The Indianapolis 500 may have lost some of its luster in recent years – remember when the world’s second largest single day sporting event (after the Indy 500 itself) was Pole Day?  Still, when it comes to sports events, it’s hard to match the goings-on at Georgetown and 16^th Street for sheer drama.   Whether you follow the start of the race from the Tower Terrace or the Southwest Vista, on TV at home or on the radio broadcast at a picnic, one thing is certain: in a few hours the career and life of at least one of the 33 starters will be forever changed.

I can’t point to a single Indy 500 that changed my life, but I know my life wouldn’t be the same without it.  I have watched, listened to, attended or covered every Indianapolis 500 since 1965.   Here are ten indelible memories:

1)    Dragging my father to Pittsburgh’s old Civic Area (aka The Igloo) in 1965 to watch a grainy, black and white, closed-circuit telecast of Jim Clark’s historic victory.   My father had never cared much for auto racing, but he became a big fan of Jim Clark that day and, for better or worse, our new-found mutual interest surely influenced my career path.

2)    Listening to Sid Collins & Company bring the much-delayed and, ultimately, tragic 1973 race to life with nothing more – or less – than words on my car radio.

3)    My first glimpse of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; the three story, concrete grandstands stretching to the vanishing point along Georgetown Road.

4)    Standing on pit road during qualifying in 1982 watching Gordon Smiley arc into Turn One at the start of his final warm-up lap.

5)     Also in 1982, pulling into the “Blue” sticker parking lot at 6:15 the morning of the race, putting the seat-back down and going to sleep; then waking up a couple of hours later and seeing – I swear I am not making this up – Bernie Ecclestone and Gordon Murray get out of the car parked beside mine.  “You’re Bernie Ecclestone and Gordon Murray,” I managed to croak out.  “What brings you to the Indianapolis 500?”  “We heard there’s a race here,” said Bernie. “Thought we’d have a bit of a look.”

6)    Watching from the old press box as Arie Luyendyk won the 1990 Indianapolis 500 – his first win of any kind in Indy car racing.  At the time I was ghost-writing a column for Arie in On Track magazine and we had become, if not inseparable pals, very good professional colleagues.   I started experiencing violent stomach cramps when it dawned on me that Arie was really going to win the race.

7)    Staring at a blank computer screen in the post-race bedlam of the press room in 1995 and having no idea – zero, nada, nothing – where to begin writing my race report for Autoweek.

8)    Watching the broadcast of the Monaco Grand Prix in the Honda hospitality tent the morning of the 2005 race as my British colleagues hurled rolls and good natured insults at a fellow who lingered in the buffet line and blocked their view of the TV; a fellow named Dan Wheldon; did rather well that day, as I recall.

9)    Touring the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum with historian Donald Davidson the day before the race in 2010.  You’ve heard the saying that someone has forgotten more than you’ll ever know about a particular subject?   Multiply that ten-fold with Donald who, apart from his bottomless font of knowledge, is among the kindest, most unassuming and (here’s the real key) genuinely curious people you will ever meet.

10)   Not about a particular Indy 500, but about the race in the days before the modern “new” garage area and when the event was, literally, a month long in its entirety.  A few years ago, I was speaking of those days with legendary race engineer Tony Cicale.  And with all due respect to Janet Guthrie, Lyn St James, Sarah Fisher, Danica Patrick, Milka Duno, Simona De Silvestro, Ana Beatriz, Pippa Mann and Katherine Legge, this is what he had to say:

You ran every single day for three weeks, from 11 in the morning until 6 in the evening.  It was a nasty environment because you had eight or ten guys working in close proximity in your (old) garage.  And if things were going well, you were OK.  But you had to do well every single time out.  You were only as good as your last time sheet.  You could have done 225 mph when 225 was a pretty good speed and you’d have been happy (but) the next day you had to fight to get up on top again.  Every day was a race.

 With (Jacques) Villeneuve (in 1995) I mandated we’d run two days and then not even go to the track . . . because you didn’t want to get sucked into that daily game of  ‘Change the car to fit the track conditions . . .’  You went through every permutation and then you’d just get totally confused because you could never go back to what you had because a) you couldn’t measure well enough half the time and b) the track was different because the conditions had changed.  It was brutal.

 It’s a man’s game, Indy.  That’s for sure. 

