IZOD IndyCar Series competitors are currently poised to begin testing brand new cars for the 2012 season. It goes without saying it will be a painful process for team owners, who have to purchase new equipment after running essentially the same cars for the best part of a decade. But it will also be painful for drivers, engineers and mechanics, at least in the sense they will be operating outside the comfort zone they developed working with the old Dallara.

It’s a process with which the Formula One teams are quite familiar, not just because they design and develop new cars every season, but they had to adjust to Pirelli tires in 2011 after three seasons with Bridgestone as F1’s sole tire supplier.

Initial reaction to NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow was mixed -- at best.

NASCAR? Just this season the Nationwide Series switched over to its version of the Car of Tomorrow. And speaking of the COT, who can forget the COT’s – at times – rocky introduction in the 2007? Or Kyle Busch’s immortal words after winning the COT’s debut race at Bristol: “I can’t stand to drive them. They suck.”

Others were a lot more measured in their comments.

“The cars still drive the same,” said Tony Stewart at the time. “They’re either tight or they’re loose or you’re working with grip. It’s those three things all the time. It’s just a matter of the crews figuring out what the cars like and what they don’t like. After that, it’s back to those three basics.”

iRacing is currently experiencing its own version of No Pain, No Gain with the release of the New Tire Model to seven additional cars in the Season 4 build. Not surprisingly, more than a few iRacers are focusing on the “pain” element of the equation . . . and are not shy about expressing their opinions in the iRacing forums.

“iRacing should be ashamed about this new tire model adjustment. It is bad. It takes all the fun out of it!!!!!”

“I drove the street stock and the Late Model and also the trucks. They have missed it bad on the LM.”

“The new tire model is consistently inconsistent . . . I can’t get a 10 lap run in without spinning-out no matter what I do to my setup; car is very wishy-washy and not stable. At least before if you were sideways you could recover the car and now if you are sideways it’s around you go!”

Or to be concise:

“Garbage, plain and simple.”

In the interest of equal time (or, if you prefer, fair and balanced news), it should be noted there are plenty of members posting positive comments on the iRacing forums, opining that, after some adjustments in chassis set-ups and driving style, the new virtual new rubber is a step forward.

“It’s just a matter of the crews figuring out what the cars like and what they don’t like.” — Tony Stewart

“I just have a feeling the driving styles haven’t adapted. Good to hear that you have to be on top of the wheel and really drive the car rather than fling it in and mash it out.”

“The real problem is that people don’t realize that they have to completely relearn the car. Everything changes — your steering inputs may need to slow down (or speed up), your braking points will change, you may have to be smoother getting on the gas, etc, etc.

“The people that are having problems are those that haven’t taken time to reset their driving style and learn the car as it is now. And it’s especially hard for the MX5 people since the OTM MX5 would let you get away with murder.”

It’s also worth noting that iRacing has been very “up-front” in conceding the NTM is a work in progress. The build notes for Season 4 specifically note that fact, along with ongoing issues related to lack of lateral stiffness, tire behavior at slow speed and the fact that some car values “may fluctuate in the garage.”

“The Season 4 New Tire Model is an ‘in progress’ update, so there are ‘issues,’” explains iRacing software engineer Grant Reeve. “Some people are fixating on what is not yet working as they expect (tire pressures, camber, etc) or is simply buggy (unpredictable behavior of tires in garage). We shouldn’t – and we don’t — pretend these things don’t exist. But members need to know that if they can look past these work in progress issues they can have a fantastic driving experience, and that is what we’re trying to share with them, and that the other issues will keep getting better as the tire model improves over time.”

“. . . the other issues will keep getting better as the tire model improves over time.” — Grant Reeve

The key phrase there is “as the tire model improves over time.” Just as the IndyCar chassis that Dallara ultimately delivers to its customers in 2012 will differ in a hundred different ways from the original prototype, just as Pirelli’s Formula One R&D program is ongoing and just as today’s Sprint Cup car is very different from the COT of 2007, so the NTM will continue to evolve. It’s not as if iRacing released the Season 4 build and simply cast the NTM and baseline chassis setups in concrete. Working in collaboration with their real world racing counterparts, iRacing engineers are continuing development on the NTM, chassis setups and a host of other issues – including, most assuredly, the superspeedway drafting model. Indeed, updates of the Late Model and the Mazda MX-5 are on the fast-track (most likely they’ll be released within the next couple of weeks), with the speedway drafting model updated well in advance of the 2012 Season 1 build.

On the other hand, just as competitors in IndyCar, F1 and NASCAR Sprint Cup have upped their games to meet the challenges posed by new cars and tires, so iRacers need to adapt to the challenges posed by the NTM . . . challenges that, in the end, are little different from those posed by the old tire model.

So while development continues apace on the NTM at iRacing.com, iRacers would do well to remember that, old school Sprint Cup car or COT, Dallara IR05 or Dallara DW001, Bridgestones or Pirellis, OTM or NTM, it all still comes down to who best figures out “what the cars like and what they don’t like.” After all, it’s an approach that seems to be working well for Tony Stewart these days.

“As the world’s leading online racing service, it’s both appropriate and gratifying to announce our first international sanctioning partner,” said Steve Myers, executive vice president of iRacing.com.  “Many of our most enthusiastic members hail from Australia and New Zealand, and iRacing is proud to be associated with V8 Supercars.

“Our NASCAR-, INDYCAR- and GRAND-AM-sanctioned series have introduced new fans to NASCAR, INDYCAR and GRAND-AM and, of course, have been instrumental in the strong growth iRacing has enjoyed since going public in 2008.  We fully expect this new partnership to be similarly beneficial to iRacing and V8 Supercars.”

Australia is the fastest growing country within the ranks of the iRacing.com membership.  In 2010, iRacing added a second server farm in Australia to its system in order to ensure its members throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia experience the best and fastest Internet connection possible.

