April 27,2009 - New Software Release and New Season Schedule Announced: Paypal, FREE Spec Racer Ford and Competition Improvements Among Highlights
Every three months (if not more often), we release a
new, improved version of our simulation software, usually accompanied by significant upgrades to our
members’ Web site. It’s no coincidence that we roll out these updates just ahead of the start of each new season, when changes won’t disrupt official competition. This week, we continue that tradition, with changes that touch most, if not all aspects of the service – many in response to
long-standing requests from you, our members, and some in a carefully deliberated attempt to improve the quality of competition.
Improvements to the
physics modeling and
Net Code headline changes within the simulation. Meanwhile, the addition of
Paypal as a payment option – one of our most consistent requests from the community – and a new “
Events” section on the main nav of the members’ site are tops among the Web changes. Also sure to be popular are substantial updates to the “
Customize Car” section of the site. You can now add
sponsor decals to your car – including new
member-created club logos – as well as select the color and font for your car number. For a full rundown of all the changes, make sure to read the latest
Release Notes, posted in the forum last week by Steve Myers.
On the sporting side of the service, we’ve spent a lot of time analyzing data and formulating plans to help facilitate official races and improve competition. First among these changes is a modification of our
point-scoring system. Instead of averaging a driver’s points scored throughout a Race Week, we’ll now
average only the better half of each driver’s performances during the week, meaning drivers can run as many races as they would like with less concern about a bad finish damaging their Race Week total. After a member poll on the matter, we’ve also changed the FIRST Competition Calendar.
Race Weeks will now start at 00:00 GMT Tuesday (8 p.m. Monday evening Eastern US time), instead of changing over during the weekend. (Please note that this means 2009 Season 1 13th Week will be two days longer than normal.)
In addition to these changes, we’ve spent a lot of time studying and attempting to tweak the racing schedule to
improve competition. Our system works best when large groups of people register for the same session. In addition to guaranteeing full fields, these numbers allow us to improve the quality of racing by parsing the registrants into multiple iterations of the same race, each populated by racers of similar skill level, as measured by iRating. To achieve this focus of activity, we have decreased the number of official races, particularly for Class A and B, searching for the
right balance between concentration and convenience. Steve Myers posted a preliminary schedule in the forums last week, but we've heard your responses loud and clear and have made some revisions. The latest version of the
2009 Season 2 schedule is now available.
Lastly, we’re
adding value to every membership, both in terms of
content and price. Although we typically announce the release of new cars and tracks in conjunction with a new build, this time, we’re offering up a popular new road racing car, the SCCA Enterprises
Spec Racer Ford, for
FREE. The SRF will replace the Pontiac Solstice as the Advanced Rookie road racing car and is accompanied by the
Chevrolet Impala SS, as raced in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, as well as
Road Atlanta. On the pricing side, we’ve noticed that, while more than half of our members are full-year subscribers, a significant number have opted for a month-to-month arrangement. Consequently, we’re
lowering the one-month membership fee to $19, a small change we know, but if it helps even a small number of members to be able to continue racing, it’ll be worth it.
We hope you are as excited for the coming season as we are. See you on track!
) )
et une video en course avec la Radical SR8
http://www.cgimotorsports.com/images/Au ... ag6-04.pdf
... respect 
('faut pouvoir déjà ^^)
- 
).