I have never been able to come up with a creative enough story for Tony as to why I need to fly to Australia to network with the folks in the V8 Supercar Series.  So with the V8s making their first visit to the U.S. it gave me a perfect opportunity to meet face-to-face with our partners in the series, our terrific iRacing ambassadors, and hopefully some new partners.

Our trip started before the sun came up on Thursday so needless to say seeing Siff at the airport at 6 AM was not exactly a pleasant experience.  However, it was a wonderful treat to be greeted by the site of a black VW Passat with black leather interior upon our arrival in Austin.  I think I actually lived a nightmare of being trapped inside a microwave every time we got into the car.

What’s the saying? Everything is better in Texas?

We arrived at the track and where greeted by a great friend to iRacing, Vern Norrgard, who is in charge of all digital media for the V8 Supercar Series.  Vern has been a champion for iRacing with the series and is the one responsible for not only our partnership but also for the extensive coverage we get on the V8 website.  I request, no I demand, that any iRacer who meets Vern is immediately required to buy him a beer and some deep fried olives.

Vern spent the better part of the day talking with us and introducing Sean and me to many people inside the series, allowing me the chance to spread the iRacing gospel.  I am really optimistic that we will see our relationship grow with the series based on discussions we had during the trip.

One of the primary reasons we went to the race was the chance to sit down with iRacing members V8 Supercar rookie driver Scott McLaughlin and title contender Shane Van Gisbergen.  The two Kiwis have had a great start to their seasons with both having already won a race.  I won’t go into too much detail on our visit with the guys because we will have a terrific iRacing TV episode to share with you about it.

Scott McLaughlin smiling minutes before a turn 1 lap 1 exit….

I will say that both Scott and Shane could not have been nicer to us and spent a lot of time answering many ridiculous questions about their series and cars from two V8 novices.

Thursday night we headed into downtown Austin to have dinner with Vern.  The highlight of the night was trying to explain to Vern that the site of a grown man wearing only a thong riding a bicycle down the street is NOT a common site in the U.S. – that is unless you live in Sean Siff’s neighborhood or downtown Austin.

Friday we headed back to the track to do some more filming with the drivers and our partners at Kia who had their Pirelli World Challenge Optima at the track for their own race at COTA.  The Cadillac CTS-V race car also hit the track on Friday and my goodness does that thing sound glorious . . . why it sounds exactly like ours sounds on iRacing!  Try this:  Turn your speakers up to 10 and hug your subwoofer.  That’s what it feels like when the Caddy goes by you.

Sean Siff doing work. Garry Rogers not impressed….

Okay I will just come right out and admit it.  I have a BBQ problem.  So needless to say, it was a requirement for my trip to Austin to visit the Salt Lick which we did Friday night.  Anyone who travels within 100 miles of this place and enjoys good BBQ MUST make a stop here.  You know a place must be good when there are 300 people TAILGATING with coolers of beer waiting for dinner.  I will never forgive Sean for ordering TURKEY at quite possibly the best BBQ joint in the world…..

200 pounds of meat on the grill at the Salt Lick and 5 pounds of it Turkey…..

Saturday was the first day of racing on the track and I hate to admit we did not bring Scott and Shane very much luck on the track.  The good news is that we left after their first race and their weekend started going much better for them!  I also had a very productive meeting with the track and I am REALLY optimistic that we will get the track signed.  I also had a good conversation with Holden as well and we left the meeting with the promise that we would continue our discussion in the coming weeks.

The impressive Media Center at The Circuit of the Americas

One thing is certain: The Circuit of The Americas is quite frankly the most stunning track I have been to from a design and architectural perspective.  The layout and finish of the paddock, the breath taking media center and, of course, the iconic tower are highlights . . . but everything is really top shelf.  The elevation change of Turn One is really amazing and TV really does not do it justice.  It’s amazing what $400 million dollars gets you!

All around it was a great trip and I want to thank Vern, Scott, and Shane for all the time they spent with us.  Stay tuned for the upcoming iRacing TV episode featuring our trip and make sure to follow me on twitter @iRacingMyers as I tend to send-out photos like the ones in this blog while I travel on these great adventures.

