Increasing your iRacing safety rating (SR) is an integral part of the hugely popular sim racing platform. Whether it’s racing on the Nurburgring or at Talladega, having a high SR has the ability to place you in higher splits alongside cementing your reputation as a virtual racer that is capable of racing wheel-to-wheel without incident.
For newcomers to the sim, building SR and escaping rookies as fast as possible allows you to take part in the most popular series, ranging from the iRacing NASCAR Series to the multi-class IMSA competitions. There are several methods that help increase SR quickly, and we’ve got all the information right here.
iRacing Safety Rating, Explained
iRacing safety rating is the number of incident points you receive over the course of a session.
SR is tracked across sports cars, single-seaters, oval, dirt road, and dirt oval with the number beginning at zero and going up to 4.99. After a race session has ended, the increase or decrease in SR is shown at the right-hand side of the screen.
SR is determined by the number of incident points received during a session, the number of corners turned, and the type of session.
For example, the value of an incident recorded during a practice session has a lower multiplier than a crash that takes place during the middle of a race.
Drivers increase their SR by clean driving and recording the fewest number of incident points in a race. Ending a race with no incident points results in the biggest chance of earning an increase.
Driving a race with a high amount will result in an SR decrease. Hit the limit of incident points during a race, and you’ll receive a disqualification, which is far from ideal when looking to earn a high SR.
How To Increase iRacing Safety Rating
Before going into more detail, focusing on these areas will ensure your safety rating increases quickly:
- Staying on-track.
- Avoid contact with other cars.
- Stay in control of the car.
Keep Off The Grass
Track limits are a huge factor when it comes to scoring incident points in iRacing. Depending on the circuit, it’s very easy to accumulate several 1x penalties by straying too far off the racing surface.
To avoid running onto the grass or into the wall, try and stick to the racing line. In licenses with a lower license needed to enter, you can switch the racing line on as a reference to position the car perfectly. For events where the racing line is disabled, jump into a practice session and get familiar with the layout.
Stay Out Of Trouble
Dodging a multi-car wreck in iRacing is incredibly satisfying. Avoiding contact with other cars is crucial when looking to increase and maintain a high safety rating across all of the sim’s disciplines.
For road, taking evasive action can lead to scoring a 1x, but having one incident point instead of four or a situation where you fail to finish is much better. In oval races, dodging a wreck is much more difficult. In most cases, cars will head up the track towards the outside wall, so your best bet to stay in the race is to go low when trouble arises.
In addition to keeping all four wheels on the track and on the car, building a strong run of races without issue will see the SR number soar.
How To Earn iRacing License Promotion
Earning a license promotion in iRacing allows you to take part in the next set of races. In total, there are seven licenses to earn:
- Rookie
- D
- C
- B
- A
- Pro
- Pro WC
To progress, you’ll need to meet a specific list of criteria. The first is finishing a season with an SR of 3.00 or above, and the second is completing the minimum participation requirement. In most scenarios, this requires completing at least four races during a season.
If you want to jump into the next license as fast as possible, earning an SR of 4.00 will be an instant promotion, allowing you to participate in the next tier of races quickly.
