How To Be A Spotter In iRacing

Did you know you can also be a spotter for another driver in iRacing? We'll show you how!
If you would like to contact C² Racing, we can be reached on social media at the following:
Facebook: @C2RacingTeam
Instagram: @c2_racing_team, @jasoncamps
Twitter: @jasoncamps

[@ReverendHogwash]

Sad thing about Iracing, pay all that money and have to race people who think its Mario karts.

[@jasoncamps77]

But when you get with a group that really knows what they're doing, it's so much fun.

[@togwilson]

You get a few bad ones but for the most part it all good racing, either oval or road

[@8-ball916]

@@togwilson yeah and the bad apples are like “I’m a professional iracer” And I’m like “just shut up, your a brat 12 year old who spends mommy’s money to ruin other people’s legitimate Iracing careers”

[@JurOz1980]

Maybe at your level😳. I think its the game where there best racing takes place. And i tried them all

[@kal573]

What kind of advantages are there to having a human spotter instead of an AI spotter? My friends play and asked me if I'd like to spot. From what I've seen it helps with information control.

[@jasoncamps77]

Great question! The iRacing spotter is okay, but it won't anticipate a car looking to make a move, or warn about a car ahead that might be having problems. A human spotter can keep a driver apprised of race condition, fuel status, strategy changes, other car's position and pit status, etc. Essentially, a real spotter can just relay a lot more information and keep the driver from having to monitor the black boxes in the car which takes focus off the track. In crew chief mode, the spotter can also handle pit stop settings and other adjustments so the driver doesn't have to. They can also be there to keep a driver calm if something goes wrong and visually inspect the car for damage if there's contact. Some of the third-party AI options aren't bad, but nothing beats an actual person who can listen, respond, and anticipate.

[@kal573]

@@jasoncamps77 Thank you for your insight. I ended up subscribing after watching my friends stream a few races. I'm looking forward to the laps to come!

[@LPF346ENG]

4:16 - 4:35 Poor Kristian. Barely been half a minute since he was told about the video and he already gets smacked. xD Awesome presentation. Race looked pretty tense.

[@evanpiscitelli53]

Bro i can't get over that car flying through the air at 4:35 and how no one talks about it

[@jasoncamps77]

I think this was before the improved damage model was implemented, so we were pretty used to seeing that kinda stuff.

[@firstwaswhen]

Yeah it cracked me up. Just out of nowhere flies across screen

[@raplottrpj]

One thing I've noticed is that it's hard to spot bc the timing is off. When he says at the finish line now I still see him about 5 car links back from it on my end

[@jasoncamps77]

Yeah, a small amount of lag is not unusual, and it's a good idea to figure that out during warmups so that the delay can be accounted for during the race. If the delay is severe, it can be a real challenge.

[@barrybates4651]

Make sure you click the "Live" button on your camera controls

[@raplottrpj]

@@barrybates4651 yeah I do but if you try to spot you'll see what I'm saying

[@barrybates4651]

@@raplottrpj I spot all the time for friends, in all kinds of racing including the recent 24 Hrs of Daytona and never had a problem, using multiple cams around the track and front and rear chase, as long as I clicked Live with each cam change. At ovals I'll take the 'Roll Bar' cam and pull it out of the car and put it parallel to the car with a slight elevation and then play with the zoom and FOV until I get a good view ahead and 4 or 5 car lengths behind. Chase cams are pulled back and elevated so I can see at least one car length behind and way out front (front chase is 1/2 car ahead, elevated). I also take one of the pit cams and move it to the pit exit blend line. Maybe we've been lucky and have minimal lag time, but no complaints from the drivers so far.

[@renelannte]

Make sure to click on „Start spotting“ on the top when you’re in the session. This disables the iRacing spotter and puts the person spotting into true live broadcast, as it removes the tiny delay that normal spectators have. Yes, even „LIVE“ mode has a delay- only way to get rid of that delay is the Start spotting function.

[@e.h.5655]

If someone wanted to spot, but didn't know anyone that does iracing, what's the best way for them to start?

[@Drnken229]

Find someone that does iRacing.. theres plenty of reddits, forums and discords.

[@e.h.5655]

@@Drnken229 thank you!

[@thlee3]

nascar noob here … do the spotters have real time telemetry into their HUD in their binoculars??

[@closetsimracer]

How do you bring up the relative black boxes ? Good demo

[@jasoncamps77]

We appreciate the feedback. The black boxes are controller with the function keys by default, but they can be remapped to any key or joystick button by going into "options" and "controls" once you're in the simulator.

[@jimm4867]

Press F10. Took me 2 days to work this out.

[@eliteangler]

Can you do a vid on how to run his pit stops? As in set what tires to change, how much fuel to add, etc. Good video!

[@jasoncamps77]

We can maybe do a video on overall race strategy at some point in the future. Don't want to give away too many secrets, though!

[@eliteangler]

@@jasoncamps77 I meant how to access the black box and control it (as a spotter/crew chief)while the other person drives. I figured it out not too long after I watched this video. The idea you just came up with for a new video would good!

[@jwolfmunster6801]

really good job!

[@diobrando1764]

So no one's gonna talk about that yellow car at 4:32 that literally flew into Kristian XD)

[@jasoncamps77]

We're so used to that stuff at this point that we barely notice. Given that Kristian didn't attempt to dodge at all, it might've been netcode. Kristian isn't that brave! LOL

[@chrismsimracing]

When I spectate or spot my camera moves from car to car automatically which makes it impossible to spot - how to I make the camera stay on one car only

[@jasoncamps77]

My guess would be that you have the camera set to track something other than a specific car. There are settings for "focus on leader", "focus on crashes", and "most exciting". These will constantly chance the focus car depending on various conditions. I recommend reading over the iRacing camera controls help website at support.iracing.com/support/solutions/articles/31000157467-iracing-camera-tool. The section under "Director Mode" discusses the settings I'm referring to.

[@scottmcqueen3964]

Why would you bother with the car high car low calls? The delay you experience as a spotter means they are damn near useless to the driver lol.

[@jasoncamps77]

We would determine how much lag we had before the race. If I needed to, I could try to anticipate the moves to account for it, but often, the lag was pretty manageable. I'll admit, though, that there were occasions when it was so bad that spotting effectively was very difficult.

[@christoforospaphitis4090]

you can save your settings and rename them

[@jasoncamps77]

That is true, but we often find that the same settings often aren't optimal at every track or every race situation. Sometimes we even change view settings during a race as track position changes.

[@christoforospaphitis4090]

@@jasoncamps77 mmm try keeping ctrl f12 open as it will allow you to change angles manually. That being said it's hard work

[@overdaedgebroadcasting2220]

Anyone need a spotter, Let me know I'll help you. Also is there any spotter cam presets?

[@zebra5591]

I got I erasing to try to get more realism racing. A little that I know I can't even run the NASCAR series without having to buy everything

[@ket451]

You can start with trucks I s'pose, that's what I'll be doing myself as I got it a few days ago for a month (then immediately got sick)

[@useyourgermx]

Do you get paid to spot?

[@domettrw3476]

is possible to spectate a IA race and change their name?

[@jasoncamps77]

I've never tried spectating an AI race, but I doubt you'd ever be able to change any other driver's (real or AI) information. My guess is that an AI race needs to have at least one real driver in the session, but you might be able to just park the car and watch the AI cars finish the race.

[@domettrw3476]

@@jasoncamps77 thank you

[@FunkyApache8]

Can someone spot who doesnt have a subscription