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| Sage Karam leads Felix Rosenqvist (complete with the 2020 season introduction of the Aeroscreen safety platform addition) and the rest of the field through the esses during the American Red Cross Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International, the first event of the planned 6-Race INDYCAR iRacing Challenge. Image Credit: Chris Graythen (Getty Images) via NTT IndyCar Series |
Decisions Made, Digital Games Played
The Wuhan Virus | Chinese Virus | Coronavirus | COVID-19 pandemic has had its impact on just about everything in life, and living activity worldwide. In an effort to reduce the speed of the spread of this potential life-ending illness through human contact, it was determined that a policy of social distancing and human interaction through shelter-at-home "lockdown" requests all around, was the first best policy at protecting life of those who has not become infected.
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| Sports car racing team Marco Polo Motorsports got the 2020 GT4 America season off to a strong start last weekend at Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas. The No. 71 KTM X-BOW secured podium finishes in both races with drivers Nicolai Elghanayan and Mads Siljehaug, putting them fourth in the GT4 America Silver Cup class championship standings. Due to pending homologation for the 2020 KTM X-BOW, the team reverted to running the 2019 KTM race car against a highly competitive field of sports cars. Image Credit: SRO GT4 America (2020) |
What motorsports enthusiasts across the globe missed due to the timing of the advancement of this invisible scourge was the beginning of every professionally sanctioned season start to the 2020 championships - F1, WEC, NTT IndyCar (under its new stewardship as a Roger Penske led enterprise), NASCAR, and so on. About the only professional series race held, without the planned WEC participation, was the SRO Motorsports GT World Challenge America, GT4 America Sprint, SprintX, and TC America held at Circuit Of The Americas (COTA) the weekend of March 7-8, 2020.
This social distancing and human interaction through shelter-at-home "lockdown" requests wasn't going to end activity, especially since all had to place their motor culture based competitive passions on hold throughout the winter off-season. Fans and participants alike were not going to be held back from their desires to compete and watch competition by professionals each in their own disciplines.
Enter ... the virtual life.
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| iRacing NASCAR race screenshot as displayed by The Vrege |
This excerpted and edited from The Verge -
PRO DRIVERS ARE COMPETING WITH GAMERS AFTER F1 AND NASCAR CANCELED RACES
Virtual replacement races are drawing stars — and tons of eyeballs
By By Sean O'Kane@sokane1 Mar 22, 2020, 7:00am EDT
For many, the cancellation of major sporting events was the moment that made the coronavirus pandemic feel real for the first time. But while fans of baseball, basketball, soccer are left wondering when they’ll see players back in action, racing fans don’t have to wait — because many of their favorite drivers are already competing in online sim racing competitions that were spun up in the days since the first real world races were canceled.
The first few of these substitute sim races, held last weekend, were successful in ways that surprised even the organizers. Now, many of the people who put them on have spent the intervening week trying to figure out how to use that momentum to fill the gap left by real world racing, as fans around the world hole up at home in a collective attempt to slow the spread of a global virus.
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The success of these first few replacement races was a testament to how far sim racing has come during the rise of esports (and the era of Twitch), but it also sheds light on a truth that a lot of motorsports fans have become familiar with: that a new age of competitive, virtual motorsports is already upon us.
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Within minutes of those [season opening] races being canceled, people like TJ Majors started making phone calls and sending text messages.
Majors is the “spotter” for the #22 NASCAR team, meaning every Sunday during the season, he’s standing on the roof of the grandstands letting the driver know (via radio) what cars are around him, when it’s safe to change lanes, things like that. It’s no surprise, then, that he helped spin up a virtual replacement for the canceled Atlanta race. After all, it’s literally his job to be looking out for other people.
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Majors called up iRacing’s executive vice president to get the green light. He started contacting NASCAR personalities, too, like Dale Earnhardt Jr. (who retired last year after suffering multiple concussions), rising star driver William Byron, and Chad Knaus, who was the crew chief for each of Jimmie Johnson’s seven championships.
Majors also called James Pike of Podium eSports, which puts on broadcast-quality productions of sim races. “I got the call from TJ on Friday afternoon, and he told us about the idea that they had put together,” Pike said in a phone call with The Verge. “He asked if we were interested in broadcasting the race, and I said, ‘are you kidding me? Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and all of those other drivers are going to be running in our race? Where do i sign?’”
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“One of the funniest moments was [when fellow spotter Kevin Hamlin] calling me asking for a name of the race,” Majors said. He kept thinking about the movie The Replacements, so he suggested that, with a small tweak: “The Replacements 100,” a nod to the number of laps they would run.