“We’re delighted by the chance to partner with iRacing.com in sanctioning their online V8 Supercar competition,” says V8 Supercars CEO Martin Whitaker. “The iRacing.com V8 Supercars Series presented by BigPond will enable race fans around the world to experience V8 Supercar racing in a dynamic and exciting fashion.  Although the V8 Supercar Championship is an Australian and New Zealand-based series, we are always looking to expand our horizons internationally, as witnessed by our existing event in Abu Dhabi and the recent announcement that the V8 Supercars will be racing in Austin Texas, USA at the Circuit of the Americas beginning in 2013.  Our new partnership with iRacing.com is another vital component of our efforts to bring the excitement of V8 Supercar competition to our international audience.”

Claire McFarland, Director Online and Mobile Media said, “The BigPond team is very excited about this partnership with iRacing. As the official online and mobile portal of V8 Supercars it’s fantastic for BigPond to be able to bring this experience to Australia’s racing fans.  iRacing is such impressive technology, it’s as close to the real thing as you can get, and streets ahead of anything like it in the market.”

iRacing.com introduced the Ford Falcon FG V8 Supercar to its service in 2010.  The Ford Falcon has been featured in both the iRacing.com Pro Series (Road Racing) and the iRacing.com V8 Supercar Series, the latter of which has seen more than 500 iRacers regularly competing in the Ford Falcon during 2011.  Australia’s scenic and challenging Phillip Island road course is among the more than 50 laser-scanned race tracks available on iRacing.  The service also plans to add a digital version of the Oran Park circuit to its catalogue in the near future, a particularly noteworthy fact given that the physical track (near Sydney) was recently demolished to make room for a housing development.

A number of V8 Supercar drivers past present and future, including Marcos Ambrose, Shane Van Gisbergen, Fabian Coulthard, Scott McGlaughlin, are among the growing ranks of iRacers.  Although they use the service to help sharpen their skills and prepare to race on unfamiliar tracks, they agree that iRacing is just plain fun.

“iRacing is an amazing simulation system and it has helped me tremendously as I’ve tackled NASCAR Sprint Cup competition,” says Ambrose.  “It’s the closest thing to racing in the physical world that you can get.  (But) iRacing.com is for everyone . . . a terrific social venue for racers to find like-minded friends from all over the world.  It is a fantastic service for individuals or a bunch of mates who want to get together regularly, wherever they are in the world, to race.”

“iRacing is the best racing simulator, hands down,” says Van Gisbergen.  “Not only for the accuracy of the laser scanned tracks and cars, but anyone can sign up and be racing against professional drivers from across the world who, like me, use iRacing as a tool to improve driving skills . . . Come take us on!”

Racers can do just that by taking advantage of a special offer for two free months on the iRacing service with the purchase of one month of racing.  New members will be just in time to enjoy the host of new features and content (including two cars and tracks) that will be available with the release of iRacing 2.0 in August. For a sneak preview of iRacing 2.0 featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr, Tony Stewart and the iRacing staff, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/iRacingTV.

Version 2.0 comes out on the anniversary of iRacing’s initial launch three years ago.    “We have come a long way in three years,” said iRacing co-founder John Henry. “We are very excited about getting iRacing 2.0 to sim racers, race fans and gamers from across the world. With this launch we have taken a massive step forward in online racing.”

At the heart of iRacing 2.0 is a new tire model which has been under development for years by legendary sim racing pioneer Dave Kaemmer. “We released a beta version of the new tire model on one car to our 30,000 members a few weeks ago and they were absolutely pumped,” said Kaemmer. “I am tremendously excited to see the reaction when members get to try it on all 30+ of our race cars.”

To try out iRacing 2.0 for yourself, use Promo Code PR-FIVEDOLLAR to get a one month membership for only $5.  Signup today at http://www.iracing.com/membership

Also check out this iRacing 2.0 trailer featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr, Tony Stewart and the iRacing staff talking about the new release!  http://www.youtube.com/user/iRacingTV

“iRacing is proud to have NVIDIA as the title sponsor of our road racing World Championship,” said Tony Gardner, president of iRacing.com.  “The combination of the world’s foremost online racing service, the world’s top sim racers and the world leader in computer graphics is a perfect fit for NVIDIA, iRacing, our competitors and the sport of online racing.

“As online racing continues to grow in popularity, we are witnessing a corresponding increase in support from companies whose products and services are associated with the sport.  The iRacing.com NVIDIA Series is the latest example of this trend.”

The new agreement builds on NVIDIA’s existing relationship with iRacing which includes sponsorship of the iRacing.com NVIDIA Cup, a race series open to all members of the popular online racing service and featuring digitized versions of the Mazda MX5 sports car.

“There are many fans of sim racing here at NVIDIA,” says Phil Eisler, General Manager for 3D Vision at NVDIA.  “It’s a great application for GeForce and even more immersive with 3D Vision.  Therefore, we are delighted to work very closely with iRacing to continue to make the experience more and more realistic.”

The 2011 iRacing.com NVIDIA Series is an 18 race series featuring events every other Saturday and broadcast live on www.iRacing.com.  The series offers cash awards and prizes valued at more than $18,000 to the top finishers in the overall championship.  Currently, Finland’s Klaus Kivekäs enjoys a narrow point lead over the series’ inaugural champion, fellow Finn Greger Huttu, with Brazil’s Hugo Luis in third as the iRacing.com NVIDIA Series prepares for Round 11 at the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit on July 16.

