Episode 50: Season 3 Build and Steve Myers on 15 Years of iRacing

It’s true—we’ve made 50 of these! But even more importantly, iRacing is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, so executive vice president Steve Myers returns to Downshift to reflect on the long, strange trip it’s been. We’ve also got the latest on 2023 Season 3, including new cars, new tracks, and the dirt refresh that has changed the game in sprint car, late model, and even off-road truck racing!

Stay tuned to our Twitch and YouTube on Friday to watch the video version!

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
This week on the fiftieth episode ofthe I Racing Downshift, Greg works on
his confidence. I need to bemore compident, That's what people tell me.
Kevin gives us his resume. Ifyou ever need to change for transmission
between a rainy, muddy mid Ohiopaddock, I'm your guy. And Chris
can't stop racing rallycross the little tinyroad course layout because I've never quite broken

(00:27):
my rallycross habits all then more sostrap it. Welcome to I Racing Down
Ship, Tommyls, Greg West.I'm back with the boys, Kevin,
Bobba and Chris Leone for episode numberfifty. Which way? Which way is
it go? I don't know we'reon. Would have thought that we'd get

(00:47):
to fifty. I thought you'd maybeget to two. I thought Myers would
have canceled us after two or three. Wait maybe wait, maybe he does
because he is. He is backon the show today. Thanks it's episode
three. He doesn't realize we've donewhat he doesn't know. Friend of the
show, Executive vice president of IRacing, Steve Myers, coming on today.

(01:08):
He's gonna talk about stuff that weusually can't talk about and that he
usually tells us what we can't andwhere the line is. But now their
responsibilities on him. So something leaks, that's on him, you'll have to
yell at himself instead of us.So it would be a nice change pace.
But our boys, what have whathave we been up to? We
have to hurry because Kevin has ahard stop. Kevin was left. Actually

(01:32):
I was late. I was verylate. Kevin was late, and they
told us we had to hurry up. I want to be very clear on
this. That's what you get calledout for on this one. It's fair,
You're you're not wrong. I waslate. I apologize to you guys,
and the guys behind the scenes,Cisco and Drew working hard to make
us sound adequate. I guess youknow what they can do about the looks?

(01:59):
Yeah exactly. I had to wearthis ridiculous Hawaiian shirt just to pull
attention. But I'm doing, Chris, that's your regular like Friday out.
It looks good. I like you. I like your buttonops. Personally,
I think it's they're great. I'vebeen doing casual Thursdays and then we all
dressed uff right, we got decI'm wearing a T shirt that dressed up.

(02:20):
See, I figure that I canmake if I can make my shirts
louder than my voice than anything foryou know, of course you don't understand
we have a we have production now. That's Cisco's job and Drew's job to
make sure that your voice is theright No no, no, no no,
I mean around the office when we'rein all yeah, trying to pull
focus. Yeah, all right.So besides Kevin being like Chris having a

(02:44):
working on his wardrobe, what elsewe've been up to? Kevin's creeping on
the neighbor's Uh, they're digging atmy neighbor's yard installing fiber optics. But
you know, update from the lastpodcast. I've been enjoying my tractor.
I've mowed the lawn like every otherday for the last three weeks so and
you haven't burnt it up yet.Nope, not yet. Maybe not every
other day, but certainly more frequentlythan I used to mow the lawn.

(03:06):
That's pretty good. Yeah, it'snice. I've been getting ready for season
three, pretty excited. Kevin andI will be talking about our Battle Royal.
That is the Ringmeister. It's kindof like the Throwing Go Challenge brought
back, only it's an efficient nowI've got two practice laps already, so
I'm ready. That's two more thanme. I'm gonna be honest. I

(03:27):
think it's the Mercedes this week,the Mercedes GT three. Great cards sound
so good. So well, let'sget into it. So we had a
build is there? Always exciting podcastbecause it's all this stuff we couldn't say
before, but now we can sayit without being in trouble. What am
I one of stuff? I mean, three cars, two tracks and a
dirt refresh. It's almost like aChristmas song. I've three songs. Tyler

(03:52):
is going to sing it to us. Bring him back in on the podcast.
Let's let's get right, Let's getright into it. We have the
Cadillac V series are all right.See the Cadillac V Series are already.
I did mess it up. Youwere this close and you just didn't have
the confidence to push through the corner. You know, You're right. I

(04:12):
need to be more confident, That'swhat people tell me. Yes, Wow,
I just really walked into that fence. Cadillac V Series r GTP super
excited for the ever growing GTP classon I Racing and also debuting this weekend
at the six Hours the Glenn onI Racing actually debuting and like eight hours