The whole reason we added iRacing to Project Greenlight was to try and reach new people (presuming we can get Greenlit). We have no plans to change the way things work here at iRacing. We still plan to handle purchases and updates through our site – we think we have developed a pretty good system! While we don’t know exactly how Steam integration would work – we need to have some conversations with Steam first – we do envision it working in a way that would make it easy for new people to sign up for iRacing through Steam. Once they are members, they would get their updates directly through us, or through Steam if they prefer. So for all existing members there would be absolutely no change to the way things work presently except for one small thing . . . .

. . . . there would be more iRacers! This is good for everyone involved with iRacing. More racers means more people signing-up to race. The splits would be better, the racing would be better and we (iRacing) can continue to develop the title. All of the features you keep asking about take time and money to create, and more customers certainly helps with the latter.

With literally millions of users, Steam could introduce iRacing to many new racers.

All this talk about “Bringing-in the wrong type of people” is ridiculous. What kind of people do you want? I want people who are passionate about racing and racing games, have a PC and Internet connection and maybe already have a racing wheel. Will any of the new members join and immediately be ready for the World Championship series? Probably not, but let’s face it, most of you are not either (present company included). Will they make rookie mistakes in the rookie races? You betcha. Will they ask rookie questions in the forums? Sure. Will they not follow the sporting code to the letter on day one? Absolutely. Any of this sound familiar? I bet it describes most of us. None of us are perfect and all of us have made mistakes on iRacing. Most of us have learned from them and gotten better. So what makes you think these potential new iRacers would be any different?

All I’m asking is to be open to the idea that there are many more PC gamers out there that would find iRacing interesting and fun to compete in. We just want to reach out to them and let them know where to find us.

Watch the iRacing Gen6 Cras on track: http://youtu.be/XHxjIz0A424

No matter how you cut it, making a digital version of the new platform for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series available a couple of days after its inaugural race in the real world is quite an accomplishment. That iRacing added the rival Ford Fusion to the mix ten days later only adds to the achievement . . . all the moreso given that, not unlike their counterparts in Charlotte and elsewhere, iRacing’s artists and engineers were developing their Gen-6 cars on the fly.

iRacing now has Fords and Chevrolets racing against each other in official NASCAR series.

“It’s a challenge to build a (digital version) of a car while the teams are building – and developing — the real car,” says iRacing artist Brian Simpson. “NASCAR and the teams tried to be helpful, but on numerous occasions they told us ‘Sure, you can see this (part), but by next week it’ll be changed.’”

The pace of those real world developments regularly sent the iRacing artists back to the drawing boards, er CADs.

“We spent a lot of time watching practice at Daytona,” Simpson recalls. “The cars at the track were running a different rear end (aero treatment) for restrictor plate races than we had been given data for . . . and we just about fell out of our chairs. We had no idea they were going to do that, so it had us scrambling. Let’s say we spent a lot of time poring over the DVRs of practice!”

Likewise, iRacing vehicle dynamicist Eric Hudec – a former race engineer for Petty Racing – was developing the physics of the virtual Gen-6 car in real time.

“There weren’t a lot of details on the Gen-6 car’s physics available,” he says. “So I talked with my friends on some of the teams and with Kevin Bayless (GM Racing oval track chassis/aero program manager), especially with regard to the aerodynamics. We did some guessing and then as teams began testing, we collected information in real time and made the car incrementally better with each step.”

Nor is the process complete. In its never-ending quest for authenticity, iRacing is duplicating the various tweaks of the Gen-6s’ superspeedway, speedway and short track configuration, not to mention other aspects of the cars’ ongoing development.

“We are one of the first, if not the only, NASCAR-licensed sims to include track-specific items like different shark fin and spoiler configurations, grill tape layouts, and so on,” says Simpson. “For the Phoenix race, for example, NASCAR took the roof cameras off the cars because they found it gave the lead car an advantage. So it’s an ongoing process . . .”

The result has been a major success. In an informal iRacing poll, 97% of the Gen-6 owners rated their cars good (10%), very good (35%) or excellent (52%). What’s more, the real world experience confirms the authenticity of the iRacing Chevy SS and Ford Fusion.

“Getting the Gen-6 fixed setup ready for Bristol, I saw we were banging on the rev limiter chip,” Hudec says. “I called my friends at Penske to check that we were using the right gear ratios and to see if they’d seen same thing on their data simulations. When they said no, I chalked it up to our car having a little too much tire grip. But then the teams got to Bristol and guess what? In practice, they were all over the rev limiter.”