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One reason for the [virtual racing's] popularity, NASCAR driver Parker Kligerman said, is the similarity of the skillsets. “It’s the only esport that connects in such a parallel with the real world,” he explained. “The reason you see so many real-world drivers doing this all the time is it’s not only fun, but it literally in many ways can feel like I’m doing something that could be helping me as a real driver.”
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Even Majors, who watches over a driver going 200 miles an hour every weekend, agrees to an extent. “Real racing requires an enormous amount of skill and bravery,” he said. “Sim racing is still incredibly difficult.”
[Reference Here]
As to anyone who might be skeptical as to the entertainment value to the fan who might be stuck at the issue of "skin-in-the-game" and the full team with pit stops experience, this will take just a bit of transposition - no matter how difficult SIM racing might actually be.
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| Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi, and Kyle Kirkwood go three-wide during the American Red Cross Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International, the first event of the INDYCAR iRacing Challenge. Image Credit: Chris Graythen (Getty Images) via NTT IndyCar Series |
This excerpted and edited from Racer -
PRUETT: The eRevolution has to be televised
The numbers can’t be ignored. NASCAR, FOX Sports 1, and iRacing combined to generate a 0.53 Nielsen rating on Sunday, which equated to 903,000 viewers, by choosing to air stock car racing’s first live Esports event on cable television this year.
Even better, 297,000 of those who tuned in for the eNASCAR Pro Invitational iRacing Series skewed towards a younger demographic, with the coveted 18-49 range making up nearly one-third of the viewers. That’s roughly the size of the crowd that packs into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy 500 each May, which is hailed as the largest single-day sporting event in the world.
One analyst reckons the broadcast was the most watched Esports event of all-time across North American airwaves, and that alone should have IndyCar, IMSA, Formula 1, and every other major series clamoring to have their upcoming Esports races featured on TV.
IMSA held its Sebring SuperSaturday iRacing event last weekend across its YouTube and Twitch channels, which combined to draw an average of 10,000 viewers or so through live streaming, and IndyCar is set to use the same online delivery outlets for its upcoming race on Saturday. Even with a significant spike over IMSA’s streaming numbers, IndyCar’s audience size will pale in comparison to NASCAR’s wildly successful e-visit to FS1.
The TV component has become a must-have item, and with most sports networks struggling to produce new content, the NBC/NBCSNs and ABC/ESPNs should have the ability to clear the decks and accommodate their various racing series.
And before we hammer IMSA and IndyCar for aiming low and offering nothing other than YouTube and Twitch, there are a few nuances to consider here.
Every racing series has prioritized finding new and younger fans, and venturing into gaming has been among the core strategies employed by most sanctioning bodies.
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But life in a coronavirus world is far from normal, and by sticking to the let’s-get-younger-by-streaming-with-Esports playbook, a massive amount of older fans get orphaned in the process. It makes the dual delivery methods chosen by NASCAR and FS1, with cable and streaming options presented to fans of every age, especially smart.
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With everything else in our lives seeming to change on an hourly basis, giving folks an eNASCAR race, on the day and time the series’ fans carve out to watch from their living room, was a welcome respite from an uncomfortable reality.
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As series and their teams search for ways to give sponsors value while the pause button has been pressed on live racing events, the 903,000/293,000 numbers from FS1 are guaranteed to spur action from the IndyCars and IMSAs.
Some digital artists who develop liveries for various teams have reported an increase in business since last weekend as everyone from professional drivers to auto manufacturers have commissioned iRacing liveries that replicate their real cars.
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“There’s the potential for something big here, that can last,” said IndyCar driver Conor Daly, whose passion for all forms of Esports is well-known. “I was watching the eNASCAR race on FOX, but I was also watching one of the driver’s Twitch feed because it was more of a personalized thing. The TV option was great, and they clearly advertised it enough, and the drivers tweeted it out, and people knew to tune in. And it worked.
[Reference Here]
The NTT INDYCAR Series effort was received very well by fans (IndyCar reports 600,000+ online) and driver participants alike. Nothing will ever replace real racing on real track, but the iRACE display over YouTube was very acceptable visually as well as on-track feel in competition.
This excerpted and edited post race comments from the inaugural INDYCAR iRace Challenge effort titled the American Red Cross Grand Prix and run on the virtual Watkins Glen International -
Most informative comment was made by Will Power:
Obviously we all want to get back in the real car, get back testing and all that, but in the meantime this is what we've got, and it's kind of amazing that you can get a bunch of drivers all in different places racing a race in cars that look exactly the same and doing about the same lap times, so it just shows you what technology -- how far technology has come in the last 20 years.
