NXTGEN Racing

NXTCC Season 6 - Daytona Road
2024-05-21 19:00 - 22:30 (Europe/London)
No one could have known it then, but when Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, it marked the beginning of a new era in American motorsport. As a replacement for the old beach road course a few miles east, the the high-banked, 2.5-mile Florida tri-oval represented the leading edge of a wave of construction of big, paved speed palaces. Before Daytona, Indianapolis was the only American oval track longer than 1.25 miles, and most racing took place on dirt ovals a mile or less in length. From the very first Daytona 500, won by Lee Petty in a three-way photo finish, those high banks, so steep that it is hard to walk up them, proved a favorable venue for wide-open stock car racing, and Daytona kicked-off the growth of NASCAR as we know it today.

Daytona was also the first multi-use facility, with a 3.56-mile road circuit incorporating the infield and most of the oval. Host not only to the Daytona 500, but the Rolex 24 sports car enduro, Bike Week’s Daytona 200, Daytona KartWeek between Christmas and New Years and a host of driving-school, club and other events, Daytona’s busy and diverse schedule confirms the track’s motto, “The World Center of Racing.”

Daytona International Speedway’s infrastructure has grown and changed to such a degree that it would be almost unrecognizable today to someone who hasn’t seen it since the track opened. But one thing hasn’t changed over the past six decades: No driver can consider his or her career complete without notching a victory at Daytona.

Event Host

NXTCC Season 6 - Oran Park GP
2024-05-14 19:00 - 22:30
One of Australia’s most historic race tracks, Oran Park lives forever on iRacing.com even though it fell to the wreckers’ ball and bulldozers in 2010 to make way for a housing development. Shortly before this unique track went the way of Riverside Raceway and Trenton Speedway, iRacing’s laser-scanning crew mapped Oran Park’s different configurations, thus insuring the beloved suburban Sydney circuit will be available in digital form for future generations.

The “original” Oran Park staged its first race on a one mile circuit in 1962, and the track was subsequently expanded to 1.2 miles. 1974 saw the track expanded further, to 1.6 miles with the incorporation of a loop and cross-over bridge, resulting in one of the world’s few “figure-eight” style circuits. Over the years Oran Park became a fixture on the Australian Touring Car Championship and V8 Supercar Series schedules. Fittingly, Australian legends Allan Moffat and Mark Skaife share the record of six wins apiece at the track. Oran Park also hosted a couple of rounds of the Superbike World Championship in 1988 and ’89, as well as a number of touring car endurance races. Garth Tander won the final V8 Supercar race at Oran Park in 2008.

iRacing’s version of Oran Park features three different configurations including the 1.6 mile (2.6 km) Grand Prix Circuit, the 1.2 mile (1.9 km) South Circuit and the .4 mile (.6 km) North Circuit, which is an almost perfect figure-eight shape.

Event Host

NXTCC Season 6 - Hockenheim GP
2024-05-07 19:00 - 22:30
One of Europe’s premier racing circuits, the heritage of the Hockenheimring takes back to 1932, when it was called “Dreieckskurs” (or “triangle course”). The track has undergone multiple redesigns since then, most recently in 2002, when a dramatically shortened new layout eliminated the long straightaways through the forest that produced exciting racing, but were taxing on engines and difficult for fans to see. Although the redesign was divisive among drivers and teams who welcomed the changes and those who missed the challenges of the old track, it kept the German Grand Prix at the track for 2002 and beyond.

The modern iteration of Hockenheim was designed by Hermann Tilke as one of his earliest major works. The full layout clocks in at just under three miles, with 17 turns that mix high-speed corners with tight and technical hairpins. Notable sections and corners include the Nordkurve, the fast right-hander that drivers see first after starting the race; the long, sweeping left-handed Parabolika that charges into the track’s tightest hairpin; and Sachs, another tight left-hander that makes up part of the stadium section in the latter stages of the lap. The Hockenheimring also features a number of shorter layouts for touring car and club racing, shortening the overall length to better suit these vehicles.

Event Host

NXTCC Season 6 - Mugello
2024-04-30 19:00 - 22:30
After half a century’s worth of events on public roads were brought to an abrupt halt in 1970, Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello was constructed in 1973 and opened a year later to bring premier racing events back to the area. It quickly became host to major sports car events, lower-level open-wheel series, and grand prix motorcycle racing, for which it has hosted the Italian motorcycle Grand Prix for the past 30 years. In the COVID-19 impacted 2020 World Driver’s Championship, it hosted the series for the first time with the Tuscan Grand Prix. Mugello features two layouts: its 3.259-mile, 15-turn Grand Prix layout, and a 1.4-mile Short configuration. Both start with its lengthy front straightaway and go into the 180-degree San Donato right-hander before heading into Luco and Poggio Secco. The track has been owned by Scuderia Ferrari since 1988, which uses it for both testing and the Ferrari Challenge Finali Mondiali; the Tuscan Grand Prix in 2020 marked its 1000th Grand Prix event.