(04:33):
a few hours at this point,right, yeah, but a great counterpart
next to the BMW and the sound. I mean, that's we shouldn't even
have shown it in the preview video, Kevin, we should just played the
audio. It does sound ritti sweet. So yeah, pretty excited about that.
A lot of fun to drive.Yeah, ever, growing class and

(04:57):
I Racing. We'll see where itgoes from here. Also with that,
the addition of that car to ourInsis series. Notice we didn't take a
car out. We actually grew thecar count by one. So we've got
nine different car models in that seriesand this weekend at the Glenn. So
pretty excited about that next piece ofcontent that is making debut, the Lee

(05:17):
j LMP three car highly j Pthree twenty LMP three, very excited,
highly requested, tons of memes.Kevin, you have some experience with this
newer version of the one right there, right right there, the one's on
screen. Yeah yeah, so yeah, no LMP three car. Obviously,

(05:41):
I've worked for a team for afew years. We ud pretty good success
in the the older version in acar, but it's it's a super fun
car to drive. I've been seeinga lot of people streaming it on Twitch.
Seems to be very well received.Kind of a just a fun car
to drive, right, It's gotenough down for enough power, but it's
not super crazy, but it's afun car. So I think we're gonna

(06:03):
see a lot of participation in thatseries. It's also sounding really good with
the Nissan V eight in the backof it, Elsie greg Hill than the
entire sound staff killing it. Ifyou ever need to change the transmission in
a rainy, muddy mid Ohio Paddock, I'm your guy. I've done that,
so let me know. Also,you you are, you've gone viral

(06:25):
fueling the thing. Oh yeah,yeah, I'm raking in the bucks on
on my YouTube video. So Ithink I'm up to three hundred and sixty
dollars earned, so you know,um almost got a million US right something
like that. Yeah, we shouldwe should check the view count on that
the car numerous times over. Yeah, but so not one, not two,

(06:48):
but three cars as well. Sowe also have the Porsche nine to
eleven GT three R nine nine two, So it's the next edition, the
current editionition car and Kevin, aPorsche fanboy, Let's be honest. I
do. And it's not a negative. That's it's a very positive. Well
I appreciate that, but I'm gonnawell, what do you want me to

(07:10):
say? It sounds great. Itdrives like a portrait. It's the current
chassis. So it's what you seeracing all around the world in GT three
GTD. Um. Yeah, itis also at Watker's Glenn this weekend and
I racing right, so yes,yes, right, and we're you and
I are going to get the raceit later the season in the Ringmeister series
that we are participating in nim's StaffChallenge Series or whatever we call that,

(07:32):
so um, so it'll be funto see which one of us we'll have
to come back and revisit that andsee you has the earned more points that
week. So you're going to absolutelydestroy me. You are you are the
place you were significantly better than meon ice, the only track I give
me Greg on, which is reallyweird. You destroy me on the ring.
So yeah, if you haven't signed, I haven't looked at the Ring

(07:53):
Master series, UM do it becauseit's fun. Twelve weeks at the ring,
twelve different cars, pretty decent varietyacross GT three, GT four touring
cars. There's even an open wheelerwith the formula. The F sixteen hundred
is in there as well, andso yeah, we're pretty excited about you
know, if you see see meracing there, if you happen to be
in a split with men. Noticethat I have a new paint shop because

(08:16):
Trading Paints is updated and they addedsome awesome sponsors. West Bob at Garage,
So you know West West West Engineering, Well I thought it was Engines,
It's engineering, is it West Engines? Don't I don't know for a
company. Leavender sent me a text. Now I gotta look it up.
I'm gonna do it right now.By the way, our emails blown up
with stuff we need to respond toright now. Kevin, Yeah, we

(08:41):
looked. We got messages from afriend of the show, and probably I
guess we should bring on sometime.Steve Levender from Trading Paints. They did
a really cool project with their theirsoftware for painting cars. And yeah,
there's Greg Hill has a sponsorship.You've got one, I've got one Tony
Tony's garage or something like that.It's it's pretty entertaining. But more importantly,

(09:05):
the painting tool is significantly upgraded andit's really cool, so check it
out. Um, so we didmore than just cars though, we got
tracks and Chris is going to talkabout him because he could pronounce him.
Yeah. MotorLand Aragon another Spanish track. We've had a few of those make
their way into the service over thepast through past a few years. But

(09:28):
Aragon seven different configurations, which forsomebody like me who likes to run the
little tiny road course layouts because I'venever quite broken my rallycross habits, that
is a godsend. I mean,you've got you've got your touring car layouts,
you've got your grown pre layouts,your motor layouts, the short and
layouts again seven in total, sothere's all sorts of different ways for you