Second most interesting comment was contributed by Felix Rosenqvist:
I mean, my other one was only a steering wheel attached to the desk, so it was very -- like the most simple rig you can have, so I've made a big upgrade this winter because the off-season is so long.
I started to get bored, and I was thinking, what do I need to do to keep up with my driving, and I bought a really good setup here in the U.S., and yeah, it kind of came in handy. I got that in January, so I'm pretty happy I did all that, and I got some practice done the last couple of weeks. So yeah, it's good fun. It's a good way to get into the sport, as well, for young kids.
I really want to stress the point that you don't need a really expensive sim to be competitive. You know, there's plenty of guys out there iRacing who they finish top three in really, really tough races and they only have basically what I had before, just a steering wheel on a desk.
INDYCAR iRacing Challenge News Conference
Saturday March 28, 2020 - Press Conference
Sage Karam - Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Felix Rosenqvist - Chip Ganassi Racing
Will Power - Team Penske
LEIGH DIFFEY: Hi, folks. Hope you've enjoyed the inaugural iRacing INDYCAR Challenge, the American Red Cross Grand Prix of Watkins Glen. I think sort of the first one out, it was very enjoyable, and I think that we can call it a success. And we need to congratulate the top three in the race, starting with the race winner from Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Sage Karam.
Sage, you're no newcomer to this form of racing. I think it was something like your 144th iRacing road course win, so congratulations. Nice way to come out and start 2020 that way. By the way, if you didn't know, there's going to be a donation made to the American Red Cross in your name, and you're also going to get a ring and a custom trophy from Jostens, so a couple of extra bonuses there for you on a job really well done today.
You had a victory of just over three and a half seconds, and from pole to Victory Lane you looked pretty much in control the whole way. Was that the case?
SAGE KARAM: I'd like to say yeah, but no, it wasn't totally in control the whole way. Had a few moments for sure, especially late in the race, had a lapper spin right in front of me and nearly lost it all there. But no, it was good. I was really worried about qualifying because Will was basically doing qual sims for the past week like every day all day, and I thought he was going to be hard to beat for pole. I didn't really have a perfect lap. It was a pretty good one, but when I saw his first lap, I thought, I think he's going to be able to get me here.
But I don't know if he like went off on his second or whatever, but --
WILL POWER: Yeah, I did.
SAGE KARAM: I wasn't too confident, and then when I just knew I had it, I was like, all right, this is going to make life a little bit easier hopefully. But it seemed like Felix found some speed today where he was able to run really, really good race pace. I was really banking on my race pace to be my strong suit, and when I saw Felix was not going anywhere and not falling back, I was getting kind of worried. I was hoping I could get a little bit of a gap and kind of cruise, but I basically had to push basically the whole race.
Yeah, it was cool to get Wix up front and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and it means a lot to those guys, and during this time where we can't really do much, it's great to be able to get the sponsors out and the teams out and be able to give the fans and the media something to cover and watch and have some fun.
LEIGH DIFFEY: It was a lot of fun for myself and Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy. Because you've been involved with iRacing for so long, what was your big picture view of it? Typically you would be racing fans, other racers, members of the public. Now you're in here against your INDYCAR peers. How was it in your view and in your mind?
SAGE KARAM: Yeah, no, it was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to the rest of them. It's kind of cool, you've got like a complete mixed bag. You've got guys who literally just signed up for iRacing this week, and then you've got guys that have been there forever, since like 2007, like me. You know, it's pretty cool to see and try and help out everybody and get them fully up to speed, and I think it was really awesome to see the amount of time and prep that every driver put into it.
It was almost every single day, all hours of the day for the past week of drivers just in the rooms, doing laps. Even though some guys were new to it, nobody wanted to be that guy that just was out there just cruising around. We're all competitors. We all want to do our best. We all want to win, and it was really impressive to see everybody grab it by the horns and get after it. Big hats off to INDYCAR, big hats off to the drivers, all the teams, everybody who made it happen. It was a really cool event, and I really hope the fans enjoyed it.
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| Felix Rosenqvist sails up the hill toward Turn 3 during the American Red Cross Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International, the first event of the INDYCAR iRacing Challenge. The cars are sporting the new Aeroscreen and full sponsorship badging making all to feel a bit more serious - great track graphics from iRace. Image Credit: Chris Graythen (Getty Images) via NTT IndyCar Series |
LEIGH DIFFEY: Congratulations on the win. To second place now from Chip Ganassi Racing, Felix Rosenqvist. You had a very kind of parallel race and similar race to the one that Sage had and you got pretty close to him there towards the end. Did you ever think you may have had something for him?
