VRS Updates – 2021 Season 1

It’s time to close 2020 with our last update of the year, in what has been a very busy year. First, we’d like to thank everyone using the service this year, trusting us with your sim racing development and allowing us to help you become better simracers! We’re also thankful for all the feedback we’ve received, good or bad, because this is what helps us to continuously improve our products and service.

The last few months have been very important for our VRS DirectForce Pro product line. We scaled production for the VRS DirectForce Pro Wheel Base, we removed the reservations list and you can now purchase the Wheel Base directly on our web store. The price is US$799 / €899 (VAT incl.). The feedback we’ve received has been outstanding and we’re pleased to be able to provide high quality equipment at a highly competitive price. We’re also getting very close to the release of VRS DirectForce Pro Pedals. We recently shared a few photos and we expect to open sales in the first quarter of 2021! More details, including pricing will follow shortly.

We’re also pleased to announce a new coach is joining the group, J.D. Brown! J.D. is currently participating in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car World Championship series, gathering the elite of dirt oval. He’s highly experienced on anything dirt oval related and also drove in the World of Outlaws Dirt Late Model World Championship earlier this year, finishing inside the top 10. He’ll be working with Tim Ryan to expand our content offering for Dirt Oval. 

Starting with 2021 Season 1, we are introducing a new add-on bundle, dedicated to Dirt Oval! Tim Ryan and J.D. Brown are covering the majority of Dirt Oval cars and series. You can find the full list of the datapacks covered at the end of this post. The add-on will be available at the start of this season, at the price of $4.99 / €4.99). People who only race dirt oval can switch to the Dedicated subscription and get the new Dirt Oval add-on. That will also give them full access to the four dirt oval datapacks included in the Competitive subscription.

On the Rallycross side of things, the Competitive subscription will now cover the Subaru WRX STI in the iRacing Rallycross Series, which will replace our Ford Fiesta datapack in the iRX Rookie Series. 

On the Road side of things, we will cover the new cars coming to iRacing in the 2021 Season 1 build. The Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, which will be part of the VRS GT Sprint Series and the IMSA Sports Car Championship, will be added to our current premium offering and available for all Competitive subscribers, as well as our dedicated subscribers who’d like to select one of these datapack. Jeremy Bouteloup (VRS GT) & Arthur Lehouck (IMSA) will be the respective coaches covering this car for this season. In addition to those, we will cover the newly released Dallara IR-01, part of the Dallara Formula iR Series. Martin Krönke will take care of this datapack, which will be added to the Grand Prix add-on (previously only including the MP4-30 datapack). The price of the add-on will remain the same at $3.99 / €3.99.

Over the past 6 months, we have been working hard to develop our partnership with Apex Racing UK. This has included partnering with their Leagues and Broadcasts via ARL & ARTV respectively. Further to this, Apex Racing Academy members have been enjoying our partnership with the ability to study exclusive data packs using VRS telemetry tools. We are pleased to announce that we will be expanding our partnership further for 2021 Season 1. Apex Racing Academy data pack addon bundles will be available to purchase directly within VRS. These addons will give our members greater choice in picking the setups that fit best with their own driving styles. See below for the full list of Apex addon datapack bundles.

We’ve also been working hard on providing additional content to help you improve and get ready for your races. We’ve recently released weekly Track Maps cheat sheets for the Global MX-5, with a bonus car / track each week. They are complementary to the video tutorials, helping you to learn and remember the important references for a track. We’re also looking to expand this to other series and we will provide bonus Track Maps for other series in the future. For more information, go to the following page: VRS Weekly Quick Reference Track Maps.

Another thing we’ve been working on is the Car Setup Guide, providing you with pointers on what to change on the setup when you want to improve the behavior of the car. We’ve released our first guide with the Nascar Cup Car, made by none other than Keegan Leahy. We’ll be looking to release more of them in the future, on both the oval and the road side of things. You can find the Nascar Cup Car Setup Guide here: VRS eNASCAR Setup Guide by Keegan Leahy

Finally, here is the full list of all upcoming coach and datapack changes:

NEW Coaches

J.D. Brown covering Dirt Oval datapacks (DIRTcar Pro Late Model, DIRTcar UMP Modified Series and WoO Late Model Series).

