Welcome to the iRacing blog. It’s a forum for those of us at iRacing to share our ideas and experiences with you and, we hope, stimulate some lively and thoughtful discussion.
It’s not quite spring, but this is surely a time of exciting growth and anticipation. In the racing world, of course, but in just about any sport you can think of, and the world at large.
Think about it, with the Rolex 24 a new racing season is underway. The Daytona 500 is in two weeks time and with it endless possibilities for the NASCAR season to come. Will Jimmie Johnson score a five-peat? Will Juan Montoya take his first oval win, or even compete for the title? Can Mark Martin take that elusive first Sprint Cup title? Can Dale Jr. regain his winning touch? And, of course, what’s in store for Danica?
What many are rightly calling the most highly anticipated Formula 1 season in memory is on tap, what with Jenson Button joining Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, Fernando Alonso joining a fully-recovered Felipe Massa at Ferrari and, oh by the way, Michael Schumacher making his return to F1 with the new Mercedes GP effort. Three young world champions at their peak form joined by the most dominant driver in F1 history? I can’t wait.
Welcome to the iRacing blog. It’s a forum for those of us at iRacing to share our ideas and experiences with you and, we hope, stimulate some lively and thoughtful discussion.
IndyCar racing has gone through a tumultuous few months and heads into a new decade with a new leader – Randy Bernard – and with many crucial decisions on its plate, among them the so-called Delta wing chassis and the continuing effort to attract additional engine manufacturers. The American Le Mans Series is reshuffling its deck, with a higher focus on a consolidated GT class even as Aston Martin dips it toe into the reconstituted waters of LMP1 that already include Acura and Mazda. And the GRAND-AM season got-off to a remarkable start with a new team winning the series’ featured event, overcoming some of the series traditional powerhouse teams.
But motorsports doesn’t have a monopoly on anticipation and growth. Sunday saw an entertaining Super Bowl and a dramatic win by the Saints that got Mardi Gras off to an early start. The NHL season is well underway, with teams positioning themselves for a run at the Stanley Cup; ditto the NBA and college basketball’s run to the NCAA’s Final Four. Let’s not forget the coming gathering in Vancouver called the XXI Winter Olympic Games . . . and in just a few weeks players will be reporting to spring training.
Lest you think it’s all about sports, how about the Apple’s new iPad? Will that revolutionize the way we live and do business like the iPod and iPhone? Will I be eating the words I shared with my iRacing colleagues at lunch the other day when I said – mainly in jest – that we could probably have made a ton more money by developing a high-end lanyard for the iPad than we’ll ever see from our efforts at iRacing.com!
So just in case you think it’s all about iRacing here at iRacing.com (where it’s always 72 degrees and sunny – as long as you can see past the snow banks outside our office), I’m here to tell you there’s lots on the minds of everyone here besides iRatings. And we’ll be sharing some of that with you in this space in the days, weeks and years ahead.
TonyG
Tony Gardner is the president of iRacing.com. Tony has worked in the software industry for over two decades working for rapid growth companies ranging from large international corporations to start-ups and covering a wide spectrum of software categories. He counts working in the educational software space and his time at iRacing as the most enjoyable to date. Tony has always enjoyed sports competition of any kind and still does as a weekend warrior and an avid sportsman. He now adds competing in the virtual space to his list of activities. Tony lives outside of Boston Massachusetts with his wife and two children.
36 Comments
Pruitt
+1 to Iracing!
ryan terry
Plus Motogp ,starts again soon, Go Rossi!
Guy Leach
Great questions, Tony! Here are a couple of more: will the switch from the wing to the spoiler in Sprint Cup change the balance of power at the top (i.e. Hendrick)? Will the Challenger and Mustang bodied Nationwise cars compete with the Chevys and Toyotas? What will Indy (and the IRL) be like without Tony George? Are rumors of turbocharging back in IndyCars just that (rumor)? And when will iRacing let us create our own paint schemes? 
Russ
I’ve been looking for one
thank you
JaysonRacing
@ Russ “And when will iRacing let us create our own paint schemes?” -> They already do 
David Beattie
Jayson, there’s already an ability to create your own skins. There is even a site to exchange and upload/download them easily at http://www.tradingpaints.com/
Andy Kirschetorte
Honestly i love iRacing. I raced from N3, NR2003, ARCA, and now iRacing. Its very realistic, BUT….i dont get why people get wrecked and docked points. This needs to be fixed. I hate when i get spun then hit the wall and lose points! Drives you crazy!!!!!! But everything else….love it!
