Ramblings Rumblings & Rants

Every Sunday I will publish my new column, "Ramblings, Rumblings & Rants." It's a column I used to write for my college newspaper back in the day. I'll be changing the format to cover all things iRacing as well as anything else I want to touch on.

So with that said, here we go!

• Canada's Rory McDonald destroyed Nate Diaz in UFC 129 with 3 epic suplexes in the 3rd round. He's definitely on my "Must Watch" list in the MMA world now.
• Maximum Motorsport Alliance Driver Gregory Shafer secured the iRacing Season 1 Late Model Championship in Division 6, but with great power comes great responsibility...and now Shafer will have to deal with a higher caliber of racer after being promoted to Division 2.
• iRacing's newest track, Okayama, is a perfect fit for all classes and skill levels. It's wide, smooth and has 4 or 5 really nice spots for overtaking. I've run around it in the Skip Barber RT2000 and the Star Mazda and I've really enjoyed it. I'll most likely race every series that makes a stop in Okayama.
• Night Racing has debuted and it adds a whole new level of difficulty to the road racing mix.
• Dirt 2 is reaching the end of it's run, but many of the people I race with have rediscovered it and it offers a nice break from the seriousness and competitiveness of iRacing. Available on Steam right now for $20.
• Kyle Busch won at Richmond on Saturday night. A couple of thoughts about the race. As good as Steve Latarte is as Dale Earnhardt Jr's crew chief, he really made a bad call bring Jr in with too many laps left to finish on a tank of fuel. Earnhardt drove a good race and should've finished in the Top 10 but had to stop for a splash and go and ended up 19th. Ryan Newman needs to quit crying. He and Juan Pablo Montoya got into each other pretty good and all Newman could talk about was how NASCAR better do something about Montoya. Handle your business Ryan!!!
• It's still a few weeks out, but I can't wait for Le Mans. I just hope Michael Waltrip doesn't take out one of the true road racing teams by being such a novice in multi-class racing.

And Finally,

• CASCAR Season 2 is upon us, and the guys at SimRacing Nation have stepped up to the plate and contributed $75 in iRacing Gift Certificates to sweeten the pot. Head over to SimRacing Nation and sign up today!
  

First Look at Okayama & Skippy

iRacing released a video today of the completely overhauled Skip Barber Formula 2000 running around Japan's Okayama Circuit.

Big News From iRacing

They've officially announced iRacing 2.0. A dramatic overhaul of the current build which is based on architecture that's 9 years old.

Here's more:

Highlights of iRacing 2.0

May 2011

• Early preview of Dave Kaemmer’s new tire model available on the new NASCAR Nationwide car.
• Launch of in-game awards program – over 50 different participation awards members can earn.
• Night racing on road courses using headlights beginning with Sebring International Raceway and the V8 Supercar, Mazda MX5 Cup & Roadster, Corvette C6.R, Riley Daytona Prototype, Pontiac Solstice, VW Jetta TDI Cup and Mustang Challenge race cars.
• New NASCAR “Nationwide” stock car – race the car you watch on Saturdays.
• Okayama International Circuit (Japan) – the first of several tracks from the island nation.
• New telemetry output for the data hungry racers.
• Private league racing enhancements including: reduced pricing, advanced scheduling, new race session options and additional grid spots to virtually every track.
• Graphic and shader upgrades in-game for more lifelike visuals.
• Complete graphical overhaul of the Skip Barber FSB2000 race car – updating our first car to current standards.
• Opening practice sessions to all license levels (excluding Pro Series).
• Enhanced pitting and damage repair for all cars.
• Preferred/custom car numbers.
• Improved accuracy of the modeled physical track surface to match the laser scanned data better than ever before.

August 2011

• New Tire Model for all cars.
• Enhanced aero model for improved drafting and more realistic downforce characteristics.
• Heat/Tournament racing for private leagues/sessions.
• Driver aids available for private leagues and Rookie series (ABS brakes, traction control, driving line, steering aids, etc.).
• Enhancements of new sound system.
• Endurance racing and driver swaps.
• Suzuka Circuit (Japan).
• Iowa Speedway (USA).
• Ford GT race car
• Honda LMP ARX-01C race car
• Live pop-up chat on member site.

Video of the Week

iRacer Patrick Spence shows off incredible video editing skills with this iRacing short called, "Slow It Down..."

iRacing 2011 Season 2 Schedule Posted

iRacing released the schedule for season 2 of 2011 today. Okayama, the new base content track is on many of the road racing schedules so we can look forward to receiving it during next week most likely

Here's a link to the schedule:
2011 Season 2 Schedule

iRacing Announces Annual Bonus

From iRacing:

We want to thank those of you who have been racing with us for a while so we are introducing our Member Anniversary Credit Program. Here’s how it works: Members who reach 12 months of continual membership (12 consecutive months of membership) will receive $5 bonus credits as a thank you for being a loyal customer. The program is set to automatically run at the end of every month so you will be receiving your Anniversary Credits at the end of your 12th month. The program will continue to reward multiple years by issuing you another $5 credit when you get to 24 months, 36 months, 48 months, etc.

Thanks to all of you who have been racing over the years!

A few things to keep in mind:

Your ‘Anniversary Month’ is not necessarily the month you first joined iRacing. We are looking for 12 months of continuous membership so if you let your membership lapse at any time we start counting when you join again.

Anniversary Credits can be used just like regular iRacing credits – you can purchase cars, tracks, hosted sessions or renew your membership with them.

If you let your membership lapse, even for a day or two, the clock gets reset. The best way to make sure you qualify for the Anniversary Credits is to turn auto-renew on. We are aware that this doesn’t work for those of you who utilize PayPal but you can just make sure to renew a day or two early to keep your streak going.

Your membership must be active to qualify.

We are not going back in time to calculate who may have earned this previously. The program starts looking back from May 2011.


I personally think they could've done better than this offer, but hey...it is free money!!!

Thanks....Thanks Alot

We've all had that moment during a race where we're driving as hard as we can, running a good clean race...and then some no talent ass-clown comes out of nowhere to take us out. I got to experience that yesterday at Bristol in the Late Model Series.

I'm battling this guy hard for 5 or 6 laps, he's hanging tough on the outside and I'm trying to complete the pass on the inside. I finally clear him and he immediately switches to the bottom side and dumps me. He's lucky we weren't in real cars or this is what I would've done: