With the iRacing Special Event season well underway, Luca was thinking about which races would be suitable candidates to join the iRacing schedule. Here are his picks.
When it comes to the major Special Events on iRacing - specifically on the road side - I am always extra keen on doing them, and they always have a large number of entries. Having done the Daytona 24 hours this year in the Mustang GT3 after doing it in the Cadillac GTP last year, I am particularly keen on doing the Sebring 12 hours in the Caddy since I missed it last year.
But of course, it is not just the long haul sportscar enduros that make up the Special Events on iRacing. There are plenty of oval races of course, and even a couple of dirt events both in road and oval form, something truly for everyone across the entire calendar year. It always has me thinking about what other races would be fitting to become an iRacing Special Event.
After doing this last year, I did take some creative liberties and included content not currently in iRacing, and I did get some flack from people claiming that it was not feasible. Well, since I made that article where one suggestion was an endurance race at Adelaide, iRacing has since confirmed they did scan the Australian street circuit.
For the most part, in order to avoid much of that same criticism, I will be sticking to content that is either already in iRacing, explicitly confirmed to be on its way or even just slightly implied.
Track: Autodromo Nazionale Monza - Combined without chicanes
After laying out that I would be sticking to strict criteria, I concede that I have immediately mentioned a car that has not been confirmed. We reported previously on the alluded "further collaborations" between iRacing and Ferrari, which I reckon is most likely a new Formula One car. If that proves to be the case, I found an interesting event that could be quite the fit for iRacing.
Back in the late 1950s, cars from both F1 and IndyCar (then called USAC) competed on the Monza Oval in what was called the Trofeo dei Due Mondi (or the Race of Two Worlds), doing so for 500 miles. It was only held twice in '57 and '58, but the whole idea of it just feels like it is right up iRacing's street. Doing it with a modern IndyCar and F1, to level the playing field a bit it would not be on the Monza oval and instead on the full combined circuit without chicanes.
I would like to make it 500 miles like the real-life race, but since refuelling is banned in F1, any modern Grand Prix car in iRacing will not be able to be refuelled, so most likely, it would be limited to how far the F1 car could go. My one worry for this event - besides the ridiculously high potential for major wrecks - is that there is a risk that there will be a huge imbalance of F1 vs. IndyCar representation.
From the iRacing Reports website, for 2024 Season 4, the combined amount of unique drivers in the open setup IndyCar series was 972, whilst for the open setup F1 series with the 2022 Mercedes, that number was 62. I am desperately hoping that if there is a new F1 car added in the form of this year's Ferrari, participation will increase ten-fold so this event will not be one F1 for every twenty IndyCar.
Track: Nürburgring Combined - Gesamtstrecke Long
Another race that most certainly would not happen nowadays, I am obsessed with the idea of having prototypes racing on the Nordschleife. Rewind back the clock to 2022, the first season of the Le Mans Virtual Series was held on rFactor 2 and on the schedule alongside Monza, Spa, Sebring and Le Mans was a round on the combined Nürburgring.
Unfortunately, that particular round did not run to its full length, and it was replaced by the Bahrain circuit for the following season. Nevertheless, the concept is still very enticing to me, and I am really aggrieved that I missed the boat with the IMSA series on iRacing, having a week racing at Nords. Last doing so in 2024 Season 1.
It also probably has not escaped anyone's notice that GT3 is amongst the categories, yes the GT3 cars already race Nords in abundance. I would like to have GTE cars but since they are retired from competition in real life, it may not make much sense to have them here.
When it comes to race length, it most likely would be 1,000 kilometres since that is what the original real-life event ran to, meaning 39 laps and roughly around six hours in duration. Although the event does not happen in real life, it may be the perfect opportunity to utilise a different race distance. Before I say it, I know there will be those claiming, "That is unrealistic", a four-hour race at Thruxton with Touring Cars is as well, but that is happening this year on iRacing.
I was reading up recently on the planned 1,500 miles of Sebring race that the WEC had on their initial 2018-19 season schedule, it would have started at midnight only a few hours after the 12 hour race had concluded. The race may have been decreased to 1,000 miles and started the day before the main event, but a 1,500-mile race starting at midnight is too mouth-watering of a prospect not to do.
