Is the lure of the oval race series’ in iRacing proving too great? Does achieving supremacy at the fabled Daytona 500 sound like something you’d want to add to your virtual trophy cabinet? Then the Advanced Legends Racing Series may be the ideal place to develop your oval racing skills.
Using the small but mighty Legends machine, the series provides close and cut-throat racing on a mixture of free and paid short-track ovals and road courses available within the simulation. Real-life oval racers cut their teeth on the short tracks of the United States, and the Legends Series allows you to follow in their footsteps.
This article will outline everything you need to know about the Advanced Legends Cup.
The Car
The Advanced Legends Car is an enhanced version of the machine used in the Rookie Legends Cup. It uses the same 122 hp Yamaha engine as the rookie vehicle, though it doesn’t feature a limiter to prevent speeds from getting too high for inexperienced pilots. The Legends car body is a ⅝ scale 1934 Ford Coupe, though the fibreglass construction is as modern as they come.
An adjustable tube-frame chassis resides underneath the classically styled body, the two marrying together to complete the 1,300-pound racer. This low weight, combined with the 1250cc motor, results in a nippy little car that promotes close racing between all competitors.
Using the Yamaha bike engine and transmission means the car is cheap and easy to maintain, making it the ideal training tool for up-and-coming oval stars.
Race Series Format
The Advanced Legends Cup is run in a single-driver format, with races that take around 30 minutes to complete.
The grid for the race will be decided by one of iRacing’s five-minute qualifying outings that allow a total of two flying laps to be set. A brief three-minute practice session precedes this to get your head in the game.
Each race will be set to realistic weather, though due to wet weather races not being allowed to run on ovals, the track will always be run dry with realistic temperatures and cloud cover. A small tab allows you to view the forecast before you enter, so you’ll know what to expect before you hit the circuit.
- Races run across 30 minutes
- Each features a three-minute practice and five-minute qualifying run, with two flying laps afforded to each driver
- Every session is set to a realistic weather forecast, without rain
Need Setups For The Series?
Get your professional setups for the Advanced Legends today, along with every other setup Coach Dave Academy offers as part of the Delta subscription.
Thanks to our partnership with Team 53, we bring you setups for 5 popular short oval series every week to include:
- Qualifying setups
- Race setups
- Lap Guides
- Created by short track specialists Team 53
What License Is Needed To Race
The open-setup Advanced Legends Series fixture requires each racer to have a C-Class oval racing license to participate.
The path to reaching C is pretty straightforward, with the Rookie Advanced Legends series and the Rookie Street Stock series providing plenty of opportunities to build up your safety rating to D.
From there, competing in the Open or Fixed Setup SK Modified, Fixed Setup ARCA Menards, CARS Late Model Stock, or SRX series’ will allow you the mileage needed to achieve C ranking.
It can be trickier to build SR on short tracks than in road racing due to the tight tracks and lethargic cars, so giving up spots may be needed to build SR quickly to reach the higher series.
Series Costing
Due to the C-Class Legends Cup being the advanced version of the fixture, the calendar features a mix of paid and free circuits. The 2024 Season 1 schedule features a total of five paid venues, with the other seven tracks on the 12-round calendar being free.
This adds up to around $70 with VAT, though you don’t need to purchase the Legends car as it is included within the base iRacing membership. Buying between three and five pieces of content also grants you a 10% discount, so the final cost would be around $63.
Only eight rounds need to be partaken in to receive iRacing credits at the end of the season, so this is a good option should you not want to purchase tracks every week.
What’s So Special?
The Advanced Legends Cup is ideal for teaching you the basics of short-track oval racing with fun, driveable machinery. Being able to nail the fundamentals of how to exceed on short ovals is key before moving up into the heavier, higher-powered machines on the tiny layouts.
Due to the short nature of the vast majority of the circuits, and the ever-present danger of being lapped by the leaders, faster cars behind won’t waste time looking for a way past. This results in the racing being frenetic, and if you’re not moving forward you’ll quickly find yourself going backward.
You’ll need to box clever and work out whether letting a faster car by would be better for your race and perhaps pass them back later when the opportunity arises. Full-course cautions will give you the chance to either close into the leaders or get a lap back via the lucky dog rule, though you’ll need to be the highest-classified car a lap down to get the helping hand.
- If you want to practice your racecraft at the forefront of any oval race you enter, why not bolt on a Team 53 setup worked on for the Advanced Legends machine through Coach Dave Academy and short-track experts Team 53’s expert engineers.
Saving Tires Effectively Comes With Big Rewards
With oval racing circuits more often than not anti-clockwise, you’ll always be turning left. This puts a huge amount of pressure on the front right tire, so if you don’t preserve it effectively, your race could take a turn for the worse in the closing stages.
Being able to achieve a strong lap speed while saving the front-right tire is the key to securing a strong result. Should you achieve this, you’ll find those blazing off in the early laps coming back to you later as their front-right cries enough.
- Get braking done before turn-in to prevent extra energy from being put into the front right tire on corner entry and mid
- Use as little steering angle as possible while turning to prevent front sliding, which increases tire temperature and accelerates wear
- Open steering as early as possible and use all the track to reduce overall energy put on the tire, helping to preserve grip for longer
- Adjusting staggers or adjusting the right rear shock collar offset can help take pressure off the front right.
To Summarise
The Advanced Legends Cup series is a great training arena for budding oval racers to continue sharpening their skills. The lessons learned preserving tires in this fixture will prove critical while moving up the food chain, with heavier machines like NASCAR Trucks and NASCAR Xfinity proving an even sterner challenge in this area.
The added experience of running short tracks also helps when trying these venues in faster cars.
- Also, remember to download the Coach Dave Delta app today to access the full range of setups to fight for supremacy whenever you hit the track!
