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Giant Bomb Racing League Season 3 Preview

Giant Bomb. Season 3's here.
Giant Bomb. Season 3's here.

With E3 2014 basically over, it's time to focus on what really matters in life: Driving the ever-loving hell out of some fun cars in an intense racing sim.

OK, that's more my thing, but if it sounds like something you might be interested in and want to join fellow Giant Bomb community members in a bunch of races open to all levels of experience and skill, then we might have the league for you in iRacing.

Season 3 will be slightly shorter than season 2, but we've concentrated it down to the three series everybody enjoyed, running one for each day of the weekend. Here's the line-up, with the changes this season:

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Friday Nights are for BOMBCAR

BOMBCAR continues to be our NASCAR oval racing series, full of bullshit rules, caution flags, and intense bumper-to-bumper racing. This season, we've retired the Late Model, and with it threw away most of the short tracks. Now we rally forward with the Class B NASCAR cars, used in the Nationwide support series in real life.

With this upgrade comes a whole lot of new tracks. Unlike last season, every track in BOMBCAR this season is used in the NASCAR Sprint Cup. We'll start with the Daytona 125 presented by VinnCo, and through one road course, five more ovals, and four playoff races, decide our BOMBCAR champion at the Dover Championship Weekend powered by Patrick "Scoops" Klepek.

The full schedule is below:

Yes, the race names are dumb. Slowbird is in control. He's awesome like that.
Yes, the race names are dumb. Slowbird is in control. He's awesome like that.

Cautions and "Lucky Dog" free passes will be on, and to prevent abuse of said cautions, fast repairs will be limited to two during a race. Scoring is similar to NASCAR's system, save for being altered for a field of around 15, and after the Moonface, Silky the Fairy and Saucepan Man 105K at Phoenix, the top four drivers in wins will be joined by the top non-winner in points to form the Fast Five. While everyone can still participate in the races, only the Fast Five can win the BOMBCAR title.

Get ready for oval warfare.

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Saturday Night is Formula Duder

Our longest-running series gets a major facelift, as we move from the Skip Barber Formula 2000 up to the Star Mazda. It's way crazier to control, but it has more grip and more power. I hear you're into that sort of thing.

The Star Mazda's also really fun at certain ovals, so we'll be giving it two ovals to tackle this season. You're welcome.

Also, there will be team warfare. If you can find a teammate, and you and said teammate run similar paint schemes like those F1 fellas tend to, we'll score you as a team and determine the best pairing at the end of the season.

Formula Duder's schedule is as follows:

  1. 6/14: Summit Point Short
  2. 6/21: Watkins Glen w/boot
  3. 6/28: Bristol (oval)
  4. 7/5: Circuit of the Americas West
  5. 7/12: Okayama
  6. 7/19: Suzuka
  7. 8/2: Lime Rock
  8. 8/9: Sebring Club
  9. 8/16: Richmond (oval)
  10. 8/23: Mid-Ohio Short
  11. 9/6: Road Atlanta Short

This is going to be the craziest open-wheel racing we've done since the GB Indy 125. Speaking of that, expect to see it return with a DW12 exhibition during at least one of the off-weeks this season.

Finally, it's the series everybody loves.

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Sunday is Giant Bomb GT

RUFs that handle an awful lot like Porsches, McLaren MP4-12Cs, and BMW Z4s. It's a trio of GT3 cars that are insanely fun to drive without being overly difficult, and that's why we love them. The challenge, as always, is in the distance and fuel strategy. Races for GBGT this season are 45 or 75 minutes in length, with the final race at Road Atlanta being a 90-minute test of your driving ability, and we've limited the cars to the point they'll require one or two well-timed pit stops along the way.

It seems like a long time, but you'll be having so much fun those hours will melt away. Just don't let your fuel and tire strategy consume your soul.

Giant Bomb GT's schedule is as follows:

  1. 6/15: Summit Point
  2. 6/22: Daytona Road Course
  3. 6/29: Lime Rock
  4. 7/6: Circuit of the Americas West
  5. 7/13: Watkins Glen Classic
  6. 7/20: Suzuka West
  7. 8/3: Laguna Seca
  8. 8/10: Sebring
  9. 8/17: Phillip Island
  10. 8/24: Mid-Ohio
  11. 9/7: Road Atlanta

I hope you're ready to join us for a great season of racing. This? This is it. This is what you've asked for, and I've turned the scheduling and series coordination over to @slowbird and @khann to ensure it remains spectacular from season to season. I'll be tossing out additional participation bonuses in the form of iRacing credits, but I'll announce any initiatives of that sort after the first week.

Let's find out who our next great champions will be, shall we?

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