Digital Duplicate of Current-Era Grand Prix Car Will Be Available in 2010BIRMINGHAM, UK (January 14, 2010) – iRacing.com will build a virtual versionof the 2009 AT&T Williams FW31 and make it available to members of itsinternet-based global motorsport simulation service. The announcement atthe Autosport International show was made jointly by Williams F1 andiRacing.com Motorsport Simulation, LLC.
“Our members range from full-time professional racing drivers to fans whomay never sit in a racing car in the physical world,” said Divina Galica, MBE,iRacing’s director of client relations. Galica, a former world-class racer incars and on skis, where she represented Britain in the Olympics on fouroccasions, noted that “for $12.95 (US) and less than $8.00 per month,anyone virtually anywhere in the world will be able to take the controls of acontemporary grand prix car, test its performance and race against otherdrivers. We’re excited by the prospect of producing an exact digital duplicateof the AT&T Williams FW31 and very pleased to be able to make theannouncement here in the UK, the home of Williams F1 and to the secondlargestnational contingent of iRacers.”
Galica said that iRacing’s work on the AT&T Williams FW31 was beginningthis week with data collection at the team’s headquarters in Grove and thatthe car is expected to join iRacing’s vehicle inventory later this year.“We’ve been well aware of the superb quality and extreme degree ofaccuracy of iRacing’s simulation,” said Tom Potter, Williams F1’s CommercialAlliances Manager. “More people travel into space than are afforded theopportunity to drive a current Formula One car. The annual Philips globalpromotion with AT&T Williams uniquely offers that opportunity and iRacinghas already shown it is a superb form of preparation to stand the best chanceof winning the competition – Rob Tarlton, who won last autumn, as well asthe runner-up, Thomas Christensen, are both dedicated iRacers.”
Tarlton, an engineering student at the University of Illinois in the US, saidthat participating in iRacing’s organized online racing series, where hecompeted against talented racers from around the world, helped him developthe skills that put him in the cockpit of the Williams FW29.
“I started sim-racing with racing games like rFactor and Live for Speed, butthen I found iRacing,” said Tarlton. “The races are great fun in and ofthemselves, and it definitely helped me develop car control. In iRacing,you’re encouraged to work your way up to speed safely; you can’t dropwheels off the road or you get penalized. That helped in the transition to thereal cars at Palmer Sport and on the Williams simulator. I felt comfortable atthe limit without dropping wheels off the road.”
Professional racers also use the iRacing service both for fun and to hone theirexisting skills and learn new tracks and cars. Former Formula One andcurrent Indy car ace Justin Wilson is a well-known advocate for iRacing andNASCAR star Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is likely to be found competing in iRacingevents late into the night following a real-world NASCAR Sprint Cup race.At the press conference that introduced her as a driver for Earnhardt’sNASCAR Nationwide Series team, Danica Patrick revealed that she planned touse iRacing to help make the transition from the Dallara Indy car to theheavier and smaller-tired stock car she’ll be driving in 2010 in addition to herIZOD IndyCar Series commitments.
More than 17,000 people have subscribed to the iRacing online drivingservice since it was opened to the public less than two years ago. While theinitial focus was on building tracks close to the company’s American base,now that all of the primary North American oval and road-racing facilities areavailable or under construction, iRacing has embarked on a global expansion.Last month a millimeter-accurate virtual version of Brands Hatch joinedSilverstone in the track inventory and Oulton Park is soon to follow.Zandvoort and Zolder will join them by year’s end, along with Australia’sPhillip Island and Oran Park Raceway. Additional tracks will be announcedsoon.
Using detailed technical data provided by the designers and constructors ofthe physical versions of the cars, iRacing’s virtual ones feature the samedegree of fidelity as its tracks. Among more than 20 racing cars already inthe iRacing inventory or under construction, the Williams FW31 joins theDallara IC 09 Indy car, Riley Mk XX Daytona Prototype, Radical SR8 V8sports car, Corvette C6.R Le Mans racer, the 1978 World ChampionshipwinningLotus 79 and a full complement of NASCAR machinery, includingthose that contest the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Seriesand NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
