Pit Stop Helper manual

PRO

With you through the whole pit lane: pit entry, the limiter, the way to your box, the pit stop countdown and the exit. A PRO plan overlay of Raptor Racing Overlay.

The Pit Stop Helper tells you what to do at each moment of your pit visit: how far the cones are where the speed limit starts, whether you're already down to that limit and whether your limiter is on, how far it is to your box and when to brake, how many seconds until you're released and, on the way out, when to turn the limiter off.

It only shows up when it helps: when you reach the cones at pit entry, and in the pit lane. Driving past the pit entry, or brushing it and going back on track, doesn't bring it up. The rest of the time it takes no room on the screen. It only reads iRacing data: it never touches your car, your limiter or what you asked for in the pit stop.

The way to your box with the limiter on: 96 m to go, you're doing 72 km/h and the limit is 72 km/h.

1. 1LIMITER ON: the header says what to do now, and its color how you're doing. Dark green means the limiter is on; in red it says TURN ON THE LIMITER.
2. 2TO YOUR BOX: the meters left to your box. In the last ten it shows decimals. When it's time to brake, the header changes to BRAKE, in yellow.
3. 3SPEED: your speed, in the units you use in iRacing (km/h or mph).
4. 4The bar: twenty segments that light up from the cones toward your box as you move; the next one lights up little by little. Green far away, yellow at 25 m and red at 10 m.
5. 5The B: your box, at the end of the bar. It fills in green when you're in it (STOP).
6. 6LIMITER: ON in green if it's on, OFF in red if it isn't.
7. 7LIMIT: the pit lane speed limit of that track, as iRacing reports it.

Every screen, in the order of your pit visit

The overlay moves from one screen to the next on its own. These are all of them, in the order they show up as you enter the pits, stop and leave. It changes from one screen to the next with a soft fade, and everything moves at 30 frames per second.

The entry: the sign and YOUR SPEED

When you reach the entry, 100 m or less from the cones, a road sign with the pit lane speed limit shows up on the right, and next to it YOUR SPEED in a colored box that tells you what to do with your foot. That way you brake right down to the limit, without falling short or braking too much.

The color comes from the same numbers you see, rounded: if the sign says 80 and your speed says 80, it's green. It follows the units you use in iRacing, km/h or mph, and the margin of 10 is in that same unit. The header still tells you about the limiter: red TURN ON THE LIMITER while it's off, and green LIMITER ON once you turn it on.

Red, BRAKE

Your speed is more than 10 over the limit: you still need to brake hard.

Yellow, ALMOST

You're 10 or less over the limit: ease off the brake.

Green, STOP BRAKING

You reached the limit or you're under it: release the brake. It turns green as soon as the number you see reaches the one on the sign, so you don't brake too much.

The pit stop countdown

While the crew works, the big number tells you in how many seconds you'll be released. It's in whole seconds, rounded up, and it can only go down: the last number you see is 1, never a 0 while the car is still held. Below it says what the crew is doing: FUEL AND TYRES, FUEL ONLY or TYRES ONLY.

iRacing only reports the time left for mandatory repairs. Fuel is measured live: the overlay watches how fast the tank fills during the stop, remembers that rate for the next one and respects the series fuel cap. The tyre change is learned from your own stops and keeps correcting itself; until the first one, it uses what was measured in iRacing. It also notices on its own whether the crew refuels and changes tyres one after the other or at the same time. Optional repairs aren't counted, because they don't hold you.

Yellow number

The crew is working: these are the seconds left.

···

The crew is working, but it can't tell yet how long is left; for example, in the first instant of refueling.

-- in gray

No pit stop is set up.

GO GO GO in green

iRacing reported the service is done: you can go. It stays up until you leave the box.

