iRacing

It’s almost time for the first iRacing World Tour, the Rolex 2.4 Hours at Daytona (30 Jan 2010).

I’m really looking forward to the race although it’s significantly longer than anything I’ve ever driven in before.

Getting up to speed in the Riley hasn’t been easy as I haven’t driven it for some time but I’m hoping I can last the distance.

Getting custom skins in iRacing is a great addition to the serrvice, this is the scheme I’ll be running tomorrow;

Riley Daytona Prototype

NEW MEMBERS ONLY….

Tis the season to spread Holiday Cheer and that’s why iRacing.com presents you with our Holiday Special! Simply purchase one month for $14 and get two additional months for Free! That’s three months for the price of one.

Use promo code: PR-Holiday-09

Don’’t wait! We all know great deals like this don’t last long.

Good for new member activation only.

Here’s the link;

http://www.iracing.com/promotions/buy-one-get-two-free/

Pair of 47-Year-Old Tracks Half A World Apart To Be Available to Global Racing Audience

BEDFORD, MA (December 1, 2009) – When the checkered flag fell over a field of motorcycles at Australia’s Oran Park Raceway earlier this month it marked the final competitive motorcycle event in the 47-year history of this suburban Sydney motorsport facility. Following an all-comers car race at the end of January, 2010, Oran Park Raceway is slated to become a housing development.

But that won’t be the end of racing competition for Oran Park. In future years, while suburbanites sleep peacefully where Aussie V8s and Formula 5000 cars once thundered, racing enthusiasts from all around the world will be competing with one another in the virtual world on an exact digital duplicate of this historic venue, including its unique-for-Australia over-and-under figure-eight set of turns.

“Oran Park Raceway has played an important role in the history of Australian motorsport,” noted Divina Galica, director of partner relations for iRacing.com. “Too many great race tracks have been lost forever; I’m pleased that we’re able to preserve this digital version of Oran Park and make it available to racers all over the world.”

Galica also announced that iRacing and the management of Circuit Zolder have signed an agreement that will see the sometime host of the Belgian Grand Prix join Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Oulton Park and Zandvoort as initial European venues in the iRacing service.

“Zolder is our second track on the continent of Europe, after Zandvoort,” Galica said. “In the fullness of time we’ll have quite a few more, but it’s exciting to have two such challenging driver’s circuits to begin with.” Galica said she expected that Circuit Zolder would join the iRacing inventory in the latter half of 2010.

Capturing Oran Park

Last month a surveying crew from iRacing.com made a series of millimeter-accurate scans of the 1.65-mile Oran Park facility, including all three of the track’s existing configurations and further documenting it with thousands of digital photographs. Over the course of the next several months, the data gathered by the iRacing surveyors will be transformed into a virtual version of the track that will join Philip Island as the first two Australian iRacing circuits.

Oran Park opened its gates in 1963 and regularly hosted rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship, V8 Supercar Championship Series, Australian Drivers’ Championship and Australian Sports Sedan Championship.

The Australian Grand Prix (not then a Formula One race, it featured F5000 cars) was held at Oran Park in 1974 and 1977. In the 1970’s the circuit attracted large crowds for touring cars and sports sedans. The Rothmans 500 for touring cars was staged in 1977 and 1978, and touring car endurance races continued through the running of the 1989 Pepsi 300. The final running of the contemporary V8 Supercar series Oran Park event was held in 2008. Oran Park was also home over its long history to club road-racing events, so it’s fitting that the final competitive race meet held January 23-24, 2010 is an all-comers amateur race.

Circuit Zolder

Like Oran Park, half a world away, Circuit Zolder opened in 1963. It hosted ten Belgian Grands Prix during the 1970s and 1980s. Mario Andretti drove a Lotus 79 to victory there on his way to the 1978 Formula One World Championship, but the death of Gilles Villeneuve in practice for the 1982 race signaled the beginning of the end of Formula One competition at the 10-turn, 2.492-mile circuit.

Following a series of safety-related upgrades in 2006, Zolder was host to a European round of the North American-based ChampCar series. The overall lap record was established by Sebastian Bourdais on his way to victory in that one-off event. Today Circuit Zolder is host to the FIA Formula 2, FIA WTCC Race of Belgium and the GT Belcar championship, including the 24 Hours of Zolder.

http://www.insidesimracing.tv presents Episode 52 featuring a tour of iRacing.com headquarters where Jessica Lopez sits down with Dave Kaemmer and Tony Gardner.

Some interesting news of future plans, custom car skins and sponsor logo’s are predicted for the next build. That’s great news, can’t wait to get started on some skins. 

Other news and features include;

• Fixed setup racing
• Multi-class racing
• Teams for Endurance racing (I assume this means drivers swaps)
• a Virtual Daytona 500 in Febuary

http://www.simtrophy.com/ have opened the sign-up’s for the special event on the 5th & 6th of December.

Race will be run on the Silverstone GP Circuit. 