(09:50):
to find your way around Aragon.It's a great little track for again,
things like touring cars, some ofthe lower level open wheelers. Just a
lot of fun. Really a blastedYeah. I think it's really interesting is
we went a little bit above andbeyond on the layouts of this track because
we were watching the different types ofracing there was specifically open wheel and touring

(10:11):
cars, and the way that theyenforced track limits, so we match that
with the touring car layout having thesebig bales and at the corner apex,
you can't cut the corner, itwill hurt, your race, will be
over. So yeah, but it'sthose details. You know. Greg Hill
loves the detail work in tracks andhis entire staff. They go above and

(10:33):
beyond the crazy amount of detail.And both of the tracks that we release
this season showcase that. And there'smy segue Chris into Willow Springs. Yes,
Willow Springs International Raceway, colloquially knownas the Big Willow Layout to some
of you. Two and a halfmiles. Now, the coolest thing about
this First of all, Willow Springsis kind of a surprisingly well known track

(10:58):
for what it is. It hasn'thosted a lot of top tier racing,
but it's it's a pretty beloved tracklayout. It's got some interesting corners,
elevation changes. But we have doneso much work in the background, just
with the rendering, detail work onfoliage, things of that nature. The
visual experience at Willow Springs is unlikeany other track that we've hit. It's

(11:20):
said a new standard. A lotof you know, tracks in the future
are going to have the bar raisedon them. As well. So it's
a very pretty track. It's Imean, it's my setting, it's it's
California, so I love it.But it's also a fun track to drive.
It is the first place that Itook the liege and I got my
butt whopped. I was a meme. I was a meme within thirty seconds
of pulling out of the pits.But no, because the rolling chicane would

(11:45):
need to be rolling. Yes,it was a red block. That's I
know. I think that track isgoing to be more well received than than
we initially thought. It's great inthe slowed to medium powered cars. It
really for the really fast cars.You know, it's maybe a little small,
but if you're you want to gothere and you know the skippy or

(12:05):
the the FF sixteen hundred, thetouring cars GT fours, even the leg
they it's really well suited for thatkind of racing. A ton of history.
There some really cool Red Bull videosthere you can find on YouTube.
They've they've done some awesome cinematography.But yeah, check it out. Incredibly
cool. Now, the other thingthat was important for this build, it's

(12:28):
not new content. It's a bigupdate we have been talking about for this
community the dirt refresh. We havegotten a ton of feedback over the last
couple of years on opportunities to improvedirt racing on I Racing, whether it's
dirt oval or dirt road, andthis has been a big project with the

(12:50):
likes of Tyler D. Hudson andTravis Solmberger and Steve Rees vehicle engineer,
among many others, but those threereally leading the charge. You Tyler races,
you know, believe a dirt latemodel in real life. You know,
he has a ton of experience wheelingthese cars around. And the result
has been pretty well received, right, Kevin on the spot. Absolutely put

(13:11):
me on the spot because you knowme, I'm a dirt racer. Yeah,
for surely not. But no,no, it's it's certainly been well
received. Continue to do some workon it too, Right, We've gotten
some feedback, they're continuing to workon it, and it's led to some
other projects so which I think we'lltouch on in our interview. So that's
coming up. But yeah, awesomejob to the whole team that was working

(13:33):
on that. And I think theimportant thing to note on this is nothing's
ever done on I Racing. We'regoing to continue to develop it. This
was a big step. Is dirtracing done and perfect and complete? No?
Is any sim in the world doneand perfect and complete. No.
But this was a focused effort toreally move the needle a significant amount,
and it seems like it's been fairlywell received. We have other stuff.

(13:56):
It opened up many other doors oflearning, other opportunities and also and as
as Steve is going to talk aboutin our interview here in a little bit,
open up other opportunities for maybe theasphalt oldal side of things too.
So more to come there. Uh. Speaking of which, our guests this
week, as we've alluded to oneof the ogs from Papyrus, he's the

(14:18):
executive vice president of IRA, saying, Steve Myers is sat down with Kevin
and I went yesterday, two daysago something like that, recently sat down
with us and so yeah, yeah, without further ado, let's let's chat
with Steve Myers. All right,Kevin and I are back with our guests

(14:39):
this week, friend of the show, multi probably the most most used guests
on the show, Kevin, maybetwice? Right? Is this third time?
How many times you've been here,Steve? I think it's at least
three times. We were just talkingabout how the last one you guys didn't
even have to ask me questions.I just rambled on. For that is
why you are our favorite guest.We don't actually have to do anything,
and we all the credit works smarter, not harder. We're efficient. That's

(15:05):
a good thing. So executive vicepresident of EYE Racing, one of the
ogs all the way back since Papyrus, Steve Myers jumping on the show today
and Steve, let's get into it. We just had a really successful build.
A lot going on in I Racingright now, really just re upping
the quality of the product on comingfrom multiple areas. And one of those
big things that we're pretty proud toput out this build was the Dirt Refresh.