Earnhardt worked on development of game long before it was available to public
By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
July 06, 2011 1:51 PM, EDT
The month of May was fast approaching when Marcus Smith, track president at Charlotte Motor Speedway, decided
he wanted to do something special to commemorate the long-awaited public unveiling of the largest high-definition
television screen in the world at his facility.
Why not ask the most popular driver in NASCAR to come out and play a video game on the huge TV? A couple
phone calls were made, and soon enough Dale Earnhardt Jr. was on board with the idea and quite enthusiastic
about it.
This wasn’t just your normal video screen, of course, and nor was it your normal video game. Earnhardt has always been passionate about the iRacing game that he got to play that day in May.
In fact, Earnhardt helped develop it — and credits playing it regularly to keeping him sharp in his day job, which is driving stock cars at ridiculously high speeds on the Sprint Cup Series circuit.
“It’s fun,” Earnhardt said. “And I think it keeps me sharp.”
Earnhardt said it has helped him this season as he has enjoyed a resurgence in the Sprint Cup point standings. Heading into this Saturday’s race at Kentucky Speedway, he’s seventh.
Carl Edwards, who is currently second in points, said when he thought he was going to run the Nationwide Series race recently at Road America — a track with which he was unfamiliar — he spent a solid two hours on iRacing to prepare for it. Edwards thought he was going to have to fly from Sprint Cup practice in Sonoma, Calif., and jump into his Nationwide car at Road America in Elkwart, Wis., and qualify without practicing. (He ended up changing his mind at the last minute and didn’t run the Nationwide event).

“I spent time on Road America where they had an open practice. It was really cool,” Edwards said. “There were about 60 guys and it was just like a real practice session. One of the guys sent a set-up over digitally and we put that in and talked to him a little bit and followed him around the track. It really helps, I think. … I am relying on
that iRacing stuff to get me up to speed in a situation like that.”

Not all NASCAR drivers agree with Earnhardt, Edwards and other enthusiastic backers of iRacing and other forms of simulation driving in terms of how it can help them prepare for actual races. Others, including Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler, insist that they get nothing of professional value out of iRacing or other simulated racing games and therefore rarely, if ever, pursue them.
“I’ve never done it and don’t really know anything about it,” Sadler said. “I don’t think you can learn anything off it, either, but hey, different strokes for different folks. I guess it’s a tool that some people can use to help them, but it doesn’t work for me. I’m such an outdoors guy. I play a lot of golf; I play a lot of softball; I play flag football. I’m just outdoors, training or doing something all the time; I don’t like to sit inside doing that.
“I understand where we’re always looking for something to give you that extra edge and if other guys can use that to their advantage, more power to ‘em. My
plan is if I’m outside all summer long in the heat, no matter when or where I get in the race car it’s not going to bother me.”
Kahne added that he’d rather look over an unfamiliar track in person or on video before going to it, rather than trying to drive it on iRacing.
“Some of it is so realistic as far as the tracks,” Kahne said. “You can really see it before you go to it, and I guess that has to help. All I ever did was watch it on TV,
or go to the track and watch it there before I raced it. I just never did iRacing. I never did video games. I’ve never been good at it.
“To me it can easily help you understand how it looks going into a corner. But you can get that off TV, too, or just going to a track and paying attention that way.
Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s awesome. But just because you’re a good iRacer doesn’t mean you’re suddenly going to go to Charlotte Motor Speedway and be
able to qualify first for an actual race.”
To that line of thinking, Earnhardt shakes his head with a hint of disbelief. It’s pretty obvious he will soon be attempting to change Kahne’s mind once Kahne
becomes a Hendrick Motorsports teammate beginning next season.
“I’m open-minded about it. I’m not as critical of the simulation as some people. I don’t sit down there and ask myself, ‘Am I really getting anything on the
professional side out of this experience?’ But I believe anytime you play a video game or any kind of simulation like that, I think it helps with your reaction time,”
he said. “There are just some very simple things that it helps you with mentally — and iRacing is the most realistic simulation of the actual racing atmosphere, so
how can it not? How can it not help you somehow?”

The background
To understand why Earnhardt is so bullish on iRacing, a little background is required. Earnhardt worked on development of the game for years before it became available to the general public.
He helped test the product for four years before the online racing service was opened to the public in August of 2008. NASCAR and iRacing.com Motorsports Simulations partnered in May of 2009 to create a NASCAR-sanctioned online racing series that is licensed by NASCAR and organized and hosted by iRacing.
“They’ve been developing it since ’02 and I got in on the beta testing around ’04,” Earnhardt said.
The iRacing.com company was founded in September of 2004 by Dave Kaemmer and John Henry. Kaemmer was co-founder of Papyrus Design Group, developers of some early-on racing simulation games that included the highly popular NASCAR: 2003 Season. Henry is principal owner of the Boston Red Sox in Major League Baseball and Fenway Sports Group — the co-owner of NASCAR’s Roush Fenway Racing organization. Henry also happens to be an avid simulation racer himself who has long said he’s pleased with how iRacing has brought realistic racing simulation to average fans at prices they can afford.
“This is one form of racing that is affordable to the average racing fan,” Henry said when iRacing first partnered with NASCAR. “We provide our members with the opportunity to develop the same driving skills they see their favorite NASCAR stars using every weekend, for a fraction of the cost of their monthly phone bill.”
The company’s subscription numbers bear out Henry’s contention. Even in a down economy, they’ve more than doubled since August of 2009 to more than 25,000
members worldwide today. Fans — and NASCAR drivers themselves — can sign up for as little as $7.46 per month for a two-year membership. They also can sign up
for memberships shorter in length if they’re just test-driving the product, such as $12 for one month or $10 per month for a three-month commitment.
The company also has been aggressive in negotiating rights with International Speedway Corp., Speedway Motorsports Inc., and other racing-related organizations to “build” new virtual tracks. One of the latest to be added to the NASCAR-sanctioned mix was Iowa Speedway. There currently are 19 tracks where Sprint Cup events are held where iRacers can compete, as well as the aforementioned Road America where a Nationwide race is held. The total number of all tracks available — including other types — is up to 46 from 12 just two years ago.