Whether it is 1,000 kilometres or 1,500 miles, driving protos around Nords in either case will be a challenge I am sure everyone will relish.
Track: Auto Club Speedway - Oval
It would have been quite easy for me to just go with all road course races, but there is an oval event I believe would go down a treat. My colleague @elzminem - who streams on our Twitch channel every Sunday - had the idea to have a multi-class NASCAR oval team race, and even to my uninitiated oval brain, the concept is very intriguing to me.
I initially suggested having the event on a superspeedway like Talladega, but thankfully, those more knowledgeable about oval racing pointed out that the speed discrepancies between the three classes would make it too chaotic. However, on an intermediate oval, it would balance things out speed-wise between all classes.
During the off weeks between seasons on iRacing, they do host some whacky multi-class races as part of their 13th Week Ridiculousness series. In the video above, all three classes are racing at Texas, and it genuinely does prove that this premise has potential. Just making it long enough to be a proper endurance race and giving people the option to race in a team would be the next step.
The longest a NASCAR race can be is 600 miles with the Coke 600, and whether this event can also be 600 miles would depend on whether having it so would lower the value of the Coke 600. There are some people on the iRacing forums begging for a 24-hour oval race, which would seem like overkill. But then again, so do four hours of driving TCRs at Thruxton, so maybe it is not too farfetched.
Track: WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca - Full Course
When it comes to the Special Events on iRacing not based on any real life race, the one that always stuck out like a sore thumb to me was the Fuji 8 Hours. I am not particularly keen on Fuji but had it been based on an actual real life GT3-only 8 hour race that had been held at Fuji in real life, I would not have questioned its place on the schedule. As it stood, it just struck me as odd to have that as the track of choice for such a race.
Thankfully for me, the event is off the Special Events schedule, and it has been replaced with a 1,000km GT3 race at Suzuka to coincide with the race's real-life return later this year, which I am delighted about! However, there is an event that I believe would become a favourite in the iRacing community, and it at least has happened in real life, unlike the Fuji 8 Hours.
From 2017-2019, the Intercontinental GT Challenge visited Laguna Seca for its designated North American round, which has since been moved to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With how tight and compact Laguna Seca is, that just makes the endurance aspect more challenging even without factoring in multi-class.
In real life, the race also had GT4 cars and even a few TCRs. Whether or not that means they would be included in an iRacing Special Event version of this race, we cannot say especially considering the Indianapolis 8 Hour since 2023 has been GT3-only. Speaking of which, since there is already an Indy 6-Hour race with GT3s alongside prototypes, doing one for the 8-Hour seems a bit unnecessary.
That is why we need to have a long-haul endurance event on the simply incredible Laguna Seca.
Track: Nürburgring Nordschleife - Industriefahrten
Two events on the Nordschleife on this list alone, making three Special Events at this venue along with the 24-hour race. Excessive? Perhaps. But I believe this one may be of interest to a lot of people. The 'Monzanapolis' suggestion from the start of the article was born out of a need for longer distance races for the Formula Car licence.
This is another, and instead of utilising modern cars as I have done for other events that have happened in the past, this one features the Lotus 49. The car raced in F1 during the late 60s when the Grand Prix circus did race at Nordschleife, which has me thinking that what we need to offer those who enjoy Formula Car races is a full distance race with the 49 at Nords.
In both 1956 and 1957, the German Grand Prix at the Nordschleife saw its highest lap count at 22, with it barely exceeding 15 in the years following. I did the maths, doing 22 laps around the Industriefahrten layout brings it to just over 500 kilometres, whilst most Grand Prix nowadays are around 300. So, it would be truly the perfect candidate for a long-distance Formula Car event.
It is unfortunately though also unavoidable that the Lotus 49 is not a car that the majority of iRacing players own, historical content rarely seems to strike a chord with the playerbase. But a Special Event may tempt a lot more people into picking up the car, and it could also work with many other pieces of unloved content in iRacing.
What would you like to see join the iRacing Special Event calendar? Let us know in the comments below, and join the discussion in our iRacing forum!
