simFlight Racing Team? – Update

When Austrian simFlight reader Robert Graf asked for permission to use the simFlight and simMarket logos on his Chevrolet Impala race car, it caused a little bit of interest amongst higher management – plus, of course, the instant comment of ‘We can’t afford to sponsor a racing car!’ from finance.

Well, okay, so possibly it was a little more appropriate than it might at first appear, in that Robert is taking part in the Deutsche Online Meisterschaft (DOM) League of iRacing.

For those that don’t know the sim, which we strongly suspect is most of you, iRacing bills itself as the most accurate motorsport simulation available for the home user. The claim is not entirely overstated, either; iRacing operates on a subscription based model and runs licensed NASCAR events alongside being used by numerous real-world racing drivers for training on new tracks or just for fun. A number of drivers have moved from Simracing to real-world racing, some sponsored by iRacing themselves and according to the videos from iRacingTV, they say that the laser-scanned tracks and manufacturer/team assisted development of the cars in the sim have made it very easy to translate from virtual to real cars and racing.

Robert finished 14th of 28 in the last DOM race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but all of us from simFlight and simMarket wish him good luck in his future races… It would be nice to see the sF logos slightly higher up the points next time, Robert! 😉

For anyone else interested in trying iRacing, you’ll need a reasonable spec PC with a steering wheel controller and a broadband internet connection. It’s an online only sim, with no AI or ‘bot’ drivers, you’ll always be racing against other human beings and with appropriate rules and penalties for messing up or causing other drivers deliberate problems. There are a number of different cars and different style tracks available without further purchases and special offers on subscriptions are usually available, so check out the iRacing website.

Update: For anyone interested in watching the DOM finale live, it will be shown  at 2:30pm EDT (19.30 CET) on 10th December 2011 at the Web Racing Network website.  WRN also have last year’s DOM finale archived here.