Who and how many drivers transfer to the main events will be dependant on the number of entries. If the race fills up (100) entries, the following would be an example of how the system will work:

4 Heat races

1s to 5th in each heat go to the  A-Main
6th to 10th in each heat go to the B-Main
11th-15th in each heat go to C-Main
All remaining drivers go to the D-Main

Each Main event will use the ‘bump-up system’. As I know you can count, 5*4=20. All the heat races will have a max field of 25 drivers. Sunday will start off the day with the D-Main and the top 5 finishers from the D-Main will be able to compete in the C-Main. This will also be true all the way up to the A-Main event. This system does a couple of things, it  #1 ensures everyone who signs up gets at least 2 races, 1 heat race and 1 main event. #2 if you are a badass, and we all know you are, but just had some bad luck in your heat race this gives you a second chance to show your stuff big boy!

Showdown at Silverstone

Http://www.insidesimracing.tv presents episode 51 of Inside Sim Racing. On this show we review Supercar Challenge for the PS3 and Top Race for the PC. We also take a look at iRacings new build with the Dallara Indycar, Corvette C6-R and Mosport. Also ,Top Simulation Cars of all Time sponsored byhttp://www.simraceway.com where we review the Toyota Supra for rFactor and the Indycar by iRacing.com. Also Tech Tips by Shaun Cole about where to start with a setup.

PRS’s OpinionNation show recently interviews iRacing co-founder Dave Kaemmer ;

John and Frosty welcome very special guest Dave Kaemmer co-founder of iRacing.com to the show. They discuss everything about the service from how things get prioritized at iRacing, to the netcode, cheating, tire models, anything and everything you want to know from the insider of insiders within iRacing is here! This is a must listen for all sim-racing enthusiasts.

You can download or stream the show here;

http://psrtv.com/podcast/index.php?p=episode&name=2009-11-09_theopinionnation_e23.mp3

iRacers with High Safety Ratings Get In-Season Upgrades

No one likes to wait, and beginning next month with the start of 2009 Season 4 iRacers who achieve a safety rating of 4.0 and fulfill minimum participation requirements will no longer have to wait for the end of a 12-week season to be promoted to the next higher license level – they’ll be automatically promoted immediately and eligible for all the benefits of their new license.

“It seems fair that drivers who demonstrate a really superior ability to race safely should be able to advance their licenses at a faster rate,” said Dave Kaemmer, iRacing’s CEO. “We’ll maintain our standard end-of-season promotion schedule for racers who have at least a 3.0 safety rating, but less than 4.0. This new FastTrack option provides additional incentive for clean driving.”

Kaemmer noted that new automated program also provides for a swifter penalty for drivers who exhibited really bad driving habits, including in iRacing’s Pro series.

“The incentives for good driving are both positive and negative,” Kaemmer noted. “Drivers whose safety ratings drop below 1.0 at any point during a season, including participants in the Pro Series, will be demoted a lower license level. This is a pretty serious penalty for a Pro license holder; they will have to improve their A level license to a 4.0 safety rating and only then will be automatically reinstated.” Moreover, if they drop below an A level license, they will have to meet the requirements to work their way back up to an A level and the 4.0 safety rating.

Holders of C, B, and Pro licenses are eligible for mid-season promotion and demotion under the FastTrack program. Rookies and D license holders may be promoted but are not subject to demotion, while A license holders are subject only to the demotion part of the program.

Complete details of the FastTrack license promotion program will be added to the Sporting Code prior to the program’s implementation at the start of 2009 Season 4.

Skip Barber

With a week to go before the season starts, this was the final pre-season event. It gave us an opportunity to get a fairly large grid and to assess the competition.

Despite a few ‘regulars’ missing, we had a nice 15 driver grid at 28 lap (approx. 40 minute) race at Summit Point Raceway.

Qualifying was a close affair. iRacing Pro driver Paul Richards was out in front with a qualifying time of 1:21.950 but then the rest of the field was oh-so-close with less than 1 second covering 2nd down to 12th.

Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to pull together a decent lap during the 15 minute qualifying period and only qualified in a disappointing 10th.

The race was anything but disappointing though. After some early pressure from Ken Murray in 11th he dropped back after some minor contact and I was able to concentrate on mounting a challenge on the car in front, Don Wright in 9th. As it turned out, we were nose-to-tail for the entire race picking up the odd place here and there and in a train of 3-4 cars the whole time, it was thrilling stuff, trying to force that crucial mistake that could lead to a passing attempt.

In the end I just couldn’t manufacture the opening to pass Don and finished less than a second down in 7th place somewhat relieved to have made it to the end unscathed.

Paul Richards was in a different class as expected and won by 14s over Dave Gymer in 2nd and Brendan Wright another 14 seconds down in 3rd, rounding out the podium places.

Don Wright (6th) put together this great video of the race highlights;

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Soon to appear on the 600 Racing Homepage, this video features the Legends Ford ‘34 Coupe at Lowes Motor Speedway on both the Legends Oval and Infield Roadcourse. You can race at http://iRacing.com