Are you new to online racing? Have you been racing online for a while but still seem to have trouble being competitive consistently? Online racing is an art and you are your own artist. Some guys are naturals when it comes to online racing and others, like myself, have had to learn the art of online racing. It is easy to get frustrated by getting beat week in and week out by a hand full of drivers that have a firm grasp of this art. My goal with this tutorial is to make everyone a little bit better artist and racer. Before you read on, understand that though I have years of online racing experience, I am still finding each and every race that I enter a challenge from all of my competitors and am in no way a dominate force when I enter the track.



The first challenge is to make sure that you have the right equipment and connection to run competitively. If your system can not run the game then you will not enjoy online racing. You must have a steering wheel and pedals to have any hope of being competitive and you must have a high speed internet connection. Game pads, Joysticks and Keyboards work ok for offline racing because you can use driver aids and limit your competition but it does not work that way when racing online. Connection problems will make others around you afraid to race with you because of the warp that is related with poor connections. It is possible for a few with poor connections to race with others who have solid connections. Never the less, the most frustrating part of online racing is when a good driver knows they are a good driver but they do not have the equipment and/or the connection to back them up. The best recommendation for a driver in this position is to be patient and get what you need.



Understanding Warp, Warp comes in many shapes and sizes and is a direct result of a poor connection and/or a machine that is not meeting the demands that online racing needs. When online racing your connection is sending and receiving packets to all of those that you are racing with. When your connection is unable to keep up with the sending and receiving then your car will wiggle severely and/or completely disappear. This can also be caused by excessively low frame rates on your system following the same principals. Drivers who warp frequently are not forgotten as they are a serious danger on the track. Don’t be disheartened if you are in this situation. I have been there myself as have many. Focus on fixing the problem rather then getting upset.



Ok, you have all of the equipment and the connection. The next thing you will need when racing online is the respect of your fellow racers. You have to realize that when you are racing online that you are racing real people that have emotions just as you have. You are not racing other cars on the track, you are racing other people. Though online racing is a game, many, myself included, take it very seriously. Poor decisions that take another person out of a race and/or determine the outcome of their race are remembered for a long time to come. Respect on the track is earned in many ways and can all be lost with one single poor decision. Keep this in mind and think all the time. You must also know that you are remaining within what ever rules that are in place. No one will have any respect for those who do not follow the rules. When racing in arenas, there really are no rules. This is what separates league racing from arena racing whether it be in TNT or any of the other leagues out there.



Try to avoid making mistakes. That may sound silly because no one sets out to make mistakes but if you find your self thinking about making mistakes, you will make less of them.  Be patient and let others make mistakes on the track, and always be ready to benifit from them. You will make mistakes from time to time never the less. When you do make a mistake that alters another drivers race and know that it was your fault, offer a quick and sincere apology for the incident. This goes a long way in maintaining respect and friendships in the racing community. Mistakes come in many forms from accidents to hitting the apron to hitting the wall. I am one of those drivers that will wait very patiently for a driver ahead to make a mistake before passing him aggressively. Make sure that you are focused on several cars ahead of you, not just the first one. Many times you can see a driver make a mistake and/or an accident happening several cars ahead. By staying alert will give you those valuable seconds to make evasive actions. 

                               

Finally, tips to be a better, more competitive racer. There are many things that go into being a more competitive racer. Notice that this is the sixth graph in this tutorial. First, Practice, Practice, and more Practice. If you are new to online racing, use the driver aids. This is strongly encouraged until you have a good feel of your race car. The best aid available is the best line. I still use this aid to this day. The other aids will not make you faster but will help you understand the limitations that online racing has. Second, don’t try to run every lap as fast as you can. The temptation is always there because there are those few that can master one or two of the fastest laps in a practice session. These guys are not practicing race trim, they are either practicing for qualifying or just trying to impress others by showing that they can run a fast lap. Trust me, rarely can one of these drivers back up their practice speeds under actual race conditions. There is a lot of strategy that goes into online racing. Many of the races that I have won came as a result of tire and fuel management.



Controlling your racecar is an art of its own. Many that are unfamiliar with racing think that all it's about is going fast and turning left. Those who are familiar have to giggle at this every time they hear it. It's just not that easy. Here is what you have to work with. A steering wheel, a throttle, and a brakes. You do as much steering with the throttle and brakes as you do with the steering wheel. Learning this will make you a better racer. The key is to have as much of your braking and throttling done with your steering wheel pointed straight. This is much more important under braking for two reasons. #1, when your on the brakes, the cars weight has been shifted to the front which will usually cause what is called a push or a tight condition. #2, it is very hard on your front tires to brake and steer at the same time. Too much throttle with the steering wheel turned will usually cause just the opposite effect. When you are on the throttle the weight is shifted to the rear. Usually this will cause what is called a loose condition and force a counter steer to keep from spinning the car. Other times, depending on how your car is handling it will make it tight. When exiting a corner get your steering wheel straight as soon as possible and feather the throttle to control your exit. Usually the fastest way around a track is running in as straight of a line as possible letting the car stay free. One other tip on this subject, You will run faster lap times by exiting a corner fast then you will by entering it too fast.



