iRacing has announced their 2016 Endurance and Special Events schedule. After collecting their special events into the wide spanning Road Warrior Series the past few years, iRacing goes back to basics and treats each event as a stand-alone.
While the schedule hasn’t expanded compared to last year – still 10 events – the prestige of the events have. Gone is the filler, such as the RUF C-Spec at Montreal and the NASCAR Trucks at Mosport (albeit a fun combo), and in comes the Nurburgring 24 Hour race and 24 Hours of Le Mans. It really is a strong showing of the best of motorsports.
There are couple interesting notes in the schedule.
First, the 24 Hours of LeMans scheduling. iRacing has been shooting to get LeMans out by the real-world race in June. With that said, the race isn’t scheduled for June but receives the to be determined tag. So maybe the track development is behind schedule? Or, maybe iRacing just wants to ensure all the bugs are worked out by the time a major event arrives?
Either way it’s probably a sound decision, especially since last year’s tbd race, the Nurburgring, never went off.
The other interesting note is the forecasting of new GT3 cars. While we know the Audi R8 LMS and Mercedes AMG GT3 are coming, clearly iRacing is bullish on them hitting their Season 2 release date in March.
Similar to last year, the endurance races will only have one time slot, while the two non-endurance events will give you four shots at the checkered flag. Most of us could probably use 40 shots for the Indy 500…such an amazing and cruel race.
We think the special events are one of iRacing’s biggest selling points and it’s good to see a strong crop of them for 2016.