Stepping it up
The increased involvement with NASCAR has had a trickle-down effect, allowing iRacing.com to stage five different online racing series officially sanctioned by NASCAR: NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship (NiSWC), NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series and NASCAR iRacing.com Class A, Class B and Class C Series. NASCAR.com regularly covers NiSWC races and the series champion receives a cash prize of $10,500, along with an expense-paid trip to the Sprint Cup season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway where they are honored during the pre-race ceremonies.
So while the iRacing company is more about making some money and promoting the sport by getting the average fan involved — rather than providing simulation that a driver can actually use to his or her advantage on the race track — having someone with a high profile such as Earnhardt endorse it obviously doesn’t hurt the bottom line. Earnhardt not only was involved in development of its NASCAR-based products but also in hopefully affecting future improvements as a member of iRacing’s competition committee.
Earnhardt also won the inaugural iRacing.com Series World Championship race in February of 2010 and has raced occasionally in the past with series regulars on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. when the official events are held. But he’s more likely just to join in a non-official event when he feels like it, or get in some practice runs on the next track he’ll be visiting. But he said he does enjoy iRacing against fans.
“It’s fun, and I don’t feel pressure to beat ‘em every time,” Earnhardt said. “I hope they get a kick out of it. But not all of ‘em will. Just like up in the grandstands, you’ve got some people who pull for you and some people who hate you. It’s the same way in the iRacing community. There is a forum and there’s a lot of communication going on there. Half of ‘em are telling you you’re doing a good job and half of ‘em are telling you you’re overrated.
“So it just goes with the territory. You just try to move around and blend in and have fun. But most of the time, when I do get the opportunity to sit down and really go at it, those guys are fun to race and they can whip your tail. That’s just the way it goes sometimes. You join a race and whoever you’re paired up with is who you race. Normally they try to pair you up with guys who are of your skill level, but you don’t have a choice in the matter as to who you’re running against.”
Blake Davidson, NASCAR managing director of licensed products, helped negotiate the deal between the governing body and iRacing. He said developing an online racing series was the vision of the late Bill France Jr.

“Bill France Jr. had the original vision for this series more than 10 years ago,” Davidson said when the partnership was formed in 2009. “He foresaw a day when NASCAR fans could experience NASCAR’s side-by-side racing from the comfort of their own homes. That day has now come.

“The iRacing product is so realistic that a number of our drivers are iRacing members. … From the beginning, these drivers have raved about the incredible accuracy of the cars and the tracks that iRacing has produced. Their involvement makes the experience even more authentic.”
Among the drivers who were quick to sign up for iRacing, in addition to Earnhardt, were Brad Keselowski, A.J. Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose, Michael McDowell and Colin Braun. Keselowski, who later drove an Earnhardt-owned car in the Nationwide Series, said he first started getting to know Earnhardt through racing with him online and credited his third-place finish at Darlington Raceway earlier this season in large part to getting to know the place on iRacing. Earnhardt said it benefits younger drivers greatly, noting that as a Nationwide Series team owner, he is pleased when he sees his drivers such as Josh Wise attempting to gain experience on iRacing — especially now that there is less and less testing.
“I don’t encourage him to do it. I leave it up to him,” Earnhardt said of Wise. “But he’s on there quite a bit.”

Not only is less testing at actual tracks in real vehicles available to younger drivers desperately seeking seat time, but what testing is available is far more expensive to owners than having their drivers sit down in front of a computer and go iRacing. Those are factors to be considered as well, Earnhardt said.
“If I had never raced at Milwaukee and I was going to go race there in a Nationwide car or a Star Mazda car or something like that, that would be the perfect way to get acclimated with the track,” Earnhardt said. “It would help you understand what the corner entrances look like, and where the apexes are, just getting on and off the track — where pit road is, what the entrance to pit road looks like and things like that. It can be very tricky at some race tracks, and this gives you kind of a heads up.”

But it’s not just for young drivers. When Jimmie Johnson thought iRacing might help him improve on road courses last year, Earnhardt actually went to Johnson’s house to help him set up the system that Johnson later credited, at least in part, with helping him win the first road-course race of his career at Infineon Raceway. Earnhardt said he wanted it “done right.”

No “fartin’ around”
Earnhardt chuckles when he’s asked what it means to be a member of the iRacing’s competition committee. “That just means they get together and hold conference calls about the future of the company and the direction they want to go, and new things they’re working on,” he said. “I just try to give them the customer’s point of view, and try to help them a little bit with just general racing knowledge.”
As far as those in racing who use it both for fun and for serious preparation to hone their skills, everyone does it differently. Edwards said he has “a hot seat and my PC is set up and everything. I have worked a lot on that. I haven’t done that lately because there is a certain limit to how much it can help you here, but it can definitely help you with braking points and where the speed is on a road course, for sure.” Earnhardt keeps his set-up simple. He does have a three-paneled arrangement of computer monitors so he sees not only in front of him but also out the sides just like he would in a real car. But it’s not like he pulls on a firesuit or has to strap himself in before getting after it.
“It’s nothing special. I just have a computer desk and monitors and a steering wheel — because at the same computer, I play Call of Duty and surf the Internet and talk to my friends,” he said. “So it’s not like I have a racing pod or anything like that. Some guys do. I do other things at the computer, too, so I don’t need to be laying in a race car to be able to sim race, you know?”
He added that he gets perhaps the most value out of iRacing when he knows his Sprint Cup team is going to a non-sanctioned NASCAR track to test, and he can first run some laps at that track on iRacing.com. He said Virginia International Raceway is a perfect example.
“When we go to Virginia to test at the road course, I can sit here and tell you that I know the race track and that I know how to get around it — because I’ve been there. But I only go there once a year, if that. And we go there for one day. And if I didn’t have iRacing, I would spend the first hour of that day farting around, just trying to get up to speed,” Earnhardt said. “We wouldn’t learn nothin’, because we couldn’t use the telemetry — because I’m fartin’ around, trying to figure out how to get fast.
“If I go on iRacing and run that track — because they have that configuration — I probably can cut that down to 10 or 15 minutes of farting around. Those are the little things where I think it really helps. Because I’ve done that before, and it’s helped me a lot. Normally when we go test at a place like that, I’m not a road racer so when I go test at a place like that it takes me some time to get up to speed. And then I’ll go tell the crew chief, ‘I don’t know what we’re learning here, because I’m not up to speed yet.’ When I do iRacing and then we go to Virginia, as soon as we hit the track for that first run, I’m like, ‘All right, man. I’m at my target speed. I’m at my limit. We can start using this data and understand what the car is doing, and start working on the car.’ ”
Earnhardt said he can’t stress it enough how much he believes it helps him. And for young drivers seeking seat time, he said it beats every other alternative short of finding a real car to run on a real track.
“I think there is definitely some mental sharpness that comes with doing the iRacing. At least for me, it does,” Earnhardt said. “And for the young guys, it helps you if you’ve never been to that race track before, or if you haven’t run there a lot. The simulation is exactly like the real thing, so you can go out there and run the line and you can understand how to get around the race track. It’s a help.

