iRacing

The press conference from Infineon Raceway where it was announced that IndyCar racing will be coming to iRacing in Fall, 2009. Part 2 of 2.

The press conference from Infineon Raceway where it was announced that IndyCar racing will be coming to iRacing in Fall, 2009. Part 1 of 2.

Now the tie-up with IRL has been confirmed we have to wait until November to get our hands on the content.

The famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway is well into it’s production cycle;

In April a crew of iRacing laser-scanning technicians captured the dimensional data and graphic information used over the last several months to build a millimeter-accurate version of the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway track that will be correct right down to the detail in the famous Yard of Bricks at the Start/Finish line.

The iRacing version of Indianapolis Motor Speedway will include both the 2.5-mile oval used for the Indy 500 and Brickyard 400 NASCAR race and the 2.621-mile road circuit that is home to the Red Bull Indianapolis GP world championship motorcycle event.

iRacing’s Greg Hill has shared a couple of work-in-progress screenshots of the famous track;

The pit area at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The Pagoda at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Image via Wikipedia

As suspected, iRacing have confirmed a tie up with Indycar;

America’s fastest open wheelers, America’s most versatile open wheel series . . . and the world’s most famous race track are all coming to iRacing.com. This fall, iRacing will debut its Dallara in the iRacing IndyCar Series along with the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home to the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400.

While you won’t be able to drive an Indy car or race at the virtual Brickyard until later this year, you can get a jump on your iRacing Indy car career by joining iRacing.com today. Take advantage of our special offer of a three month membership for $25.00, a 50% savings on the regular price.

It’s a bit odd there’s been no ‘official’ announcement but it’s possible the offer page was just put up a bit early and it will come later today at the IRL race at Infineon.

http://www.iracing.com/indy_promotion.html

I’ve suspected for a while that iRacing have been developing a tie-up with the Indycar series. We’ve had a number of hints but nothing has been confirmed up to now.

I suspect this will change over the weekend.

iRacing confirmed a while back that “a big announcement” was due in August so I obviously suspected Indycar but today, iRacing’s David Moulthrop posted this on his blog;

I will start a journey to California for another major announcement by iRacing this weekend

Indycar is at Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, California this weekend!

I suspect this deal has been in the bag for some time and I think the intention was to announce it before the NASCAR tie-up but  the NASCAR deal got done earlier than expected and so took priority.

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I think we’re in for an interesting period over the next couple of weeks for iRacing. Here’s my predictions;

1. Around the NASCAR all-star race at Lowe’s, iRacing will become the official PC simulation for NASCAR
2. Next weekend, around the Indy 500, iRacing will not only announce a partnership to get the IRL series in iRacing but also some some kind of deal to live broadcast iRacing on Indycar’s ‘Race Control’.

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I grant you this is slightly flimsy but what the hell…

We know from Steve Myers there’s a major announcement coming, and linked to the month of  May. The Indy 500 is on Sunday, May 24.

David Moulthrop (iRacing project manager) said;

I was in Indianapolis on a much bigger project.

Also, iRacing have signed an advertising deal with the Indy Racing League to advertise on it’s new Race Control feature;

Advertising on a new broadband feature, Race Control, which allows fans to watch as many as four in-car cameras simultaneously, has been sold to iRacing.com, a subscription-based racing simulation site.

Race Control is a new offering from California-based Conviva, which will be accessible on IndyCar.com and the Web site of the race broadcaster, either Versus.com or ESPN.com.

Full story here;

http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/62003

I guess this adds a little further credibility to the speculation the Indycar series will feature in iRacing very soon….