Later tonight, iRacingwill be offering their first-ever live broadcast in co-operation with PSRTV, streaming the World Cup of iRacing finals for everyone to enjoy.

The event starts at 2:45 p.m. EST (19:45 GMT) on PSRTV.com and will feature iRacing’s top oval and road course drivers.

While the 35 best oval drivers will be having their final in the Chevrolet Impala SS NASCAR at Michigan, the 35 road racing experts will go head to head at Road America, driving the IRL Dallara.

The stream will be offered both via Microsoft Silverlight and as external Windows Media Player stream. More info on the event can be found on InRacingNews, those who have problems with the stream should head to PSRTV’s troubleshooting page.

The Daytona 500, flagship event of every NASCAR Sprint Cup season, is less than two weeks away and while the real life teams are preparing for the season opener, the iRacing community is gearing up for the virtual version of the event.

iRacing’s Daytona 500 will be run on February 13th, qualifying starts on February 7th. The race is open to iRacing subscribers of all license levels, the only requirement being ownership of the Chevrolet Impala SS COT and the Daytona International Speedway.

Last weekend, Daytona was the site of iRacing’s first world tour event, the Rolex 2.4. The event was a huge success within the iRacing community, attracting 950 racers that were split into 24 groups of 39 or 40 drivers. To get a better idea what the event was about, make sure to check out Tim Wheatley’s race report and watch the Daytona 500 preview video below.

Last May, iRacing.com announced one of its most spectacular partnerships yet as an official NASCAR-sanctioned online racing series was unveiled.

Alongside with new seasons of all major NASCAR divisions starting off next month, the virtual NASCAR iRacing Drivers World Championship will be kicking off on February 9th.

The schedule consists of 18 races spread out over 39 weeks, the 50 top-rated drivers of iRacing’s Pro Series will be eligible to compete in the new championship, getting the chance to prove themselves against a real NASCAR legend as Dale Earnhardt Jr. will join the series, giving the sim racers a real benchmark to compete with.

Select races of the series will be broadcasted live on the iRacing website. Furthermore, the new series will be getting some high-profile media coverage such as this article recently published on the official NASCAR website.

While the World Championship is only open for the top 50 drivers to compete in, iRacing will also be hosting NASCAR-sanctioned amateur series open to all iRacing subscribers.

iRacing.com has published the release notes of the upcoming new build that will be released in preperation for the first iRacing competition season in 2010.

Alongside physic improvements and countless of other little fixes, an important new feature in the new build is the skinning support as players are now able to paint their cars and use custom liveries.

You can find the full release notes below, you might have to click “Read More” to see them.

Read More

iRacing.com has announced a very exciting content addition to their simulation on the Autosport International Show in Birmingham today as the 2009 Williams FW31 car will be joining their simulation later this year.

After their initial focus on American Oval racing content, iRacing has slowly broadened their content towards the liking of European road racing fans. iRacing.com’s FW31 will give sim racers the rare chance to drive a laser-scanned, professionally-produced Formula One car on many laser-scanned tracks, tempting even more people to subscribe.

Production of the car has already begun as the iRacing crew has started to collect data at the Williams F1 headquaters in Grove, the car will be available later this year, selling for $12.95 (iRacing subscription required)

Driven by Nico Rosberg & Kazuki Nakajima, the FW31 was powered by a Toyota V8-engine and was one of the first cars to make use of the controversial rear diffusor in the early parts of the 2009 season. Rosberg managed to clinch 34.5 championship points, helping Williams to a 7th place in the manufacturers championship.

iRacing.com has released first previews of Circuit Park Zandvoort, showing the first track from mainland Europe to join their simulation in a 40%-finished state.

Opened in 1948, Circuit Park Zandvoort has hosted 30 editions of the Dutch Formula One Grand Prix, today’s layout is 4.18 kilometers long and consists of 11 turns.

Located in the near-beach dunes, the track is notorious for sand being blown on track. The layout is made up of slow and quick corners as well as many elevation changes that make Zandvoort a rather tricky place to drive. Even though Formula One is long gone, the track still hosts many major events, including DTM & WTCC touring car racing as well as an annual A1GP event.

 

iRacing.com has released first previews of two Ford race cars that will soon join their online racing simulation, showing a render image of the Ford Falcon FG01 and three scan-images of the Ford Falcon FR500S.

