By: Brian Simpson, IZOD IndyCar Series Blog
IndyCar to Officially Sanction iRacing Series in 2011.
For those of you who have followed along with my posts about iRacing you have an extensive knowledge of my own series, the 16th Street Racing League. It’s an awesome league with opportunities to race against real life racers as well as some of the best sim-racers in the world. Unfortunately, I can only admit 43 people every season to compete with us and it’s purely a competition for pride.
This coming Saturday all of that will change. iRacing recently announced their brand new iRacing.com IZOD INDYCAR Premier Series. This series will closely mimic the real life IZOD IndyCar Series. Both road and oval courses will be featured, allowing members from all over the world to compete against each other in a live format. The overall winner and top finishers will be crowned at the of a 16 race season, scheduled to take 30 weeks to complete. Bi-monthly results will be posted and featured HERE on INDYCAR.COM. And just like in the real world the series will feature a road champion, an oval champion, and an overall champion.
This Saturday, February 19, marks the start of the 30 weeks of racing. The races will begin every 2 hours in a 24 hour period, providing drivers in every time zone with an opportunity to participate. All the races will be on Saturdays to maximize participation, giving 12 possible races in one single day!
The schedule is designed to mirror the actual INDYCAR schedule as much as possible with the currently available tracks on iRacing:
2011 Schedule: 16 Races, 8 Oval Races, 8 Road Races
- Michigan 2/19
- Phoenix 3/5
- Laguna Seca 3/19
- Barber 4/2
- Watkins Glen 4/16
- Homestead 4/30
- Mosport 5/14
- Indianapolis 5/28
- Texas 6/11
- Milwaukee 6/25
- Sebring 7/0
- Road America 7/23
- Mid-Ohio 8/6
- New Hampshire 8/20
- Infineon IRL 9/3
- Las Vegas 9/17
To be eligible for the series you must, obviously be a member, have a C license with a minimum of 4.0 safety rating, or a B license of any safety rating.
Now comes the absolute best part of this new series… PRIZES
The overall champion will be the driver with the highest calculated point total over the course of the 16 race, 30 week season. There is only one division in this series. The overall champion will win airfare, hotel acommodations, $1000 cash and a trophy. They will be flown to the final race in the real-world IZOD IndyCar Series to be presented the trophy on stage in front of the introduction ceremony crowd.