So while art always continues to imitate life, in the digital age – particularly at iRacing.com — life increasingly imitates art. See for yourself at www.iRacing.com.

If I am lucky to have my hometown team in the game (Patriots) every muscle in my body is stiff from feeling like a compressed spring ready to explode all night.  Unfortunately the Pats choked two weeks ago so I only feel like I fought a middle weight boxer today instead of a heavy weight…

As I sit here on this Monday morning trying to nurse my “injuries” I have started the mental transition from football season to racing season.  Yes the Rolex 24 was last weekend and really is the start of the racing season but let’s be honest: until the merger of the ALMS and GRAND AM happens the race really feels like a minor league baseball game with a handful of Major Leaguers getting in some rehab work.

In my opinion the racing season starts in three weeks when the beautiful Gen6 NASCAR cars take to the high banks at Daytona.  I am legitimately excited that NASCAR has finally gone back to its roots with the concept of “win on Sunday, sell onMonday” and brought back cars that at least resemble vehicles we can drive ourselves.

Okay, so technically that phrase was coined by Bob Tasca, Sr. who had a Ford dealership up here in Providence, Rhode Island along with an NHRA team, but you get my point.

Upcoming NASCAR Chevy SS Cup Car

The good news for you and me though is that we don’t have to shell out tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to drive a new street Chevy SS or NASCAR SS Cup car.  We are going to get to drive the NASCAR version in about four weeks on iRacing and for only “pocket change” compared to the real world versions.

The Chevy SS will come first and the Fusion should be released a few weeks later.  Yes, I have been working on trying to get the Toyota signed and hope to accomplish that “soon.”  I have been working on it since last summer but working with the big corporations means the “soon” clock runs on months instead of hours….

Upcoming NASCAR Chevy SS Cup Car Cockpit Shot

I have been asked quite a bit whether we will have driver names on the windshields of the Gen6 cars and I can confirm we are working on it.  We may not be able to get this done for the new car’s release in a few weeks, so it may need to go out with the next 13^th week build.

The next car in the development pipeline will be the Ruf Rt 12 R which I can say has personally given me more heartburn than any car to date for a number of reasons I care not to divulge.  I do not anticipate this car being in the next build but there is a very good chance that the Kia Optima SX race car will be in the Season 2 build.

I have to admit that I was not super enthusiastic when this Kia deal came together and then I drove the car…….and it was fun…..and I kept driving it……..for hours. It actually makes me even more excited to get the BTCC Honda Civic done which we are currently working on trying to scan.

The art and production team continues to impress me with the work they do in building our tracks, and our recently released Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace is no exception. The track better known as Interlagos has long been a favorite of mine from my very early days of sim racing and running Geoff Crammond’s GP games.  The flowing uphill, double apex Laranjinha corner has always been one of my favorite sections of track in the world to “drive” — even if only virtually in my case.

With the release of Interlagos, the guys have turned their considerable talents to Kansas Speedway while as continuing work on Montreal and Bathurst.  When we finish-up Kansas and California Speedway this year we will have finally completed building all of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tracks on the schedule.

At this point it is likely that Kansas will be the next “new” track completed but probably not for the next 13^th week deployment.  However, we should have a fresh coat of paint on Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and USA International Speedway to bring them closer to our current standard of new tracks.  The art guys staged a pixel protest and demanded that we stop shaming them by flaunting their early work to the masses . . . and we caved.

A maxscript We Developed to Help Implement The New Tree Shadow System

Keeping on the visual topic, we have a bunch of projects in the works to add some depth to our in-sim world.  We almost had the new shadow map work done for the last build so it is almost certain that it will be done for the next build.  We are also in the process of changing the way that shadows are cast from trees. This project is pretty much the first required step to be able to get dynamic skies into the sim which is another project on the horizon. Pun intended.

Our newest engineer, Richard Jobling, whom you met in our last episode of iRacing TV, is working on the first project to improve our collision and crash models.  This may sound silly but starting with something simple like making cones “collideable” is a significant step forward in making the environment more alive.  This is a big, hairy, monster of a project but when interviewing him for the job he made it clear he was perfectly comfortable wrestling big hairy monsters.

