For several years, I have known of “iRacing” but I didn’t really know much about it until very recently. My son in law, Dylan Allen has been on it for quite some time and I tried it once at his house after a few beers, so I wasn’t too good at it, but that was my only experience with it.
Recently, my awareness was heightened for several reasons. First of all, a good friend of mine, Chad Wheeler, started talking to me about building this new “Sim Chassis” and how much demand he had for his design from a lot of high-profile people. Secondly, Lucas Oil Speedway GM Danny Lorton inquired to me about the possibility of purchasing a couple of the Sim Chassis to use as a promotional tool and fan experience for the younger crowd at Lucas Oil Speedway and at trade shows. The BIGGEST thing though for me that opened my eyes to it was when NASCAR announced that Coca-Cola had signed on to sponsor the eNASCAR Series with a dollar figure of more than $300,000.
As someone whose entire livelihood basically resolves around attendance and sponsorships, I took notice. I mean we are talking about COCA-COLA, one of the largest soft drink producers in the world and a Fortune 100 company. If they are investing in this, then that is something to take notice. Immediately as my OCD nature does, I began researching and studying iRacing at a much deeper level and I was astounded at its reach, the personalities involved, and the overall footprint that it has.
You may not realize it or believe it but the eNASCAR Series (@eNASCARCocaCola) has (6) of their events on NBCSN. Are you kidding me? People watch a video game (or more correctly a racing simulation) on a major network? I started looking at the teams involved with the eNASCAR program and I found out guys like Dale Earnhardt Jr, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, etc. OWN iRacing Teams and they have hired drivers that compete in these events for large amounts of purse money.
In an interesting set of events at the 2020 Chili Bowl in Tulsa, I was able to connect with several people to really dive into the iRacing world.
First of all, Chad Wheeler had a slew of his WR1 Sims on display in the trade show area and people lined up all day every day for 6 days to run 10 laps on them for $10 per ride. But also, people like Noah Gragson, Donny Schatz, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and many others stopped by to take a turn or place an order for one Chad’s Sims. In case anyone wonders about the similarities between real racing and sim racing, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell were the two fastest both on the track and on the sim.
Secondly, I met Kevin Iannarelli from iRacing on the infield at the Chili Bowl and we spent a great deal of time talking. Kevin is actually the one that goes all around the world with his team to “scan” the tracks and cars that are in the simulation so most importantly to me, we had already planned to scan both the Lucas Oil Speedway Dirt Track and the Off-Road Track last July, but since we lost a great portion of our track to the May tornado, it didn’t happen. Through my conversation with Kevin about rescheduling the track scans for 2020, we bonded and spent a great deal of time visiting about iRacing throughout the Chili Bowl. Kevin is a great dude and he has been most helpful. I’m proud to say he will be Lucas Oil Sponsored in 2020 with his Pavement Modified and with his Quarter Midget.
With all of this knowledge and data gathering, Lucas Oil Speedway has taken delivery of (3) of these WR1 Sims loaded with iRacing as one of our newest attractions at Lucas Oil Speedway. People often ask, how do you get kids or the younger generation involved? Well, for us this is one way that we hope to utilize for that purpose. As we began to try them out his past weekend with the help of my son in law Dylan Allen, we experimented with everything from a Street Stock at Eldora to a Midget at the Chili Bowl to a Cup Car at Daytona. The most fun for sure was driving a Lucas Oil Pro 4 at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park!
I must say that despite being around the racing industry my entire life, I now have a whole new respect for how talented racers are at all levels. Let’s just say that I won’t be a getting in a race car any time soon because I am TERRIBLE! But the great thing with iRacing is that they utilize a driver development program so you can start out terrible like many real racers do and work your way up through the various ranks. This is not a video game, you race against real people in real races and you get scored and rated by how good you really are in real racing situations.
As far as sponsorships go, I was really intrigued as I watched several YouTube videos of the various tracks and the background signage as it very accurately resembles what is actually at the track. This can be a huge selling point to potential sponsors for us once our (2) tracks are in the sim. Not only will fans see the signage in person or on TV but EVERY TIME someone straps in a sim and logs onto our track on iRacing, all of that signage is visible so it has the potential for us I believe to increase revenue if we can accurately capture the amount of impressions that are viewed every time someone runs laps at these tracks.
When I first talked to Chad about his units and I heard the price was upwards of $5-$7k, I really thought that was expensive at the time but I have completely changed my thought pattern on them. This is where the argument comes in as the “real racers” think man that isn’t real, or that’s not hard, or whatever but I promise you it is. Also, many people can’t afford a $20k modified and a $20k engine and truck, trailers, tires, fuel, pit passes, etc. I don’t believe this will ever replace on track racing and obviously I hope it doesn’t but I believe it is a GREAT alternative for those that aren’t able to run a race car and it’s a great way for guys that do race real cars to sharpen their skills or try out different cars, tracks, settings, etc.
My 88 year old Father in Law had a Pontiac Solstice a few years ago in real life but decided to sell it. He was also a huge fan of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, so guess what? We had him over yesterday and he was able to run a simulated Pontiac Solstice on the Indy Road Course in a single car off line test session. It’s not just for young people; it can be fun for all ages.
Finally, in closing I’m definitely looking forward to getting more seat time in the sim myself as I am one of those guys that just doesn’t have the time to run a Saturday night race car due to my travel schedule. I think it’s a great alternative though and I urge you to check them out and Lucas Oil Speedway is the best place to try them out in 2020.
See you at the races……in person or online.
DR
https://wheelermetals.com/store/products/cat/250/wr1-sim-chassis
http://www.lucasoilspeedway.com/
RacerDan’s Ramblings 