About the game and our leagues:
Welcome to the next generation of Short Oval Racing! Sim-Stox is about as real as it gets to racing the real-life short ovals for those of us with little time, lack of budget, or not enough bravery to race the real things. You could say the only two experiences missing are the smell of burning rubber and being winded...when another car hits you hard from behind! For those of you who are new to Racing Simulations or Online League's, below is a complete introduction to get you up and running.
Your Computer:
To race at Sim-Stox you will first need to make a quick assesment that your computer is up to standard. As a rough guide, a PC or Laptop which is less than 5 years old, with 1GB RAM, and a Video/Graphics Card is recommended. If you have played any modern game with good graphics on your computer you will have a general idea if it works ok. A latest PC with a good additional Graphics Card (such as the GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon 4850) will handle the game smoothly with maximum graphic settings no problem. A typical medium to high quality card will cost between £50 - £100 on the high street, although cheaper one's will also enable you to race efficiently. A computer costing in excess of £500 within the last 12 months should be up to a high standard.
Other equipment:
A gamepad can be used, but for ten times more enjoyment and twice as much control, a Racing Wheel and Pedal set is recommended. Good examples are the Logitech Momo, or if you have more brass than sense, go for the Alan Bennett of wheels, the Logitech G25. Please Note However: The rule for 2010 is that all F1 and F2 drivers must use a wheel. Typical cost of a wheel/pedal kit is from as little as £10 second hand, up to £150 for a brand new top spec model.
The Software:
First you will need to install the main game, a very popular car racing simulation called rFactor. The quickest way is to get it is to download from HERE and is £25 to purchase. We also now have available and more cost effective way in our Online Shop and this includes the game, as well as the mods and tracks to get you up and running. To race online for a whole season is £6 to part-cover our server equipment costs. From here on however, there is no additional costs. The formulas, tracks, downloads our services, and prizes are all provided for free! We also use the mIRC chat program to give information out in between races on race night. There is more information about this on the forum.
Adding The Formulas:
Once you have unlocked your rFactor, all of the series and tracks used by Sim-Stox league are available to paid members in our download section. The F1 and F2 Stockcar mods and a few tracks are also available from www.rfactorcentral.com where you will have to register. Also as mentioned above you can purchase the disk from out Online Shop containing one easy install file which will install all the tracks and formula's in one go.
Click on the formula(s) which interest you to go to the download page of each mod:
F1 Stockcars
F2 Stockcars
National Hot Rods
The Saloon Stox and Bangers are available to download only for paid members or from the Online Shop
In addition, we now have a fantastic growing list of pretty much every major UK short oval track including; Arena Essex, Baarlo, Barford, Belle Vue, Birmingham, Birmingham NEC Arena, Bradford, Bristol, Buxton, Coventry, Crimond, Cowdenbeath, Ipswich, Hednesford, King's Lynn, Knockhill, Onchan, Mildenhall, Northampton, Nutts Corner, Scunthorpe, Sexbierum, Sheffield, Skegness, Standlake, Ter Apel, Wimbledon. All these tracks, are available as installers from the Downloads Tab. We will also use various US ovals and British circuits for the NASCAR, Circuit and Rallycross Cars.
Getting Started
The first things you should do are to join both our Portal (Homepage) and the Forum. You do need to register for each, but its recommended to use the same name and password for ease of rememberence. A member of Sim-Stox admin will activate your account. Take a look around the site and forum, read through the Formula Rules and look for the mIRC thread on the forum about setting up the chat program for the meetings. If you wish to race online or have full access to our downloads and services then on the left hand side of this screen you will see the you can become a full paid member. The annual cost is just £6. This will also allow you to race online and join in with any of our leagues. You are required to book in for each meeting you wish to attend so that the grids can be pre-arranged.
Setting up your in-game profile:
When you first start the game, you will need to enter your profile name. This should be your name followed by your race number (you can always delete this or create multiple profile names). You do not need to enter your nationality or date year.
You are now asked to choose your mod from the installed mods. For example, the F1 Stockcars League is used for online racing.
