After extending their lineup of tracks with several circuits located in Europe and Australia, iRacing is back focusing on the United States as a brand new oval for their racing simulation has been announced.

Thompson International Speedway has been announced to be added to iRacing, bringing one of the United States’ oldest and most famous short tracks to the simulation.

Opened in 1940, the 5/8th mile paved oval racetrack is located in Thompson, Conneticut. The track is known as the Indianapolis of the East and was the first asphalt-paved race track in the US. The track hosts a variety of smaller series, including the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

iRacing.com has started a video contest, asking talented video editors to create an action-packed two minute video, showing iRacing’s cars in action.

The rules are simple, the video has to be two minutes or less in length, including only footage taken from iRacing, and has to be uploaded to Youtube. The video has to be submitted until April 12th using the form here, the iRacing staff will be selecting the best three videos afterwards.

The final ruling will be made by the community as a public vote will determine the contest winner. The lucky video creator that receives the most votes will be awarded with $250 iRacing credit that can be spend on new content or subscription extension.

iRacing subscriber Sam Hazim has put together another of his famous reality check photo galleries,  this time pairing up real-life photos side by side with footage from iRacing’s recently-released Circuit Park Zandvoort.

Once again, Sam has gone great lengths to demonstrate the accuracy of iRacing’s tracks, making screenshots that match both the exact angle of the photos and most of the on-track activity.

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. iRacing’s version of the legendary Dutch track comes with five different layouts and sells for $14,95.

 

iRacing.com has made the Circuit Park Zandvoort available for purchase, giving their subscribers the chance to race on iRacing’s first European mainland track.

The virtual version of Zandvoort sells for $14.95 and includes five layouts. Below is a preview video, showing the Formula Star Mazda on the track both in TV and cockpit mode.

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 a first preview video of the Circuit Park Zandvoort, showing first moving footage of the Dutch track alongside real-racing footage to demonstrate the level of detail of the virtual version.

Zandvoort is the first track in mainland Europe to be included in iRacing,  the track will become available later this week. 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 has released three new previews of the Circuit Park Zandvoort, showing the European track at a 99% complete state. iRacing’s version of the Dutch track is due to be released next week.

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.

In related news, iRacing’s Steve Myers has released another one of his famous “Cat Herder” blogs were he usually outlines many of the upcoming features and content additions. The newest issue talks about Philip Island and the Ford Falcon V8 Supercar, both of which should be available in May.

Furthermore, iRacing is working on introducing multi-class racing, maybe as early as with the next build. You can read more about that and plenty of other stuff in his latest blog here.

 

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