Leagues/championships in Iracing?

[schuey87]

I'm about to purchase a Fanatec GT3 RS clubsport package for the PS3 I'm about to purchase I'm thinking of joining iracing after I've got some practice in on GT5 to get used to the wheel and pedals.

I was just wondering how championships/leagues work in Iracing? I'm from the UK so I'd hope that there are plenty of other European racers to play against so I don't have to race in the middle of the night? Who organises the championships and how do you enter? How many races are there in a championship and how long does it run over?

Are leagues different to championships? If so in what way?

And finally, I've heard as a beginner you are restricted to certain beginner cars till you prove yourself, is this true and does it make it more difficult to enter a championship or league with people your standard in your timezone (if you're from Europe?)

Thanks!

 

[Aldo]

This will be brief because I am tired.
You start off in the Rookie series, racing in the provided MX-5/Solstice or the Oval cars.
The races for these are every hour on the hour and there is generally high participation levels at all hours.
You score points to add to your championship total. But at the same time you have a Safety Rating to look after. You are docked SR points if you go off track/spin/collide with other cars. You gain SR points for having a fairly clean race. Once this gets above 3, you are eligible for promotion into Class D. Provided you have completed enough races or time trials, you will be promoted at the end of the 4 week season.
When you are in Class D, you can still compete in the Rookie races, and still earn SR points. However, in order to get promoted to Class C, you need to complete 4 races in a D class vehicle and have your SR above 3.0 at the end of the 13 week season, or to get it above 4.0 and you are then automatically promoted.
Then you are in Class C, then B, then A, then Pro if you are amazingly amazing.
In rookie races, it is a bit of a free-for-all... There are new guys and there are occasionally some Class A/B guys in the races. This is where the iRating comes into play. When you are Class D or above, you get iRating points for finishing races in decent positions. This iRating helps to get you in with the correct crowd, so hopefully similarly paced guys to yourself.
The championships are based around the seasons. So at Rookie level, each season is 4 weeks long. In the MX-5 it alternates between Lime Rock Park and Laguna Seca week about. The points system is a little strange as not all of your races count. I think they take the best race points and d some maths, then you get your total.
Above rookie class, the seasons are 12 weeks long whit a 13th week being a bit of a piss-about. These seasons generally are made up of 12 different tracks, some being variations of tracks (Silverstone has a few configurations as do many others). The points system is the same wizardry of calculations and general sorcery. Oh, there are 9 divisions in each race series. Your division being calculated by your iRating I do believe.
iRacing is a whole different league to the likes of GT5 with insanely good and challenging physics. On the whole, the other drivers are clean and friendly, and are always wiling to help (they are paying a lot of money for this service after all).

So much for short uh...
If that helped at all, and you decide to subscribe to iRacing, please feel free to Refer me so that I get a free month
E-mail address for that is allynpreece@hotmail.com
Also, if you are interested, I'll hunt out the promotional offers that you can get when you first join, stuff like buy 1 month get 2 free etc.
Enjoy! 👍

 

[schuey87]

Thanks for the reply! Very useful to know. About your offer looking for offers, don't worry about it at the moment, I want to get a bit of practice with the wheel and get comfortable with it on the ps3 before giving iracing a go. I may well need to update my graphics card too so it'll probably be a few months before I join, but I'll remember your helpful reply when I get round to doing it, I'll pm or email you to use your referral! Thanks.