Setting up your game:
The next thing you should look at is the Game Settings which is located by clicking the spanner/customize. You should initially setup your PC as pictured below (see Stockcar Setup Procedure for further info). You should also look at Controls and configure your Wheel or Gamepad to your personal preference. By clicking Difficulty the offline race settings can be changed such as race laps, race time (day/night) AI strength/aggresion. You should start by how you mean to continue and TURN OFF all drivers aids, with the exception of auto-clutch.
Choosing your vehicle:
From Settings you will proceed to choosing your vehicle. For example, if you have the Sim-Stox skinpack installed from our Downloads, click on Sim-Stox (Novice Tarmac) select a car from the list, then click Buy Car. You need to do this to use a car. You can also take a look at the Upgrades tab and have a play with different options on most vehicles. (Once you have your own skin painted, clicking the Skins tab will give you a choice of different roof grades)
Selecting a Track:
You can now move onto the steering wheel/control on the menu and click Testing or Race Weekend. You can now choose from all of your installed tracks. Clicking the opponents tab will let you choose a particular group of opponents, ie Shale or Tarmac. Clicking Load circuit will take you to the track, which I will explain further down.
Joining the server:
Now we can take a look a the arrows/connect menu and click Join. An Internet update & search will then begin to find all available servers. You can search by Game Name (www.sim-stox.co.uk) or Race Series (F1 Stockcars) and look for the Sim-Stox, BAT or GRC servers. You will normally find the servers freely available for practise through the week and often find other members practising. During a meeting the server will require a password to access. You need to check the forum for the latest Password. You can also click '+' and enter the IP address manually in case it doesnt show on the list. The IP address for each meeting is shown on the forum just before the meeting, so it may be worth making a note of just in case. By clicking Settings tab as shown below, you can see the status of the server. If it is in 'Race' you will have to wait until the race has finished before you can join.
Loading the Track/On-line Practise:
-Click 'Load Game' from the above screen
Assuming you have the Track & Skinpacks installed, this will now load onto the track the server is set on and should now be showing the monitor screen. At the top there are some tabs, the far right is the Control Configuration Settings like you saw in the Settings tab earlier, clicking Garage will bring you to your Car Setup, which we will look at further below. Next in the main box is the cars and their race positions or fastest lap positions. By right clicking on a driver, will show you all their lap/sector times. In the bottom left is the Chat/Message screen, by clicking the black Chat box you can chat back to racers. The bottom right screen has a view of the track or cars, you can click on this to make it bigger. Also see the names ontop of the drivers cars. This can be toggled on & off by pressing the Tab key.
Garage and Car Setups Folders:
The Garage Tab will bring up the screen shown below. Detailed information on setting up a car for the short ovals can be found HERE. Once you have tweaked your setup, you can save it. It will save to the track name folder shown in the left screen (in Windows all your settings are found in your userdata folder C:\Program Files\rFactor\UserData - I recommend you backup from time to time). You can also drag the setup into another folder, or load for example, Hednesford setup and use or modify for Skegness, then resave/copy in the Skegness folder.
View when inCar & onTrack:
Finally I will move onto what you will see when you click Race.
Looking at the screenshot above, i think most of it is self explanatory. You can press 1, 2, or 3 to toggle the HUD diplays on or off. The insert/home/pageup set of keys will switch camera's around. Pressing the Return key, will switch the views/data/info on your 'LCD' display panel. Pressing 'T' will bring up a chat box for you to type into while on track. During a Race this should ONLY be used to let the admin know of any problems before the start of the race.
Pressing "page up" on your keyboard will toggle the elevated swingman view from above the car. You can now use the number keypad to move around this view (shown below) Handy when taking a look at your car :-)
Last screenshot is the bonnet cam view. This view may suit some but can be harder to judge when your back is loose. A better view is the in-car view as you are sat close to the centre of the car's natural axis. Note for the mirrors in this view you will need to switch them on in the menu display screen or press the number '3'
Now you should have an idea of the basics, you can start practising online and setting the car up. The meeting procedures can be found in the rules section and I will write a further 'advanced guide' sometime soon.
Happy Racing!
