14th August 2008
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Third rock from the sun
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Date set for iRacing public launch
The date has been officially set for full public launch
Taken from iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations
Quote:
iRacing.com Announces Launch Date of August 26: Internet Racing Service Opens to General Public
Thursday, August 14, 2008 - BEDFORD, MA - After several years of development and testing, and a period of invitation-only pre-launch activity, the rollout of the iRacing.com motorsports simulation and internet racing service will reach a critical milestone at noon EST (18:00 GMT) on August 26, when the service will open to the general public.
"This is a big moment in the history of iRacing," said John Henry, co-founder and co-owner of the company. "We completed our beta phase in June, but for the last couple of months membership has been 'by invitation only' because we wanted to be certain that we could maintain the highest level of quality and customer service as we expanded. We're there now, and in less than two weeks, the doors will be wide open."
Dave Kaemmer, company co-founder and leader of the iRacing development team, noted that the ramp-up in membership since June 11, when the service went live, has gone remarkably smoothly. "We know the simulation itself is in great shape (and we're going to keep on adding features and content over time), but there's so much more to the service than just the simulation. All of the factors that are critical to our members' overall experience - organization and scheduling of races, collection of statistics, driver licensing, processing of actual financial transactions, the list just goes on and on - needed real-world validation with several thousand members to ensure the system's performance with the large membership rolls we eventually expect to have."
Since June 25th, several waves of invitations have been sent out to individuals who registered over the past few years for updates on the company's progress. Among them were many drivers who race in the physical world and were interested in the iRacing simulation service as a training tool.
"Professional and amateur racers have played a substantial role in the development of the simulation from our earliest days," said Kaemmer, whose own racing career includes years of on-track experience both in the physical world and the virtual one. "It was our goal from the beginning of this project to provide more than just entertainment. The simulation is designed as a driver development tool. As a result, as our membership has expanded, we've seen more and more real-world racers signing up."
iRacing members are not just able to practice their driving technique, though; the service offers professionally sanctioned racing series. One 12-week racing season has been completed since the service commenced commercial operation. According to Scott McKee, iRacing's vice president of marketing, the season was a success.
"We had two road-course series and two for oval-track racers, with both racing and time-trial competition in each series," McKee said. "At the end of the season, we recognized eight overall champions and within those individual series a total of 80 divisional titlists. But what's really been exciting to see is how many of the real-world racers start out just testing and then get drawn into the competition. They're racers; they can't resist it. We are truly launching a new branch of motorsport, and as we open the service to the general public, it's only going to get better."
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