- iRacing.com Announces iRacing 2.011,355
- iRacing.com to create virtual McLaren MP4-12C GT38,007
- Scanning What’s in Store for iRacing with Tony Gardner6,015
- Dave Kaemmer Comes Clean on Dirt5,497
- Improving the Sound of iRacing4,825
- iRacing 2.0 Debuts in 2011 Season 34,765
- Preview Shots of HPD ARX-01C, Ford GT & Suzuka4,742
- Two New Cars and Two New Tracks Coming to iRacing Soon4,253
- iRacing Pro Race of Champions Gets Green Flag Wednesday3,304
- Gooden Plenty II2,942
- Towler, Wood Suspended from Upcoming iWCRR Events 66
- Coming Soon, the iRacing Driving School 41
- iRacing.com Announces iRacing 2.0 41
- SFI Decertifies All Impact Racing Products 27
- Dave Kaemmer Comes Clean on Dirt 27
- iRacing Announces Added Features, Lower Prices 26
- iRacer Profile: Sandeep Banerjee 25
- The Customer is (Nearly) Always Right 17
- iRacing Simulation Gives NASCAR Hall of Fame Guests Authentic Driving Experience 17
- Improving the Sound of iRacing 15
- iRacing.com2134
- NASCAR 1753
- Motorcycles 1711
- Formula Cars 1567
- WRC 1242
- IndyCar 1149
- Touring Cars 752
- Sports Cars 300
- Other Racing 314
David Phillips
Editor and ChiefDavid Phillips is a long-time contributor to print and electronic publications in the U.S. and abroad, including Racer, Autosport, AutoWeek, Motor Sport and SPEEDtv.com, oversees the daily updating of news stories and assigns, edits and contributes feature material for inRacingNews.com.
Chris Hall
iRacing.com Series WriterChris Hall has been writing since the nineties and moved into motorsports reporting in 2005, covering series such as ALMS, British GT, FIA GT, Le Mans and 2CV racing for Full Throttle magazine, Motorsport.com, The-Paddock.net, GTGateway.com, L' Endurance and, of course, inRacingNews. During 2008 and 2009, he worked with the RSS Performance Porsche Carrera Cup Team (and former British GT(C) champions) as a data engineer for a variety of drivers and models of 997s.
Jameson Spies
Contributing Writer19 years old, Jameson Spies lives in Quartz Hill, California. He grew-up surrounded by racing. His mother raced late models throughout Southern California while his father built and setup the car. Not surprisingly, Jameson began racing go-karts at the age of 13, and is now racing Spec Trucks at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He has a passion about all forms of racing and hopes to make a career out of it.
Jason Lofing
iRacing.com Series WriterJason is 21 years old and was born and raised in Elk Grove. California. A big time NASCAR fan, he hasn’t missed a race on Sunday in years. Lofing is also a huge San Fransisco Giants fan and tries to take in at least a couple games a year. Other than sim racing, his biggest (and far more expensive!) hobby is photography. Although he is rather new to sim racing, Lofing has already accomplished some pretty impressive results, qualifying for the 2011 iRacing Oval Pro Series in Season 1, 2011, winning the inaugural Landon Cassill Qualifying Challenge and finishing runner-up in the second one.
Ray Bryden
Technical contributorRay grew up in Nova Scotia, which means he’s a hockey nut, but in Nova Scotia’s two non-winter months he had to find other diversions, which meant watching F1 racing on weekends with his dad and brothers. Without the resources to get started in racing, he gravitated to computer versions of racing – first Atari games like Pole Position, followed by PC racing games like Indianapolis 500: The Simulation. Dozens of others came and went, until Grand Prix Legends came along and he decided sim-racing was his official hobby. Years were spent enjoying this both offline and online until a few years of fatherhood took priority. When free-time reappeared he heard about iRacing and signed up in 2008 and became so involved in the service that he wrote one of the first books on the subject of sim-racing, iRacing Paddock. When not writing for inRacingNews.com, his main occupation is as a research associate with Saint-Gobain working on advanced ceramic materials.
Patrick Atherton
Contributing WriterPatrick Atherton, originally from Adelaide in the state of South Australia, currently resides just outside of Melbourne, Victoria with wife of 17 years and 3 kids. A business manager by profession, but also dabbles with blogging, cartooning and fine art, having been published both as a writer in a short-lived South Australian motorsport yearbook and later as a cartoonist in a niche trade magazine. At the age of 19 he competed in club circuit events in an Austin Healey Sprite, later indulging in sprint karts between 1994 and 2000. Following the move to the State of Victoria he raced Road Race Karts (“Superkarts” as they are known in Australia) in the popular Rotax class, competing at Phillip Island, Oran Park, Mallala, Wakefield Park, Eastern Creek, Calder Park, Sandown and Winton. It was during this time he met former Australian F2 champion and inventor of Australia’s first, and most prolific race simulator rig, Jon Crooke. This culminated in an introduction to Papyrus’ legendary NR2003 simulation, and the subsequent sim racing addiction which brought him to iRacing.
Tim Terry
Contributing WriterTim Terry, aka the voice of Maritime stock car racing, fell in love with sim racing in 2004 after he joined the Sim Racing Network crew as a pit reporter. From October 2004 to SRNtv’s closure in June 2007, he’s covered prestigious races and leagues such as the Online 500, FLM Fall 400, Real Racing Online and the DMP Racing League – each as the lead broadcaster for the company. At the same time the wheels started to turn in another direction as he began announcing stock car racing locally. Terry became the assistant announcer at Scotia Speedworld in May 2007 and took over full duties in May 2009 when long-time voice Mike Kaplan retired from the track. Terry also became the series voice of the Parts For Trucks Pro Stock Tour in ’09 and continues to hold down both posts in 2011. He has also announced races for the Pro All Stars Series, Atlantic Open Wheel and Maritime League of Legends tours and has called races at six different Atlantic Canadian tracks. Terry can be heard online at WebRacingNetwork.com, RLMtv.com and OLRtv.com covering sim races. He also makes occasional appearances on PSRtv.com. In addition to inRacingNews, his articles and columns can be read on ScotiaSpeedworld.ca, MaritimeProStockTour.com and his own website at timterryonline.com.
