iRacing Season 2 patch gives with one hand, takes away with the other

After the release of the big 2021 Season 2 patch last week for iRacing, now it’s time to tinker.

Today, 17th March, the first patch has been released focussing primarily on the latest additions to the game and some performance balancing.

Key highlights are further refinements to the AI racing, GT4 class BoP tweaks, GTE class tyre wear rates, changes to tyre and aero tuning on the Dallara IR18 and adding right-rear coil-bind to the NASCAR Xfinity vehicles.

Interestingly, the NASCAR Cup Series cars engines now get hotter when driving close behind another vehicle – we’ll be watching closely for this in the next eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series round.

Perhaps not too surprisingly, the new track – Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg – has also seen some updates to the track limits, pace car speed and some cosmetic fixes. Something that’s to be expected following the release of a new venue.

Perhaps surprisingly, however, is the removal of the new damage model for two out of the five cars, namely the Street Stock and the NASCAR Ford Thunderbird – 1987. The new damage model was a big draw for this update and even had its own pre-release trailer.

“We continue to investigate the source of the issue with the New Damage Model based upon our 2021 Season 2 updates, but do not yet have a solid conclusion. To enable more stable and competitive racing with this vehicle, we have decided to disable the New Damage Model on this vehicle for now,” says the official iRacing support website about the two cars.

As ever, the patch notes are massive, and you can read them on the iRacing post. For now, let us know on social media what you think about this update.