I found this in my mailbox today:
iRacing.com Simulation Service Announced: FIRST to Sanction "Arrive and Drive" Internet Racing
BEDFORD, MA (14 March 2008) — iRacing.com co-founders Dave Kaemmer and John Henry today provided an outline of the next generation of racing. The two described a comprehensive yet user-friendly service that will address the wishes of many veteran simracers and attract a new group of motorsport enthusiasts and professionals to the sport of internet racing.
"Over the course of the more than 20 years that I've been involved with auto racing simulation, I've watched it evolve and grow, but until now it has remained a niche activity," said Kaemmer. "Over the last three years at iRacing.com, we have assembled the resources and technologies to make the sport bigger and better, in part by making it more approachable for the novice and more satisfying for the long-time simracer. At the same time, we have been able to create the comprehensive infrastructure that is necessary to make internet racing a worldwide sport."
FIRST is the sanctioning body that will organize and administer all iRacing.com competition. FIRST's official Sporting Code for global internet racing will include standards for driver licensing, an annual competition calendar with four 12-week seasons and multiple championships for individual racers and geographically-based clubs.
Kaemmer explained that iRacing.com will bring together three key elements in its effort to expand internet racing and establish it as a legitimate branch of motorsport: the most accurate racing simulation ever created; an integrated web solution that simplifies usage; and a professionally run, global sanctioning body to help organize and grow both the sport and the community.
"Based on the reactions of our testers — many of whom are full-time professional racers in the physical world — we're confident that we've already set a new standard for accuracy of car and track simulation," said Kaemmer. "The next step was to provide a trouble-free user experience, eliminating the technical issues that new people find intimidating and veterans find frustrating."
According to Kaemmer, the iRacing.com service will seamlessly combine all necessary infrastructure — operating its own servers, providing guaranteed bandwidth, integrating voice chat and other important features into the software, and automatically distributing the latest version of the simulation to members. "We're creating the virtual world's version of 'arrive and drive' racing," said Kaemmer.
Henry, iRacing.com's chairman, suggested that the most important aspect of the service might be the sanctioning body: "Cars, tracks and drivers are the building blocks of this new sport, but a centralized sanctioning body is critical in bringing them all together," he said. "Organizing any global sport is a very involved, complex challenge. The best sanctioning bodies minimize that complexity for their athletes, so that they can focus on the fun part — competition. We aim to do the same for our members."
The iRacing.com sanctioning body, FIRST, started the process by developing the basic structure of competition, which will include four 12-week racing seasons each calendar year and individual and club championships across multiple series and divisions. While all racers — no matter what their experience level in the sport — will start off in the service's "rookie" series, safe driving will result in quick advancement. Every driver will have the opportunity to progress up one or more career ladders with each successive rung offering greater challenges.
"One of the biggest issues in internet racing as it exists today is reckless driving," said Henry. "Because none of the natural deterrents to over-driving a racecar exist in the virtual world, we knew we needed a system that would greatly reward safe driving."
The answer, Henry explained, is the FIRST licensing program. The system automatically keeps track of a driver's safety record through every lap of every official session. At the end of a 12-week season, assuming that the driver has achieved a minimum standard for safe driving, he or she will graduate to the next higher level of license, gaining access to additional race series with higher-performing cars, a broader array of tracks and better-skilled competitors. Henry was quick to point out that for an experienced simracer, progression beyond rookie status could happen with as little as a few days of clean driving. Additionally, any member can drive any car on any track in testing, but, as in other forms of motorsport, drivers must demonstrate their ability before being given the chance to get on the track with other racers.
Another major consideration for FIRST, according to Henry, was how to facilitate close competition across a wide range of skill levels. Henry explained how the service, with members ranging from raw rookies to 10-year veterans, will address that critical factor.
"We've established a measure of racing proficiency, which we call the iRating," he said. "The system automatically calculates and continuously maintains an iRating for each driver. Using the iRatings we can both group drivers by skill level for individual races and assign them to divisions where they compete for season-long championships. This will mean that no matter how large our membership grows, every driver should have a reasonable chance to compete for race wins and seasonal championships."
Finally, the establishment of geographically-based clubs will introduce a team component to the mix. "We've structured the clubs to provide another element of competition and to help build the community aspect of the iRacing experience," said Henry. "By providing members lots of different ways to contribute to their club's success, everyone can get involved, regardless of their skill level or particular area of interest."
In addition to its immediate governance of official competition, Henry also noted that FIRST would help iRacing become a popular platform for private league racing in the future