Is it worth investing into the Skip Barber / Formula Mazda content + tracks?

Hi there. I've recently renewed my membership for iRacing (3 for 1 month offer so I thought I'd give it another try). I've been a great fan of the past sims GPL and NR2003 so I knew I'd like it. The thing is though, like many people, I have an issue with their business model (i.e.: too expensive). I really do enjoy iRacing and I am considering investing a little bit to race in the faster cars. I haven't bought any content for iRacing up until now so I've been using the MX-5 a lot around Lime Rock and Laguna Seca. I mainly enjoy racing single seaters from other sims so I'm giving some serious thought to getting the Skip Barber or the Formula Mazda but what I'd like to know, are there enough people racing them to make it enjoyable to race or is the community for them dead? I've viewed the series sessions and there doesn't seem to be many drivers racing them :( so is it true that its dead or have I just so happened to see those servers at a bad time? Thank you.
 
Tariq there should not be a problem finding races for the Skip or the SM. Both are really popular cars and they race every day. I don't think you can go wrong with either car. Even though they are entirely different to drive, they will both provide a lot of full grids and close battles.
 
I appreciate that some folks aren't just able to splash the cash and buy cars and tracks at the drop of a hat, but like Kev & Will have said, the Skippy and the Star Mazda are still well supported by official series on iRacing, so you would get a fair bit of use out of them.

Skippy Series

Summit Point Raceway
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Circuit de Spa Francorchamps
Road Atlanta
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Zandvoort
Silverstone Circuit
Watkins Glen International
Lime Rock Park
Road America

Star Mazda Series

Silverstone Circuit
Sebring International Raceway
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Infineon Raceway
Brands Hatch Circuit
Richmond International Raceway
Zandvoort
Road America
Road Atlanta
Mosport International Raceway
Watkins Glen International
Circuit de Spa Francorchamps

RED venues are scheduled in the upcoming RD Star Mazda Series

:)
 
Those two cars and the tracks for the season were my first purchase for iRacing and I honestly only remember one time that I did not get an official race and it was about 1 or 2am central time. They are both very good and very fun to drive, you'll also find that alot of the guys/gals running them are very nice people most of the time. Plus you'll always be able to find a good setup for either car without to much searching.
 
Thanks for the replies. I did think for a while that iRacing is indeed very well made and meticulously detailed so thats why I'm considering of making it my primary sim and preferably my only sim as I'd like to dedicate my time to one sim rather than juggling between many different ones. The other sim which I wanted to get into seriously was nK PRO but the racing community there seems to be mostly dead or I'd have to race in leagues which is a little difficult to do with my current internet connection and nK PRO's not so great netcode (although 1.3 seems to be a major improvement). I'd maybe like to direct my question at the EU market more since US timezones are way off from the times I'd usually race (in GMT, the peak hours from US evening racing would probably be between 3 PM GMT or the other side of the scale of 3 AM GMT) so can any of the EU racers confirm if there is a healthy racing population? Thanks
 
I've spent more time practising for RD events but I never had a problem getting a race in the past and the membership has grown quite a bit since then. I've pretty much given up on other sims to race in events here at RD in iRacing so know how you feel about concentrating on one game. I also own NK Pro but its been one dissapointment after another to me. The first release was poor, the support after that was non existent and the updates were few and far between. It currently seems to have the attention of Kunos but for how long until another more lucrative external contract comes along and he concentrates on that rather than NK PRo. Business is business but from a sim racers point of view I'd like to know the team behind the sim I enjoy are giving it their full attention and that what you get at iRacing. The fact that an online sim had such bad online code and still suffers really makes it an easy choice for me.
 
In iRacing I tend to drive when i have time which can be anytime from 6pm till midnight though as I said I've stuck with just RD events for a while now. RD events run on Sundays with the race at 8:30 and a practice for around 2 hours before that.
 

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