With the shut down of Hawaii in December of 1997, and the opening of NROS in November of 1997, a new page turns in the world of multiplayer sim racing. We're going to keep you up to date with the best setups, tips, and tricks to get you up front! As well, if you are running on the NASCAR Racing Online Series (NROS), be sure and check out their web site below, as well as TEN and Concentric. Concentric provides dial up ISP access to TEN, so if you are able to get a local access number to Concentric, it can improve your connection.
NROS
Total Entertainment Network
Concentric
Software To run on NROS, you need this software to connect to TEN and race. Steps are, in order, get a TEN account (software to connect to TEN is on the N2 CD), download and set up NROS software, connect and race! Fairly easy, eh?
NROS Software - 2.5 meg
Setups These setups are for NASCAR 2, and work great online or offline. This also includes Don Merpaw's setups for the BGN Track Pack. Many of these setups are capable of poles and race wins, so enjoy! 83 setups, in all.
N2 Setups Just unzip them into their specific track directory.
Tips from the Pros How to get ahead, and stay there, from the people that do it.
Practice, Practice If you don't know the tracks, you're not going to fare very well against the people who've run them for hours. Have some courtesy as well. If you have recently started running a racing sim...practice offline first before you go online. Causing a big wreck on the first lap can get plenty of people mad at you, and many will remember who you are. They probably won't race with you again! Practice is something that goes for the people that race alot as well...the better you know a track, the better you're going to do at it come race time. Try different lines. Check you're fuel window. Check tire wear. Know where to pass, and where not to.
Setup your Setups Have a decent setup...practice offline until you feel you have a decent one, and try some of ours above. Use the Quikfix Guide as a tool to tune in your setup. One thing to remember...don't make too many adjustments...try them one at a time. As well, be comfortable with your setup. If the car is faster, but you have a hard time driving it, you are probably not going to gain anything.
Qualify up Front Try to get as far up front as possible...you can definitely avoid accidents if you are in front of the cars that wrecked!
Smooth Operator Drive smooth...throwing a car into the corners is going to wear your tires more, give inconsistent lap times, and possibly get you into the fence. Remember that driving slower into a corner can actually get you out faster, as you are not fighting to keep the car under control.
Big Bucks Yes, face it, better equipment computer-wise will yield better lap times. Motherboard upgrades can be fairly cheap, and then you can swap out Pentium chips to your heart's content. A decent graphics card and sound card with onboard memory will free up your computer to handle the other things. Get a wheel/yoke and pedals. These are going to make it easier to make consistent lap times.
Be Free! Before running your connection software, shut down all your extra programs running in the background. These do nothing but suck memory, and in the case of programs like ICQ, ect, they also eat up your bandwidth in the background, making connections harder.
Speak Racing? Use your "C" key to send messages to other drivers...hit "C", type in your message, then hit "enter" to send. Make sure other drivers know when you are going to pit, if you've been damaged, ect.
Mind Games Yes, your mental attitude is your key to success. If you go in with the attitude that you are not likely to do well, or you don't like the track that you're racing on...you've just given away the race. Put your inhibitions where your foot should be...ON THE FLOOR!!!!
The Pits Of course, in The Pits is where the race can be won or lost...pun intended! ;] Know your pit window, and use that strategy to your best advantage. Before you pull into pit road, or driving to your stall, you should already have set the amount of fuel you need, what tires to change, and if you need to fix damage or not, or if any adjustments need to be made. On a short track, don't bother unless it's pretty bad...you'll lose more time in the pits fixing damage than you would if you were out racing. However, on superspeedways, the more damage you can fix, the faster you will go. As well, know how many laps before the end of the race you can go on fuel and tires. This will give you your final pit window. Know if 2 tires will run as well as 4. As well, hit "F2", and then "enter" to see where the rest of the field is. You don't want to get caught a lap down if you're in for a long stop. Hit "F9" then "enter" to tell you're pit crew to stop fixing damage if it starts getting close. You should be able to dive off the track, brake to pit road speed, and slide to a stop right in your pit stall. If you can't do this, practice, practice. You can lose a ton of time just getting into the pits if you miss your stall, don't get off the track fast enough, ect. As well, point your nose slightly out so the car in front of you don't block you.