FELIX ROSENQVIST: I think by just based on pure pace, I didn't really have what it took. I think we did similar lap times, but whenever I got closer, it seemed like Sage was able to react and go a bit faster. So I was kind of hoping for the lapping part to be my advantage, but there were some cars flying and stuff, and every time I thought Sage was collected, he seemed to get through all of them.
In these races you can never really -- you have to do all the laps until the finish because you never know when -- it's very easy to make a mistake on your own or to get together with someone. It's pretty hard to race closely.
But yeah, I think I was also really impressed with the effort that everyone put in and how well it came together. I actually had a look at the TV just to see how it looked, and the cars look amazing and the track and everything almost looks like real. It was cool to see my NTT Data car there, as well. Yeah, in these times it was nice to do something for the fans and for ourselves. We're competitors, and we don't want to sit around all the time just waiting, so yeah, good fun.
LEIGH DIFFEY: Just listening to a couple of things you said there, was there a few times it was a bit wild? Was it a bit of a wild ride?
FELIX ROSENQVIST: I mean, my race was pretty smooth. I think Sage had more -- he had more things going on when he lapped other cars, but he never lost any time, so yeah, it was hard to make any advantage doing that. My race was -- I never really had any battle with anyone, just the lapped cars, but I just blew my Push-to-Pass trying to get around people quick, and I think Sage kind of did the same thing.
Will was behind us, so his gap was also kind of static, so he had some quick laps, as well, so he was pretty fast, and I don't know what happened in the beginning, but he had like a 10-second gap to us already from the beginning, so hopefully next time he can get into the fight a bit more, as well.
LEIGH DIFFEY: There will be more questions coming from fellow members of the media here shortly. To third place, Will Power, Team Penske. You've got this ridiculous top-5 finishing percentage on iRacing. I think it's almost nearly half the races you've run you've finished in the top 5 on iRacing road courses. You continued that streak today. How was your race?
WILL POWER: Yeah, it was pretty good. I didn't know that I actually had that many top 5s in iRacing. Every time I do it, I always bloody crash out. But yeah, it was fun. I kind of was really cautious on the first lap and lost a couple positions, and then got stuck behind a couple people and Felix and Sage were able to check out, and once I cleared those guys through a pit stop sequence, it got a little longer. The gap kind of just maintained. They'd catch traffic, I'd close a little and then I'd get that traffic and it would open up again. Yeah, just tried to focus on not making mistakes, and yeah, it was enjoyable.
It was actually not very eventful for me. I kind of kept out of trouble and didn't have cars really spinning in front of me or anything. It was a pretty straightforward race. It would have been nice to have a restart or something close up with those guys, but that may have been bad for everyone watching because maybe the top four would have taken each other out, who knows.
LEIGH DIFFEY: I can't let you go without asking about this: What is this (pointing to mustache)? Is that just boredom?
WILL POWER: Yeah, it is. It's a 30-day lockdown regardless, so by the time the 30 days is up this thing is going to be gone. I might keep it, man. Nigel Mansell has never been the same since he shaved his mustache. All the great things he did with a mustache, he looked tougher; he shaved it off, it just looks weird. So maybe this is to stay.
Continued Press Conference Questions & Answers
At Motorsports Journal Podcast Above
Needless to say, for most motor racing fans, this is a brave new world without the actual sound and feel of engines. That said, when one is watching real drivers who we have witnessed doing their magic on the track with actual skin-in-the-game, this digital game, oddly, has a place.
Just to keep a level of fan interest and sponsorship up during the off season, a virtual race a couple of times a month with the actual drivers who raced the previous season, as well as drivers who have been advancing up the ranks in advancing feeder series, could put on a scheduled display with post race interviews performed by the on-season broadcast professionals, which can serve for the training and enjoyment to all who participate - fan and driver alike.
The second of six events will be held Saturday, April 4, on the Barber Motorsports Park permanent road course. The event will be held at 4 p.m. ET and streamed through INDYCAR.com while INDYCAR's YouTube and Facebook platforms as well as iRacing's Twitch will serve as additional outlets for viewing.
Future events will be held weekly each Saturday through May 2 at the following sites: a "Driver's Choice" track (April 11), "Random Draw" track (April 18), Circuit of The Americas (April 25) and a non-INDYCAR "Dream" track (May 2).
... notes from The EDJE
Keep Calm | Wash Hands & Wear Gloves | Bump Elbows Or Shoes
TAGS: Coronavirus, IndyCar, iRacing, Esports, IMSA, IndyCar, Formula 1, NASCAR, American Red Cross, Grand Prix, INDYCAR iRacing Challenge, The EDJE