What the colors mean

• Every screen has a glass header in the color of the state, with a shine on top.
• Red header: you still need to turn on the limiter (TURN ON THE LIMITER) or you overshot your box (OVERSHOT).
• Dark green header: the limiter is on (LIMITER ON).
• Yellow header: BRAKE, you're about to reach your box.
• Bright green header: STOP in your box, GO GO GO when you're released and TURN OFF THE LIMITER when the limit ends.
• Gold header: PIT STOP while the crew works, and PIT LANE EXIT.
• On the way to your box and at the exit, the pill next to SPEED: red if you're over the limit, green if you're under it.
• At the entry, the YOUR SPEED box: red with BRAKE, yellow with ALMOST and green with STOP BRAKING (see above).
• The LIMITER pill: on pit road, ON in green and OFF in red. After the limit it flips: ON in red, because that's when you have to turn it off.
• The pit stop countdown: yellow while the crew works, GO GO GO in green when you're released and -- in gray with no stop set up.

How it learns each track's pit lane

iRacing doesn't say where the pit entry, the cones or the exit are. The overlay learns them on its own, by watching any car cross them, yours or a rival's: in a race it's enough for one of them to pit. It saves them per track and uses the middle value of the latest crossings, so an odd entry doesn't move them. It comes with some tracks already measured.

Your box doesn't need to be learned: iRacing gives it, just like the pit lane speed limit. Until it knows a point, the distance to it shows as --. The settings screen shows on how many tracks it already knows where the cones are. Speed is in the units you use in iRacing, and distances are always in meters.

What it shows, and the start helper

Each phase is turned on and off separately, in What it shows (right-click on the overlay) or in WHAT IT SHOWS on the settings screen. They're all on by default except the start helper. Pit exit and the limiter also covers the TURN OFF THE LIMITER warning.

With the car stopped on track (under 1 km/h), the start helper shows two vertical bars with no frame: CLU, how far you're pressing the clutch, in blue, and THR, how far you're pressing the throttle, in green, each with its percentage on top. It goes away above 5 km/h. Since it only looks at speed, it shows up every time you stop on track, not only on the grid.

• Pit entry and the limiter
• The way to your box
• The pit stop countdown
• Pit exit and the limiter
• Start helper (off by default)

On your phone and in OBS

The same panel can be seen on a phone or tablet with the menu's WIFI CONNECTION, and in OBS with STREAMING, drawn just like on your screen. It appears and disappears together with the overlay: when it has nothing to say, the page stays empty. In the settings, See it on my phone or tablet takes it off the phone and the stream.

Controls and settings

• On the overlay: there's nothing to click while you drive. With Allow moving the overlay on, you drag it wherever you want; in move mode (the menu's MOVE button) it shows up even when you're not in the pits, and you make it bigger or smaller from a corner.
• Right-click on the overlay: at the top, your car's name with the tank, the series fuel cap, the max fill, the refueling rate and how long the four-tyre change takes, which are the numbers the countdown is built from. Then: Overlay size (Bigger, Smaller or 60% to 200%), What it shows (the five phases, one by one), Also show it in the garage, Also show it in replays, Allow moving the overlay, Background opacity (a small window with the background and data opacity) and Close the pit stop helper.
• In the Raptor Racing Overlay menu, the Pit Stop Helper settings are a single page, with no tabs: SIZE, BACKGROUND OPACITY, DATA OPACITY, Allow moving the overlay by dragging it, WHAT IT SHOWS (the five phases), WHAT IT LEARNED FROM YOUR STOPS (read only), WHERE IT SHOWS (Garage and Replays) and SEE IT ON YOUR PHONE. Restore factory settings goes back to the defaults without touching the position or what it learned.

Tips

1. On a new track, do one pit visit in practice: that way it already knows where the entry, the cones and the exit are. In a race, seeing any rival pit is enough.
2. To place it without being in the pits, use the menu's MOVE button: it shows up while you put it in place.
3. Turn on the limiter while TO THE CONES counts down: it has to be on when you cross the cones, and the green header confirms it.
4. Brake watching YOUR SPEED: when it turns green with STOP BRAKING you're at the limit; release the brake and don't lose time braking too much.
5. When you see BRAKE, start braking: that's the moment to stop at your box.
6. In the box, don't release the brake on the three dots: wait for the countdown or GO GO GO.
7. On the way out, turn off the limiter as soon as you see TURN OFF THE LIMITER: the warning goes away on its own that very instant.
8. If a countdown doesn't add up, open the right-click menu: the tank, the refueling rate and the tyre change time are there.