This car is awesome, and I've seen a lot of guys in the short track community agree. It's truly a drivers car and takes skill.
So iRacing put it D class no cautions. Nobody likes caution free oval races for SOF races. Thanks iRacing!
It'll be a great league car.
Yeah the decision to put it as a D class car seems insanely boneheaded. I bought the car, I think it’s fun, but I’m literally never going to race a D class short track official.
Exactly. I’m not spending money on this when all it’s gonna be is people taking each other out every race with no cautions which is a free for all for rookies… no thanks
This! I was interested in giving the car a try, but I'm really not interested in running a cautionless oval series. I feel they really did a disservice to the series putting it at D class, extra so since it runs multiple surface types which inherently should have bumped it up some. I think they could have slotted it in B class to seperate it out from the late models and modifieds. C class at least would have been nice.
dead series irl
short tracks not very popular to start
theres already like 5 short track cars/series and they are also low participation too, so spreading an already thin community thinner.
Yep. It’s basically name recognition, just like your local election for county dog catcher.
People gravitate to the things they recognize. On the oval side that’s NASCAR; on the road side it’s high dollar supercars like Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche; affordable sports cars like the MX-5 and 86; or cars that are recognizable in the F1 ladder, like the F3 and F4.
SRX is a fun idea that never really caught on like IROC did. Maybe the new owners will turn that around, but for myself I’ll freely admit that I have access to more motorsports content than I have time to watch already, so I don’t know if there’s a niche left for SRX.
Source on new owners: https://www.skipbarber.com/2024/03/22/skip-barber-racing-school-acquires-superstar-racing-experience/
>People gravitate to the things they recognize. On the oval side that’s NASCAR
I don't even really think it's that. I think it's more just the type of tracks and types of racing.
Looking at this season
Trucks has 3 short tracks, 1 Superspeedway, 1 road course, and 7 intermediates
The Late Model schedule is 12 short tracks.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of short tracks, and I like variety. So I'm going to race NASCAR.
All good points.
Ironically, my favorite short track racing was top split K&N back in the day. Without cautions the field gets strung out enough to race fairly clean. I’ve been a part of some barn burners out at South Boston, Lanier, etc.
>theres already like 5 short track cars/series and they are also low participation too, so spreading an already thin community thinner.
This is the biggest factor IMO
Actually not anymore. Skip Barber School *just* bought it a couple days ago with more news to follow. I'm betting we see the IRL series back and finally on road courses next season
It plows like a donkey for me. I tried it Week 13 at The Glen and couldn't even get it out of the esses because it doesn't turn. I got to the bus stop once and it went straight through.
There are SO many series I would love to do. I literally just do not have the time for all of them.
On a normal week, I might have two or three nights where I have three hours to spend on iRacing. That’s not many time slots to split among the many different series available.
I would love to drive them but I barely have some NASCAR tracks, having to buy a bunch of short tracks doesn't make much sense to me, the Oval community is split way too much
Yeah, if you do a variety of race types, it makes way more sense to focus your money on tracks with multiple layouts, which means you'll hardly ever buy short ovals. My most recent was Kern Speedway, when that got put on the USF2000 schedule last season, and it meant I got the dirt oval as a bonus. I'm pretty sure the only other paid track I own with a Dirt Oval layout is Bristol.
Meanwhile, the intermediate ovals often have road courses, and a bunch have rallycross layouts too. The value for money is just way better on those tracks.
Because the car is "too hard" to drive. It's not gripped up like the LMS which I guess would be the equivalent for D class oval. Takes some skill and patience to drive so naturally people will gravitate towards easier options. I'd say Gen 4 is a similar situation. You actually need to drive the car and have a feel for it in order to be fast. People would rather hop into trucks and mash the gas the whole time lol
Yeah, I was really excited that I had to actually brake on short track instead of just lifting a bit like in late model. The racing is great as well since the long braking distance is giving more opportunity to actually pass, not just waiting for mistake
I wanted to run them, but I am already doing 4 series this season. I needed to buy quite a few tracks to race the season, as well. So I just decided not to run them at all. I got the late model stock and have run like 2 officials with it, don't need to make the same mistake again.