Event Host

NXTCC Season 6 - Watkins Glen (Classic boot)
2024-04-23 19:00 - 22:30
Just south of Seneca Lake, amidst the rolling vineyards and woodlands in Upstate New York’s Finger Lakes region, sits a shrine of American motorsport. Watkins Glen International is more than just a racetrack. It is the birthplace of post-war road racing in North America, a worthy test of some of the best drivers to ever sit in a racecar.

Today, The Glen hosts the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, as well as a six-hour crown jewel of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Sports Car Club of America professional and amateur racing, ARCA Menards Series, and a major vintage race meet. It has also been home to major concerts and other festivals.

Over the years The Glen has been lengthened once and continually upgraded. Four different configurations of the track are available to iRacing members, and a lap around today’s Grand Prix circuit still incorporates much of the original layout. The first turn is known as “The 90,” a right-hander and a good place to pass. Then it’s up toward “The Esses,” a series of three fast, sweeping apexes leading onto the back straight. The cars reach their top speed here, before hard braking for the bus stop at the end of the straight. Here, the track deviates from its original circuit for “The Boot,” a hammerhead-shaped up-and-downhill section of track added in 1971. Turn 9, where The Boot rejoins the original circuit, is another fairly quick lefthander, tricky because it’s off camber, followed by the even quicker Turn 10, an almost flat-out left-hander. The last corner (Turn 11) is another fast right-hander that leads out onto the front straight.

Racing first came to The Glen in 1948 in the form of the Watkins Glen Grand Prix, an SCCA-sanctioned event that ran on a more than six mile course over the back roads of the town. The success of that event eventually led to the construction of a permanent track, the resulting product a little more than a third in length of the original street course. In 1957, the track hosted its first race, a NASCAR Grand National Series event won by Buck Baker over Fireball Roberts. The following year, Formula Libre showed up, and, not long after that, Watkins Glen hit the big time.

In 1961, Formula 1 came to the little town by the lake, bringing with it some of the most legendary names in motor sports. For the next two decades, the home of the United States Grand Prix was Watkins Glen. The early eighties saw some tough times for The Glen: F1 held its last race there in 1980, and it was closed to all but spectator-free SCCA meets for two years, but the track would recover soon enough under new ownership. In 1986, NASCAR’s top series returned to The Glen, and with it, a whole new renaissance for the track began.

A longtime mainstay of the iRacing track library, Watkins Glen received an all-new scan and updates in time for 2022 Season 1. All four of its previous layouts have been fully updated with new surface data and artwork, giving one of America’s most popular road courses a fresh new look on the service.

Event Host

NXTCC Season 6 - Long Beach
2024-04-16 19:00 - 22:30
Born against long odds in 1976, the Long Beach Grand Prix is North America’s premier street race. The debut event featured Formula 5000 cars in a race won by Brian Redman. The following year, Clay Regazzoni captured the inaugural U.S. Grand Prix (West) and in 1977 Mario Andretti passed Jody Scheckter in the closing laps to become the first American to win an F1 race on home ground.

Andretti’s popular victory put the race on firm financial footing and set in motion the rebirth of Long Beach, which morphed from a down-on-its heels port city to a thriving modern city/tourist destination. The resulting building boom necessitated ongoing changes to the track layout, finally settling on the current 1.968 mile, 11 turn circuit encircling the Long Beach Convention Center and the Long Beach Aquarium.

Nor were the changes limited to the track and its environs. The Long Beach GP changed gears in 1984, bringing the home-grown Indy cars to town as the featured attraction. The event hardly missed a beat, as the names of Unser, Zanardi, Montoya, Franchitti, Power, Conway and Dixon joined the likes of Regazzoni, Andretti, Villeneuve, Piquet and Lauda on the illustrious list of Long Beach winners. What’s more, the event grew to include IMSA and SCCA pro sports car racing series, along with the popular Toyota Celebrity race in which Hollywood’s famous (and near famous) exchange Armani and Gucci for Simpson and Bell.

F1 or IndyCar, world class driver or movie star, the Long Beach Grand Prix circuit is as testing as they come … with very hard walls eagerly awaiting the slightest mistake.

Event Host

NXTCC Season 6 - MotorLand Aragón (TC)
2024-04-02 19:00 - 22:30
One of Spain’s newest permanent racing circuits, MotorLand Aragón broke ground in the winter of 2005 and opened nearly four years later. One of many tracks worldwide designed by Hermann Tilke, the track hosts a diverse slate of national and international car and motorcycle events, ranging from touring car and GT cars to major feeder open-wheel divisions.