I think the question I get asked most often in the forums and on my twitter account is when the Lotus 49 will be completed.  The good news is that it’s done….well except that it needs NTMv5 which isn’t done yet.  I know I sound like a broken record but Dave really is making great progress on the tire model and feels that he is getting closer to getting NTMv5 released.  He made a significant advance in this last build which really is NTMv4.5.  We are hoping the remaining 0.5 is in this next build.

We are finally getting to a point in our development life here at iRacing that, not only can we can start looking at things that just are not working the way we like, but we can do something about it!  We have a number of projects we are starting work on in this department.

Early UI Concept

One area of the service that has been neglected has been our UI.  I don’t think we have really changed anything since we launched the service.  We have taken a fresh new look at what we can do not only with the in-game interface but also with the loading screen and post-race.  This is a significant project requiring work from both the sim and web engineering teams, so a release schedule for this is still hard to predict.

Also, we are going to try and kill two birds with one stone by introducing an exciting new feature and at the same time try and give the time trial session some TLC.  We are starting work on adding the ability to integrate a ghost car into the session that will allow you to select the best lap of the session, your best lap ever or even a loaded lap from someone else.  We have a lot of exciting longer term ideas as well but in the short term you should be able to work on improving your performance while you spruce up your safety rating!

Yet another project that we are coming back to is our paint kit. We want to evolve the paint kit, both in terms of its design and layout as well as the introduction of new features such as a new color picker and increased font options.  We have even kicked around the idea of adding the ability to download the templates directly from this page.  Brian Simpson actually paid me in peanut butter pattie girl scout cookies to write that last sentence and this is the first time the engineers will hear about it…..

The web team has a number of different projects they are working on in support of features like team racing and our UI re-design.  They really are the unsung heroes of the development team.  These poor guys often are crunching right down to the wire trying to tie-up a feature that literally can’t be deployed without their interface.

One exciting project they are working on right now is a re-design of how you view and join race sessions.  Imagine your TV guide view of nightly television and you get the general idea of where we are going with this.  Soon you will actually have a visual depiction of the racing schedule that you can complain to me about!

I think the second most asked question I receive is the status of team racing.  I can confirm for you that I was sitting in Randy’s office the other day and I watched him make in-race setup adjustments on one iRacing account and machine — and it changed on a second iRacing account and machine.  This is a significant step forward on this project, and although there is still quite a bit of work to be done both in-sim and on the website, I am cautiously optimistic that it will be in the next build.  Once we get the crew chief portion of team racing done actual driver changes are not far off.

I think one of the most significant advances we made in our last build was the improvement Grant made to the drive-train model.  It is amazing how this change has not only transformed the immersion factor in the cockpit but also how the cars actually feel.  The funny thing about it is that this is the end result of us having him work on improving the sounds!  Long term he is still heading towards converting our software to use X-Audio but our lovable Kiwi does have plans to try and make some advances in the near term as well.

For those of you that have not done so, I would highly recommend taking the Ford Falcon V8 Supercar for a spin and then watch the replay from one of the TV cameras.  Aussie Greg Hill has made a huge breakthrough on these external sounds and, coupled with Grant’s work on our sound engine, I think we have the best sound EVER in a racing game or sim.  Expect this same treatment with as many cars as we can get samples for in the service but this new technique will require new recordings so, realistically, this will be a long project.  We are doing our best to launch the Gen6 Cup cars with these new sounds and the Cadillac and Corvette will have them in the next seasons build as of now.

As always there is much more going on behind the scenes then what I have spelled out here.  I make no promises on when any of this will make it on to the membersite but at least you get a little glimpse into what we are working on!  I would encourage those who have joined us in the twenty-first century to follow me on twitter at @iRacingMyers because I often send out some charming 140 character updates on what’s going on in the iRacing universe.  For those of you leery of being sucked into the social media blackhole — don’t worry!   It will be on the forums in thirty seconds.

Now I am off to get some Tums…

“We’re excited to add Interlagos to our service,” says Tony Gardner, president of iRacing.com.  “It’s a world class venue, one with a remarkable history and we’re proud to make it available our members, especially those who call Brazil home.”

Click here for a preview of iRacing’s rendition of Interlagos.