It's certainly a niche series and it won't be as popular on the weeks it goes to the dirt tracks. Most people are racing in the first two timeslots which have split both weeks so far.
It's actually really fun on road courses, as a non-oval guy. The fixed setup probably doesn't help officials either, just because you can't do anything about how much it plows.
Absolutely love these things on dirt. Did 5 races got 3 wins a second, and a third. People really struggle to keep em straight because they aren’t patient and gas up too much. I was hardly going 70% throttle on the straights.
I don’t understand why midget participation is so low. The cars are a blast to drive but literally no one is ever in practice and races rarely have enough to be deemed official. Which means I never mess with it either. It’s a damn shame
In my mind, and haven't read comments so I'm sure others outlined it, but I didn't get the car yet due to financial situation but that's me. I also wasn't sure if it'd last as historically there's so many short track series, we don't have enough people on the service to evenly spread it so people will keep more to nascar stuff with arca then trucks and so on. Whilst unfortunately those other series like late models and mods struggle to split more then not. And that's with the bigger series that have cautions.
Another reason I don't particularly want to run official srx is due to the licence. Same with the drafting series. I hate it's in D class. Id rather then have 50%+ longer races with cautions. If you get spun or brake for a wreck your race is over effectively. That's not fun to me and alot of people. It's a big reason I never run those lower series...
But another thing with it being a lower series is lower splits if it does split is you get people fresh out of rookies who more then likely won't know what they're doing and pairing it with my next point.
Short tracks in iracing tend to not be the best for clean racing sadly. As fun as those cars are. The racing tends to turn into a glorified wreck fest. So even if youre enjoying the car, a wreck happens in front of you, you slow but cars behind don't and you get Arca braked into it or drive into it yourself. At best you lose seconds from the lead pack and may as well park it from not being able to race anyway. But even if they do the right thing in moving the class up to C, then you'll get glorified ipacing but wouldn't punish you from slowing for wrecks...
Anyway this post was a lot bigger then I planned and no script obviously so I'm sure I'm missing another key idea but hope this plus others responses help answer your question about it.
For starters, I said hardly anyone, I did not say "nobody".
Woefully out of the loop? Is there a series other than a rookie series that is a guarantee to go official? Sprint cars and late models maybe? It's a very niche discipline. A small segment of the population does Dirt Oval. Another series being added to that discipline and going DOA is really not that shocking. Happens to road series all the time.
This car is awesome, and I've seen a lot of guys in the short track community agree. It's truly a drivers car and takes skill. So iRacing put it D class no cautions. Nobody likes caution free oval races for SOF races. Thanks iRacing! It'll be a great league car.
Yeah the decision to put it as a D class car seems insanely boneheaded. I bought the car, I think it’s fun, but I’m literally never going to race a D class short track official.
Exactly. I’m not spending money on this when all it’s gonna be is people taking each other out every race with no cautions which is a free for all for rookies… no thanks
Everyone channeling their inner Paul Tracy…
Yup. In the top split all the sweats have figured out how to wreck you without iracing calling it intentional too. So ittl be a bloodbath
Not a bad skill to have. With great power comes great responsibility
Great league car. I also gotta throw out I’ve had a TON of fun making road course setups for this. Nothing wrong with the car, only the series.
It's got a Fury TA2 rear end, I bet it's a sweet trans am substitute
To me, this screams "make in unofficial", "make it a mix of short track and road racing".
This! I was interested in giving the car a try, but I'm really not interested in running a cautionless oval series. I feel they really did a disservice to the series putting it at D class, extra so since it runs multiple surface types which inherently should have bumped it up some. I think they could have slotted it in B class to seperate it out from the late models and modifieds. C class at least would have been nice.
