Scuderia Corsa dives into simulator racing Thursday, April 16, with drivers Toni Vilander, Alessandro Balzan and Jeff Segal joining IMSA competition online for an abbreviated iRace season streamed live.
The April 16 race of the IMSA iRacing Pro Series takes place at a virtual WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The 90-minute sprint race is driven by a single driver behind the wheel of a simulator; the field is capped to 50 drivers that currently compete in an IMSA sanctioned series. That cap has been met for Thursday’s race. Much like the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the races will score each driver by their race finish, and a champion is crowned after the June 11 race.
Vilander, Balzan and Segal all have plenty of experience behind the wheel of the Ferrari 488 GT3, but in the iRacing series, the drivers find themselves wheeling a Ferrari 488 GTE. The 488 GTE commonly runs in the GT Le Mans Class of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Similar to how a driver must adapt his or her style when switching the car model, simulator racing itself calls for a different finesse.
All races will be streamed live on the iRacing YouTube channel, Twitch channel and Facebook page, which will include commentary from IMSA Radio announcer John Hindhaugh. Pre- and post-race programming is planned for The Torque Show, hosted by Justin Bell and Tommy Kendall. Watch the Torque Show live on Facebook.
The IMSA iRacing Pro Series schedule is set to take place every other Thursday with times yet to be announced. The first race took place at Sebring International Raceway on March 21 to replace the scheduled Super Sebring which has been rescheduled for Nov. 11-14.
April 16 – WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
April 30 – Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
May 14 – IMSA venue to be determined
May 28 – IMSA venue to be determined
June 11 – Watkins Glen International
Solo races call for individual liveries. Vilander will represent Scuderia Corsa in the No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GTE, Blazan runs the banner for Hublot in the black No. 64 and Segal represents WeatherTech in the No. 65.
For Vilander the iRace presents new challenges he’s ready to take on.
“It’s a bit difficult to judge myself ahead of this race,” Vilander said. “I’ll have practiced as much as I could ahead of time, so hopefully, I can perform how I want to in the iRace. I have to see that I find the right feeling in my setup. I have a few sim experts that are helping me find that balance. It will be an interesting week leading up to the actual race Thursday.
“It’s a new experience for me, that’s for sure. Some drivers have been simulator racing for many years, and I’ve been on it only for the last two weeks. It doesn’t matter what you race; there is always an expert on that track or that car. It’s the same with simulator racing; there are always experts to measure yourself against and beat. We will have to see how well known the 488 GTE is; we need the car to be at the same level as the other manufacturers to be competitive, so we will see. Hopefully, soon we can get back to real tracks, with real race cars, but until then, this is a good solution to keep the fans engaged.”
For Balzan his focus is on the preparation ahead of the race to produce success.
“I really expect the competition level in this IMSA iRacing Pro Series as tough as what we saw at the Daytona 24-hour race,” Balzan said. “The good thing about the simulator is that you can practice as much as you want. There is no concern with budget, its accessible to everyone, so by race day you have a great setup. The first race at Sebring, you can already tell there are some teams and manufacturers that spent time planning and working on strategy for the race. I think two or three manufacturers will be tough to beat.
“We are working with Scuderia Corsa and our engineer Bruno to understand how iRacing reacts to different setups and track conditions. It looks like the sim has some differences, 10- or 15-degrees difference on the track make huge differences in the car and driving style of the driver. We have a test planned ahead of the race, so we are working really hard not just playing. WE want to do as best as we can when representing the team.”
For Segal Thursday presents the opportunity to get back to work in a field he has familiarity.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to racing with some of our IMSA colleagues,” Segal said. “It will be really nice to represent Scuderia Corsa and Ferrari again. It’s been too long for me with that team, and I’m itching to get back to racing. The simulator training has obviously been an essential part of driver training to stay sharp and prepare for the races. Now that we aren’t able to race and test at the real track like we usually would, simulators are even more critical. It’s something that I’m very custom to using it as a training tool. In fact, I run a simulator driver training center in Miami- GTX Lab. We’ve been open for about five years using simulator technology to aid drivers at all skill levels; gentlemen drivers, young drivers and even professional drivers wanting to stay sharp and learn new tracks.
“However, iRacing is not a platform we’ve used at all before, so there’s a huge learning curve for me in figuring out all the nuances. Obviously, the competition is really, really tough. I participated in the first race that took place a couple of weeks ago. It was really impressive to see the effort that went into it from the other drivers and manufacturers. With Scuderia Corsa getting involved in the now larger championship of IMSA iRacing, we’re taking things a little more seriously. Alessandro Balzan and I have been working together online, trying to evolve the setups and even using the team engineers and some of the resources. We still have a lot to learn before the next, but hopefully, we can be competitive and put on a good show for the fans watching.”
Watch the Scuderia Corsa drivers in the IMSA iRacing Pro Series this Thursday, April 16 at 6 p.m. ET/ 3 pm PT.