iRacing.com recently announced their agenda for events that will run during the 13th week (i.e. the one week that follows the conclusion of Season 3, and immediately precedes the start of Season 4).
As a recap, the details are as follows :
The official series – the 13th Week iRacing Legends Cup, featuring the Rookie Legends Car at South Boston and Lanier; and the 13th Week iRacing Solstice Challenge, featuring the Rookie Solstice at Summit Short Configuration and Lowe’s Infield Road Course – are essentially mini-championships in themselves. Safety Ratings and iRatings will be in effect. Points will be scored as they are during the regular season, but instead of race weeks, points will be averaged and finalized at the end of each day. Each day’s point total will count towards the 13th week championship. Divisions, meanwhile, will carry over from the regular season, so if your closest divisional rival beat you in the regular season, here’s the chance to get even!
The unofficial series will feature some of the latest additions to our car and track inventories. We’ll have The Rotary Roundabout, featuring the Formula Mazda at Richmond and Milwaukee and the Targa Transamerica, featuring the Radical SR8 at Sebring and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Generally, I am quite happy with these arrangements. I think there’ll be enough to keep me occupied for the entire week.
I’ll be passing on the rookie legends championship – there’s nothing there beyond a normal four week rookie series held over seven days. Might have been interesting if they had switched up the tracks just a little bit (e.g. why not use the legends oval layout at Lowes; everyone has the track).
I quite like the look of the rookie Solstice series – a chance to drive the car at two new layouts, and I don’t have to invest time to work on a setup either! Summit Point Short is very similar to the full layout, so not really that exciting, but the Lowe’s infield road course should be a really unique experience. There’s no easy overtaking points that I could see from a few laps there yesterday, and plenty of immovable barrels just off the track to destroy the car, so it should be a really hairy challenge. I think it might be an SR killer!
The only bad thing about running those series is that you have to complete a race every day to have a serious attempt at taking the title. It’s a large commitment and one I am not sure I will be able to do.
The other series also offer some interesting combinations. I would quite like to tackle the Mazda at an oval because I’m not sure when the next opportunity will arise (if ever!). The only problem is that I don’t own the ovals yet, so will need to pick up the tracks. I’d also need to find a decent setup too, as I don’t think I’ll have to time to build one of my own.
I would definitely like to sample the Radical too, both at Laguna Seca and Sebring. Sebring will be a challenge to master as I am not completely familiar with the track, but Laguna is an old friend at this point.
I’ll definitely capture a lot of fraps footage of the action when the week comes around!