What is tight and loose? These are terms heard quit often to describe how a racecar is handling. A tight racecar will have a bad push meaning you turn the wheel and the car still wants to go straight because of a loss of traction on the front tires. This could be due to a poor setup and/or diving the car harder then it is capable of. If it is due to a poor setup, try to run a lower line around the track and brake a little sooner entering a corner. This will usually help the situation but not always. Loose is just the opposite. It is where the rear tires loose traction and you have to counter steer to keep from spinning out. This condition is usually the worst exiting a corner when you are on the trottle. Once again it could be from a poor setup and/or over driving. If you have a loose condition try running a higher line and squeezing into the trottle and it should help with the situation. If you are loose on entry to the corner, slow down a little sooner and enter the corner in a higher line. The more you turn the steering wheel when you are loose, the worse the loose condition will be.



There is a lot of strategy that goes into online racing. Many of the races that I have won came as a result of tire and fuel management. Fuel is the easiest thing to manage in a race. You have a certain amount and use as much as push your throttle. Rarely will the first or second place drivers in a race concern themselves with fuel mileage. Typically their first concern is staying in the position that they are in and they will run as hard as they need to in order to stay there. Notice that I said as hard as they need to... More then likely they are not the leaders by accident and once there, will only race as hard as they are pushed. Getting back on the topic of fuel conservation, this comes in a couple of different ways. The easiest way is under caution. Run around the track in the lowest gear possible to maintain pace speed with as little throttle as possible. Under green, you will be surprised at how letting off a half a second early going into a corner or squeezing into the throttle a half of a second later coming off of a corner will save you fuel. Constantly knowing how many pit stops you will have to make to have enough fuel to make it to the end of the race is a major advantage. Three of my most memorable victories have come by having that extra half lap of fuel.



Guess what, when you save fuel you are also saving tires. Tire management is ever so important to online racing. He who has the best tires at the end of a fuel run will be faster no matter what the skill level of the driver. When you are trying to run down the leader remember, He is only running as hard as he has to in order to maintain the lead. Tire management is easy as well. Not as easy as fuel management as you have to really pay much closer attention to this. There are several signs when you are abusing your tires. First and most obvious is how you turn your steering wheel. If you are hard to the left on your wheel entering the corner and have to turn it back to the right on the exit of the turn then you are over driving your tires. Listening is the best key here. If your tires are squealing through a corner you are damaging them. If you listen closely there are two distinctive noises that your tires make in a corner. One is a squeal and the other is more of a growl. Don’t underestimate a growl, it is doing nearly as much damage as a squeal. Tire wear is true to life and pushing cold tires is twice as hard on them then if they were hot.



Going slower is faster... We have all heard this before but what does it really mean. Here is my definition. We all know how fast we can go on any certain track. Does this mean that this is how fast you will approach each and every lap? Answer: NO. Run each and every lap as fast as you can saving fuel and tires along the way. This means going as fast as you can without growling your tires, breaking a half a second early and accelerating a half of a second later and doing the best you can to stay in touch with the leader. The fastest driver in a race rarely wins the race. The driver who completes the advertised distance in the least amount of time wins the race. That is just the way it is.



Pit stops win and loose races. If you are in a race where there are going to be green flag pit stops then you had better be prepared to make them. One little slip under a green flag pit stop can be the difference in winning and losing. Imagine how hard one second is to make up on the track and this should help you understand how precious seconds gained or lost on pit road can be.



As for actual driving online, I have attended two driving schools (high performance driving) in my lifetime. I have never driven a real race car but truly feel that racing Nascar 2003 is about as close as it can get to being true to life. I have applied what I have learned from the driving schools that I have attended, the best thing that I have learned is to be smooth. Act as though there was a wine glass glued to your dashboard half filled with water. Drive your car in a manner that does not spill the water from the glass. It is ok for the water to sway a little but if it spills then you have made a mistake that has cost you time on the track. Fill your wine glass at the beginning of the race and if you have no spills by the end then you will have enjoyed a very nice finish. I live by this rule and always will.



Thank you for taking the time to read this. Hopefully it has been of some benefit. If you have any input that might make this page more informative then please, Email me.
Weclome to TNT Racings tutorial page
Below is a short tutorial to help some of those that are new to online racing have a better understanding of it and a refresher for some that have been racing for a while but still have a hard time being competitive.
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