Pre-Season Testing Comes to iRacing
iRacing’s First 24 Hour Race Set for January 17-18
Like their counterparts in the Tudor United SportsCar Series participating in next weekend’s “Roar Before the 24,” iRacers are invited to take part in a pre-season test on January 17-18 in preparation for the iRacing 24 Hours of Daytona, the opening round of the 2015 Road Warriors Series, later this month. In addition to fine-tuning their virtual prototypes and GT cars during the test event, competitors will have a chance to familiarize themselves with iRacing’s driver swap/team feature that makes it possible for two or more drivers thousands of miles apart to race the same virtual car around the clock. As well, the test will enable iRacing to optimize the complex systems associated with staging three dozen or more simultaneous online races -- with upwards of 40 cars apiece -- for 24 hours. This test race will be an official race but will not count in the standings of the Road Warrior Series.
“Whether you’re talking about drivers, teams or sanctioning bodies, pre-season testing is an essential element of motorsports,” says Steve Myers, Executive Vice President and Executive Producer of iRacing.com. “It’s only fitting to have a pre-season test for our competitors and a final systems check before iRacing’s inaugural 24 hour event. Since the introduction of our driver swap/team feature last month, private leagues have successfully run scores of races lasting up to six hours with 50 or more cars. We want to make sure our first 24 hour race goes just as smoothly.”
iRacing’s Roar Before the 24 features the HPD ARX-01c in the prototype class while the GT class includes the full range of GT3 cars available on the iRacing service including the BMW Z4, Ford GT, McLaren MP4-12C and RUF Track. The class-winning drivers in all splits of the iRacing Roar Before the 24 will each be awarded $50 in iRacing credits and all participants will earn iTested Awards.
Scheduled for January 31, the iRacing 24 Hours of Daytona is the first official event in a 2015 Road Warrior Series consisting of virtual versions of some of the world’s great road races. The series will utilize a variety of cars with almost half the races being multi-class. It includes 10 races spanning all 12 months of the calendar with points being tracked all year long.
See the Road Warriors forum thread for full schedule and complete details.
Description of Series: This official iRacing series will feature road racing from all around the world. The series will utilize a variety of cars with almost half the races being multi-class. It includes 10 races spanning all 12 months of the calendar with points being tracked all year long. Race in all of them or just the ones you want.
Race Times for Standard Races:
Saturday 1:00 GMT (Friday 8:00 PM est)
Saturday 20:00 GMT (Saturday 3:00 PM est)
Sunday 1:00 GMT (Saturday 8:00 PM est)
Sunday 12:00 GMT (Sunday 7:00 AM est)
Race Times for Endurance Races:
Saturday 13:00 GMT (Saturday 8 AM est)
*Note that we will not be adjusting times for daylight savings. GMT start time will always remain the same. You will need to convert to local time and allow for DST if your location observes it.
Race Distance: This will vary week to week. Some races will be timed others will be laps but generally speaking a lot of variety in the race distances.
Member eligibility: All members in good standing with at least a Road D 4.0 (Oval D 4.0 will be required for Indy 500 event) are eligible to participate in this series. You do not have to compete in all races.
Server Farms: US servers only
Resets: None
Race car setup: Open car sets so you can build your own, use a shared set from another member or use the iRacing setup that will be provided for each car participating in the series.
Race warm up: 10 minutes
Number of races and drop weeks: 10 races with 1 drop week
Field size: Will vary by race
Cautions: local only (Indy 500 will have full course cautions)
Incident Limit: 30 per race except in endurance races where there will be no max
Qualifying: 20 minute open qualifying session throughout the race week. Your fastest qualifying time will carry to all race session you join. You do not need to qualify in order to race. Indy 500 qualifying will be single car and take a four lap average
Divisions: Standard 10 divisions
Splits: Splits will be set by iRating
Gridding: Grids will be set first by qualifying time, then by iRating.
Points: Standard point system will be used. Note that for multi-class races only the class where you score the most points will be used. However you can race in all classes if you like but again only the car class in which you score the most points in a given week will be used for series scoring. That said, it is a moot point because standard iRacing scoring takes your top 25% race performances and with only 4 races per week, it is simply going to take your highest scored race regardless of car class in a given week
Schedule:
Daytona 24 Hour - January 31 - February 1
Sebring 12 Hour - March 28
Indy 500 - May 29 - June 1
Canadian Ruf Cup - June 12 - 15
Spa Grand Prix - August 28 - 31
Trucks in Canada - September 4 - 7
Italian Grand Prix - September 11 - 14
Petit Le Mans - October 10
Bathurst 1000 - October 17
Nurburgring ?? - November/December - Tentative, subject to track availability
More event details can be found in the attachment and final details for each event will be posted prior to the beginning of the race week. Schedule of events, dates and times is subject to change.