The 3.321-mile Grand Prix circuit at Aragón boasts 18 turns, as well as two major straightaways—one featuring the start-finish line, and one after the 90-degree Turn 15. The length of the latter depends on the configuration; for cars, it heads toward a sharp hairpin for Turn 16, while the motorcycle layout skips this section for a more gradual Turn 16 that sweeps directly into the frontstretch. Aragón also boasts a smaller National layout that dives into the infield after Turn 2 and brings racers through to the backstretch.

Event Host

NXTCC Season 6 - Sandown
2024-03-26 19:00 - 22:30
Opened in 1962, Sandown International Raceway made an immediate splash when it brought in the world’s premier drivers for the Sandown International Cup that March. Jack Brabham, John Surtees, and Bruce McLaren comprised the inaugural podium for the open-wheel race, while names like Stirling Moss and Jim Clark were also on the entry list. The track held its original layout until 1984, when an infield section was added to meet minimum track length requirements to host World Sportscar Championship events; eventually, that layout evolved into the current 13-turn, 1.928-mile (3.104 km) course used today.

The Sandown 500 is the track’s premier event, contested by numerous divisions since its first running as a six-hour race in 1964 and currently raced by the Supercars championship. The track also hosted six occurrences of the Australian Grand Prix before the event joined the World Driver’s Championship calendar. Currently, Sandown hosts five event weekends per year, comprised of both modern and historic sports car and open-wheel racing machinery.

Event Host

NXTCC Season 6 - Monza (No first chicane)
2024-03-19 19:00 - 22:30
Known to racing aficionados and car buffs alike simply as “Monza,” the Autodromo Nazionale Monza is among the most fabled motor racing circuits in all the world. Constructed in Monza’s Royal Villa park in the early 1920s, the circuit has hosted the Italian Grand Prix Formula One race every year but one since the series’ inception and holds the record for the fastest (153.842mph/247.585kph) and closest finish (.18s covering the top four) in Formula One history in 2003 and 1971, respectively. While its storied history (and proximity to Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello) makes Monza the unchallenged home of Italian Formula One racing, the facility has played host to virtually every form of motorsports over the years, from sports prototypes, GTs and touring cars, to MotoGP and superbikes. Monza even hosted the legendary Race of Two Worlds in 1957-58, which pitted Indianapolis-style race cars against Formula One cars. Thus the breadth of Monza’s roll call winners is unparalleled, from Tazio Nuvolari and Amedeo Ruggeri to Juan Manuel Fangio, Jimmy Bryan, John Surtees, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, who earned the first F1 win of his career in the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.

Monza has three very different tracks – the 3.6 mile (5.793K) Grand Prix circuit, the 1.494 mile (2.4K) Junior circuit and the Alta Velocita, a steeply-banked 2.6 mile (4.25K) oval. Although a combination of the Grand Prix circuit and Alta Velocita was used in Formula One races in the 1950s, the practice was discontinued owing to the ferocious pounding the bumpy oval meted out to cars and drivers alike. As well the Grand Prix circuit has undergone a number of safety-targeted modifications over the years, including the addition of the Variante del Rettifilo, Variante della Roggia and Variante Ascari chicanes, but the boomerang-shaped circuit’s fundamental high speed character remains unchanged.

Event Host

NXTCC Season 6 - Silverstone National
2024-03-12 19:00 - 22:30
Get on track with the newest configuration of the “Home of British Motor Racing.” Silverstone Circuit’s current layout is one of the longest in its storied history, which includes the first-ever race of the Formula One World Driver’s Championship in 1950. Two years later, Frolian Gonzales gave Ferrari its first-ever F1 victory there, and the rest is history: in the nearly seven decades that have followed, the former World War II air base has become one of the world’s legendary motorsport venues.

Located in the English midlands, northwest of London and in the middle of the British motorsports industry, the facility that each year hosts the British Grand Prix bears scant resemblance to the original circuit that was made up of linked runways. Silverstone is host each year to a myriad of road racing classes, ranging from Formula One to Formula Ford in the open-wheel category, and numerous sports and GT series including the European Le Mans Series, British GT Championship, touring car and club racing.

Though the facility has little in the way of elevation changes as a former air base, for much of its history Silverstone was known for its ultra-fast sweeping corners and fast average speeds. Though the requirements of modern Formula One forced the addition of chicanes and other devices to slow speeds down from the insane to the merely ridiculous, the track retains many of the characteristics that originally made it famous.

Event Host
