Archive for January, 2011

Disappointing start to the iWT 2011

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

A poor start to the 2011 iRacing World Tour

2011 iRacing Rolex 2.4 Race Results (iRacing members only!)

I had mixed feeling about this years Rolex 2.4 event. Last years event featured the Daytona Prototype only (and it was a GREAT event). This years was a multiclass event featuring the Daytona Prototype and Ford Mustang FR500S. I’m not a huge fan of multiclass events, but I really wanted to race the event so I chose the Mustang and set about joining the race.

Clearly, multiclass racing with two different car classes is difficult and very risky, but the race got off to a good start. My split had 29 Daytona Prototypes and 11 Mustangs. We got through the first lap well, slowing down for some pretty big Prototype crashes, and the chasing Mustang pack settled into the long race ahead.

We were doing a good job when the DP’s started to catch us. The first few were reasonably spread apart, but the following pack of Prototypes caused havoc in the bus stop, and a spinning Prototype veered directly into my car and destroyed my race – lap 4.

Lap 4 - The Prototype spun around and veered into my path

I used my reset and set about racing once more. I was the only Mustang out of the 11 who had used a reset so I was stuck in 39th place, racing no-one (very boring!). A few laps later it got a bit busy entering the oval section – Prototypes going high and other Prototypes going low. As a slower class car, changing your line = death, so I gritted my teeth and held the middle of the track. Unfortunately a following Prototype clearly thought I was not going to hold my line and drove into the back of me, causing a wreck (and involving a few other cars too). So, wreck number 2, race over.

Lap 10 - The lapping Prototype, moments before contact

Can’t say I didn’t expect it, a disappointing start to the 2011 World Tour.

Started : 6th of 11 Mustangs, 35th of 40 overall
Finished : 11th of 11 Mustangs, 39th of 40 overall. 81 laps down, 8 points (8 incident points)
iRating : -117
Safety Rating : A/4.50 (-0.49)

The 2011 iRacing World Tour schedule is published

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

iRacing have announced their schedule for the 2011 iRacing World Tour events, and it’s a mix of the old with the new.

The season starts with a repeat of the 2.4 Hours of Daytona endurance event, only this time it’s a multi class event with the Daytona Prototype and Ford Mustang.

Other repeat events are the showcase events such as the Daytona 500 and Indy 500.

Looking at the schedule as it currently appears, there’s no event that I am going to rule out at this stage. All look like events that are worth racing. I expect one or two of them will be run at days and times that I can’t make, but we’ll see as we get closer to each event.

In the meantime I’m looking forward to running in the second 2.4 Hours of Dayonta. Last years opening event was a very memorable race (my race report for the 2010 event is here).

The 2011 iRacing.com World Tour Schedule in full :

January 29 – 2.4 Hours of Daytona
Daytona Int. Speedway, Road Course – 2.4 hours, mixed class (Riley MkXX and Mustang FR500S)

February 17 – Daytona 500
Daytona Int. Speedway – 500 miles (Chevy Impala SS NASCAR Cup)

April 9 – Ice Breaker at Thompson
Thompson Int. Speedway – Distance TBD (iRacing Street Stock)

May 28 – Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis Motor Speedway – 500 miles (Dallara-Honda Indy car)

June 18—Michigan 400
Michigan Int. Speedway – 400 miles (Chevy Impala SS NASCAR Cup)

July 16 – Radical Cup
Brands Hatch – 40 minutes (Radical SR8 )

August 27 – Spa-Francorchamps GP
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps – 44 laps (Williams-Toyota FW31)

September 30 – Petit Petit Le Mans
Road Atlanta – 120 minutes (mixed class TBD)

October 8 – Suzuka GP
Suzuka Circuit – 53 laps (Williams-Toyota FW31)