A collaboration of forces ushers in new era for DGFX and ClubSport series. Multiple support series to be launched as part of global initiative  

Toronto, CA – May 27, 2020 – Two endurance racing powerhouses will be joining forces to create a governing body. They seek to become an established name in sim-racing known for fair and competitive racing, no matter the car or class, by hosting the most competitive, all-encompassing, and community-focused racing and leagues for iRacing sim racers.  

DGFX organizers Kyle Birnie and Ed Voras have partnered with ClubSport organizers Julian Bell and Casper de Kort to create the International Virtual Racing Association (IVRA). Joining the team are Benjamin Fischer, Richard Bell, and Tom Van Put.  Organization for the Endurance Series and ClubSport Series will remain the same, helmed by Ed Voras & Kyle Birnie, and Casper de  Kort & Julian Bell respectively. Richard Bell will take the lead in the new Club Cup series while Kyle Birnie, Casper de Kort, Julian Bell and Richard Bell will be running the GT Sprint Series. 

“We saw the incredible work that Casper and Julian were doing at ClubSport – the quick rise to full grids, and a very strong community, and we knew at DGFX there were elements that we could learn from and add to in our Endurance Series. It made sense to begin discussions with them to collaborate on our ideas and practices to create the best series we could for drivers and teams” says Kyle. Casper adds: “The DGFX team helped us get going at the beginning, supporting us with the back-end systems which let us run quickly and efficiently at the start. They’ve been running a very successful series for many years and we were able to learn from them and add our own ideas and operations to the ClubSport Series”.

With seven years experience at DGFX, and three years at ClubSport, all organizers feel that there are mutual benefits to be gained by creating a single working group. The collaboration will help to aid the introduction of the new series by organizers known for the quality of their productions. Bringing the series together under a single regulatory umbrella also offers additional opportunities that would otherwise have not been possible. More on that later on in this post.

IVRA will have several exciting series under its banner. While the ClubSport Series name will remain unchanged, DGFX will become the IVRA Endurance Series. Alongside these two main staples, IVRA will also introduce two brand new series in the upcoming fall season!

The IVRA Club Cup will be a single-make Mazda MX-5 series which will run two 30-minute sprint races, with the second race being a reverse grid. These races will run on the same days as the ClubSport Series races (and the same tracks, although some alternate layouts will be used) as organizers look to create a full day’s worth of track activity. Race days will alternate sessions between the ClubSport Series and the Club Cup to show as much of the action on the broadcast as possible. The day will start off with the first Club Cup race, followed by the ClubSport Series qualifying session. The second Club Cup race will then provide a break for the ClubSport teams before they run their own race. The two series running on the same day will introduce a new dynamic to race days for everyone involved, and will make for a unique viewing experience on broadcasts.

The Club Cup will be a team series. One driver will qualify for and race in the first race, and the second driver will complete the second race on the reverse grid. As both races will score the same amount of points, these driver regulations will provide a unique challenge to teams when strategizing, especially when there is a difference in speed between the two drivers on the team. An added advantage is that these regulations do not hinder teams from entering the same drivers in both Club Cup and the ClubSport Series.

The IVRA GT Sprint Series will be a GT3 series with two one-hour sprint races that will mostly run on Sundays prior to the Endurance Series races. Like the Club Cup, the Sprint Series will run a reverse grid for the second race. Both races will require a driver change and the driver who qualifies must start the race, which also means the driver who ends the first race will start the second race. The series will see a varied range of track styles, from the high-speed banking of Daytona to the twists and turns of the Zandvoort dunes. This will allow different cars to excel at different rounds, offering opportunities to different teams to get results. The organizers are still working out the details of a new multi-stage qualifying system which will add yet another element to the series dynamic.

The IVRA team have worked diligently over the past few months to create within the association a unified approach to regulations. Participants will find that the regulations are consistent across all series with the only differences pertaining to specific series, such as classes and drive time requirements. “We wanted to ensure that the system we created was easy to understand for all participants, regardless of the series they were running in. A major consideration of that was condensing and simplifying the regulations as much as possible while being fully transparent about the operation and expectations of all series for both Race Control and competitors” says Julian. Examples of the unified regulations include a single point scoring system across all series, as well as a single penalty system. 

Something else the regulatory reshuffle allows is an IVRA-wide driver classification and licensing system. The classification system will place drivers into a category based on their iRating, and will allow series organizers to apply different restrictions on car classes to create a fairer field. As iRating does not always reflect a driver’s speed, it will be possible for IVRA to adjust a driver’s rating if indeed their iRating is not representative of their speed. The driver rating levels can be found in the table below. The driver license system will keep track of driver infractions in any IVRA-sanctioned race, and will help IVRA maintain a consistent level of driving standards across all series. Similar to the ClubSport Series infraction points, after a certain number of license points have been reached a driver will be required to sit out a race.

Following the ClubSport Summer Series, the regularly scheduled IVRA ClubSport Series and IVRA Endurance Series will begin in the fall, along with the IVRA Club Cup and IVRA GT Sprint Series: