Short(ish) answers to your most burning F499 questions.
Q: What the heck is F4.99? #
Only the biggest thing in iRacing since rain. We all know that iRacing encourages antisocial behavior - divebombs, “punt to pass”, “netcode” collisions. Win or place at all costs. You are rewarded for good results on each race (+IR), while there are limited rewards for safe racing - there are only 6 license classes. Heck, you don’t even need a A Class license for open wheelers - there are very few series that even require it!
Rather than sacrifice SR for IR (what most of us do on the regular) the innovation of F4.99 is to prioritize safety and good racing hygiene. We want to be better racing drivers, not just drivers with large collections of fake internet points. We chose SR as our driving metric. Our goal is 4.99 SR.
Q: Yeah, but why F4.99? #
Good question. The idea to achieve 4.99 SR in the dangerous, shark-infested waters of the F4 series. What environment would be more challenging? The great name “F4.99 Challenge” just fit. F4 is a well populated series and provides ample opportunity to learn to race with sharks of all levels.
Q: Is this a gang or a club? #
Neither. Jokes aside: We are like minded racers living out our simdentist fantasy. We draw our inspiration from the best racers on the service. You have seen them: 10k 4.99 SR. They are not only fast but they race clean. These are the breathtakingly fast aliens that still have exemplary racecraft and respect for others on track. We will point out those drivers we see in the wild. We will also try to make it fun using GIFs from the Big Lebowski or Magnum PI on discord. You’ll find us referring to “sim dentistry” as another often mentioned reference to good racing hygiene. We want to lift up the safe a clean driver, not just the fastest one in the split, while encouraging and supporting others that share our values.
Q: Wait, sim dentist? #
We are all living out our rich dentist fantasy™ with these pretend race cars. The gentleman dentist driver was/is much maligned by the iRacing peanut gallery. Mistakes have been made by IRL LMP3 drivers. We are just taking the badge back for all of us sim dentistry enthusiasts. The pursuit of safe, clean racing even at the expense of a higher result is the ultimate in good racing hygiene. What better connection than to our hero, the dentist, who always tells you to floss? You know you should. You feel better when you do.
Q: How do I get started? #
Race! and race clean. You might be interested in our racing hierarchy of needs:
Q: What is the F499 Challenge? #
More to come on this. In short, for the past few seasons we have run a friendly challenge among our fellow sim dentists to see who can race clean. Armed with an algorithm that rewards safe driving and data from the iRacing API, we have put together as system that will show you your iRacing Road results enhanced with dentist points so you can compare your results with other drivers. This is our proprietary alternative to IR. If you want to track your races automatically through the season, you can sign up here: F499 Sign Up Form