Brock
I can’t figure out how to create / use the skins – I also don’t understand something which said that the skins can only be seen by those who also have the skins, otherwise they see a white car?? I read the instructions, but….
Bob
Why am I typing in here! I have Daytona 500 Practice to get into!
That draft , The close calls , the excitement.! (and i’m a road racer!)
Greg C
@ David B: I agree that they do, but using pre-created templates. I would like to start with a clean car, and no limitations on how to paint it. However, what they provide is better than nothing!
Russ
@Russ: I really don’t see them giving us that much freedom due to the agreements with the manufacturers and contingency stickers. I could be wrong though.
Ryan Carwile
Great to see ! I’ll be following it.
Darin Gangi
Inside Sim Racing
Darin Gangi
Russ,
Custom “user created” paints are allowed now.
Reed Rundell
Guy shame on you, Go Casey, GO SON, GO………………….!!!!!!!!!
Wayne Anderson
iRacing Staff,
I’m fairly new to the iRacing community and really enjoyed the opportunity to practice, qualify and race at Indy last week. I hope to advance to the Indycar series by May. I see that there will be an iRacing Indy 500 the night before the real 500 of which I would really want to participate in, but there is one problem, I will be traveling to Indianapolis as always to attend the Greatest Spectacle in Racing…
I was just wondering how many other iRacing members are also in the stands at these racing events,(upcoming Daytona, Indy etc.) and miss out on such great events!! Would it be possible to also have them a few weeks before the real event if it turns out there are many iRacing fans in the stands??
Thanks,
Tim Miller
Great idea iRacing!!! fantastic way go get some inside news and developments from the team!
Dave M
One thing I am keen to hear about on the blog is the move into Asia. I just read on the forum that iRacing is moving into the Chinese and Japanese market this year. This is a critical step for iRacing as it will begin to overcome the time zone issues that disadvantage us Australian drivers (very difficult to find high SOF fields at reasonable times). iRacing will finally become a truly 24 hour sport. Imagine full grids with four splits at any time of the day! Not to mention SUZUKA! What a track, definitely Top 5 in the world…PLEASE iRacing
Ben Styles
@Russ – I guess you haven’t heard. You can paint your cars in Photoshop or similar paint programs now.
Matt Huston
russ, this is exactly what you can do. no limitations.
you think of the ingame paintshop with only chosing colors to a scheme, but in addition
there is the possibility to take a blank peace of parer, ähm template, and do whatever you want.
Beck
nice one!
what about an RSS feed, so we can follow the blog more easily?
the feed available through the icon in the upper section of the page is empty.
also, using firefox, this comment box is getting cleared everytime you re-enter it.
thanks iRacing!
Alexandre Martini
@Russ the only limitation is the manufacturer— Chevy
MGomez
Waiting for my G27 wheel to get here any day now. Former avid NR2003 league participant from “back in the day” anxious to return to the hobby I loved. I just wanted to say hello and I look forward to racing with you all.
Doug
I’m new here, used to race on NR2002 and NR2003. I enjoyed it there, and even more here. I like the idea of being able to import your own paint schemes and setups. I can see new sites springing up already. However, I would also like to see a switch if you want to be able to view other people paint schemes or not. For two reasons: 1# Loading of the sim and keeping in mind of everyone’s video performance on the track. #2 The content of the paint schemes. I also would like to see more race times, specific server maintenance days, and better notification of unscheduled maintence and ETA on when it will be back up. I’m not for all the extra spending for cars and tracks. You can spend $100.00 easily, and I much rather take my family out for that much money. But I do somewhat understand that it does help manage who is doing real racing and who is just wrecking. That might be my ‘make or break’ deal with this sim. However, I would like to see much better deals on packages for different series that require different tracks. Many online applications offer expansion packs for their applications with more content and less money.
Neill
Setting up cars is somthing many of us know little about and when we have time to race we want to race. Is Iracing going to add something like what Nascar 4 had where you place cuser over adjustment and it tells you what that ajustment will do far as changing setup? That made it much easier for us who don’t know much about setting up cars, at least it gave you a brif on what that certain adjustment would do and what it would help. I think the setup area is where Iracing is lacking for those who don’t know how to setup cars. Having it so say you placed curser over (track bar on right side) It would say raising bar will tighten or lossen car. I only know that really was a big help in Nascar 3/4.