David Allen
Contributing WriterNorth Carolina born and raised with over 15 years of computer/IT experience, I combine two of my biggest hobbies -- racing and technology -- here at inRacingNews. In my spare time I run a Nascar fan site and cure my own need for speed riding atvs. If it involves technology or racing I'll be there, but combine the two and I'll be looking a front row seat. Stop by and say hello anytime!
Allen Krier
Contributing WriterAllen was born in West Palm Beach, Florida but grew up in Atlanta and attended Georgia College and State University where he received a BS in Information Systems. Currently a resident of Albany, GA, he started sim racing in 2008 while in college when iRacing was first released to the public. Since then, Krier has been a two time iRacing Pro Series driver (2009 and 2010), picking up one Pro Series win at Daytona in ‘09. Besides sim racing, Allen’s other hobbies include RC Car racing as well as “attending and watching any sporting event that I can including going to the local dirt track.
School’s In for Summer!
by Steve Potter on June 25th, 2010
iRacing.com Offers Online Racing Instruction for Racing Game Enthusiasts
There are books on how to drive a racing car and schools in the physical world where aspiring drivers can get hands-on instruction. Now drivers who race in the virtual world have the iRacing.com Driving School, a modular 16-unit online race-driving instructional package. Nearly two years in the making, the school is available free to all members of the iRacing.com racing simulation service. The school is now live on the iRacing.com member Web site. The first module of the iRacing.com Driving School is currently available to non-members on www.iRacing.com.
“For the past 50 years novice racing drivers have learned basic race-driving skills in both informal and organized driving schools,” said Dave Kaemmer, iRacing.com’s CEO and a veteran real-world racer. “But in the virtual world for the most part beginners have just had to find their way by themselves. Many do develop the skills they need, though perhaps not too quickly. And many others, who have the native ability, have failed to learn the necessary skills, gotten discouraged and dropped out of the sport. With appropriate interactive instruction available, drivers will master racing skills much more quickly and have more fun racing.”
According to Kevin Bobbitt, iRacing.com’s director of marketing, “iRacing’s aim has always been to duplicate in the virtual world all the significant aspects of racing in the real one.
Developing a useful online driving school was always a part of our plan. A lot of resources – time and money – went into this project, and it’s great to see it now become available to all of our members, rookies and veterans alike.”
The syllabus for the iRacing.com Driving School was developed by veteran driving instructors who are also successful real-world championship-winning racers, including Adam Burrows, Rob Slonaker and Barry Waddell, and others, in collaboration with the Skip Barber Racing School. (Dale Earnhardt, Jr. makes a guest appearance in the first video.)
The iRacing.com Racing School offers iRacers free instruction on the basics of racing.
The interactive didactic format, in which a prescribed skill is demonstrated, followed directly by an opportunity for the student to practice for him- or herself, is widely recognized as highly effective for the distance-learning model. “Because our tracks are such exact duplicates of their real-world counterparts and our cars are essentially digital duplicates of the real-world versions, our school is able to use the same techniques that are taught to many of the most successful professional drivers in the world,” Bobbitt said.
Bobbitt noted that topics covered in the iRacing.com Driving School include:
• Vehicle Dynamics – what makes the race car “handle” and how the car can be adjusted to maximize performance.
• Fundamentals of the Racing Line – learn the fastest way around the track and how to effectively negotiate corners.
• Visual factors – use your eyes properly to “stay ahead” of the car and in control of your situation.
• Braking – how to go faster by using the brakes effectively.
• Downshifting – how to operate the transmission smoothly while braking.
• Pre-Race – Getting the most out of practice sessions and setting your best qualifying time.
• Race Starts – How to get the best possible start, and avoid losing the race at the first corner.
• Race-Craft, Racing Techniques and Rules of the Road – how to race safely and effectively.
• Time Trials – how to maximize performance in single-car, multi-lap competition.
The 16 self-paced modules are brief – three to six minutes in length – and provide exercises that the student can then duplicate behind the wheel in the simulation. Taken together they provide the basic skill-building blocks that a novice driver requires to become a successful online racer. At the end of the course each student receives a certificate of completion.
In recognition of the debut of the iRacing.com Driving School, one-month trial memberships in iRacing.com are currently being offered for $5.00. Go to www.iRacing.com and enter the promotion code: PR-SCHOOL
Jeff Wubker
July 5th, 2010 at 6:06 pmI hope it’s successful because I’m sure alot of drivers quit when they learn they are not as crazy fast as some guys and probably get discouraged quickly.
That of course depends upon the person. Someone who may typically be younger, kicks ass his whole life in arcade or so called sim racing games, may discover that iRacing is more like the real world and get a dose of realism. Older guys or just racing enthusiasts I believe are willing to have mid and tail end finishes while still enjoying the service. Then you have those that just gradually improve.
The bottom line is, it takes a good share of time, dedication, and patience to get to the top, and a driving school will help as one of the many tools to improve. But if one starts out thinking they were born with the skills of Mario Andretti or Dale Earnhardt without having to work at it, they are gone.