The addition of Interlagos underlines iRacing’s growing presence in Brazil.  In addition to more than 1,000 iRacers participating in scores of official iRacing series, Brazil boasts dozens of private leagues which utilize iRacing.  Among them is iRacing Brazil, which carries online broadcasts iRacing World Championship Grand Prix Series and NASCAR iRacing Series World Championship events in Portuguese.  Hugo Luis, of Rio de Janiero, won the 2011 iWCGPS and finished runner-up in the race for the title last year.

McCumbee (NASCAR CWTS) dominated the opening round of the Chevy Silverado event at Iowa Speedway, besting Kyle Larson (NASCAR K&N) for the pole, then leading the 25 lap online race from start to finish.

“I knew qualifying was going to be important,” said McCumbee.  “I’d run a few races beforehand and knew how hard it is to get through traffic.  So I practiced doing qualifying runs and it worked out well.  I got a good start and was able to stay up front the whole way.”

If Iowa was smooth sailing for McCumbee, it was a hard-fought (but enjoyable) battle for Larson, Van Gisbergen (V8 Supercars) and Richie Stanaway (Renault 3.5 . . . and iRacing Road Pro Series).  The trio ran virtually the entire race nose-to-tail or side-by-side and, in some cases, side-by-side-by-side before Larson took the runner-up spot ahead of the Kiwis.

“I had an awesome race with Kyle,” Van Gisbergen said. “I’m a big fan of Kyle’s I saw him race in NZ last summer so to have an awesome side-by-side race on the oval with him like that was so cool! After many laps side by side I couldn’t get passed so I ended-up settling for third.”

The situation was reversed at Watkins Glen, where the Kiwis worked together to monopolize the front row as Van Gisbergen edged Stanaway for the pole, with McCumbee and Larson on the second row.

“Shane and I were talking back and forth on ‘team speak’ to coordinate our efforts,” explained Stanaway.  “We took turns slipstreaming one another and, right at the end, he put in a great lap for the pole.”

If qualifying up front was important at Iowa, it proved utterly crucial at Watkins Glen.  While the first rows got away cleanly, utter mayhem reigned in the midfield at the drop of the green flag with 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski threading the needle through the chaos to move into sixth spot behind Van Gisbergen, Stanaway, McCumbee, Larson and an amused Chris Dymond (Porsche Carerra Cup GB).

“I’ve only needed one of my four cans of Mountain Dew so far,” quipped the Englishman.  “I’ve been too busy laughing.”

The lead trio managed to break away from Larson over the first few laps.  Once clear of their pursuers, the leaders began jockeying for the win.  Stanaway drafted past Van Gisbergen into the bus stop chicane on Lap Five.  When the V8 Supercar ace returned the favor a few laps later Stanaway resisted and ran wide, with  McCumbee grabbing second in spite of himself.

“I planned to stay in third and let those guys fight it out together,” he said, “but I got the draft and went up into second.”

On the penultimate lap, Stanaway muscled his way past McCumbee into second spot but it was too little too late, as Van Gisbergen took the win by .123s.  McCumbee matched Van Gisbergen’s Iowa result by coming home third ahead of Larson, Dymond and Keselowski.  And speaking of matching records, Stanaway (P4, P2) and Larson (P2,P4) tied for third, while Keselowski was credited with fifth overall ahead of Timmy Hill (NASCAR Nationwide), Brandon Davis (NASCAR K&N), Carl Edwards (NASCAR Sprint Cup), Matt Halliday (V8 Supercars) and Michael Self (NASCAR K&N).

While understandably disappointed at the outcome of the (admitedly arbitrary) tie-breaker system, McCumbee had no complaints.

“That was awesome,” he said, “although I was hoping they’d go to laps-led as the tie breaker!  I really appreciate iRacing for putting-on this event.  It was awesome.”

He’ll get no argument from the winner.

“The race was an intense three-way dogfight for the lead with positions changing many times!” said Van Gisbergen. “Luckily Richie managed to sneak into second on the last lap which made it a tie for the points lead which was cool. Doing races like this with all the real drivers is certainly fun but everyone wants to win it! Can’t wait for the next one.”

Van Gisbergen has plenty of company on that score.

Bedford, MA (December 12, 2011) –  A remarkably diverse collection of international racing talent is set to compete online in the second annual iRacing Pro Race of Champions on December 12. Drivers with resumes from NASCAR, IndyCar, GRAND-AM, ALMS, V8 Supercars, NHRA and even Formula One will square-off in a pair of online races broadcast live on www.iracing.com/live.