“The other drivers who might try out iRacing and don’t believe that it can help them are pretty narrow-minded. I wish them all the luck in the world. It’s a tool to help you stay sharp, especially for young drivers.”

iRacing.com is the world’s leading online racing service, with digital versions of more than two dozen types of cars (including the Ford Falcon FG) and nearly fifty of the world’s great race tracks – from Indianapolis and Daytona to Spa, Silverstone and Phillip Island.   All you need is a computer, gaming steering wheel and pedals and high speed Internet and you can be racing against top sim racers from all over the world, not to mention guys like Dale Earnhardt Jr, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud who use the service.

For those of you in Australia and New Zealand, checking out www.hyperstimulator.co.nz is a great place to start. These guys will hook you up with some awesome sim parts to get you started.

When my “day job” permits, I compete in iRacing’s version of the V8 Supercar championship.  Although I’ve enjoyed some success, believe me, racing against the top sim racers in Australia and New Zealand – there’s a few of them who can pretty consistently dust me! And I take it pretty seriously.

When my “day job” permits, I compete in iRacing’s version of the V8 Supercar championship.

Most of the front runners in the iRacing V8 series are young guys and any of them could have a shot at a professional career if they got that opportunity I reckon. There’s some great potential there and you can see guys like Madison Down and Mitch McLeod already have great race-craft and great car skills.  That’s all thanks to the sim racing they’ve done and how accurate the simulation is. I’ve seen where another iRacing champion named Greger Huttu got the chance to drive a real race car and he did pretty well, so maybe one day for these guys . . .

Speaking of accuracy, one of the features iRacing recently added is McLaren Electronics’ ATLAS Express data acquisition system.  You read that right: Sim racers now have access to the same telemetry data as F1 drivers.  I’ve been using ATLAS Express quite a bit in my efforts to improve car setup and driving style in the iRacing V8s. As with the MoTeC system we use in the V8 Supercar Series, you try different things and overlay the traces versus your previous laps and see was it good or not. You can teach yourself with the system and it certainly makes you a better driver.

In any form of racing, your most direct competition is your teammate.  And just as I do in the V8 Supercar Championship Series with my SBR teammates Tim Slade and Alex Davison, on iRacing I compare my data with Scotty McLaughlin and a couple of others for a look-see at how our different driving styles work, where what you’re doing is a little quicker than your teammates and vice versa, then make some changes where it’s necessary and – ideally – blend the best of both.  
From an engineering point of view, if you have access to all your teammates’ setups and driving styles, you can learn what people are doing to help their car – or maybe you’re doing something better that they can learn from.

Atlas Express is a feature of the second generation of the iRacing system – iRacing 2.0 – which is being introduced in its entirety in August. Along with Atlas Express, iRacing 2.0 includes a whole range of major improvements including new cars, new tracks and enhancements to the system.

I’ve been pretty heavily involved in the development of one of those enhancements – iRacing’s revolutionary new tire model — as it applies to the Ford Falcon FG.  Up until now, race simulations have based their tires on a sort of “reverse engineering” process, where they take the performance numbers of real tires and try to mimic them as closely as possible.  Instead, the iRacing people have made a massive effort to understand the fundamental physics of tire performance in order to create virtual tires that inherently behave like “real” tires rather than as the result of “artificially” tinkering with their performance to make them match-up with a set of arbitrary numbers.

As you can imagine, the ATLAS Express data acquisition system is a critical part of the testing process, as I can actually overlay the data from the iRacing V8 compared to my real V8 at Phillip Island.  Unbelievable! The effects of changes in tire pressures and temperatures, camber, toe, ride height, dampers and springs; aerodynamics; different driving styles . . . it’s all there.  The notes I’ve made comparing the sim car vs the real car are all backed-up by the data, which really helps develop the accuracy of the new tires.

The new tire model has such huge potential and is already a massive step forward.  There’s a bit of work to do yet, but it’s definitely more realistic already.  You can feel the tire and the road, the gripping and when it slips away . . . the feeling is definitely more positive.  We need to make it better and make the car a little better as well, but it’s definitely going to be awesome when it’s finished. I can’t wait!

The new tire model is currently only available on iRacing’s equivalent of the NASCAR Nationwide Series car.   Myself and a few development drivers are working with the Ford Falcon FG.  A few of the guys from the iRacing V8 Supercar series are in the process of getting into it and all the iRacing cars will be equipped with the new tires in August. Also, a few of the other Championship Series drivers are in the process of signing up — so come on, join in the fun and take us on!

Note: After several seasons as an emerging star of Australia’s V8 Supercar Series, Shane van Gisbergen is enjoying a breakout season in 2011. Driving the Stone Brothers Racing SP Tools Ford Falcon FG, the 22 year old New Zealander scored his first V8 Supercar Series win at the Hamilton street race in April and backed that up with another win at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway in June. “The Giz” currently occupies third place in the overall series standings.

