This Week in iRacing: December 12-18, 2023

Welcome back to This Week in iRacing, our weekly post that details all you need to know about what is going on in the world of iRacing!

Happy iRacing New Year! We are officially in 2024 Season 1. We’ve got new content and with that, some new official series to jump right into. There are also some of our top esports series still running, along with some special events to jump into.

Here’s what you should know for Week 1 of 2024 Season 1, from December 12th to the 18th.

For the Members: iRacing Official Series Highlights

Every week, iRacing offers daily, even hourly racing that members can get into, based on where their license level is at. There are also some special series that run at specific times that anyone can jump into, with the right credentials, that offer a more meaningful sim racing experience.

Here are a few of the highlighted series taking place this week.

iRACING PRESENTS THE 2023 CHILI BOWL SIM-MOTION NATIONALS – SPECIAL EVENT!

The final special event for the 2023 calendar is the yearly tradition of the iRacing Chili Bowl Nationals, this year sponsored by SIM-MOTION. Through the week, there will be two timeslots every day. Monday through Friday, at 10am and 9pm EST (02:00 GMT & 15:00 GMT), for drivers to partake in and earn points in a Super Sessions setting.

The top points-scoring drivers from the week will take part in the main events on Saturday, December 17th, at 10am and 9pm EST (Saturday at 15:00 GMT & Sunday at 02:00 GMT).

For more information on the iRacing Chili Bowl Nationals -> CLICK HERE
For more information on the 2024 iRacing Special Events calendar -> CLICK HERE

WINTER NASCAR iRACING SERIES

There’s no NASCAR iRacing Series until the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season begins in February, so in its place for the winter is the Winter NASCAR iRacing Series (WNiS), a similarly-structured fixed and open setup series which will utilize the 1987 NASCAR Cup Series cars. Week 6 will feature the 1987 cars at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The races this week are scheduled for:

Fixed Schedule: Wednesday, 21:00 GMT; Friday, 02:00 GMT; Saturday, 10:00 and 17:00 GMT; Monday, 02:00 GMT

Open Schedule: Thursday, 02:00 and 19:00 GMT; Saturday, 02:00 GMT; Sunday, 15:00 GMT

For more information on the Winter NASCAR iRacing Series -> CLICK HERE

FIA F4 ESPORTS REGIONAL TOURS

Every week, FIA F4 Esports Regional Tour races take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:00 PM, 9:00 PM, and 11:00 PM in time zones appropriate for each region. While all iRacers are eligible to run in any region’s event, the servers will always be set to the most appropriate iRacing server for each region.

Week 1 Schedule:

Americas: Sebring International Raceway – Club
Asia-Pacific: Tsukuba Circuit – 2000 Moto
Europe-North: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps – Grand Prix Pits
Europe-South: Red Bull Ring – Grand Prix

iRACING WEEKLY CHALLENGE

iRacing’s latest new series concept comes to life for 2024 Season 1 with the introduction of the iRacing Weekly Challenge. If you’re into all forms of road racing, this is the series for you—it’s 12 weeks of different car and track combinations, with no repeats on either, for a season-long championship. Prove you’re the best at everything from sports cars to open-wheel racers on a global tour of some of iRacing’s most popular circuits.

Each week will feature points races every hour, leading up to a main event on Sunday at 20:00 GMT that features splits by weekly points. Races will be 20 minutes long and are open to iRacers with Class D licenses and higher. A separate set of points will also be tracked for the top splits of the Sunday main events on their own landing page. In addition, $5 in iRacing credits will be awarded each week to a random driver who makes the top split of the Sunday main event.

Week 1 Schedule:

GT4’s at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

RING MEISTER / DRAFT MASTER COMBINATIONS

Two of the more unique daily racing series added in recent seasons are the Ring Meister Ricmotech Series and the Draft Master Series, where the cars change every week as opposed to the tracks. This season, the setups are fixed in both series, which means it’s all about jumping in and racing the combination at hand.

The Ring Meister Ricmotech Series (Races on every odd 2 hours | Qualifying every even 2 hours at :30) takes place at the Nürburgring Nordschleife – Industriefahrten and cycles through mostly road-type racing vehicles every week.

As for Draft Master (every hour), there are two tracks—Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway—and six NASCAR vehicles that each track will cycle through. This series moves back to Daytona for the first six weeks of 2024 Season 1.