Drivers expected to compete in the event include 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski along with Dale Earnhardt, Jr and Scott Speed, GRAND-AM champion Alex Gurney, ALMS champion Joey Hand, IZOD IndyCar Series favorites Tomas Scheckter and Indy 500 pole-winner Bruno Junqueira, ex-Formula One driver/Champ Car champion Cristiano da Matta, NHRA Funny Car star Ron Capps and GP3 competitor Conor Daly, as well as NASCAR K&N Series’ Brandon Davis and V8 Supercar Series standout Shane van Gisbergen, who finished one-two in last year’s event.

“I’m very excited to run in the iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions!” says Gurney. “I had a scheduling conflict last year but I hope to make it a yearly tradition from now on. I try to spend a good amount of time on the sim in the off season, so I can’t wait to beat my fellow pro racers to a pulp!”

I can’t wait to beat my fellow pro racers to a pulp! – Alex Gurney

iRacing will broadcast the two race event online beginning at 8 pm Eastern time.  The first leg will see the Pros racing their digital Chevrolet Silverados for 20 laps under the lights on iRacing’s virtual version of Iowa Speedway.  In the “night cap,” the Pros will tackle iRacing’s laser-scanned Watkins Glen International’s Cup Course for ten laps in their Mazda MX5s.

“We’re looking forward to these races,” says Tony Gardner, President of iRacing.com.  “It’s a source of pride to everyone at iRacing – including our nearly 40,000 members – that pro racers use our service for pleasure and to keep their skills sharp. And the fact that they’re willing to put their reputations on the line against their peers in the iPRoC — even if it’s mainly just for fun — speaks volumes for their confidence in the quality and authenticity of iRacing.”

Of course, bragging rights aren’t the only thing on the line in the iRacing Pro Race of Champions.  iRacing will make a $2500 contribution to the favorite charity of the overall winner based on the cumulative results from both races.

Qualifying for the iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions starts at 8 pm Eastern time on Wednesday, December 12.  Be sure and catch all the action on www.iracing.com/live.

We’ve updated the site to be simpler, easier to use, and updated for the times. The new website is also easier to access content and features, and are letting our users decide what they want to see. It contains rich content, inspired by experience, and prepared with care by the design team at iRacing.com. We’ll be adding new content on a regular basis, along with news of major events and product launches.

It’s our best website yet, and we’ve only just started.

Bedford, MA (October 3, 2012) - Ray Alfalla captured his second consecutive NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship title last night when he drove to a  fifth place finish in the online racing series’ season finale on iRacing’s digital version of Homestead-Miami Speedway.   The Cape Coral, FL resident will receive a check for $10,500, a NASCAR championship ring, trophy, and jacket at the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finale, the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 18.

Alfalla’s triumph was a popular one, as evinced by the fact that his name appeared on last night’s US Trending Topics list, thanks to all the iRacing Twitter fans tweeting about his championship.

“What an incredible feeling,” said Alfalla. “A few years ago when I got started in this deal I never thought that I’d be in this position. Thanks to all the awesome people who have contributed to this accomplishment!”

Alfalla scored five wins and a dozen top five finishes in the 17 round series to overcome an impressive performance by series rookie Michael Conti, of Woodland Park, NJ.  Conti coupled a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with ten top five finishes to earn the runner-up prize of $3,500, while San Diego’s Kevin King won two races – including last night’s event – to take third in the standings,  $1,500 and, like Alfalla and Conti, a championship trophy.

“On behalf of the more than 35,000 iRacers around the world, I’m proud to offer my congratulations to Ray on the successful defense of his title,” said Tony Gardner, President of iRacing.com.   “Kudos also to Michael, Kevin and all the iRacers who made the 2012 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship such a success.  It’ll be a tough act to follow, but we can hardly wait for the start of the 2013.”

Open only to iRacing’s elite stock car sim-racers, the 2012 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship produced a remarkably competitive season that saw 11 different winners in 17 races, and 25 sim-racers earn top five finishes.  More than 30 drivers led one or more laps over the course of the season, with Alfalla topping the list with 614 laps in the lead.

Alfalla will have a few months to celebrate his second title before launching his quest for a three-peat when the 2013 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship kicks-off at Daytona International Speedway in February.