NASCAR’s most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. was recently interviewed in SPEED TV’s Windtunnel show, one topic being his involvement in iRacing.com.
Junior seems to be involved quite deeply in the sim, talking about it as “we”. One very interesting fact is that he mentions the “yellow Corvette” to make it to the sim soon. This is most certainly the Corvette C6.R GT1 car of ALMS and Le Mans fame, especially as Doug Fehan, head of the Corvette GT1 effort, is mentioned. You can watch the full interview below and hear what America’s most popular driver has to say about the iRacing simulation.
Together with the Lotus 79 and the Riley Daytona Prototype, the Corvette should strengthen iRacing’s road racing lineup, an area which is considered to be the poorest part of the simulation, especially by European sim racers.
erale
November 13th, 2008 at 17:35
Wow here comes the next american content. This is how you attract european customers.
trebor901
November 13th, 2008 at 17:38
exactly what i was thinking, is all the content in this rip off of a sim american? why would we want all American cars? most of them suck.
Montoya
November 13th, 2008 at 17:39
I wouldn’t consider the C6.R to be an American car per se.
It’s been very popular in European endurance racing also, run by French, German and Belgian teams.
erale
November 13th, 2008 at 17:45
Nevertheless it’s an american car. Is there any non american car currently in the game? If I’m not mistaken there is currently just one non american track in the game…
This game is so aimed at american customers.
Montoya
November 13th, 2008 at 17:46
I don’t have to be American to enjoy American content so I don’t really see that point.
I take Sebring over Hockenheim and Road America over Magny Cours any day :smile:
erale
November 13th, 2008 at 17:51
Maybe you do but I think most europeans aren’t that into US racing.
DRat
November 13th, 2008 at 17:59
I assume that the anti-Corvette faction has removed all traces of any non-European vehicles from their rFactor, GTR2, Evo, and GPL installations. Whatever turns you on …
No sweat! That’s fine! BTW, Magny Cours, Spykers, and Fiats suck too, but that does not mean I dislike European cars, tracks, simracers, or citizens. Just because you (and I) find Nascar rather nauseating doesn’t mean that Corvettes are equally rancid, too.
ral42
November 13th, 2008 at 18:03
Guess what guys. There are tons of Europeans doing road racing in iRacing right now. I’m in the US and I do >99% road racing. When I do races, usually the majority of the field is from Europe – even though it’s off-peak hours over there. The tracks are awesome and racing the Skip Barber is a great experience regardless of where you’re from. Thanks to the cost that people outside of iRacing love to complain so much about, the devs can actually afford to keep the service going, make improvements to it, and add first class new content. I know I’m getting my money’s worth, even though I struggle to get even one race a week in due to a busy schedule.
By the way, wouldn’t it be appropriate to give iRacing its own category instead of always lumping it in “Other Sim Racing”? C’mon. :)
Montoya
November 13th, 2008 at 18:51
I´ll be introducing new categories soon, one of them will be iRacing :smile:
johndagys
November 13th, 2008 at 19:16
Well, iRacing offers the Radical SR8, a British car.. As well as Silverstone.
I think it will take some time for them to develop the sim to all audiences. You have to remember that the whole service just launched a few months ago.
Have patience with them. I’m sure they’re working on expanding..
And I second the vote to make iRacing it’s own category.. :mrgreen:
Tifose
November 13th, 2008 at 19:25
NOOOOooooooo montoya :evil:
Raikku
November 13th, 2008 at 20:09
How many updates there has in been in iracing, what is present number?
ermax18
November 13th, 2008 at 21:21
I haven’t been very excited about the car lineup in iRacing up until this brake through. I do like the SR3 though. I am very happy about the tracks though. They have just about every track in my region (In RL). Sebring, Moroso (coming soon), Daytona, Homestead, Birmingham, Road Atlanta (soon). I also love Mosport (Not American) which is coming soon.
But when it comes right down to it the mostly American content is most likely due to licensing. This isn’t rFactor where people just build anything they want with specs the find with Google without a high risk of law suits. They officially license the cars and get real data to build them. If Porsche, Ferrari and BMW weren’t so stingy with their licensing then we would probably have them too. The C6-R is a great racecar though. As Montoya said, they race it in the states in ALMS and in Europe in LMS. Oh and one last thing, iRacing is after all a business. They probably know what it takes to make money. They probably determined that the most profitable route was to stick to American content (including silly ovals) until they have the money to buy some imports. When it comes right down to it, racing is racing. Fantasy cars and tracks are even fun. Driving anything on the limit is fun. I even enjoy giving my wife’s Toyota Sequoia the beat down. :)
There are a lot of fun tracks in the states but there are tons and tons of track around the world that are also fun. I hope that with time we will pick some of them up. I don’t think iRacing is trying to single anyone out. It is just business.
navalhawkeye
November 13th, 2008 at 21:35
You guys are ridiculous! So one sided. You think we haven’t missed American content in all recent sims?? I know I have. I am GLAD there’s not an overwhelming about of European content in it. I want to drive something new! Get over it!