My first time out on the new tire model was in the Sprint Cup COT; at that point the Nationwide car had not been released for testing yet. The most obvious difference was how much more solid the force feedback (FFB) effects were. It was a much deeper feeling compared to simply increasing the force of the effects. I could tell from the FFB feel how loaded the front tires were in the corner compared to the straight. It was really noticeable at highly-banked super speedways. The very next thing I tried was tossing the car down onto the apron, as many of us know “dewedging” many of the iRacing cars on an apron, curb or otherwise sharply angled surface is viciously unsettling. A large smile crossed my face when I took the Sprint cup COT down onto the apron in the middle of turns 1 and 2 at Charlotte and didn’t immediately spinout.

As concepts were added into the tires (eg how wear affects heating) I got to feel how the cars performance changes over a run. Overdriving the tires in the Nationwide COT now has a subtle but compounding effect on handling. Pushing the car deep into the corners at a short track such as Richmond begins to build heat and pressure into the RF in addition to increasing wear .Those changes pile-up and make a much bigger impact on handling relative to the old tire model. Put yourself into a comfortable rhythm at a short track and you’ll be able to run 10 lap segments with consistent times within a tenth where falloff is manageable. Constantly overdrive the car into the turns and you’ll quickly see how that abuse tightens the car as the RF loses significant amounts of grip and lap times increase several tenths of a second. But backoff and run conservatively for a short stint and the heat and pressures will bleed off. While the handling won’t be as good as on fresh tires, you can recover from overdriving.

Whether you’re coming from the oval or road course world of sim racing, the new tire model (NTM) –even in its early state — is going to be a game-changer.

The DWC drivers have all been wondering if they’ll still be running as slipped-out and sideways as they currently do. Thus far the answer to that is “no”. It’s a concern on several testers minds and something we’ve been paying attention to, hoping that we don’t suddenly find ourselves running on as sharp an edge as possible turning right constantly. The amount of yaw the Nationwide COT currently tolerates is significantly lower than everyone is used to running, so much so that many testers are having trouble visually recognizing when the car is getting out from under them. It’s taken some tweaking but also some relearning as a driver how to deal with a loose car. The first problem with a loose car is how early you need to recognize that the rear end is getting away from you. As you increase your slip angle, heat builds faster in the rears in addition to aerodynamic side-force. These all act together to compound the situation much faster than we see in the old tire. An early reaction usually takes the form of reducing the amount of steering input, along with a slight lift as one would expect. Too late a reaction (when the car begins to exceed as little as 8-10 degrees of slip) will see you full-on countersteer combined with throttle modulation. Once you’ve made a successful save, you still have to deal with the built up heat in the rear tires. On a speedway like Charlotte you’ll definitely notice the car will be looser in the following corner after heating-up the rears. The quicker onset of a slide and effects of heat buildup have made having a comfortable setup much more important.

The group races we’ve done testing the Nationwide COT are some of the most true to reality replays I’ve seen. We recently ran at Michigan and, looking back, all the cars appear to be running with the appropriate amount of crab angle through the corners. The cars ride over bumps and slip and slide in the corners when overdriven at one end or the other much the way I see on TV every weekend. It’s a subtle but impressive difference when you have the chance to compare testing replays on the NTM with actual iRacing replays on the old tires. But more than that is the feeling you get driving the car in traffic at a place where you can take advantage of multiple lines. I’ve always been more of a tactician style driver.I’m really enjoying trying to push people into overdriving their cars and then taking advantage as they go into a corner too hot and push into the grey or have to chase the rear end up the hill. The effect of trying to run a race purely as a series of hotlaps is so detrimental that I’ve seen cases where you can kill your times by over a half second at both large and small tracks inside of 5 laps of overdriving. The way your particular setup is built will also have a big impact on how it handles over a run; in many cases the fastest setup I’ve found does not do nearly so well over a long run due to uneven tire wear.

For the road course cars many of the same improvements apply. Driving over curbs is a different experience in the new tire model — which for me is huge. I’ve always hated having to avoid what appear to be relatively benign curbs at the edge of the road because of how quickly it upsets the car. Overdriving the new tires builds heat and increases wear in much the same way it does for the oval cars. A loose setup is also slower at this point as the cars don’t tolerate abusing the rear tires for long: Slide a few corners heavily in a row and you’ll be babying it through the remainder of the lap in order to keep it under control.

Most of my testing has been done in the Spec Racer Ford. My opinion of the road cars on the old tire model isn’t nearly as critical as it was of the oval cars. The old tire model handles light cars much better than heavy ones, especially the lower powered cars that don’t see as wide a variety of speeds and loads. But the differences are clearly noticeable, particularly more stability over curbing. The new tire model is more sensitive to loading, so a car with a very rearward weight distribution like the Spec Racer Ford has a much higher intolerance now towards abusive trail-braking. Since we don’t feel the effects of g-forces in the sim it was very hard for me to get used to that at first. But going back and looking over my replays, many of my initial spins in the car were due to driving it hard into the corner and putting a ton of weight on the front tires and then proceeding to turn-in. With that much momentum in the rear of the car and no loading on the rear tires, it comes around quite quickly. On exit sliding the rear out under power doesn’t translate to forward acceleration the way it currently does on the old tire model. You really feel the diff working differently with these tires particularly through a cambered corner such as the keyhole at Mid-Ohio. You can quickly spin-up the inside wheel, get loose and correct the wheelspin but still be sliding too much to get proper forward traction. That, combined with the fact that you build up so much heat in the rears that by the time you get to the esses you have to brake much earlier to deal with cornering the car, really reflects on how much differently you need to approach driving it fast..

I hope this will give everyone a taste of some of the differences we’re experiencing in the new tire model from a drivers perspective. I’m sure there are a ton of questions left unanswered. But they will have to wait until the release. For certain many of us who are testing are hugely excited to see this released into the wild: It’s really going to make a big splash when that first practice session gets joined!

I recall seeing Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines in a jam-packed cinema as a youth and, along with the rest of the audience, laughing myself silly. Curiously, whenever I’ve seen the movie again on television it’s not the same. Amusing? Sure. Funny? Occasionally. Side-splittingly hilarious? Not so much.