Gary
I own my own outfitting service can I have my logo placed on my cars?
Gary
can i get advise about what to do when having problems loading the races or practices?
Helman
iRacing should add night races at all the track in the sprint cup series that are run at night =]
Tyler Pendleton
Thanks for all your comments. Read every one of them and took them all to heart. Thanks for taking the time to give us your thoughts and comments. Nice to read. Alexandre will look into RRS feed and firefox issue. Many Thanks Tony
Tony Gardner
@Alexandre Thanks for the heads up! You can subscribe to the blog rss feed by clicking the icon to the upper right of the page in the blog-bar.
Jay
I have been here since the first invite and would have imagined the sim would come this far this fast.
I really do appreciate you guys putting the blog up and letting us share thoughts and ideas. I have overall been very happy with the service with the only thing I has bummed me a bit is the scheduling of some of the classes. Some simply do not race enough. Hopefully the numbers are started to get where that issue will be a thing of the past. Looking at the numbers signing up daily it does look encouraging.
A blog about updates that are coming and a general list of new content would be great. Like what track and car is next and some news and screenshots of night racing and how that will work.
Bruce Morse
Any thoughts as to dirt tract racing in the distant future?
Eric Hoggarth
I finally got my wheel, but I can’t get the NASCAR Promo to work.. Can someone please assist.
Doug
Two thumbs up to iracing support!! Not only was the e-mail support great, but also recieved a follow-up phone call as well. Got the NASCAR promo to work and now I am ready to race.. See you all on the track!
Doug
I am very interested in joining the iracing community, the first concern is if my cpu in compatible im not the most tech savvy person, it seems like everything i have is compatible my main concern is with the video card im not sure if my cpu came with one or how to check really. And my other interest is more information about pit stops, are they automatically completed or do you have to get down to pit road speed and make your stop cleanly in the box, also Im wondering about on track communication either through a spotter or between other drivers on track and what products would be recommended to be used for optimal use of this feature. Thank you for your time and comments
Alan
I have a few questions….. I just ordered a whole gaming pc/g27 wheel just for this game!
My questions:
* Where is the actual file to make custom paint schemes? Is it something that can be done in photoshop?
* When doing a practice, do you drive out from the garage, or start in your pit box?
* Like Alan, I am curious about the communication during the race…. do you have a spotter? Because in all the videos- they don’t have spotters.
Dan Shelley
Add a Comment
- SR was a genius idea - the flaw in its implementation isn't Fast Track, it's the fact that you can gain SR and promotions without ever racing. Get rid of SR in time trials and qualifying and remove time trials from the MPR and we'll start to see who can genuinely race and manage risk simultaneously, and who is only at their license and SR level because they're SR padding in those other sessions.
- I would agree more with the system if it didn't favor faster drivers. If you're in the back the ghost sr hits you take when undamaged just kill. I don't get to race often and I actually got demoted because I raced once got caught up in wrecks and was offline for the rest f season.
- Firstly I really appreciate this topic being discussed in public by its creator. Huge kudos to Dave for that! Secondly, I think the SR is excellent in theory, but affects the immersive quality of the simulation. I like the idea of the inc weighting being lessened so its harder to gain and lose points. If your consistantly good (or bad) your points will increase (or decrease) as it does now, but without the wild fluctuations we all seem to endure from time to time, forcing either the "I'm not racing!! I'm accumulating points" senario or the "spend a week doing TT's to increase your points" senario. Keep up the good work iRacing!
- The idea of SR at 2 ish meaning you need to be more safe, 3 is okay and at 4+ might mean being too cautious would hold more weight if we couldn't simply inflate our damaged SR in TTs. I know this has been said before, but maybe SR isn't always real indicator of saftey as you never know whose rating is a product of just racing and who might be going banzai in a race then hopping into TTs to make up the losses. I admit I've turned TT laps to raise my SR at times, but I don't think it's a good thing and I'd welcome a rating that was purely based on race saftey.
Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer
Rick
Derrin Drew
Russell Daly
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Very nice. Glad to see this finally happen. I look forward to reading everyone’s thoughts. Thanks!