How to Prepare for an iRacing Special Event

‍You Need a Team

If, say you’d like to enter the Bathurst 12h, you cannot fly solo. You need a team, and you can join one, or register for one within iRacing itself.

Upon booting the main application, on the left-side menu, you will see an option for ‘teams’, above ‘Specials’ and below ‘Hosted’.

Here you can create a team, by providing it a name, and then simply searching for your friends and inviting them. They can also search for your team, depending on your settings, and request to join too.

A team could have a large number of drivers, but when the time comes to participate, a team-member must select which drivers are driving from this list.

If you’re looking for people to team up with, there is an area of the iRacing forum where you can request group members. There are also several Facebook groups - such as iRacing Drivers World - while iRacing streamers Dave Cam and David Sampson both have Discord communities.

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Mark Your Calendars

This sounds very obvious, but it is easy to slip up here. First of all, look up on iRacing’s website Special Event Calendar and check that you and your team are free on the dates the event is run.

Once you have a target date, then it’s time to start practising. Not mandatory, of course, but with a potential win on the line (and the glory that comes with it), running laps ahead of the event is always recommended.

Each Special Event will be run on multiple occasions during the timeframe, to suit those in different timezones - it’s critical that your team-mates are also free during the race time.

Although, not everyone needs to be present at the start, or even the majority of the duration…

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Register for the Race

One person in your team must register for the event, on the day itself, before the race begins. This is usually opened up around one hour before it begins. In doing so, that person selects which other drivers from the team shall join them.

But not all drivers need to be present at this time. The rest of the team can join and leave while the race progresses.

However, if one of the registered team-mates does not show up at some point, or fails to abide by the fair-share rules, then the entire team will be disqualified.

This is why communication with your tour squad outside of iRacing, before and during a Special Event, is critical.

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Repeat, it’s a Team Game

Yes, it is advised that all drivers practice before a Special Event, and as we have mentioned, a team must communicate on the run-up to organise an entry.

But during the race, don’t forget that you represent your team and not just yourself. Your Safety Rating is individual, but your team’s iRating is combined. If you throw away a good result with a rash move, you will impact others who are unwittingly involved.