(Press release from Stafford Speedway)
After a successful launch last Friday night, eStafford Speedway is set to return with a multi event iRacing series starting Friday, April 3rd. The Stafford Speedway eSeries will be similar to last Friday’s event with weekly live stream broadcasts on the Stafford Speedway YouTube channel at 7pm. Event dates include April 3rd, 10th, and 17th.
The eSeries will also give iRacers that are not Stafford Speedway competitors a chance to compete through the eStafford Speedway Open, a preliminary night event held Wednesday April 8th and Wednesday April 15th. The top 5 finishers will transfer to Friday’s event to compete against Stafford Speedway drivers.
“We want to thank everyone for tuning into the broadcast last Friday night,” explained Paul Arute of Stafford Speedway. “We’ve put together a 3 race series as well as a prelim night for fans, crew members, and non Stafford drivers to race their way Friday’s event. After last week’s race we took a look at the setup and have made some adjustments and added a race director. This should improve the racing and cut down on some of the caution laps.”
All drivers will be required to register for the series online. Entry-fee for Stafford drivers is $15 for 3 races while non Stafford driver entry-fee is $12. Any drivers looking to participate in the event can register online here.
Tweaks to the race format include a shortened feature race to 80 laps, eliminating the ability to reset your car and remove damage, as well as eliminating the option to pit for tires. Official rules for the event have been prepared and are now available online. All drivers are encouraged to read the rulebook before participating in the event.
“Official rules for the event have been posted online,” continued Arute. “Rules include a few changes to make sure the racing is better. We’ve also added a little prize with all feature winners receiving a $25 Stafford Speedway gift card. Adding the preliminary night event is a fun twist, we’re all excited to see who transfers to Friday Night. Jeff and Bonssa will be back on the broadcast and it should be another great event to help get everyone through this crazy time.”
Last Friday night, 2019 SK Light Modified Track Champion Teddy Hodgdon dominated the caution filled race to win the iRacing 100 presented by NAPA Auto Parts. SK Modified d®rivers Glen Reen and Dylan Izzo rounded out the podium.
Each Friday the event will be live streamed on Stafford Speedway’s YouTube channel. Race fans can subscribe to the channel to receive updates about the upcoming broadcast.
(Press release from Stafford Speedway)
That drive in deal for fans is outstanding. It’s already getting a great reaction on Facebook. Messaging the rules is great as well. That crash and reset with the car instantly fixed was confusing at first. The drivers have to be more careful now don’t they?
One thing I thought was very realistic was seeing drivers slamming gears after a wreck like they were ticked. And I’m sure they were.
Sounds awesome, wish I had an iracing rigs, I’d definitely try to get in.
They should have an SKL race also
Correct me if I’m wrong sim racers. Sim racing is not about divisions it’s about a game with a skill set that is honed by experience and practice. I’ll be interested to see how the fans that drive their way into the Friday races will fare. I’m thinking they may do surprisingly well.
Huge sac to charge people to attempt to qualify for this. I am not one to complain about money but the world is laid off and has no income. I have 20k in my sim rig so twelve dollars certainly doesn’t break me. The truth is I would not have bothered with this anyway but I had to state that I feel the principle is wrong, wrong, wrong, Shawn do you know if I can smoke while I watch this race or do I have to go down the street to the Hot Dog stand?
should be able to use your season pass to pay for it.
Guys, It’s $12. We get it…you hate Stafford
On entertainment, if you like the band Metallica, they recently put a concert on you tube. Over 2 hrs. of new and old music. Good show.
Stafford isn’t a charity, the sim race deal costs time and money and Stafford has given away more then their fair share of freebee’s in this off season to keep interest alive.
I would think a race fan wouldn’t mind at all a chance to race their way into the main event on Fridays. Fans racing is a game that would be of little interest from a spectator standpoint. 5 fans that know what they are doing racing against names we know is a very interesting prospect.
Doesn’t appear there will be any problem getting participant interest even with the fee.
100% agree this a greatly appreciated substitute (but not the real thing). Can’t wait for all the comments, I can hear it now: the Intel processor is the LFR of iRacing. Teddy Hodgdon uses foam seating pads in his sim rig, what happened to office chairs/ couch seats of the past? If floppy discs were still around today do you think these kids would be running as well as they are today? No one builds their own computers these day. If you never replaced a hard drive, your opinion does not matter.. Just having fun.
It’s good to hear of the tweaks,showing the thoughtfulness of Stafford, but if they still count the yellow flag laps while trimming the race to 80 laps we will be lucky to have 30 laps of racing! I also hope that the race director addition means that there will be the potential for black flags. It was funny (not really funny) to see that the same guy that pushes and shoves his way through the feild in the actual Friday events was doing the same thing in the sim racing. Thinking about it, it would make sense that it was probably learned behavior in sim racing as kids, where there are no serious consequences, and then they bring that reckless attitude into the real-world racing. Anyway, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
People r already complaining about Narducci winning… 😂
Most of these “kids” most likely started racing on PlayStation, with NASCAR heat. In all of its variations you can turn off damage as well as tire wear and fuel consumption. Therefore, you can beat and bang your way through the field with no consequences. I don’t know about iracing, wether or not you have control of these features, but it does explain allot. Some of these “kids” take iracing as serious as real racing. Those are the ones you’ll see race “clean” for the most part. But when you put the two together you get mayhem. Still fun to watch though
I thought last night’s was better than last week’s, probably mostly because Reen wasn’t in the race….
If they decided to do a street stock division for fans I might give it a try. I know I can’t compete with most of the mod guys in the sk, I’ve raced with quite a few in the official servers and they blow my doors off.
Tire wear is part of the programming, touching causes wrecks and when they don’t you accumulate points toward a black flag. Hydar came in second and had to be careful because one more point would have disqualified him One driver was booted by the race director.. Erratic driving has consequences. Just like actual racing finesse is critical. Sim racing is real racing where practice, experience and skill count.
I have been very surprised Ryan Fearn has not done better. When he did his series in these pages he referred to using this sort of thing to build his racing skills and that was years ago.