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NASCAR and iRacing to form official racing series
citizen059
hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
From http://iracing.com/newsEvents/index.php
The rest of the article is at the link above.
"Pro Gaming" has been around for a few years now, but I think this is something bigger.
This isn't just iRacing having a license to use the name and imagery, NASCAR is actually sanctioning an official series here. An online racing series that's apparently going to be one of the many competitive divisions within NASCAR.
I can't think of any other sport that's taken this step. We've got plenty of licensed games, but nothing where the sanctioning body has gone so far as to say "okay, expanding into a simulated environment is the next logical step for us".
iRacing wrote:NASCAR and iRacing to Partner in Online Racing Series: Official NASCAR Series to Begin at iRacing.com in 2010
CONCORD, NC (May 16, 2009) - NASCAR and iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations announced today that the two organizations are joining forces to create a NASCAR-sanctioned online racing series, a new competition division that will be licensed by NASCAR and organized and hosted by iRacing. Beginning early in 2010, NASCAR fans anywhere in the world will be able to log onto the internet and compete against one another, as well as a number of NASCAR drivers, in an official NASCAR series featuring digital duplicates of real-world NASCAR cars and tracks in the most realistic NASCAR racing environment ever created.
"The online world is an ever growing marketplace filled with NASCAR fans. To provide those fans with the most realistic NASCAR racing environment, iRacing was the right partner for us," said Blake Davidson, NASCAR managing director of licensed products. "Bill France, Jr. had the original vision for this series more than ten years ago. He foresaw a day when NASCAR fans could experience NASCAR's side-by-side racing from the comfort of their own homes; that day has come. The iRacing product is so realistic, that a number of our NASCAR drivers, including Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Brad Keselowski, A.J. Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose and Colin Braun are already iRacing members, which makes it even better. From the beginning, these drivers have raved about the incredible accuracy of the cars and the tracks that iRacing has produced and their involvement, along with NASCAR Competition, in the development will make the experience even more authentic."
More than 12,000 members have signed up for iRacing's online racing service since it was opened to the public in August, 2008. iRacing uses laser-scanning and other advanced technology to produce tracks that are millimeter-accurate duplicates of their real-world counterparts and race cars of similar visual and mechanical fidelity. The inventory of vehicles currently available to iRacing members features racing cars from Chevrolet, one of NASCAR's automotive partners, including the Silverado, as raced in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and versions of the Impala SS as raced both in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. iRacing has either completed or is in the process of building virtually every track on the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule.
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The rest of the article is at the link above.
"Pro Gaming" has been around for a few years now, but I think this is something bigger.
This isn't just iRacing having a license to use the name and imagery, NASCAR is actually sanctioning an official series here. An online racing series that's apparently going to be one of the many competitive divisions within NASCAR.
I can't think of any other sport that's taken this step. We've got plenty of licensed games, but nothing where the sanctioning body has gone so far as to say "okay, expanding into a simulated environment is the next logical step for us".
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I do mostly road courses, but I've done some oval stuff and I'll say this: it's fun as hell.
iRacing is the primary reason that I'm upgrading my desktop to an awesome i7 system. I think I'll get track IR also. Looking through the corner really helps me, and on my 19" non-widescreen it's difficult to do that. So track IR. And gigantic LCD HDTV for a monitor once I make my move.
But once things turn around a little, I plan to sneak it in there.
Pretty much. This is a really neat venture.. but I would only get involved if it were road courses.
I hope it succeeds though, because if NASCAR makes it popular, racing styles that I enjoy are sure to follow.
I would look at this as a catalyst to bringing many more professional series into the iracing service. Also understand that the Nascar involvement and future series in IRacing is only a small piece of the pie here. The development of the relationship from the start was clearly outlined that Nascar would accompany everything else that is currently available and I don’t think you’ll see the Nascar banner flood the entire system.
Also its the development teams goal to provide an even assortment of content that is appealing to all type of motorsports fans. Look at the recent announcement with Marcos Ambrose as an example. Marcos is in hot pursuit to bring us a lot of great content that he readily has at his fingertips. He is a great ambassador for IRacing and will develop relationships with tracks, manufacturers, and such that he is excited to bring to the table.
Nascars involvement is mainly for the development of an official Nascar series for each of the vehicles we currently have. There is no agreement to exchange data and things of that nature. IRacing already has those relationships with teams and manufacturers that are working perfectly.
There in lies a good reason why the members here have seen such a surge in vehicle development lately on the oval side. Kevin Harvick offered limitless information for us to make tons of improvements on the current truck model. Obviously the same type of information was readily available through JR Motorsports for the Nationwide cars development. The same type of information is being tapped for each road course vehicle, although those relationships with teams and manufacturers are brand new to Iracing and the manufacturer themselves so they take time to develop the trust in sharing some of the more detailed data.
