Trading Paints Derek Speare Designs Race King 300 Set for June 28

June 6th, 2011

Popular paint scheme library Trading Paints is pleased to announce its first-ever community-centered iRacing event the week leading up to June 28, 2011. Sim racing hardware creator Derek Speare Designs will partner with Trading Paints to present the 300-mile Trading Paints Derek Speare Designs Race King 300 at the high-banked Daytona International Speedway oval to coincide with the launch of DSD’s newest product, the Race King button box.

The 120-lap shootout will employ iRacing’s newest laser-scanned masterpiece, the Chevrolet Impala COT, modeled after the cars used in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. With the winner’s prize a brand-new, fully-featured Race King button box from Derek Speare Designs, the Trading Paints Derek Speare Designs Race King 300 is designed to attract the attention of any of iRacing’s over 25,000 active racers.

“To say we’re excited to partner with Derek Speare Designs would be an understatement,” Trading Paints founder Steve Luvender announced. “The Trading Paints team — both programmer Shawn Brant and me — have been tirelessly working over the past year and a half to make paint scheme sharing easy for iRacing drivers. This is the first time we’ve put together an actual event, and it’s a privilege and honor to work with Derek Speare in order to make it a reality. We’ve selected an excellent venue in the virtual high banks of iRacing’s Daytona International Speedway and I’m certain the race will be a hit — especially with the race-winning prize of a world-class Race King button box.”

“I’m certain the race will be a hit — especially with the race-winning prize of a world-class Race King button box.” — Steve Luvender

The Race King button box follows on from the success of the Derek Speare Designs Track Boss, but with some unique styling differences. Both the Race King and the Track Boss measure the same in size and offer significant functionality, but the Race King will command attention with its all-black buttons and safety covers. The Race King will be made only for a short period and in limited quantities to enhance its exclusive nature.

“Every iRacer wants to have fun, and that’s the ultimate goal of why we are all members,” Derek Speare Designs founder Derek Speare explained. “The Trading Paints Derek Speare Designs Race King 300 at Daytona International Speedway will be exactly that, and I am confident that not only will the prize of a Race King Button Box be of interest, many will want to race for the sheer excitement of participation.”

The Trading Paints Derek Speare Designs Race King 300: thousands are eligible but only one will win.

Beginning June 20, 2011, all active iRacing subscribers who own the Chevrolet Impala COT and Daytona International Speedway will have the opportunity to join daily specified practice Hosted Racing sessions from 4:00 PM to midnight EDT to build race setups and hone their drafting skills at Daytona’s 2.5-mile superspeedway. In addition, the daily practice sessions — 50 in total, seven each day — will be used to narrow the field down to the fastest 80 overall drivers, who will move on to a second round of qualifying for the 120-lap main event.

The 80 fastest drivers will compete in a one-of-a-kind elimination event to narrow down the field to 40 racers. Each driver will compete in a head-to-head two-lap shootout against another driver — the winner will make the race.

The losers of each 1-on-1 race will compete for one of two remaining positions from a 40-car field in a 30-minute last-chance shootout — which will require a green flag pit stop — immediately preceding the 120-lap main event on June 28. The winner of the last-chance race will transfer to the Trading Paints Derek Speare Designs Race King 300, as well as a fan-choice driver voted on by viewers of the WRN race broadcast.

The 42-car field will be lined up by lap times in a 25-minute open qualifying session on WRN immediately before the main event.

“iRacing and sim racing in general has always had an extremely passionate and supportive community,” remarked Tony Gardner, iRacing.com President. “Trading Paints, which supports custom paint schemes for the iRacing service, is a great example of that. “It is great to see the community launching their own events like this utilizing the iRacing service. This racing event sounds like great fun and yet another opportunity for iRacers to get together on track.  We want to wish all the drivers good luck in the Trading Paints Derek Speare Designs Race King 300!”

“Sounds like great fun and yet another opportunity for iRacers to get together on track.” — Tony Gardner

The Trading Paints Derek Speare Designs Race King 300 will take place in order to raise funds for Trading Paints, a free paint scheme exchange for iRacing, used by over 8,000 active drivers. Racers will have the option to contribute to Trading Paints when registering for the race in order to help in paying for Trading Paints’ hosting and bandwidth fees, as well as providing funding for further development.

“I see the effort by Steve Luvender and Trading Paints as a major supporter of the goals embraced by the iRacing community,” Speare stated. “By his initiative, professionalism and technical prowess, iRacers all over the world are able to express their individuality by ‘Trading Paints’ with their peers to enhance their on-track sim racing fun. It’s a great service, one of substantial dedication, and I am proud to support the goals of it.”

Drivers can register for the Trading Paints Derek Speare Designs Race King 300 for free at http://raceking300.com.

About Trading Paints

Trading Paints (http://www.tradingpaints.com/) allows drivers to show their own custom-created paint schemes on their vehicles in the iRacing sim. Through easy-to-use Web-based and Windows applications, Trading Paints shows drivers’ actual custom paint schemes in iRacing rather than the default, basic paint schemes included with the sim. Community-supported Trading Paints is used by nearly 8,000 active iRacing subscribers and is free of charge for both uploading paint schemes as well as using the Trading Paints Desktop application to download paint schemes.

About Derek Speare Designs

Derek Speare Designs (http://www.derekspearedesigns.com/) is a dedicated effort to bring to the virtual racing community the most cost effective, functional and high performance sim racing components available. All of DSD’s products are designed with the singular intention to make each sim racer’s experiences more competitive, immersive and enjoyable. DSD’s line of button boxes, wheel plates, wheel adapters and other specialty components are highly versatile and precision engineered, and make a great complement to any personal racing space. Owner Derek Speare has been enjoying sim racing for almost 20 years, and he has harnessed his professional and recreational experiences to make Derek Speare Designs the premier component supplier for any avid virtual racing enthusiast.

###

Please visit RaceKing300.com to learn more about the race and to sign-up for free.