Just poll ~

Edit 1: The last option means less than 30 min.
Edit 2: Sorry for not being specific. It's official-recorded league events or special races, not random drop-ins.

Depends on what kinda of race and how much time you have to prepare, i.e Do you have a set already, does it need tweaking, how long is the race, etc, etc.

Quote from garph :

Depends on what kinda of race and how much time you have to prepare, i.e Do you have a set already, does it need tweaking, how long is the race, etc, etc.

2x

Normally when I want to race I just pop over to the next public server with a combo I like, pic a car, pic a setup and that´s it. But If I ever would take part in a league or event of some sort, I surely would prepare for it maybe for 1-3 days.

Quote from garph :

Depends on what kinda of race and how much time you have to prepare, i.e Do you have a set already, does it need tweaking, how long is the race, etc, etc.

Indeed.

If it's a random public race there is no preparation at all.
If it's a league race it obviously is 1 day and longer.

Quote from zeugnimod :

Indeed.

If it's a random public race there is no preparation at all.
If it's a league race it obviously is 1 day and longer.

probably one of the reasons why i'm on backfield on league races, i usually hop in 5 minutes before race start...thats mostly about it

Depends on the event, but usually I just ask our resident setup guru Dadge for the setup he thinks is best for the combo and just go out and race it. It's definately less than 30 minutes though, I can usually get up to speed within 3 or 4 laps then slowly improve from there.

It depends on which race I am going to take part in. Me and my team mate spent 4 full days (i.e: not doing anything else) preparing for a Endurance race we had at LFSBR, then a day off from LFS to rest a bit and then went to the 5 hour endurance. For random public races, I just pop in there, pick a random setup and get to the track 2 seconds before the green light pops in. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not going to race seriously.

I think for the purposes of the poll we should assume that it means for a league race. Obviously no one (well... maybe a few outliers) prepares for a pickup race.

I always spend at least a few hours preparing for a league race, though spread out over a few days. Usually never longer than an hour at a time, so probably 3 sessions minimum. If the racing is really tight then I'll definitely spend more time trying to squeeze out every last bit of "skill" that I can so I don't run out of it in the race.

For standard drop-in racing on some random server I don't prepare for all. If it's speciall races or leagues, then I would prepare myself probally a week or two before the race, to make sure I knew every part of the track and controll it with the selected car.

Sorry for not being specific. It's official-recorded league events or special races, not random drop-ins.

I think I need more free time to join a league ......　

I completely gave up on doing days of practice for races. Whenever i did a load of preparation the races tended to go pretty badly.

These days for any competitive races i just do 30-60 mins driving before the race. I get much better results this way.

Usually a day or longer for me I aint no alien

MoE/IGTC/16hr: 2-3 weeks, with like an hour every other day. (haven't been on that routine lately though)

Everything else: night before.

I normally catch on to things the first 10 laps, so that's why normal leagues I don't practice hardly at all. In team events I practice alot with either setup making or adapting to a team-mates setup.

i always take a week or more of preparation/tweaking/testing just to be sure that i have a chance to win

for IGTC - a couple of hundred laps on the combo, tweaking setups and improving times, ca from 2 weeks to the race.
for other leagues - a day or two earlier, ca 2-3 hours, + the day before the race.
That also all depends on whats going on in real life :P

I always *intend* to spend at least the previous 2 days preparing setups and practicing, but I always end up not bothering, then on the night starting food late, rushing the cooking, rushing it down me and finally turning up with 5 minutes of qualifying left with no setup and horrifically out of practice.

And inevitably lose

I generally don't bother to practice for leagues, because 9 out of 10 times:

• My dinner is ready in the middle of the race
  
• I crash and become miles behind the field anyway
  
• My dad tells me to go and wash a car, because he has a customer coming at some obscure late at night time
  
• My brother moans at me wanting to go on the computer during or just before a league, to the point where I can't be bothered to argue and just sod off and do something else
  
• I can't really drive very well in LFS anyway, because I can't feel through my bum what the car is doing, and therefore I crash
  
• I have no chance of being competitive because everybody else practices for more hours than I have hours of free time in total.
  

Quote from The Moose :

I completely gave up on doing days of practice for races. Whenever i did a load of preparation the races tended to go pretty badly.

These days for any competitive races i just do an 30-60 mins driving before the race. I get much better results this way.

Exactly, this is actually working out for me2. Perhaps I can add a few short races (10 min. stints) the previous days, but not to push it, just to remember the track and that's it.

I used to prepare for the whole two weeks between GFC events but I had to make up for my lack of talent somehow. Most of that time was working on setup.

Most of the other guys I competed with would generally start preparing a week before the race. But then by that time I already had a pretty good set to give them.

Oh man, I don't even want to think how long I might take to prepare. I'm super competitive and I take racing so seriously.

I think it might be best for both me and my immediate family/friends that I don't join a league when I get my license and stick to pick ups. I'd probably be on there for hours each day for weeks practicing and tuning. That's self-destructive behavior right there!

at the LFScart race at blackwood, i didn't practise untill 35 minutes till the Qualifying. and amazingly i was one of the fastest out there.

You're a viking, if you drive anything other than fast I'll come over to your house and slay 'ya, a viking does not drive slow!

Preparation time? Well, let's see. I signed up in 2005. So... So far, about 4 years

Get setup from Phlospack, tweak it... then 3 laps to get used to the combo. I usually end up here and continue in qualify. But when it's some bigger event, like LFSCART, i can spend some 10-50 more laps mastering the combo.

Quote from aroX123 :

at the LFScart race at blackwood, i didn't practise untill 35 minutes till the Qualifying. and amazingly i was one of the fastest out there.

Yeah, but then you failed terribly. :P