Welcome to the next generation of Short Oval Racing! Sim-Stox is about as real as it gets to racing the real-life short ovals for those of us with little time, lack of budget, or not enough bravery to race the real things. You could say the only two experiences missing are the smell of burning rubber and being winded...when another car hits you hard from behind! For those of you who are new to Racing Simulations or Online League's, below is a complete introduction to get you up and running.
Your Computer:
To race at Sim-Stox you will first need to make a quick assesment that your computer is up to standard. As a rough guide, a PC or Laptop which is less than 5 years old, with 1GB RAM, and a Video/Graphics Card is recommended. If you have played any modern game with good graphics on your computer you will have a general idea if it works ok. A latest PC with a good additional Graphics Card (such as the GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon 4850) will handle the game smoothly with maximum graphic settings no problem. A typical medium to high quality card will cost between £50 - £100 on the high street, although cheaper one's will also enable you to race efficiently. A computer costing in excess of £500 within the last 12 months should be up to a high standard.
Other equipment:
A gamepad can be used, but for ten times more enjoyment and twice as much control, a Racing Wheel and Pedal set is recommended. Good examples are the Logitech Momo, or if you have more brass than sense, go for the Alan Bennett of wheels, the Logitech G25. Please Note However: The rule for 2010 is that all F1 and F2 drivers must use a wheel. Typical cost of a wheel/pedal kit is from as little as £10 second hand, up to £150 for a brand new top spec model.
The Software:
First you will need to install the main game, a very popular car racing simulation called rFactor. The quickest way is to get it is to download from HERE and is £25 to purchase. We also now have available and more cost effective way in our Online Shop and this includes the game, as well as the mods and tracks to get you up and running. To race online for a whole season is £6 to part-cover our server equipment costs. From here on however, there is no additional costs. The formulas, tracks, downloads our services, and prizes are all provided for free! We also use the mIRC chat program to give information out in between races on race night. There is more information about this on the forum.
Adding The Formulas:
Once you have unlocked your rFactor, all of the series and tracks used by Sim-Stox league are available to paid members in our download section. The F1 and F2 Stockcar mods and a few tracks are also available from www.rfactorcentral.com where you will have to register. Also as mentioned above you can purchase the disk from out Online Shop containing one easy install file which will install all the tracks and formula's in one go.
Click on the formula(s) which interest you to go to the download page of each mod:
F1 Stockcars
F2 Stockcars
National Hot Rods
The Saloon Stox and Bangers are available to download only for paid members or from the Online Shop
In addition, we now have a fantastic growing list of pretty much every major UK short oval track including; Arena Essex, Baarlo, Barford, Belle Vue, Birmingham, Birmingham NEC Arena, Bradford, Bristol, Buxton, Coventry, Crimond, Cowdenbeath, Ipswich, Hednesford, King's Lynn, Knockhill, Onchan, Mildenhall, Northampton, Nutts Corner, Scunthorpe, Sexbierum, Sheffield, Skegness, Standlake, Ter Apel, Wimbledon. All these tracks, are available as installers from the Downloads Tab. We will also use various US ovals and British circuits for the NASCAR, Circuit and Rallycross Cars.
Getting Started
The first things you should do are to join both our Portal (Homepage) and the Forum. You do need to register for each, but its recommended to use the same name and password for ease of rememberence. A member of Sim-Stox admin will activate your account. Take a look around the site and forum, read through the Formula Rules and look for the mIRC thread on the forum about setting up the chat program for the meetings. If you wish to race online or have full access to our downloads and services then on the left hand side of this screen you will see the you can become a full paid member. The annual cost is just £6. This will also allow you to race online and join in with any of our leagues. You are required to book in for each meeting you wish to attend so that the grids can be pre-arranged.
Setting up your in-game profile:
When you first start the game, you will need to enter your profile name. This should be your name followed by your race number (you can always delete this or create multiple profile names). You do not need to enter your nationality or date year.
You are now asked to choose your mod from the installed mods. For example, the F1 Stockcars League is used for online racing.
Setting up your game:
The next thing you should look at is the Game Settings which is located by clicking the spanner/customize. You should initially setup your PC as pictured below (see Stockcar Setup Procedure for further info). You should also look at Controls and configure your Wheel or Gamepad to your personal preference. By clicking Difficulty the offline race settings can be changed such as race laps, race time (day/night) AI strength/aggresion. You should start by how you mean to continue and TURN OFF all drivers aids, with the exception of auto-clutch.
Choosing your vehicle:
From Settings you will proceed to choosing your vehicle. For example, if you have the Sim-Stox skinpack installed from our Downloads, click on Sim-Stox (Novice Tarmac) select a car from the list, then click Buy Car. You need to do this to use a car. You can also take a look at the Upgrades tab and have a play with different options on most vehicles. (Once you have your own skin painted, clicking the Skins tab will give you a choice of different roof grades)
Selecting a Track:
You can now move onto the steering wheel/control on the menu and click Testing or Race Weekend. You can now choose from all of your installed tracks. Clicking the opponents tab will let you choose a particular group of opponents, ie Shale or Tarmac. Clicking Load circuit will take you to the track, which I will explain further down.
Joining the server:
Now we can take a look a the arrows/connect menu and click Join. An Internet update & search will then begin to find all available servers. You can search by Game Name (www.sim-stox.co.uk) or Race Series (F1 Stockcars) and look for the Sim-Stox, BAT or GRC servers. You will normally find the servers freely available for practise through the week and often find other members practising. During a meeting the server will require a password to access. You need to check the forum for the latest Password. You can also click '+' and enter the IP address manually in case it doesnt show on the list. The IP address for each meeting is shown on the forum just before the meeting, so it may be worth making a note of just in case. By clicking Settings tab as shown below, you can see the status of the server. If it is in 'Race' you will have to wait until the race has finished before you can join.
Loading the Track/On-line Practise:
-Click 'Load Game' from the above screen
Assuming you have the Track & Skinpacks installed, this will now load onto the track the server is set on and should now be showing the monitor screen. At the top there are some tabs, the far right is the Control Configuration Settings like you saw in the Settings tab earlier, clicking Garage will bring you to your Car Setup, which we will look at further below. Next in the main box is the cars and their race positions or fastest lap positions. By right clicking on a driver, will show you all their lap/sector times. In the bottom left is the Chat/Message screen, by clicking the black Chat box you can chat back to racers. The bottom right screen has a view of the track or cars, you can click on this to make it bigger. Also see the names ontop of the drivers cars. This can be toggled on & off by pressing the Tab key.
Garage and Car Setups Folders:
The Garage Tab will bring up the screen shown below. Detailed information on setting up a car for the short ovals can be found HERE. Once you have tweaked your setup, you can save it. It will save to the track name folder shown in the left screen (in Windows all your settings are found in your userdata folder C:\Program Files\rFactor\UserData - I recommend you backup from time to time). You can also drag the setup into another folder, or load for example, Hednesford setup and use or modify for Skegness, then resave/copy in the Skegness folder.
View when inCar & onTrack:
Finally I will move onto what you will see when you click Race.
Looking at the screenshot above, i think most of it is self explanatory. You can press 1, 2, or 3 to toggle the HUD diplays on or off. The insert/home/pageup set of keys will switch camera's around. Pressing the Return key, will switch the views/data/info on your 'LCD' display panel. Pressing 'T' will bring up a chat box for you to type into while on track. During a Race this should ONLY be used to let the admin know of any problems before the start of the race.
Pressing "page up" on your keyboard will toggle the elevated swingman view from above the car. You can now use the number keypad to move around this view (shown below) Handy when taking a look at your car :-)
Last screenshot is the bonnet cam view. This view may suit some but can be harder to judge when your back is loose. A better view is the in-car view as you are sat close to the centre of the car's natural axis. Note for the mirrors in this view you will need to switch them on in the menu display screen or press the number '3'
Now you should have an idea of the basics, you can start practising online and setting the car up. The meeting procedures can be found in the rules section and I will write a further 'advanced guide' sometime soon.
Happy Racing!
Click here to view live worldwide sim racing 
