Weekend Lowdown 29th Feb – 4th Mar 2024
Welcome to this week’s edition of Weekend Lowdown, which is the last time we can guarantee that we’ll have dry weather throughout. With this being Week 12 on iRacing, it’s a time where official series champions are crowned, and in less than a week’s time we’ll have new cars, tracks and features, including the Tempest Weather System.
That doesn’t mean that this week is any less busy than others. We still have more racing action than a discount DVD basket at Walmart, and plenty of variety to boot.
Don’t forget that you can check out our upcoming events list at the following URL (Or by visiting the Upcoming Events link from the main menu). If you would like your event added to the list, then now you can! Community submitted events are now a thing, and you can submit events at the following link. Please remember to follow the rules, as after all, what is life without a little regulation… Eh? You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter by dropping your email below.
We kick off with some more Swedish Sim Racing Action, as Svensk eRacingLigan heads to the ‘big boi’ of NASCAR, Talladega Superspeedway. This is one of those tracks where anything can happen, and we’ve seen it all over the years from almost the entire field caught up in the ‘big one’, to four+ wide racing action clean the whole way. It’s a fun way to start the weekend, and certainly one that will provide lots of excitement.
Commentary is in English, and as it is ‘Leap Year Day’, we’ll keep Teamspeak open for anyone wanting to propose to their racing partners.
We also have PRL Formula D Action, as they had to the Nurburgring (GP Layout) for Round 9 of their championship, with plenty of end of season placements on the line. The GP layout has only been (permanently) changed once since hosting Formula 1 races as the Luxemburge GP / European GP / German GP, and this is due to the Mercedes Benz arena at the start of the lap. There’s a hotel which overlooks the final corner & front straight where you can not only see the track, but even get CCTV images of the track from your hotel room!
The NGK & NTK Esports Cup heads to Round 5, at Rudskogen Motorsenser in Norway. Not only has the championship lead changed hands twice in the last two events, the entire field is now communicating entirely in GIFs.
This is the oldest asphalt track in Norway, and the first half of the track has plenty of drafting / overtaking opportunities before a more technical second sector. Stewards were worked so hard in the last event that they demanded overtime and free pizza, so here’s hoping the drivers will be demonstrating better behaviour this time.
You can check out the event preview here, and track preview below.
It’s been a wild wide in the IMSA iRacing Series, and the final round of the season is at the home of British Motorsport, Silverstone. Even though Northamptonshire is quite possibly the most boring county in the entire universe Silverstone is anything but.
The track is narrower than people give credit for, and whilst the first sector (The new bit) will provide some solid inter-class overtaking opportunities, once you head out of Luffield, it’s going to require a lot of co-opertition and bravery to make things work. Maggots and Becketts are going to be one to watch in particular, especially being the last round of the championship with both class and division titles on the line.
The first round of the Prodigy Racing League is the RaceRoom Golden Ticket Series semis & final. This will take place on RaceRoom using Mazda MX5s, and over the course of the season see racing on both RaceRoom and iRacing using the spec Mazda MX5.
Next up, we have SimRacingAcademy’s “Just One Wish” Fundrasing event. For the fourth time, the event is taking place, and all year all donations and entry fees (€30) will go to the Children’s Hospice of Central Germany, after which we will take into account Salzburg, Switzerland and then Germany again.
Drivers have been invited to take up the challenge and start in a team of two drivers in three races (two sprint races and one endurance race with driver change) at the Nürburgring with the GT3 or LMP3. The entire race as always can be viewed on our YouTube Channel, and you can find out more information at the following link.
We start Sunday with some Porsche GB Action. Being a week behind #BathurstMania,v the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup GB will compete rounds 9&10 at Bathurst, Mount Panorama, Australia. After seeing some exciting (And incredibly clean) racing, in the iRacing Bathurst 12 Hours, it will be interesting to see how some of the competing drivers transition from GT3 cars to the Carrera Cup class. Sebastian Job continues to lead the championship from Luke McKoewn, where the gap is now 11 points. There are only 4 points however separating McKowen in 2nd, Peter Berryman in 3rd and Josh Thompson in 4th, so there’s still plenty to play for.
From sprint to endurance, the 24H Esports Series heads to Monza. As one commentator stated in RaceSpot’s commentator chat ‘What could possibly go wrong?’. In reality, with the long history of live stewarding and promoting fair racing, this is more of a slight against the track than series, but still whilst Monza is known for it’s speed and chicanes, it is both narrow and sometimes an overly frustrating track to manage once out of rhythm. The 24H Esports Series via it’s previous iteration as the NEO Endurance Series is one of RaceSpot’s longest partnerships, going back to 2014, and this author’s been working with them since 2012!
To round off your Sunday Night, the PRL NASCAR Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Precision Racing League has announced their schedule for their eight championships for next season (seven of which are broadcast on RaceSpot), and signups are now open.
The World GT Championship rolls into Barber Motorsports Park, home of the ‘massive spider’. This track is fast in points, but incredibly technical, especially Turns 1 & 2, and the last few corners with ever decreasing radii. It certainly deserves a place on the #NarrowTracks list, but will generate plenty of excitement for a Monday Evening.
The final race of the ‘iRacing Season’ will be the final round of the PRL PRL LMP3 & GT4 – GTP & LMP2 IMSA championships. This will be at Long Beach in California, a track that will certainly prove to be important in terms of wrapping up final championship positions.
There’s no IndyCar action this week as the season ‘ends’ at 00:00UTC on Tuesday, meaning the traditional ‘first race of the week’ will take place in a weeks’ time. Instead, there will be plenty of Week 13 action on RaceSpot TV over the course of the week, with rain, rain, and perhaps some more rain for drivers to get their heads around.
Once again, don’t forget that you can check out our upcoming events list at the following URL (Or by visiting the Upcoming Events link from the main menu), and you can submit events at the following link. If you would like to be included in upcoming Weekend Lowdown articles, please email me at vt.topsecar@liW.
Until next time. Enjoy the racing!