GRAND-AM and iRacing.com Announce Premier Online Sports Car Series

10-Race, 26-Week Virtual Racing Series To Mirror Rolex Series Schedule When GRAND-AM and iRacing.com announced the GRAND-AM iRacing.com Online Sports Car Series last fall, driving game aficionados, sim racers and sports car racing fans responded enthusiastically.   The series, which runs 12-week seasons and features multi-class racing, quickly became one of the most popular among iRacing.com?s global membership, so now the two organizations have announced they are taking virtual sports car racing to the next level with the creation of the Premier GRAND-AM iRacing.com Online Sports Car Series. The 10-race, 26-week Premier GRAND-AM iRacing.com Online Sports Car Series schedule closely parallels that of its real-world counterpart and kicks off February 27 with a 90-minute race on iRacing.com?s millimeter-accurate version of the Homestead-Miami Speedway road course. The announcement of the series was [...]

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/iracing-news/grand-am-and-iracing-com-announce-premier-online-sports-car-series/

Naoki Hattori Paul Hawkins Mike Hawthorn Boy Hayje Willi Heeks

Life at the Next Level

The NASCAR iRacing Class A Series attacked the massive banking of Daytona International Speedway for Week Two of their twelve week season. The mighty track not only provided excellent online racing where it’s anyone’s race, it also gave drivers a chance for a substantial amount of points. With the NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship race being held at Daytona the week after, this was the training grounds for many of the top drivers. Strength of Fields were immense all week, giving the Class A sim racers a taste of life at the next level. Joshua Laughton claimed top honors of the week for points accumulated with 334, Josh Berry was right on his bumper with 332 and Daniel Pope II scored 318. The first of the drivers looking to race [...]

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/iracing-news/life-at-the-next-level/

Mike Hawthorn Boy Hayje Willi Heeks Nick Heidfeld Theo Helfrich

Heidfeld less happy with R31 balance

Nick Heidfeld has admitted that he is less happy with the balance of the Renault R31 at Barcelona than he was during his first test in the car at Jerez last week. The 33-year-old completed 41 laps, setting the fifth fastest time of the day, after taking over from team-mate Vitaly Petrov for the afternoon session. But despite his concerns over the handling of the car, he is confident that set-up changes will improve performance

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/formula-one-news/f1-formula-one-news/heidfeld-less-happy-with-r31-balance/

Oscar González Aldo Gordini Horace Gould Jean Marc Gounon Emmanuel de Graffenried

French Moves to the Front in the NVIDIA Cup

Week Two of the NVIDIA Cup brought sim racers winding down The Corkscrew at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Some new faces worked their way to the front of the pack, while some of the front runners from last week struggled to keep their grip. Once again, the online racing competition was like a game of ping pong, with racers constantly swapping positions throughout the week. Just to show how much back-and- forth that?s involved in this series; only one racer who finished in the top five for the week stayed in the top five for the series standings. Marcello Maio, currently holding on to fourth place, was able to keep himself up front. Chasing Maio, is Artur Turcu, whom only managed a best finish of ninth at Laguna Seca, but [...]

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/iracing-news/french-moves-to-the-front-in-the-nvidia-cup/

Joe Nemechek Gator com Chevrolet Michael Annett Germain com Toyota Ryan Newman

Latvala crash ends Ford Portugal test

Ford factory driver Jari-Matti Latvala has crashed Ford's test Fiesta in Portugal this morning [Thursday] bringing the team's four-day session to a premature end. Precise details of the accident remain unclear but it's the Finn's second shunt in succession after he also crashed the test car prior to the start of the season in Sweden late last month Latvala recovered from his pre-Rally Sweden accident by finishing third on the World Rally Championship opener last weekend, but this latest accident will cost Ford valuable time and data as it prepares for the first gravel outing of the season in Mexico early next month. More details to follow

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/world-rally-championship-news/wrc/latvala-crash-ends-ford-portugal-test/

Ryan Newman Phoenix Construction Chevrolet Jeremy Clements Boudreaux s Butt Paste Chevrolet Justin Allgaier

WRC teams expect more punctures

Ford and Citroen have admitted they expect punctures to become more of a regular feature of the World Rally Championship - following a spate of tyre failures from Michelin on last week's Rally Sweden. Citroen was quick to point out that it only had one genuine puncture, the other problems came due to its decision to lower the tyre pressure to widen the contact patch and get more traction and speed from the DS3 WRC. Ford maintained high pressures and only suffered one puncture, which tyre manager George Black said was inevitable given the impact the cover suffered

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/world-rally-championship-news/wrc/wrc-teams-expect-more-punctures/

3M Ford Reed Sorenson Dollar General Toyota Michael Annett Germain com Toyota

Vettel refusing to make predictions

World champion Sebastian Vettel says he is not making any predictions for the upcoming season, insisting it is impossible to compare the performance of the cars. The Red Bull driver finished the Barcelona test on top for the second day running, before handing his car over to team-mate Mark Webber for the remaining two days

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/formula-one-news/f1-formula-one-news/vettel-refusing-to-make-predictions/

Bobby Labonte Terry Labonte Kevin Conway Joe Nemechek Jason Leffler

Breen upbeat over Sweden outing

Pirelli Star Driver Craig Breen said he learned more from competing on last week's Rally Sweden than any other event in his career. Breen would have finished in an amazing 10th place on his first ever snow rally, had he not been forced to stop behind a fellow competitor who crashed early in the rally

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/world-rally-championship-news/wrc/breen-upbeat-over-sweden-outing/

Kevin Harvick Armour Vienna Sausage Kroger Chevrolet Brad Keselowski Ruby Tuesday Dodge Trevor Bayne

DMACK thrilled with WRC debut

DMACK Tyres motorsport director Dick Cormack has described his firm's Production Car World Rally Championship win on last week's Rally Sweden as a dream result for the Chinese firm. DMACK is the only other FIA-sanctioned tyre supplier to the WRC apart from Michelin and, while the factory cars run on the French covers, private drivers are looking to DMACK for a cheaper alternative.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/world-rally-championship-news/wrc/dmack-thrilled-with-wrc-debut/

NAPA Toyota Joe Nemechek Gator com Chevrolet Erik Darnell 3M Ford