doing as little as possible with the car when carrying it through a turn. Always smooth, always mindful of what is ahead. These are all things that race drivers (both real and virtual) are mindful of to varying degrees. But, having spoken with an obvious master in Sartori, who told me exactly what to focus on and when--even going so far as to follow me around the track, lap after lap, analyzing spots for improvement--helped crystallize the way I drive, and the areas in which I need to improve, in a very clear manner.

　　The results speak for themselves: Before the session, I was clocking laps at Brno at around 2 minutes, 13 seconds. By the time the session was complete, I managed to cut three seconds off that time. Of course there's still more work to be done--Sartori said he can easily lap Brno in the same car at around 2 minutes 7 seconds. But, then again, that's the great beauty of racing and racing games--there's always someone to look up to, some way to improve. It's just a matter of removing as much drama from the race as you possibly can.

　　RacePro is scheduled for release on the Xbox 360 in February. Check out the gamespace for new screens and videos of the game.