NEW Datapacks

Road:

  • IMSA – Lamborghini Hurracan Evo GT3 (TBC) covered by Arthur Lehouck
  • IMSA – BMW M4 GT3 covered by Paschalis Gkergkis when it gets released
  • VRS GT – Lamborghini Hurracan Evo GT3 (TBC) covered by Jeremy Bouteloup
  • VRS GT – BMW M4 GT3 covered by Paschalis Gkergkis when it gets released
  • Dallara Formula iR Series – Dallara IR-01 covered by Martin Krönke – will be added to the Formula Grand Prix add-on ($3,99 / 3,99€)

Rallycross:

  • iRX – Subaru Impreza covered by Mitchell DeJong (replacing the iRX – Rookie – Ford Fiesta datapack)

Oval:

  • Street Stock C series as part of the Short Track add-on ($4,99 / 4,99€), covered by Keegan Leahy

Dirt Oval add-on ($4,99 / 4,99€):

  • iRacing 358 Modified Series covered by J.D. Brown
  • Big Block Modified Series covered by J.D. Brown
  • DIRTcar Class C Street Stock Series covered by Tim Ryan
  • WoO Late Model Series – Fixed covered by Tim Ryan
  • iRacing Dirt Midget Cup covered by Tim Ryan
  • DIRTcar UMP Modified Series covered by J.D. Brown
  • WoO Sprint Car Series covered by Tim Ryan
  • WoO Late Model Series J.D. Brown
    • This add-on also unlocks the following Premium data packs:
      • DIRTcar 360 Sprint Car Series covered by Tim Ryan
      • DIRTcar Limited Late Model Series covered by Tim Ryan
      • DIRTcar Pro Late Model Series covered by J.D. Brown
      • Fanatec DIRTcar 305 Sprint Car Series covered by Tim Ryan

Apex Racing Academy GTE add-on ($4.99 / €4.99):

  • IMSA
    • BMW M8 GTE covered by Antoine Higelin
    • Corvette C8R covered by Zac Campbell
    • Ferrari F488 GTE covered by Alejandro Sanchez
    • Porsche 911 RSR covered by Kevin Ellis 
  • ILMS
    • Corvette C8R covered by Zac Campbell
    • Ferrari 488 GTE covered by Alejandro Sanchez
    • Ford GT GTE covered by Michele Costantini
    • Porsche 911 RSR covered by Kevin Ellis

Apex Racing Academy GT3, GT4 & TCR add-on ($4.99 / €4.99):

  • VRS GT Sprint Series
    • Audi R8 LMS GT3 covered by Jamie Fluke
    • BMW M4 GT3 will be covered by Jamie Fluke (when released)
    • Ferrari 488 GT3 covered by Jamie Fluke
    • Lamborghini Huracan GT3 covered by Jamie Fluke
    • McLaren MP4-12C GT3 covered by Jamie Fluke
    • Mercedes AMG GT3 covered by Antoine Higelin
  • IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
    • BMW M4 GT3 covered by Reinaldo Llerena
    • Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 covered by Reinaldo Llerena
    • Audi RS3 TCR covered by George Simmons

Apex Racing Academy Open Wheel add-on ($4.99 / €4.99):

  • Dallara iR-01 covered by Zac Campbell
  • Dallara iR-18 covered by Brandon Traino
  • Dallara P217 (ILMS & IMSA) covered by Yohann Harth
  • Formula Renault 2.0 covered by Peter Berryman
  • Formula Renault 3.5 covered by Peter Berryman
  • Indy Pro 2000 covered by Peter Berryman
  • Skip Barber covered by Benny Simonsen

Apex Racing Academy Rally Cross ($3.99 / €3.99):

  • Ford Fiesta RS WRC, Subaru WRX STI & VW Beetle covered by Jon Robertson

EXISTING Datapacks

Road:

  • ILMS – Ferrari 488 GTE will be covered by Johnny Guindi (Jeremy Bouteloup previously)
  • ILMS – Corvette C8R GTE will be covered by Josh Rogers (Mack Bakkum previously)
  • VRS GT – Ferrari 488 GT3 will be covered by Paschalis Gkergkis (Ricardo Castro Ledo previously)
  • iRacing Porsche Cup will be covered by Mack Bakkum (Josh Rogers previously)
  • Simlab Production Challenge – Mazda MX5 – A tutorial will be added to the datapack, covered by Madison Down
  • Fanatec Global Challenge – Cadillac will be covered by Jake Burton (Ricardo Castro Ledo previously). A weekly tutorial will be added to this datapack.

Dirt Oval:

  • DIRTcar Pro Late Model will be covered by J.D. Brown (Tim Ryan previously)

DISCONTINUED Datapacks

Rallycross:

  • iRX Rookie – Ford Fiesta RS is being discontinued and replaced by the iRX – Subaru datapack.

Hardware

The DirectForce Pro is now fully in production and can be directly ordered from the website (https://virtualracingschool.appspot.com/#/Store)

The pedals are nearing the end of their development and should be released during the first quarter of 2021. More info to come on that

A button plate for rims is still actively in development. Aiming to release it in the middle of 2021