One of my most memorable concert experiences occurred while I was living in Toronto and attended a double bill featuring Ry Cooder and Randy Newman at Massey Hall. Believe me, being an American surrounded by Canadians certainly colored my appreciation of Cooder’s American “roots” music to say nothing of Newman’s multi-faceted lyrical ironies, particularly Political Science.

Last week I had a rare opportunity to attend a preview (in the USA at least) of Senna, a documentary on three time World Champion Ayrton Senna. It was rare enough to see the film before it is released in the USA. But what made the experience utterly unique was viewing the film at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the hospitality unit of APEX Brazil, surrounded by an audience whose livelihood is racing, including IndyCar champions Tony Kanaan and Jimmy Vasser.

The event kicked-off with a brief cocktail party but quickly moved into the film portion of the evening, introduced first by Senna director Asif Kapadia and then Kanaan. My colleague Gordon Kirby and I happened to be sitting at a table with Vasser who quietly told us to be prepared for something special, having seen the movie himself a few nights earlier.

Senna began with the audience in, if not exactly a festive mood, a chatty, talkative spirit, decompressing from the events of Carburetion Day and anticipating all the hoopla attendant with the first and only Centennial Edition of the Indianapolis 500. That mood continued throughout much of the movie which, without giving too much away, focuses almost exclusively on Senna’s Formula One career with a particular emphasis on what developed into a bitter rivalry with Alain Prost. Senna is also noteworthy in that there is no narrator per sae moving the story line forward; instead the movie progresses in chronological fashion based on archival footage of racing action and interviews with Senna, his parents, Prost, Ron Dennis, Frank Williams and various journalists.

It’s all there – or at least most of it — from the moment Senna announced he was a future world champion with his sensational performance in the 1984 Monaco GP in the Toleman to his equally brilliant first win the following season with Lotus in the Grand Prix of Portugal and on into the victorious McLaren years, his battles with Prost and, finally, his move to Williams.

Given that the audience was largely comprised of motorsports insiders – many of of whom hailed from Brazil – there couldn’t have been anyone who wasn’t keenly aware of the film’s ultimate conclusion. In those circumstances, watching Senna was akin to attending a performance of Antigone or King Lear and, in the final ten or fifteen minutes, you could have heard the proverbial pin drop. Vasser, for one, left the hospitality tent before the events of that terrible weekend in 1994 began to unfold on film and, when the movie concluded, it was a somber crowd indeed exiting the APEX Brazil tent.

“Watching ‘Senna’ was akin to attending a performance of ‘Antigone’ or ‘King Lear.’”

Senna is not without its quirks, even shortcomings. Another colleague (doubtless a Prost fan) termed it “a masterpiece of propaganda.” Incomplete is another word that comes to mind. Gerhard Berger, who succeeded Prost at McLaren, is not even mentioned, let alone interviewed to provide a semblance of perspective on what Senna was like as a teammate. And there’s nary a hint of the nascent rapprochement between Senna and Prost that was so cruelly cut short, only a baffling (at least to those unaware of the thaw in their icy relationship) line in the credits mentioning the Frenchman is a trustee of the Ayrton Senna Foundation.

That said, Senna is one of those rare movies that treats auto racing in a thoughtful, dignified manner with none of the clichés, melodrama or, at worst, sheer fantasy that characterize the vast majority of the motorsports cinema “genre.” Senna is scheduled for release in the United States on August 13.  By all means see it at your first opportunity, no matter the audience or circumstances. And take a spouse, sibling, parent or friend along – they’ll be afforded a rare insight into what, despite its growing mainstream acceptance, remains a widely misunderstood sport.

In addition to affording its members unprecedented opportunities to increase their understanding of their virtual race cars’ performance with ATLAS Express, iRacing is also releasing an upgraded application program interface (API) that will dramatically enhance the service’s compatibility with an array of external features including motion platforms and external displays.

“With the new iRacing telemetry capability, our members will be able to log detailed telemetry from their virtual race car to disk,” says Dave Kaemmer, iRacing’s chief executive and chief technical officer.  “Using McLaren Electronics’ Atlas Express data analysis application, members who wish to delve into the engineering details in order to improve their cars’ handling will be able to do so, using very similar tools as F1 and NASCAR teams.  In addition, with iRacing’s new real-time telemetry interface, multiple applications will be able to access telemetry simultaneously, allowing easier support for motion platforms, external gauges, and other add-ons from the sim-racing community.”

ATLAS Express is derived from the ATLAS suite of software developed in the 1990s to support McLaren’s own Formula 1 team.  Continued growth and development of the system saw it introduced into a variety of motorsports environments including Le Mans and ALMS sports cars, the FIA World Rally Championship, the FIA Formula One World Championship, NASCAR and IndyCar.  The FIA awarded McLaren Electronics the contract to supply the powertrain control system to every team competing in the Formula 1 from the beginning of the 2008 race season and, in February this year, NASCAR named McLaren as the Official Engine Control Unit of NASCAR for the 2012 Sprint Cup series in support of its impending switch to fuel injected engines.

“Up to now, you had to be a race engineer in a top level race team to access these tools” says Mike Phillips, President of McLaren Electronic Systems’ US division, “and access to reliable real-time data has been a game-changer for car development and race strategy in recent times.  Our link with iRacing will now make this experience easily accessible to the current user community and hopefully new players intrigued by the possibilities this gives them.”

In its iRacing application, ATLAS Express will be primarily available as a tool for analyzing and developing the handling of the members’ virtual race cars.  Where iRacers have previously been able to monitor tire wear and temperature in the pits after completing a lap or laps, ATLAS Express will make available substantially more detailed information regarding performance such as the real time tire surface temperatures, along with critical data such as lateral acceleration, steering wheel angle and damper/spring deflection.

