iRacing Dirt to hopefully Launch by End of March

Paul Jeffrey · Mar 4, 2017

iRacing.com Executive Vice President and Executive Producer Steve Myers has confirmed the service intend to launch dirt oval racing by 29th March.

Almost one year since the official announcement broke back on April 1st 2016, iRacing are looking to release "some kind of oval dirt racing" by the end of the month. With Williams Grove Speedway, Volusia Speedway Park and Eldora already announced, plus cars from the Dirt Late Model, Sprint Street Cars and Dirt Sprint Cars confirmed to be coming for the simulation it is unclear at this stage exactly what will be included in the initial dirt release.

Originally the service aimed to release as early as next week judging by comments from iRacing President Tony George, however keen to ensure the quality of the new content is of suitable level a decision looks like it has been taken to delay for a couple of weeks in order to ensure everything is in place before the new racing discipline makes it's public debut.

The full message from Myers can be seen below:

"Hi all,

I know that the excitement to finally start racing on dirt is very high! We are so very close to be able to get our first go at this out but we have a few open issues that we would like to get in a better place before we do that. So we have made the decision to NOT release dirt next week.

What we have decided though is that we are going to officially target a release of some kind of oval dirt racing by March 29th. If the open issues are fixed quickly it very well could be before the 29th but we are committing to do our best to release some combination of the dirt content by March 29th.
Thanks for your patience and we really are excited at how this is turning out and we think you will love it!

Steve Myers"

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Are you looking forward to dirt racing? Would this new form of racing entice you back to the simulation if you have been away? Let us know in the comments section below!

snyperal · Mar 5, 2017

Soo.... What are they going to release next week then?

Eckhart von Glan · Mar 5, 2017

one small oval (road surface), no new cars, the usual updates bugfixes etc.

Vapir · Mar 5, 2017

snyperal said:
Soo.... What are they going to release next week then?

The Bullring oval. A small oval near the Las Vegas Speedway if I remember correctly.

Shad3R · Mar 5, 2017

Night/Day cicle when pls?

Eckhart von Glan · Mar 5, 2017

well, if they really get to grips (no pun intended) with how tires actually behave on sandy, wet, slippery surfaces, they will be one giant step ahead of the competition. It would actually involve calculating hundreds and hundreds more variables than the dry racing on tarmac they have perfected. IF they pull it off, both rain and night/day should not be that far behind. Really curious, if they manage to do it convincingly and I guess it's an "if" not a "when" atm.

mozzie · Mar 5, 2017

Eckhart von Glan said:
well, if they really get to grips (no pun intended) with how tires actually behave on sandy, wet, slippery surfaces, they will be one giant step ahead of the competition. It would actually involve calculating hundreds and hundreds more variables than the dry racing on tarmac they have perfected. IF they pull it off, both rain and night/day should not be that far behind. Really curious, if they manage to do it convincingly and I guess it's an "if" not a "when" atm.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that they have perfected asphalt racing as they still got a fair bit of work to go on that front, but I am sure all the work that they do on dirt will help them with the asphalt side too.