The dev team at IRacing is well aware of what unfinished business is still yet concluded such as the tire model and aero improvements and they are moving forward on finishing those projects to bring them to the service.
As for the sponsor packages that became available this season, you will likely see more options coming over time. IRacing is working in several directions to create interests for companies to get involved.
I hope everyone here can be open minded in knowing there is a lot of great content coming down the pipe for everyone involved here. Again, the Nascar deal is just the beginning, not the final frontier. We as a community know we need more racers. Deals like this will hopefully bring just that. IRacing is creative enough to know that it must provide equal content for all types of racing enthusiasts. I hope everyone will stick around to see what comes next.
As to this, the road racing is arguably more developed than the oval circuit racing in the current state of the game.
Car progression is Pontiac Solstice -> Spec Racer Ford -> Skip Barber Formula 2000 -> Star Mazda -> Radical SR8 -> Riley Daytona Prototype.
The race car versions of the Corvette are in development as is the Lotus F1 car from 1979.
There's a large number of tracks available (mostly North American at the moment, but expanding).
Lack of stuff for roadies is not really a reason to not get into this sim. Road/Ovals are about as well developed as each other.
NASCAR @ iRacing - Coming Jan, 2010
I'm not a big NASCAR fan, but this is huge news for iRacing. I've been a member for 8 months or so and it really is a great sim and service (and the oval racing is actually pretty fun - I mostly road race). This partnership will mean lots of new members and more exposure, so hopefully we'll see some other deals like this in the future. IndyCar seems very likely.
iRacing has also recently become the official sim of SCCA and will become the official driver candidate selection tool for feeding drivers into the real-life Jetta TDI cup. Good stuff.
PSN: Milky28 XBL: Milky28
I just need to keep myself from speccing out the two thousand dollar sets. I don't know that I could justify that to the woman.
Put it in perspective.
Tell her it's your second choice, and that for your first choice you're thinking of getting one of these: http://www.force-dynamics.com/401/
Realistically, I don't know that this will help improve my odds of getting a superwheel. No matter what my first choice is, that's still a ton of money.
Oh well, one day.
And I hear ya on the TSW. I'm using a Logitech DFP right now. Other than having to crack the pedals open one time to tighten up the connections it's been a solid investment.
The G25 is a nice wheel and provides clutch/H-pattern, but it's pricey.
The Momo is a good wheel, and the DFP/G25 are great, but the pedals they ship with are lacking. There are some really nice pedal sets out there, but I won't be springing for any of them in the near future.
Also, the TSW looks really well made but I wouldn't want to give up force feedback. It's an important information source in racing sims, where in arcade racers and the like it's just wow-factor.
I can live without force feedback, I certainly enjoy having it, but it's not a make or beak deal for me. Far more important to me is a clutch and a proper gated shifter.
Well then this is what you want:
From Fanatec. Still 200, though.
I'm not sure I could fit the rig needed to support something like that into my apartment. Such frivolity will have to wait until I own a house.
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
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Wow! Somebody on the internet thinks NASCAR is silly because they run on ovals! How original! It's a good thing you got to this thread before we spent too much time talking about the stuff we were talking about!
But don't knock it until you've tried it.
I only ran in one season so far (rig problems prevent racing at the moment, but an upgrade is coming sooon!).
Mostly road cars. At the last minute I decided I wanted to advance my oval license also so I ran the required four Legends races around small track ovals and holy shit it was intense. Those little cars are super twitchy, people will run these small ovals going three wide, you can't see very far ahead of you so when bad things happen they happen fast, the tracks are completely walled so when bad things happen they stay on the track and collect all the other drivers.
But now I'm licensed to run Skip Barber cars on circuit and Late Models on ovals. The Late Model is fun to drive. Lots of power, but heavy. The Skip Barber is really twitchy, and I can't blame the setup anymore because they've got good default sets for each car/track combo.
Anyway, I haven't run online in either yet until I can play a race without my computer overheating and causing the video driver to fail. Soon. I just need to press the checkout button on newegg. I really don't know what I'm waiting for at this point.
I had similar video issues. My old 7900GS toasted itself so I replaced it with a 9800GT.
I also now run RivaTuner to manually control the fan speed on the card.
Re: the oval racing, I raced in online leagues with Papy's NASCAR Racing 3, 4, and 2002. So yeah, I'd agree that oval track racing can be a blast. I've done road racing with the old GTR mod for F1 '02, and more recently dabbled with the PCC mod for rFactor and RACE '07 on Steam.
Each style of racing is fun, but in different ways.