News 800 million laps raced in iRacing

It's been a long journey for the subscription-based PC sim iRacing. Since launching in 2008, it's built up a reputation as the definitive racing simulation for PC enthusiasts. Such is its popularity, the developers have now announced that the community have raced a staggering 800 million virtual laps worldwide at some point in October. 

The accompanying press release issued provides a plethora of statistics: "If you started counting at the rate of one number per second, it would take until the year 2038 to reach 800,000,000. Mileage-wise, 800,000,000 is a little less than the round trip distance between Jupiter and the Sun. On a less celestial basis, 800,000,000 miles represents more than 130,000 round trips between Boston, MA and Seattle, WA."

"In racing terms, consider that if all the starters in all the Indianapolis 500s and Daytona 500s run to date had gone the distance, they still would have only covered about a million laps. Think the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is a grind?  Consider that if the 43 starters went the distance in all 36 of the points-paying races in 2013, they would log a little less than 450,000 laps. At that rate, it would take more than 1,700 seasons of racing to run 800,000,000 laps."

“Looking back on the past five years, it’s amazing – not to mention gratifying – to see how far we’ve come,” says Tony Gardner, iRacing.com president.  “Not just in terms of 800,000,000 laps, a number that’s hard for anyone to wrap their arms around. Starting with just a handful of Alpha testers, we’ve grown to 50,000 members, from hard-core and rookie sim-racers to some of the world’s top race drivers who use iRacing for practice or, like the vast majority of iRacers, for fun.

“Thanks to the hard work and creativity of our artists, software engineers and vehicle dynamicists, we’re adding new features every three months and continuously updating our software.  We’ve also established partnerships with some of the world’s leading sanctioning bodies and automotive manufacturers.  The most exciting part is — this is really just the beginning.”

iRacing is certainly showing no signs of slowing down –  at this rate, it won't be long until it achieves 1,000,000,000 laps raced. And with Alan in the midst of setting up a new powerful PC gaming rig, we'll be covering its progress in-depth very soon indeed.

We've also teamed up with iRacing.com to bring you a great offer: 3 months of iRacing for the price of one, netting you a 60% saving off the regular price of a 3-month membership to the highest ranked racing game of all time according to PC Gamer Magazine. Join the more than 45,000 members already racing on iRacing.com! Sign up here to activate this exclusive deal. 

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