“Up until now, our members have only been able to work on their setups by ‘feel,’ tire wear and temperatures, and by gauging their performance on the stop watch,” says Kaemmer. “ATLAS Express will now allow iRacers to view driver and car performance in a given session to help them tune the car with actual data.”

Beyond powering the ATLAS Express software, the feature-rich API will dramatically increase the functionality of the iRacing service.  For example, broadcasts of online races will now be able to utilize screen overlays of real time on-board telemetry from individual cars, while members will be able enjoy the full benefits of plug-ins for a variety of external custom hardware including vibrating pedals, base shakers and motion platforms.

iRacing is working with McLaren Electronic Systems to develop workbooks and documents specifically designed to help iRacing members take full advantage of the ATLAS Express applications to the iRacing service.  Together with the  ATLAS Express software, the documentation and workbooks are expected to be released before the end of May, 2011.

However, Kaemmer stressed the service will remain user-friendly for members who would rather race than crunch numbers.

“Although engineering a race car is an interesting challenge, iRacing will continue to provide ‘Arrive and Drive’ racing series with fixed car setups for those who prefer turning a steering wheel to turning a wrench.  As has always been the case, members will be free to share their set-ups with other iRacers, so the addition of ATLAS Express to the service figures to make everyone a little – or a lot — faster.”

Wise’s No. 7 Chevrolet will don the iRacing 2.0 paint scheme in back-to-back races at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis and Iowa Speedway later this summer. This is doubly significant as iRacing.com has just signed agreements with both venues to build the facilities to exacting detail within the simulation.

Wise will debut the No. 7 iRacing.com car during the Kroger SpeedFest in the Kroger 200 benefiting Riley Hospital for Children at the Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis on July 30th. The race will feature prominent racing all-stars including 2011 Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne and ESPN X Games champion Travis Pastrana as he makes his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at the event.  The .686 semi-banked asphalt oval will be celebrating its 30th year hosting the Nationwide series, and Wise will be looking to improve on his 16th-place finish there last year.

The next weekend Wise will be heading to Newton, Iowa to compete in the U.S. Cellular 250 NASCAR Nationwide race at Iowa Speedway for his second race in the iRacing.com Chevy Impala on August 6th.  The 7/8ths mile semi-banked oval was designed by former NASCAR Champion Rusty Wallace and Wise will be looking to best his solid 11th-place finish last year in the race.

“We’ll be releasing Iowa Speedway prior to the U.S. Cellular 250 so our members can get a taste of what Josh will be experiencing when he races the iRacing.com Nationwide car,” said iRacing.com’s executive vice-president and producer Steve Myers. “Lucas Oil Raceway will follow later in the year as we look to round out our offerings of short tracks.”

“Our friendship with Dale Jr. and his race team go back to the beginning of iRacing so this is a natural progression to an already well-established relationship,” said Tony Gardner, iRacing president. “Our 25,000 plus members know Dale’s passion for sim racing and iRacing. So when it came time to get the word out about iRacing2.0, we called Dale and he happily obliged.”

Gardner continues, “We’re very excited about Version 2.0. Some of the great features will include the new tire model for all cars, improved drafting and more realistic downforce characteristics, Heat/Tournament racing for private leagues/sessions, and optional driver aids (ABS brakes, traction control, driving line, steering aids) for drivers looking to ease their way into the simulation, and much more.”

iRacing.com has a pool of professional drivers in the service. Dale Jr, along with many other pros provide tremendous feedback on the driving dynamics so iRacing can make the experience as real to life as possible for its members. iRacing has always been about allowing fans to not only watch NASCAR on the weekends, but to actually participate in the competition.

”When iRacing approached us about finding a way to work with them in announcing iRacing 2.0 we jumped at the chance to expand on what already is a terrific relationship,” said Kelley Earnhardt,  JR Motorsports General Manager and Co-owner.  “JR Motorsports prides itself on not only being a top tier racing team but a cross platform marketing company and we are excited to show them results on the track and in promoting iRacing 2.0.”

“I am excited that we get to go racing with iRacing this summer on the 7 car but I have to admit I am most excited about the advancements iRacing has made with their product,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr.  “I have had a chance to drive the iRacing 2.0 physics model quite extensively and I am absolutely blown away with what they have done.  I can’t wait for its release this summer so I can trade some paint with the members!”

An an avid iRacer himself, Earnhardt has helped mold iRacing’s online competition and is currently a member of iRacing’s competition board. However, JR Motorsports involvement with iRacing doesn’t end there. Crew Chief Tony Eury Jr., who will be calling the shots for the No. 7 iRacing.com car, has been integral in helping iRacing with its stock car physics model, providing key data and even visiting the iRacing offices to work face-to-face with the iRacing engineering staff. The new JR Motorsports Nationwide car is the very car iRacing scanned when building the car for the service.  Driver Josh Wise, along with Dale Jr’s spotter TJ Majors, are both iRacers. In fact, iRacers regularly hear the voice of Majors as their in- simulation spotter.

“This is the best online racing experience! It’s second to none,” states Wise. “The tracks are as real as it gets. It’s simply a blast getting out on the track with my friends for some good old-fashioned short track racing or drafting at Daytona with a full on-line field of 43 cars. I am really proud to be representing iRacing and their customers in these two races this summer.”

iRacing members can get involved with the 2.0 launch as well. iRacing is kicking off a paint scheme contest – the winner will see his or her design on Wise’s car for the two mid-summer races. iRacing and JR Motorsport staff will judge the submissions and choose the one that best illustrates what iRacing 2.0 is all about.  For more details go to www.iracing.com/paint7. Be sure to tune in to ESPN2 on July 30th and August 6th to cheer on the iRacing 2.0 car.

Those not currently a part of the iRacing community can join by going to www.iracing.com/buy-1-get-2/ where they will be able to find a great special offer.  New subscribers will be able to buy one month and get two free months for only $12. The three-month subscription includes all of the cars and tracks needed for your rookie iRacing season.

Click here to watch an exciting iRacing preview video.