iRacing, what is it?

In short it’s a training tool for real race car drivers.

Put another way you race on a computer, with simulated real racing cars on simulated real tracks, but against other real drivers, living all over the world, and in real-time.

All you need is a reasonable computer. I currently have no trouble with an Athlon 64 X2 4800+, and an 8800 GTS graphics card. I get constant 80 fps in the Solstice Rookie, practice, at Laguna Seca. You also need a steering wheel and pedals. I use the Logitech G25.

iRacing try to copy real tracks and real race cars so a real race car driver can use it as a training tool for the real thing. Since iRacing is a subscription service the software is continuously updated, and the cars, and the tracks, of course. Everything in iRacing is continuously updated.

In this service you start with two different driver licences, a road and an oval licence, and you start as a Rookie. If you race clean and have a minimum of incidents then you progress through the licences, which are from class D to class A, and the Pro. With higher licence you get to compete in faster cars, but first you have to prove yourself so you don’t wreck if for the other drivers.

You start as a Rookie in both road an oval, and the only two series you can compete in are with the Solstice Rookie car, for road, and the Legends Rookie car, for ovals.

There are four seasons per year in iRacing, and a season is 12 weeks. Most series only count your 8 best weeks for championship points, so you don’t have to race all 12 weeks. In one week you can race as much as you want in your series, but it’s all done on one track. Next week it’s another track. Some series have races once per hour.

If you search YouTube.com for “iracing race” then all your hits will be online racing with real drivers, if it’s a race in iRacing you find, that is .

You find iRacing here -> Click here to get to iRacing <-

My first laps in iRacing

2009-09-18 17:13:43 is the date and time of my receipt from the iRacing service. The first weeks I did nothing, except for maybe changing the color and scheme of the cars that was included in this offer (5 cars). That’s how eager I was .

2009-10-26, monday evening, five weeks later, I finally fired up iRacing for my first session. It’s over a year since my last serious simracing. I’ve done some laps in Grand Turismo 5 Prologue, but that’s been most sporadic.

Here’s my first ever laps in iRacing, an out lap and a full lap:

I had never driven the car or the track before, but I loved it from the start . I was hooked!