Based on the Australian Ford Falcon road car, the FG01 is Ford’s weapon of choice in Australia’s highly-populer V8 supercar series. The car is powered by a 5.0 V8 engine, putting out 600hp.

Powered by a 4.6l V8-engine putting out 325hp, the Ford Mustang FR500S is an assembly-line produced racing vehicle that is eligible in various series aimed at privateer drivers, including the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup which is sanctioned by the Grand American Road Racing Association.

 

The cars in iRacing.com’s online racing simulation are widely praised for having some of the most realistic physics in the sim racing world and the company’s Corvette C6.R is no exception.

But what does it take to get the physics spot on? iRacing Vehicle Dynamic Engineer Ian Berwick has written up a very interesting article, sharing some inside information on the challenges of creating realistic physics.

Even though iRacing gets to laser-scan its cars and has direct access to plenty of data, some stuff like tire data and very detailed engine information isn’t available for the developers, making Ian Berwick’s job even harder.

Read Corvette Physics Development Article by Ian Bestwick Here

iRacing has released a short video feature on their partnership with the VW Jetta TDI Cup, interviewing real Jetta TDI drivers and giving us a little backstage look at iRacing’s track creation process.

Furthermore, the video includes an interview with John Prather, the sim racer who made it into the real VW Jetta TDI Cup series by outperforming the other iRacing subcribers racing the virtual version of the Jetta TDI race car.

Prather won’t be the only sim racer making the transition to real racing as iRacing.com will become the primary gateway to the Driver Selections event for the 2011 VW Jetta TDI Cup season.

Aside from adding new tracks and cars on a regular basis, iRacing has also been working on some much-requested features for their online racing simulation. Following the possibility to run private league races, the developers will soon be introducing another often-requested feature – Custom paint skins.

Until now, iRacing subscribers can choose to customise the look of their car by using the built-in paint editor that offers several designs in various color combinations. The new custom paint schemes will allow iRacers to fully use own sponsors and designs as iRacing will be providing painting templates for all cars. The only thing that can’t be changed in the template the car number as the simulation assigns that dynamically to each car.

Finished designs will be saved as TGA file and copied to the iRacing folder to make them appear in the simulation. iRacing won’t be providing members with an auto-upload feature to avoid possible legal issues. So in order for other racers to see the personal design of other drivers, the designs need to be exchanged outside the simulation.

Following the much-discussed reality check video of iRacing’s Brand Hatch circuit and the release of the track earlier today, Sam Hazim has put together one of his famous reality check galleries.

The gallery shows photos of the British track side by side with screenshots from iRacing’s latest track, giving everyone an idea how accurate the virtual version of the British track really is.

The 3,7 kilometer Brands Hatch circuit hosted 12 Formula One Grand Prix and is well known as a touring car venue these days, hosting both the WTCC & DTM as well as the British BTCC. iRacing’s version includes both the Indy and the GP layout, selling for $14.95.

 

iRacing has added the British Brands Hatch circuit to their online racing simulation as subscribers can now download the track, making Brands Hatch the second European track to be available in iRacing.

Included is both the Indy layout that’s being used by the German DTM series as well as the longer Grand Prix layout that the WTCC & BTCC races on. The track sells for $14.95, you can check out a full lap on the GP configuration below.

The 3,7 kilometer Brands Hatch circuit hosted 12 Formula One Grand Prix and is well known as a touring car venue these days, hosting both the WTCC & DTM as well as the British BTCC.

iRacing.com has released a first preview video of Brands Hatch, showing first moving footage of the British track alongside real-racing footage to demonstrate the level of detail of the virtual version.

The real-life footage is provided by British race driver Stuart Moseley, driving a Radical prototype.

The 3,7 kilometer Brands Hatch circuit hosted 12 Formula One Grand Prix and is well known as a touring car venue these days, hosting both the WTCC & DTM as well as the British BTCC. iRacing’s version will be including both the full layout used by series like the WTCC and the shorter Indy layout recently used by the DTM series.

iRacing subscriber Mike Perry has put together a pack of TV overlays for leagues and events wanting to give their iRacing videos are more professional look.

The overlays are designed after FOX’s NASCAR broadcasts, the pack includes overlays for race name & location, starting grid, position ticker and more. The overlays have been desined to suit 1080p videos and can be edited using Photoshop or any other software supporting PSDs.

Even though Mike has made these with iRacing users in mind, they can of course be used in any sim racing video to give them a TV-broadcast look.

 

Download iRacing TV Overlays Pack Here