Onboarding

By Jeff Williams, Rocky Mountain Region PCA

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Onboarding – What is it?

Onboarding is the process all drivers new to PCA Sim Racing, regardless of prior sim racing experience, go through to join the PCA Sim Racing community and participate in activities.

The purpose of the onboarding process is to explain the PCA Sim Racing league structure and types of racing. Also, it is to assist you’re joining and communicating in the PCA Sim Racing Discord channel, accepting your invitation to and getting on track in the Entry Class, and provide some basic information regarding the iRacing User Interface (UI) and cockpit setup.

At the end of the process, you will be a member of the Entry Class and able to participate in Entry Class eDE practice sessions and races with other Entry Class drivers.

Onboarding – How Does It Work?

When you register for PCA Sim Racing, you will receive a welcome letter via email which provides details on how to proceed and the criteria necessary for you to participate in an onboarding session. When you are ready, reply to the email to coordinate a date/time for your onboarding session. Onboarding sessions are scheduled on an as-needed basis, usually every week or so.

The Onboarding session is a ~1-hour long session. You will join us on the PCA Sim Racing Discord server in the Chat & Practice Comms Entry > League Onboarding channel where we will confirm your mic and headphones/speakers work in Discord. You will also need to be signed in to your iRacing account. We cover basics about Discord, the iRacing UI, programming the push-to-talk (PTT) buttons for comms, joining league sessions, setting up your cockpit view, and how to work with instructors. Provided your mic and headphones are working in Discord we will issue your League invite and assist you in accepting it. You will then be able to join Entry Class sessions.

Onboarding – What Happens Next?

After you accept your invitation to the Entry Class you can join Entry Class sessions.

Read more about the Entry Class here.

Our Entry Class is where everyone starts out. It is a true beginners league where participants can drive with others with comparable abilities, and not with the faster, more experienced national classed drivers. eDE instructors are in session to provide instruction, tips, training, and feedback. There is a full and ongoing schedule of practices, eDE sessions, and races to participate in. Drivers who are beginners will be able to stay in the Entry Class and run with other just starting racers for as long as they want.

Not a beginner anymore? Drivers who have experience in sim racing and iRacing can request a “check ride” after completing a minimum of five Entry Class race sessions by sending a Discord DM to the Entry Class Manager, Jeff Williams. After the checkride, if the eDE admins believe you’re ready, you’ll be classed in one of the four national classes:

PCA Challenge Class (red group)
PCA Sport Class (green group)
PCA Club Class (orange group)
PCA Pro Class (blue group)

Onboarding Guides – Here To Help

Once the onboarding evening is over, drivers new to sim racing will be assigned to one of our Onboarding Guides. Their responsibility is to help you with everything not covered in the classroom and give you answers and best practices.

Your assigned Onboarding Guide provides off-track assistance; the eDE Instructors provide on-track assistance.

Anker Berg-Sonne, Metro New York Region PCA
Bruce Froebe, Red River Region PCA
JR Gregory, Oregon Region PCA
Jeff Williams, Rocky Mountain Region PCA

Have questions about onboarding? Send a message to us and we’ll get back to you!

And thanks for joining us in PCA Sim Racing!