FR Americas Championship

FR Americas iRacing Invitational Championship hosts first international race on Tuesday

Round 5 Stream presented by Omologato Watches:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJWvmNQuXQs

With four exciting rounds of racing completed, the Formula Regional Americas iRacing Invitational Championship will amp up the stakes for the final three rounds of the inaugural season, starting today (April 21) with Round 5 on the simulation championship’s first international circuit, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

“The new FR Americas iRacing Invitational Championship has gotten a lot of attention among sponsors and drivers since the COVID-19 shutdown,” said SCCA Pro Racing Communications Director Amy Greenway. “When we began the championship, we wanted all the drivers to start on the same playing field regardless of their iRacing license, so we turned off damages, maxed out the quick-fix option, disabled incident points, and hosted extended practices and qualifying sessions.

“For the first two rounds this strategy was ideal, but as the field started to grow and the skill gap became more apparent, we had to readjust our initial plan. First, we enabled damages, so if drivers damage a front wing but it wasn’t bad enough that the game sent them to the pits, they have the option to pit for a quick fix or salvage the race with the damages.

“The next original decision that was reexamined were incident points,” Greenway continued. “Each race we decreased the amount of incident points that drivers could rack up before they are disqualified from the game. This really helped with on-track decision making, forcing drivers to race as if it were real life.

“And the last major change that we made was the most difficult. For us, having a healthy grid size was extremely important, but we quickly realized that opening the rosters to all our FR Americas competitors and development drivers along with guest drivers with all levels of sim skills, that we weren’t delivering the best finished product to the fans. This week, all the FR Americas competitors and development drivers got entry priority, since the championship was developed for them to promote themselves and their sponsors. The guest drivers who remain had the best results throughout their races. We also left a few open spots on the roster to continue to invite top-level racers to compete with us.”

Officials also adjusted the schedule to fit within the streaming timeframe with 10-minute practice and qualifying sessions and the feature race consolidated to 30 minutes.

“So far our weekly changes have made for some exciting racing,” Greenway said. “It’s been a learning curve for all of us but I can’t thank our competitors, sponsors, crew and fans for helping make this whole adventure possible.”

Live coverage by Apex Racing TV sponsored by Omologato Watches starts at 7:10pm Eastern with a swift 10-minute qualifying followed by a 30-minute race and featuring “podium” interviews with the top drivers. Following the race, FR Americas iRacing Invitational Championship drivers will host a LIVE question and answer session with fans on the FR Americas Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/framericas/)

Fans can watch the action live on the FR Americas YoutTube and Twitch channels:

FR Americas YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJWvmNQuXQs

FR Americas Twitch- https://www.twitch.tv/framericas

Live Timing and Scoring- https://www.apexracingtv.com/livetiming/

Round 4 Replay:

Watch Round 4 replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_dsvUT4ho0

FR Americas iRacing Invitational Championship

Round 5: Barber Motorsports Park

Drivers: 37