iRacing 2018 Season 2 Release Highlights

iRacing will release it’s major quarterly update this Tuesday, March 6. Here are some highlights from the update.

iRacing Beta User Interface

• [Much needed] extensive background system updates have been completed for the iRacing beta user interface to greatly enhance the speed, responsiveness, and stability of the application.
• Fixed Setups are now available when creating Hosted Sessions!
• You can now spectate sessions for the beta user interface. To do so, you activate the “show running sessions” switch on the top right in the official races section.

Dirt

• Dirt heights [piles of dirt, ruts?] across all areas of the track now allow for a greater possible range of dirt amounts [piles of dirt here and there, more realistic dirt buildup?]. It will allow for more build-up of dirt in some areas and more digging down in some areas.
• Dirt cushion modeling [can we get an outside racing line?] has been improved. This will bring a big change it the way that dirt ovals behave as the tracks are worn in. The cornering force from the increased banking and the cushion of dirt should be noticeably greater than before. The outside line should become faster.
• The starting usage for official races has been increased. [You’re going the wrong way.]

Cars

• Dirt Late Model – The following updates apply to ALL Dirt Late Model Cars
  Updated front bump stop rate curves with more accurate data.
  Updated shock lengths and positions using more accurate data.
  Adjusted weight and inertia properties. Setups can now be more easily shared across all versions of the dirt late model.
  Trimmed nose valence and door skirts in the solid model to more typical lengths and adjusted collision elements accordingly.
  Adjusted collision elements in the nose and tail to allow closer racing per member suggestions and feedback.
  The driver’s view position has been adjusted slightly.
  iRacing setups have been updated.
  Limited Late Model only – Improved cockpit engine sounds.
• Dirt Sprint Car – The following updates apply to ALL Dirt Sprint Cars
  The 2018 Season 1 suspension update has been reverted [The Dirt Winged Sprint Cars will be fun again].
  Nose wing angle can now be adjusted in the garage.
  Fixed fuel – There will be three fuel settings in the Dirt Sprint Cars. Low for qualifying, middle for heats and consis, and high for feature races.
  iRacing setups have been updated.
• Dirt Street Stock – The rev limit has been increased from 6200 RPM to 6800 RPM and the iRacing setup have been updated.
• Dallara DW12 – Everybody gets a free DW12 this season and the car is considered part of the iRacing default (free) content.

iRacing setups have also been updated for the following cars. I include this because this could involve some changes to the cars themselves although I don’t see anything about that in these release notes.

• Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS
• UMP Modified
• SK Modified
• Whelen Tour Modified

Tracks

• The Dirt Track at Charlotte
• Limaland Motorsports Park
• Pocono Raceway 2011 – Everybody gets this track for free now.
• Richmond International Raceway has been renamed Richmond Raceway in both the real and the iRacing world.
• USA International Speedway Dirt – Fixed a surface bug on the back stretch.

Sounds like a great release with two new dirt tracks, the reversion of the Sprint Cars to when they were fun, and changes to the Dirt Late Models. You can find the full release notes in the iRacing forum.