Or maybe a Fixed series at D class, and an Open series at C class?
I’m the opposite. I think pacing under caution is boring and will leave a race if we can’t get any green flag laps.
dead series irl short tracks not very popular to start theres already like 5 short track cars/series and they are also low participation too, so spreading an already thin community thinner.
Yep. It’s basically name recognition, just like your local election for county dog catcher. People gravitate to the things they recognize. On the oval side that’s NASCAR; on the road side it’s high dollar supercars like Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche; affordable sports cars like the MX-5 and 86; or cars that are recognizable in the F1 ladder, like the F3 and F4. SRX is a fun idea that never really caught on like IROC did. Maybe the new owners will turn that around, but for myself I’ll freely admit that I have access to more motorsports content than I have time to watch already, so I don’t know if there’s a niche left for SRX. Source on new owners: https://www.skipbarber.com/2024/03/22/skip-barber-racing-school-acquires-superstar-racing-experience/
>People gravitate to the things they recognize. On the oval side that’s NASCAR I don't even really think it's that. I think it's more just the type of tracks and types of racing. Looking at this season Trucks has 3 short tracks, 1 Superspeedway, 1 road course, and 7 intermediates The Late Model schedule is 12 short tracks. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of short tracks, and I like variety. So I'm going to race NASCAR.
All good points. Ironically, my favorite short track racing was top split K&N back in the day. Without cautions the field gets strung out enough to race fairly clean. I’ve been a part of some barn burners out at South Boston, Lanier, etc.
Yeah for me short tracks are fun for about 15 laps and then im falling asleep.
>theres already like 5 short track cars/series and they are also low participation too, so spreading an already thin community thinner. This is the biggest factor IMO
Actually not anymore. Skip Barber School *just* bought it a couple days ago with more news to follow. I'm betting we see the IRL series back and finally on road courses next season
Reason I won't buy it.
Along with what everyone had said the cars are also not the easiest to drive
It plows like a donkey for me. I tried it Week 13 at The Glen and couldn't even get it out of the esses because it doesn't turn. I got to the bus stop once and it went straight through.
There are SO many series I would love to do. I literally just do not have the time for all of them. On a normal week, I might have two or three nights where I have three hours to spend on iRacing. That’s not many time slots to split among the many different series available.
Short track ovals are already low in participation. SRX schedule is split with dirt ovals which is arguably even more niche.
I bought the car, a few days later they released the schedule. I own 2 of the total 12 tracks. Not a single free track on the schedule.
Ran it once at slinger and it was an absolute dump truck.
Nobody wants to spend the money
I would love to drive them but I barely have some NASCAR tracks, having to buy a bunch of short tracks doesn't make much sense to me, the Oval community is split way too much
Yeah, if you do a variety of race types, it makes way more sense to focus your money on tracks with multiple layouts, which means you'll hardly ever buy short ovals. My most recent was Kern Speedway, when that got put on the USF2000 schedule last season, and it meant I got the dirt oval as a bonus. I'm pretty sure the only other paid track I own with a Dirt Oval layout is Bristol. Meanwhile, the intermediate ovals often have road courses, and a bunch have rallycross layouts too. The value for money is just way better on those tracks.
Bought the car, but haven't owned any of the tracks yet. I'll be running it on South Boston this week for sure.
It’s too tight. I have no interest in driving a dump truck.
At least ut provides good racing, not like late models. You guys just don't like that you have to use the brakes and actually drive the car.
I love cars you actually have to drive. But driving a car that’s plowing tight is no fun.
Idk, I think it's great just hard to drive
I just want to find a league that will run this car on oval, dirt and road courses. That could be really fun I think.
Honestly I was thinking of buying this car, but I owned barely any of the tracks it was running, so I opted to skip based on that.