Week 1 Schedule:

Ring Meister: Skip Barber Formula 2000 at Nürburgring Nordschleife – Industriefahrten
Draft Master: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Daytona Int’l Speedway

Official iRacing eSports

As the calendar year comes to a close, most of the official iRacing eSports are either on hiatus or gearing up for their 2024 seasons. IMSA Esports only has one race to go, and it’s this weekend, December 15th. The eNASCAR College iRacing Series won’t return until January 2024, but there’s an eNASCAR Invitational on Tuesday night. Before the end of the year, however, there will be two more iRacing World of Outlaws events to watch, the next one scheduled for Monday night.

iRACING WORLD OF OUTLAWS THRUSTMASTER SPRINT CAR SERIES

Thrustmaster is onboard for the 2023-24 season of the iRacing World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. There was another shakeup at the top of the points standings last week at Lincoln. While Kenny Miller claimed his second straight victory at one of his home tracks, Lemoore, California’s Ryan Avila took control at the top of the championship by 18 points over Aiden Forster. Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Missouri, is the next battleground for the top dirt iRacers, where James Edens will look to win once again and throw his name into the fight for the 2023-24 title.

I-55 RACE #5 – BROADCAST STARTS AT 9:00 PM ET (02:00 GMT)

For more details on the World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series -> CLICK HERE

eNASCAR INTERNATIONAL iRACING INVITE DOUBLE FEATURE

There’s still one last eNASCAR show left in the 2023 season, and it will include some of the biggest names in NASCAR, both based in the U.S., as well as Internationally. About 25 real-world racing drivers from the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series, Truck Series, Canada Series, Mexico Series, Brasil Sprint and Whelen Euro Series will take on the Los Angeles Coliseum and Brand Hatch Indy on Tuesday night with $5,000 on the line. Familiar names like Anthony Alfredo, Treyten Lapcevich, Rubén García Jr, Jeff Giassi, Paul Jouffreau, and Dale Earnhardt Jr, will be in the show.

LA COLISEUM x BRAND HATCH INDY – BROADCAST STARTS AT 6:00 PM ET (23:00 GMT)

For more details on the eNASCAR International iRacing Invite -> CLICK HERE

IMSA ESPORTS GLOBAL CHALLENGE FINALE

Moving from Sunday to Saturday for the final race of the 2023 season, the IMSA Esports Global Challenge is set to take on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway on December 15th. Joining the top level will be the new IMSA Esports iRacing Open Challenge, a 20-minute GT4 support race with some of the fastest iRacers outside the Global Championship series. After that, the two-hour, 40-minute feature kicks off as we determine who takes the final wins of the season, as well as the class titles in GTP and GTD categories.

DAYTONA RACE #4 – BROADCAST STARTS AT 1:30 PM ET (18:30 GMT)

For more details on the IMSA Esports Global Championship -> CLICK HERE

OFF THIS WEEK

eNASCAR College iRacing Series
- Next Race -> Tuesday, January 23: Race #5 at Michigan International Speedway

For more details on the eNASCAR College iRacing Series -> CLICK HERE

Around the iRacing Community

Some big time sim racing events are on the calendar this week. While we missed the chance to talk about two big charitable races in Jimmy Broadbent’s Race For Mental Health (which raised more than £53,000 for the Mind Charity after 23 hours of endurance racing around Circuit Zolder) and Travis “Moonhead” Brown’s Mooncar 24 (which raised more than $9,000 for the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation after 24 hours of endurance racing in the Mazda MX-5 at Martinsville), there are even more big names taking part in big events to watch this week.

RACE FOR RP FUNDRAISING EVENT

Some big names in various motorsports are jumping in to race for charity on Tuesday night with the Race For Relapsing Polychondritis Fundraising Event. Jordan and Ricky Taylor, along with Stefan Wilson, Daniel Morad, and more, will be teamed up in pairs with other participants for 50 minutes of racing across four stages at the Circuit of the Americas, utilizing the GT3 grid of cars. Last year, the event raised more than $100,000 towards the research of Relapsing Polychronditis and other autoimmune diseases.

The race will be broadcasted on Tuesday night, starting at 9:00 pm EST, on the Race For RP YouTube channel.

For more information on the Race For RP -> CLICK HERE

eRA OMEGA CUP WINTER BOWL

The final race of the eRacing Association season takes place on Wednesday night with the Omega Cup Winter Bowl at Phoenix Raceway. The top five finishers in each Omega Cup split the $5,000 prize pool, with the winner taking home the lion’s share of $4,000 and the rest split among the top five. Previous winners this season include Michael Guest in the Spring Bowl at Daytona, Vicente Salas in the Summer Bowl at Charlotte, and Briar Lapradd in the Fall Bowl at Martinsville.

Watch the action on Wednesday, December 13th at 7:30 pm EST, airing across all official iRacing pages.

For more information on the eRA Omega Cup Winter Bowl -> CLICK HERE

For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.