In an approach to further broaden the simulation’s content portfolio, iRacing.com has announced the future addition of the Australian Philip Island Grand Prix Circuit and the Ford Falcon FG01 V8 Supercar.
Located in the state of Victoria, Philip Island is a 4.4 kilometer road course and one of Australia’s main road racing facilities. The track’s layout incorporates 12 turns, the track hosts the Australian V8 Supercar Series, the MotoGP series and has been rumored to be a future venue for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.
Along with the track, iRacing will be introducing the Ford Falcon FG01, Ford’s weapon of choice in the highly popular V8 Supercar series. The Australian racing series has been chosen for a good reason as two-time V8 Supercar champion and now NASCAR driver Marcos Ambrose is not just one of Australia’s most famous race car drivers but a very active iRacing spokesperson.
The Australian track and car join the heap of non-American to join iRacing in the future, including British Brands Hatch & Oulton Park circuits as well as the Circuit Park Zandvoort.
gregerson888
September 11th, 2009 at 06:10
YESSSS
AWESOME news
bring on more Australian tracks!!!
good going iracing
Jdz
September 11th, 2009 at 06:11
Awesome news.
and in before Holden fans complain.
felipe
September 11th, 2009 at 08:28
gosh just imagine how much money you need to spend to gets all cars and tracks for iracing! almost the same money for a track day every week!
Stream
September 11th, 2009 at 08:30
Hopefully Bathurst is next up.
ForzaBarca88
September 11th, 2009 at 08:55
I’d kill for a laser scanned Bathurst
Hopefully they add the holden at some stage too, I’d much rather drive the commodore. Its a sentimental thing cos they arent that different under the skin but still its hard to drive something you hate
Meclazine
September 11th, 2009 at 08:56
Sweet.
Jdz
September 11th, 2009 at 08:59
Me too but wouldn’t hold my breath, would be pretty difficult to scan.
Klaas Jan
September 11th, 2009 at 09:11
Great news! Looking forward to Philip Island, it’s a great track.
Skazz
September 11th, 2009 at 11:42
Of course, the C.6R, Mustang GT3 and Ford GT (GT2) have been promised for ages, but none of them have yet materialized. And the Indycars plus Indy lights are also coming soon.
iRacing is clearly fast tracking cars which are part of their real life racing licensing deals, so I expect the Indycars to make it before any of those tin tops I mentioned above, mostly because they are most likely to increase fields rather than splitting fields still further among road racers.
They urgently need to think of a way to avoid each new car adding to field splitting. I’m hoping for multiclass racing, but not sure it would be enough.
Makikou
September 11th, 2009 at 12:29
YESS, MEGA-AWESOMENESS, V8 SUPERCARS
jux
September 11th, 2009 at 12:35
They have said that IndyCars will come at the start of next season. The rest will come later.
They will also have user-created leagues next season, and the least popular cars probably won’t have an iRacing-run “standard series” any longer.
Mark
September 11th, 2009 at 12:55
Let me second that, it is indeed a fantastic track to race on
Peregrinne
September 12th, 2009 at 11:40
That plan for the future will be to have 1 car per license, or in the case of the road racing side of things, it will most likely be one open wheeler and one tin top per license. The cars that aren’t used in official series will be available for use by leagues.
They also announced yesterday that they are reducing the minimum number of drivers needed for a race to become official, which should pull in alot of drivers who wait on the fences to see if it will be official before joining.
Once the leagues go live, they intend on introducing an incentive programme. iRacing credits will be awarded to anyone who participates in at least 8 races in each of at least 2 different official series each season. The amount awarded will most likely depend on the license level of the car, so more credits for higher license levels. These credits can be used to pay for subscription or new content.
All in all, they are very focused on trying to encourage active participation, and I’m sure additional measures and incentives will be added as necessary and as they think of them.