About SimCar
The Story
SimCar was founded in 2005 by Tim Traylor. The league came online with three series in the late summer of that year—SimCar Racing School, Formula Atlantic, and GLOBE. The GLOBE series used a sports car mod for N2003, and was superceded by the short-lived NorAM in 2006.
In September 2005, SimCar launched its first rFactor-based season with the rTrainer as the vehicle of choice in the SimCar Racing School, and the F3 mod the basis of the Formula Atlantic series. SimCar looked to have a racing ladder inspired by North American open-wheel racing, with the top tier at least resembling the Champ Car World Series (and its predecessor, CART). SimCar ran two seasons in 2005, sticking to the SRS and Atlantics series for both seasons.
The first ever SimCar champions were: SRS: Raphael Nunes; Atlantics: Parker Kligerman; GLOBE: Kevin Jay.
In 2006, SimCar evolved to name its series differently. SRS became Formula Focus (and for 2008 reverts to the SimCar Racing School name), Atlantics became Champ3, Champ2 was inspired by the former Indy Lights series, and Champ1 came on line at the end of the season with a CART 2000 mod for rFactor. During the year, SimCar introduced a Sports Car championship—NorAM—to replace GLOBE which closed at the end of 2006-01. NorAM was inspired by the work of SimCar driver Francis Robert who created the ProtoRacer Protons and Demons from scratch. The series was immensely popular in its first season—2006-03—but trailed off at the end of the year as suitable mods could not be found to maintain the SimCar GT category.
2007 started with the introduction of the Formula BMW category thanks to the FBMW mod for rFactor as created by iDT. At the beginning of the year, SimCar aimed to have a three-season year, however as the year progress, a new cycle was adopted, and a "mini season" was used to cover the gap. As the 2007-02 season approached, SimCar reached its original aim: to have a Champ Car mod as the cars used for Champ1. iDT introduced its Champ Car World Series 2006 mod in July, and the 2007-02 season (currently in progress) sees SimCar running a bi-weekly schedule with Formula Focus and FBMW in week one, and Champ3 and Champ1 in week two of the cycle.
Real Drivers and SimCar
SimCar has been home to several real racing drivers since the league was founded in 2005. Most notable of these is five-time Champ Car race winner in 2006 A.J. Allmendinger. Previously the winner of the Formula Atlantic title in 2003 and the Barber Dodge Pro Series in 2002, Allmendinger raced at SimCar in 2005 and 2006.
Current American LeMans Series driver Tom Milner has been a SimCar regular since early 2006. Star Mazda driver Alex Ardoin races at SimCar, FBMW USA drivers Race Johnson and Esteban Gutierrez have raced at SimCar, and David Greco who tried his hand at Skip Barber National Championship racing in 2005 was SimCar Atlantics and Lights champion in 2005-02 and 2006-01 respectively. Inaugural Champ3 series winner Parker Kligerman was the 2006 Formula TR champion after doing some Skip Barber Race Series events in late 2005.
In addition, SimCar attracts enthusiasts who race karts, autocross, and more. The league continues to thrive not just because of the passion these people have for racing, but also their generous support.
Supporting SimCar
SimCar runs on the kindness of its members. Since 2006 the league has run a donor system whereby members contribute to the annual operating costs through founder Tim Traylor. The costs of running SimCar are largely centered on website and race server hosting.