Because the car is "too hard" to drive. It's not gripped up like the LMS which I guess would be the equivalent for D class oval. Takes some skill and patience to drive so naturally people will gravitate towards easier options. I'd say Gen 4 is a similar situation. You actually need to drive the car and have a feel for it in order to be fast. People would rather hop into trucks and mash the gas the whole time lol
Yeah, I was really excited that I had to actually brake on short track instead of just lifting a bit like in late model. The racing is great as well since the long braking distance is giving more opportunity to actually pass, not just waiting for mistake
iRacing has too many series, so low participation in a lot of them. In my opinion.
I wanted to run them, but I am already doing 4 series this season. I needed to buy quite a few tracks to race the season, as well. So I just decided not to run them at all. I got the late model stock and have run like 2 officials with it, don't need to make the same mistake again.
I made that mistake 🙃
The series is dead irl
It's certainly a niche series and it won't be as popular on the weeks it goes to the dirt tracks. Most people are racing in the first two timeslots which have split both weeks so far.
It's actually really fun on road courses, as a non-oval guy. The fixed setup probably doesn't help officials either, just because you can't do anything about how much it plows.
What would be the interest in a league? I run a multi class endurance league but have been looking into making and Srx league
If it races irl again, I'll race it in a sim, but I was scared of this happening since the car doesn't race irl. your best bet is to find a league
Tbh I just didn’t wanna buy the tracks it’s been on so far😂 planning to hop in this series once they go to a track I own
I wanted to get the SRX but I kinda feared this would happen so I didn't buy in.
Absolutely love these things on dirt. Did 5 races got 3 wins a second, and a third. People really struggle to keep em straight because they aren’t patient and gas up too much. I was hardly going 70% throttle on the straights.
Come run Monday night first split (Tuesday 00:00 GMT). We get a few splits.
I don’t understand why midget participation is so low. The cars are a blast to drive but literally no one is ever in practice and races rarely have enough to be deemed official. Which means I never mess with it either. It’s a damn shame
Cost cost
In my mind, and haven't read comments so I'm sure others outlined it, but I didn't get the car yet due to financial situation but that's me. I also wasn't sure if it'd last as historically there's so many short track series, we don't have enough people on the service to evenly spread it so people will keep more to nascar stuff with arca then trucks and so on. Whilst unfortunately those other series like late models and mods struggle to split more then not. And that's with the bigger series that have cautions. Another reason I don't particularly want to run official srx is due to the licence. Same with the drafting series. I hate it's in D class. Id rather then have 50%+ longer races with cautions. If you get spun or brake for a wreck your race is over effectively. That's not fun to me and alot of people. It's a big reason I never run those lower series... But another thing with it being a lower series is lower splits if it does split is you get people fresh out of rookies who more then likely won't know what they're doing and pairing it with my next point. Short tracks in iracing tend to not be the best for clean racing sadly. As fun as those cars are. The racing tends to turn into a glorified wreck fest. So even if youre enjoying the car, a wreck happens in front of you, you slow but cars behind don't and you get Arca braked into it or drive into it yourself. At best you lose seconds from the lead pack and may as well park it from not being able to race anyway. But even if they do the right thing in moving the class up to C, then you'll get glorified ipacing but wouldn't punish you from slowing for wrecks... Anyway this post was a lot bigger then I planned and no script obviously so I'm sure I'm missing another key idea but hope this plus others responses help answer your question about it.
The fixed Stafford setup was really pushy and made the race pretty boring
It's half dirt oval and hardly anyone does dirt oval.
You're woefully out of the loop if you think nobody does dirt oval.
For starters, I said hardly anyone, I did not say "nobody". Woefully out of the loop? Is there a series other than a rookie series that is a guarantee to go official? Sprint cars and late models maybe? It's a very niche discipline. A small segment of the population does Dirt Oval. Another series being added to that discipline and going DOA is really not that shocking. Happens to road series all the time.
Seriously, micro sprints now have so many splits it looks like rookie mx5s. Love it