GeraArg
November 13th, 2008 at 23:20
Sounds very promising… :smile:
But is spending a lot of money for a simple GAME. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
hypertek
November 14th, 2008 at 02:49
of all the great race sims of prior.. Iracing will get the most recognition because they paid to get some star personalities to try it out..
Dave
November 14th, 2008 at 03:13
hypertek your comment is about as ignorant as I have read here. iRacing doesn’t pay anyone any “stars” to try it. If someone like Dale Jr, Justin Wilson, Jacques Villenue, AJ Allmendinger or the many other real world racers that are using iRacing give a comment thats used in publications then they might get some free months out of it..but thats it.
hypertek
November 14th, 2008 at 03:54
you dont hear about stars playing GTR2 or Rfactor… case end point.. Iracing is milking off the publicity if anything..
Nothing wrong with it, it will push sim racing no doubt.
Montoya
November 14th, 2008 at 04:00
http://www.virtualr.net/kimi-raikkonen-tests-fsone-2007/
gears
November 14th, 2008 at 05:20
I’m an a American and I can tell you that a sim filled with American cars on American tracks sounds very boring.
GeraArg
November 14th, 2008 at 05:21
And Kubica playing the Sauber BMW from ISI/MMG (?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXOl5b9EVpU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN9F3eBq9NA
:smile:
Dave
November 14th, 2008 at 09:16
hypertek you just don’t get it. iRacing isn’t milking anything because they aren’t paying these guys. Dale Jr’s face was plastered all over EA’s Nascar game and he doesn’t play that. He races iRacing and I have raced against him personally. He is in there just like the rest of us that enjoy sim-racing. The real world race drivers in iRacing are just like the rest of us..just racing. There isn’t any endorsement deals or huge sponsorships coming off iRacing. He spoke about it because he just really think its that good. After hearing that Lewis Hamilton was at the rFactor headquarters looking at an advance copy of rFactor2 I am sure you will come up with some nonsense about how he isn’t really a star and really doesn’t use a racing simulation. All real racers use some sort of simulation as a learning tool and if they aren’t then they should be. Obviously some are trying ISI software..but it seems some avid sim racers speak openly about the quality of iRacing.
ibyte_dk
November 14th, 2008 at 09:19
American road courses af FAR superior in driver challenge to European once (except Spa and Nordschleife).
American road courses, be it city or regular venues, are not engineered with safty in mind. It’s a strip of tarmac layed out in the contry side, where they thought it should go to create challenges.
It’s gone so far that people now a days in F1 talk about racing stadiums! Instead of race courses. PLEASE!
Road America, Sebring, Laguna Sebring, Mid Ohio, Road Atlanta, Sears Point. Those tracks just ooze motorsport. The spirit and mindset that I get into racing those tracks WOW! They are just real hard, much more damanding race tracks, then Silverstone, Hungaroring, Barcelona or the new Asian Stadium tracks will ever be.
American endurance racing is just much more dirty and gridy. It’s got that whole new and at the same time 70’s nostalgic feeling to it. New technolegies in the oldest ways :smile:
ermax18
November 14th, 2008 at 14:13
BTW, Hamilton wasn’t at the ISI headquarters. He was at the Rock the Vote party at the Esquire House in Hollywood Hills. This house has a game room with a sim in it. My guess is ISI was contracted to put the sim together and in turn invited to the party. I am sure Hamilton found some time to run some laps and give some feedback but it wasn’t like he was invited to a party to evaluate rFactor2.
Rasmus
November 14th, 2008 at 18:45
@ ermax18: Hamilton (and Nicole) were both at the ISI Headquarters. At least that’s what they say in the newest episode of Inside Sim Racing. However, they don’t give any information as to whether he tried out rFactor 2 – but why else would he be there? :)
Rasmus
November 14th, 2008 at 18:49
Oh, my bad. :D Just saw the episode again, and turns out you were right. Gotta learn to get my facts straight, haha.