Display & Audio Settings

I left mine as default except turning off the music. This is very dependant on your hardware so fiddle about to your hearts content.

Chose Customize (already selected) -> Vehicle.

In OW Challenge 2005, you start out with the rFactor Academy Racer. Click on Upgrades and buy the LCD unit by clicking Dashboard -> LCD Unit -> Buy Upgrade -> Install (done by default).
You don't have enough money yet to buy the Advanced School Package.

Second Finding!

When buying and installing the Advanced School Package, your car actually becomes a rFactor Advanced Racer, it just doesn't change it's "name" or description in the listings. Stupid!

Start Driving!

Chose Control -> Testing.
Pick a circuit and click load circuit (lower right corner).
Click settings (top right).

Optionally change Race Length Type to Laps and set to between 5 and 10 for a quick racing fix ;) No matter what you set here, the qualification is always 12 laps.

The Monitor view is fairly self-explanatory.

When driving you can access these views by clicking Esc. N.b. This also takes your car (back) to the pit.

In the Race Settings view you can restart your current race or even the whole event (if things are not going as well as you would like).

In the garage view i've only fiddled with the basic and setups settings.

In the setups view set Starting Fuel to the number of total laps and [b]Number of Stops[{b] to zero (if you changed the Race Lenght Type to a specific number of laps)

Third Tip!

Make sure you don't carry more fuel than you need, as a light car is a fast car.

Click Garage -> Basics.

I haven't gone further into tweaking my car than the Basics settings.
Depending on the track I've fiddled about with the following:

For oval curcuits I go for all Speed - Downforce all the way to the left and Gearing Bias all the way to the right.
No matter the curcuit I've always gone for 40-60% Oversteer (Balance slider somewhere to the left or right of the 2nd line toward Oversteer.
This is my preference and could be due to that I use a gamepad - but works for me.

Have tried understeering since I wrote this guide;

I've finally understood what the understeering vs overstering affects (I think).

In an effort to make your car less likely to spin, increase Understeering in Garage -> Basic.

The further you drag the slider toward Understering the less likely your car is to spin. In order to compensate your loss of cornering, you really need to reduce the speed before entering a turn.

Fiddle with the Understeering vs Oversteering till you feel that you can maintain control of the car and can pass a chicane without slowing down too much.

I prefer Acceleration (over Speed), Grip (over Speed) and Understeering (over Oversteering), atleast on circuits with a lot of turns and chicanes. I'm still talking about the Advanced Trainer car here.

When driving the non-F1-wannabe cars you probably want to be able to skid through turns and chicanes.

Don't really know how Soft or Stiff ride settings affect the preformance but for ovals I go for Stiff and curcuits with lots of turns and chicanes I go for Soft (right or wrong I don't know).

Click Race (lower right corner).

Fourth Tip!

If your Difficulty settings are set to Veteran - remember to disable Speed Limit when exiting the pit and entering the circuit.

Try out your car and be gentle on the controls, both steering, throttle and braking.

* Brake before upcoming turn. Don't brake and turn at the same time (as you will start spinning).
* You can see when it's time to slow down from the black skid marks on the ground.
* Don't brake too hard - be gentle. And remember to downshift.
* Depending on the sharpness of the turn I'm using 2nd or 3rd gear through the turn.
* When coming out of some turns you can really put your foot down on the throttle. For some sharper exits you need be smooth on the throttle till your car is going straight.
* Too much throttle at the wrong time will make your car spin.

When you feel that you start to have some control over throttle and brakes, and you can almost finish an entire lap without spinning off the circuit - press Escape to get back into the pit and tweak those Speed vs Grip, Acceleration vs Speed and Understeer vs Oversteer settings till you're feeling comfortable.

Click Race again to try out your settings.

When you're done, press Esc and Leave Track (top right).

First Racing Season

* Click Control -> Race Season -> rFactor Trainer Series.
* Click Continue (lower right).
* Change the Race Length Type to your preferred lenght. Keep the first season short, just to make enough money to buy the Advanced upgrade. I think I could afford it after one 5 lap season.
* Click Create Season (lower right).
* Click Next Race (lower right).
* Click Load Circuit (lower right).
* Click Garage and fix your settings and use the practice race till you feel comfortable with them. Race, crash, Esc out, tweak, practice race.

When finished tweaking and practicing it's time for the 12 lap qualification.

Select Monitor and click Next Session.
Click Race (lower right).

Third Finding!

According to the lap meter it seems that you need to prepare to enter pit when it reads 11/12. It could be me misinterpreting the lap meter? You will also get a note (text in blue frame, lower left corner) about entering the pit as soon as possible in order not to be penalized for driving too many laps. What makes me unsure, is that the game tells me to ease up before the lap meter reads 12/12.

After qualifying first (of course), press Esc and Next Session to start the race. Before I set difficulty settings to Veteran, I never qualified as 1st (rather 12th, ehem).

I have no idea yet how long it will take me to make those two million point one, it takes to buy one of the really fast cars.

Factors that determine your winnings:

* More AI opponents, more money.
* Higher AI difficulty, more money
* The higher the class of your opponents cars, the more money.

What doesn't count at all however, is the number of laps you run, 2 laps or 5 laps, you get the same winnings.

Conclusion

This is the guide I would have wanted when I first started. Hope you find it useful.

Happy racing!

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