We all want new cars, new tracks and cool new features, and iRacing’s Season 2 update of 2023 delivers. Whilst the new content drop doesn’t bring a huge volume of cars and tracks, 2023 Season 2’s new circuit and multiple cars are going to be great to get your hands on and are, of course, all brought to the sim with the same exceptional quality you’d expect from iRacing.
3 new cars land in iRacing
Three new cars have been introduced this season that cover open-wheelers, oval racing and touring cars. Whilst the new content might be disappointing for some when keeping rumours of potential LMDh endurance weapons coming to the platform in mind, the three new vehicles in the sim will most certainly provide a platform for both great racing and a good time.
Late Model Stock
With over 400 horsepower from its V8 engine, the Late Model Stock is aimed at drivers progressing up the oval racing ladder to the Nascar Cup series. It’s a short-track racer with relatively low grip compared to the power available and it has a more simple handling model, favouring racecraft and precision over outright pace and hotlapping.
Much like the next car introduced in the 2023 Season 2 update but on ovals rather than road courses, the Late Model Stock is a crucial step on the stock car ladder in real life and its reputation of producing great wheel-to-wheel entertainment is due to be carried over into iRacing. It will be well-loved on many of the sim’s short ovals.
Ray FF1600
Formula Ford single-seaters have been the proving ground for newcomers to open-wheel racing for decades with its combination of enjoyable handling and a need to understand the fundamentals of mechanical grip.
The Ray FF1600 is used all over the world in various Formula Ford series and it’s free on iRacing, targetting rookie drivers that plan to move up into higher classes of open-wheelers and even prototype racing. As a staple in many junior careers, it’s a great car to aid your journey in understanding the role of mechanical grip in racing.
Being an open-wheeler means that small mistakes when going wheel-to-wheel with an opponent can be punished heavily, but nevertheless, when driven to its limit, is a great car to be behind the wheel of.
Renault Clio R.S. V
Front-wheel drive, low-powered touring cars might not sound incredibly appealing on paper, but they’re exceptionally popular in real-world racing and have similar levels of race participation in iRacing. With the 2023 Season 2 update, iRacing aims to build on the success of similarly classed cars.
The Renault Clio R.S. V joins iRacing to compete in a single-make series scheduled for very short 15-minute races over the standard 12-week season, making it a true sprint series. The car is available to drive from the Rookie license class upwards, making it another challenger to the historically favoured beginner vehicle the Mazda MX-5, but we’re sure that drivers with higher licences will enter races just to enjoy a quick quarter of an hour race driving this exciting car.
Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto comes to iRacing
One new track joins the ever-growing list of high-quality laser-scanned tracks on iRacing this season.
Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto, simply known as Jerez, has been added to the service in two configurations. The track has hosted Formula 1 events in the past and currently hosts MotoGP and several other racing categories, making it one of those circuits that don’t get the most attention in Sim Racing but certainly deserve it.
It’s quite tight and twisty but is wide enough to encourage overtaking and alternative racing lines. The kerbs are flat enough to be attacked heavily without worrying too much about track limit penalties, but whilst Jerez isn’t really suitable for large multi-class fields, it will be perfect for F3, touring cars and other short-format classes of racing.
New features
The main new feature in this season’s update is Auto Fuel. It’s essentially an automatic fuel calculation and management tool intended to remove the worry of running out of fuel and the effort of working out how much fuel to top up when making a scheduled stop.
Auto Fuel can be enabled from the black box menu by pressing F4 on your keyboard by default, or whichever button you would like when edited in the controls panel. You need to run a few laps first for the tool to work out usage, and the Auto Fuel check box will be enabled for you to activate the tool.
You can also add a fuel margin, measured in laps, to add a safety buffer, and that’s it. Your virtual crew chief will automatically add the required fuel at your next stop.
iRacing has also made changes to the UI, added more cars and tracks for AI Racing and updated hundreds of car setups. With the new update also comes an improved ABS model that should make driving a GT3 car a little bit easier. This feature essentially turns ABS into a true driver aide and reduces the issues related to lockup and tyre wear caused by overheating.
Coach Dave Academy’s 2023 S2 plans
As we do every iRacing season, here at Coach Dave Academy, we are looking to up our game. With an expanded Lap Guide schedule – which now will include at least five guides per week across the Falken GT4 Series, VRS, IMSA, the Porsche Cup Series and the Ricmotech iR-04 Challenge – we will be producing more content than ever to help you find lap time in iRacing. You can check out all of our Lap Guides below, as well as our ever-growing Hotlaps channel:
Whilst our Lap Guides schedule is getting an overhaul, we are also making some changes to the list of cars we provide weekly setups for as part of our iRacing Setup Subscription. Now covering a total of 20 vehicles with three more to come as the season progresses, 2023 Season 2 is set to be our biggest on iRacing to date. Oh, and remember, all of the setups and data packs we provide can be easily installed using the free-to-download Coach Dave Delta app.
You can find out more about what we’re up to here at Coach Dave Academy below:
