IndyCar top three finishers in last weekend’s iRacing Sage Karam, Will Power and Felix Rosenqvist have different views on retired drivers playing.
Given that it is virtual, the possibilities are endless for ESports racing. All things that would get in the way of grand events such as safety, contracts, or money aren’t factors, and this provides unique opportunities to a series like IndyCar, who are running a six-race iRacing series in lieu of normal racing, which would have begun two weeks ago.
In the IndyCar virtual series – which began this past weekend – we have already seen drivers take advantage of this freedom, with athletes like Scott Mclaughlin, Scott Speed, and Jimmie Johnson driving, despite the fact that they normally race in other series’.
However, these liberties could also extend to older, retired drivers, who could race on iRacing IndyCar, even though they would likely struggle in competition if they drove an actual race car. Such a thing was done in All-Star ESports Battle with ‘Legends Trophy’.
And, IndyCar drivers Power (Penske) and Karam (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) would like to see something like this incorporated into the iRacing series they run, as both also threw out the idea of old-school cars.
“I’ve got a second rig at my house. I can get Mario Andretti over here maybe,” said Karam, when asked by FormulaRapida.net. “That would be cool. We could race in the Lotus 79 then.” Senior pro Power agreed: “Actually that would be awesome to do a race in that, with some old school drivers, old school cars.”
However, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist was of a slightly opposing view from his fellow IndyCar drivers, as the Swede believed that it should be as realistic as possible, for the sake of the fans. “It’s fun when you have some invitational,” he started.
“[But] I think it’s important that the focus remains on truly IndyCar and the real liveries and all that to get like a true experience, but it’s always fun like Scott Speed joined the race and Jimmie Johnson. It’s always helpful to have one or two of those.”
Here’s a video recap of the first iRacing IndyCar Challenge
Here’s the latest on 2020 IndyCar schedule