When it comes to the major Special Events on iRacing - specifically on the road side - I am always extra keen on doing them, and they always have a large number of entries. Having done the Daytona 24 hours this year in the Mustang GT3 after doing it in the Cadillac GTP last year, I am particularly keen on doing the Sebring 12 hours in the Caddy since I missed it last year.
But of course, it is not just the long haul sportscar enduros that make up the Special Events on iRacing. There are plenty of oval races of course, and even a couple of dirt events both in road and oval form, something truly for everyone across the entire calendar year. It always has me thinking about what other races would be fitting to become an iRacing Special Event.
After doing this last year, I did take some creative liberties and included content not currently in iRacing, and I did get some flack from people claiming that it was not feasible. Well, since I made that article where one suggestion was an endurance race at Adelaide, iRacing has since confirmed they did scan the Australian street circuit.
For the most part, in order to avoid much of that same criticism, I will be sticking to content that is either already in iRacing, explicitly confirmed to be on its way or even just slightly implied.
Monzanapolis
Cars: Dallara IR-18, Ferrari SF-25Track: Autodromo Nazionale Monza - Combined without chicanes
After laying out that I would be sticking to strict criteria, I concede that I have immediately mentioned a car that has not been confirmed. We reported previously on the alluded "further collaborations" between iRacing and Ferrari, which I reckon is most likely a new Formula One car. If that proves to be the case, I found an interesting event that could be quite the fit for iRacing.
Back in the late 1950s, cars from both F1 and IndyCar (then called USAC) competed on the Monza Oval in what was called the Trofeo dei Due Mondi (or the Race of Two Worlds), doing so for 500 miles. It was only held twice in '57 and '58, but the whole idea of it just feels like it is right up iRacing's street. Doing it with a modern IndyCar and F1, to level the playing field a bit it would not be on the Monza oval and instead on the full combined circuit without chicanes.
I would like to make it 500 miles like the real-life race, but since refuelling is banned in F1, any modern Grand Prix car in iRacing will not be able to be refuelled, so most likely, it would be limited to how far the F1 car could go. My one worry for this event - besides the ridiculously high potential for major wrecks - is that there is a risk that there will be a huge imbalance of F1 vs. IndyCar representation.
From the iRacing Reports website, for 2024 Season 4, the combined amount of unique drivers in the open setup IndyCar series was 972, whilst for the open setup F1 series with the 2022 Mercedes, that number was 62. I am desperately hoping that if there is a new F1 car added in the form of this year's Ferrari, participation will increase ten-fold so this event will not be one F1 for every twenty IndyCar.
Nordschleife with Protos
Cars: GTP, LMP2, GT3Track: Nürburgring Combined - Gesamtstrecke Long
Another race that most certainly would not happen nowadays, I am obsessed with the idea of having prototypes racing on the Nordschleife. Rewind back the clock to 2022, the first season of the Le Mans Virtual Series was held on rFactor 2 and on the schedule alongside Monza, Spa, Sebring and Le Mans was a round on the combined Nürburgring.
Unfortunately, that particular round did not run to its full length, and it was replaced by the Bahrain circuit for the following season. Nevertheless, the concept is still very enticing to me, and I am really aggrieved that I missed the boat with the IMSA series on iRacing, having a week racing at Nords. Last doing so in 2024 Season 1.
It also probably has not escaped anyone's notice that GT3 is amongst the categories, yes the GT3 cars already race Nords in abundance. I would like to have GTE cars but since they are retired from competition in real life, it may not make much sense to have them here.
When it comes to race length, it most likely would be 1,000 kilometres since that is what the original real-life event ran to, meaning 39 laps and roughly around six hours in duration. Although the event does not happen in real life, it may be the perfect opportunity to utilise a different race distance. Before I say it, I know there will be those claiming, "That is unrealistic", a four-hour race at Thruxton with Touring Cars is as well, but that is happening this year on iRacing.
I was reading up recently on the planned 1,500 miles of Sebring race that the WEC had on their initial 2018-19 season schedule, it would have started at midnight only a few hours after the 12 hour race had concluded. The race may have been decreased to 1,000 miles and started the day before the main event, but a 1,500-mile race starting at midnight is too mouth-watering of a prospect not to do.
Whether it is 1,000 kilometres or 1,500 miles, driving protos around Nords in either case will be a challenge I am sure everyone will relish.
Multi-Class Oval Race
Cars: Gen 4 Cup, NASCAR 1987, NASCAR TruckTrack: Auto Club Speedway - Oval
It would have been quite easy for me to just go with all road course races, but there is an oval event I believe would go down a treat. My colleague @elzminem - who streams on our Twitch channel every Sunday - had the idea to have a multi-class NASCAR oval team race, and even to my uninitiated oval brain, the concept is very intriguing to me.
I initially suggested having the event on a superspeedway like Talladega, but thankfully, those more knowledgeable about oval racing pointed out that the speed discrepancies between the three classes would make it too chaotic. However, on an intermediate oval, it would balance things out speed-wise between all classes.
During the off weeks between seasons on iRacing, they do host some whacky multi-class races as part of their 13th Week Ridiculousness series. In the video above, all three classes are racing at Texas, and it genuinely does prove that this premise has potential. Just making it long enough to be a proper endurance race and giving people the option to race in a team would be the next step.
The longest a NASCAR race can be is 600 miles with the Coke 600, and whether this event can also be 600 miles would depend on whether having it so would lower the value of the Coke 600. There are some people on the iRacing forums begging for a 24-hour oval race, which would seem like overkill. But then again, so do four hours of driving TCRs at Thruxton, so maybe it is not too farfetched.
California 8 Hours
Cars: GT3Track: WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca - Full Course
When it comes to the Special Events on iRacing not based on any real life race, the one that always stuck out like a sore thumb to me was the Fuji 8 Hours. I am not particularly keen on Fuji but had it been based on an actual real life GT3-only 8 hour race that had been held at Fuji in real life, I would not have questioned its place on the schedule. As it stood, it just struck me as odd to have that as the track of choice for such a race.
Thankfully for me, the event is off the Special Events schedule, and it has been replaced with a 1,000km GT3 race at Suzuka to coincide with the race's real-life return later this year, which I am delighted about! However, there is an event that I believe would become a favourite in the iRacing community, and it at least has happened in real life, unlike the Fuji 8 Hours.
From 2017-2019, the Intercontinental GT Challenge visited Laguna Seca for its designated North American round, which has since been moved to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With how tight and compact Laguna Seca is, that just makes the endurance aspect more challenging even without factoring in multi-class.
In real life, the race also had GT4 cars and even a few TCRs. Whether or not that means they would be included in an iRacing Special Event version of this race, we cannot say especially considering the Indianapolis 8 Hour since 2023 has been GT3-only. Speaking of which, since there is already an Indy 6-Hour race with GT3s alongside prototypes, doing one for the 8-Hour seems a bit unnecessary.
That is why we need to have a long-haul endurance event on the simply incredible Laguna Seca.
Green Hell Revival
Cars: Lotus 49Track: Nürburgring Nordschleife - Industriefahrten
Two events on the Nordschleife on this list alone, making three Special Events at this venue along with the 24-hour race. Excessive? Perhaps. But I believe this one may be of interest to a lot of people. The 'Monzanapolis' suggestion from the start of the article was born out of a need for longer distance races for the Formula Car licence.
This is another, and instead of utilising modern cars as I have done for other events that have happened in the past, this one features the Lotus 49. The car raced in F1 during the late 60s when the Grand Prix circus did race at Nordschleife, which has me thinking that what we need to offer those who enjoy Formula Car races is a full distance race with the 49 at Nords.
In both 1956 and 1957, the German Grand Prix at the Nordschleife saw its highest lap count at 22, with it barely exceeding 15 in the years following. I did the maths, doing 22 laps around the Industriefahrten layout brings it to just over 500 kilometres, whilst most Grand Prix nowadays are around 300. So, it would be truly the perfect candidate for a long-distance Formula Car event.
It is unfortunately though also unavoidable that the Lotus 49 is not a car that the majority of iRacing players own, historical content rarely seems to strike a chord with the playerbase. But a Special Event may tempt a lot more people into picking up the car, and it could also work with many other pieces of unloved content in iRacing.
What would you like to see join the iRacing Special Event calendar? Let us know in the comments below, and join the discussion in our iRacing forum!