(15:31):
Yeah. I think I don't thinkour members truly appreciate the evolution of
I Racing over the last few years. I think, you know, pre
pandemic, you know, we werewe were a great company, were a
great small company that you know,was putting out a great product, you
know, and then post pandemic,you know, there's so many employees and

(15:56):
I Racing now that I have nevertalked to or met that that, you
know, thinking pre pandemic I meanI interviewed almost every employee that worked at
High Racing, and now there's somany We're hiring so many people that every
week we get the hey, pleasewelcome John Brown, and you know there's
so many people new people. Um, you know, it's it's been a

(16:18):
wonderful time to watch a software companyreally flourished because I think we got to
do projects like this Dirt Refresh andyou know, spend the time to make
sure that we can update something andthat have be and have it meet the
expectations of our customers. So Ithink you know, Tyler and Travis and
Steve and the guys that all workedon that that you know worked on the

(16:41):
world of Outlaw's game as well,Um, you know that they did a
terrific job and kind of refreshing thatand from all the things that we learned.
I mean, I think again that'sthe beauty of our product is that
we can put something out and it'snot it just doesn't that's not where it
stays, right, Like we canevaluate and look data and talk to drivers
and make changes through the years.So I think, you know, that

(17:03):
project was really successful and it seemsso far that our customers are great.
Yeah, it seems like it wasa very well received. A couple of
things we're always looking to improve.I would never say that it's a project's
never completed I Racing. It's justthis is the latest iteration. We're already
talking about, you know, whatis next where we can improve And this
project though, has spurred another projectthat actually kicked off yesterday on the asphalt

(17:29):
oval side. Yeah, I mean, I think I Racing. You know,
having been around now for fifteen years, we've been released. I mean
NASCAR was you know, our firstreally area of growth and development. I
mean, we obviously hit a longhistory with NASCAR, with you know,
the company itself, but also inthe garage. So you know, with

(17:52):
the relationship with Dale Jr. Andbeing able to get access to a lot
of data and race tracks and carsearly on in I Recent's history. You
know, that was obviously the firstarea that we really explore it. And
so you know, now I thinkwe're in a great spot where we can
kind of go back and go allright, you know, look at all
of the stuff that we've learned howto do over the last fifteen years,

(18:14):
whether it be art, tech ordata that we've learned how to mind from
the simulation. All of those thingsallow us now go back and say,
all right, you know's let's givethis a refresh. So I think over
the next you know, year ortwo, you're going to see all of
the tracks updated, You're going tosee cars updated. So I think there's
going to be renewed, you know, refreshing if you will, of the

(18:37):
of the NASCAR and Oval side ofthe service, which is honestly kind of
overdo. Yeah, we're looking forwardto to see what lessons learned we can
bring over to the oval side.But once again, this is also not
just oval centric. We're seeing,you know, the visual updates we saw
with the release of Willow Springs,and we've got some some new art assets

(18:59):
that Greg Hill and his team havea lot of new ARC tech period.
This is this is how how youhow you know where lifers at this.
Like I've never seen Greg Moore excitedabout releasing a track that visually was just
dirt. So that was that's howyou know, like we're really deep into
this when you get excited about itdirt. But it's a it's more than

(19:23):
just uh, you know, thevisual refresh or the physics refresh. It's
also just you know, we've donea lot on our side on you know,
what are we building next, Andit's anybody that's looked at release notes
over the last you know, threeor four build cycles probably has seen a
theme in a lot of the tracksthat we're doing specifically on the roadside.

(19:45):
Yeah, and I think, youknow, again going back to what I've
just said, you know, wherewe started out, you know where we're
very North America centric, you know, with the content that we built again,
the relationships that we had, andyou know, obviously the installed customer
base we already had through our throughour previous NASCAR products, Pyrus you know,
made that easy. But I thinkhere now, as we're fifteen years

(20:07):
down the road, um, youknow, and have a relatively mature product
in I Racing, you know,it does allow us to go, Okay,
how do we how do we usecontent? How do we use tracks
around the world to try to growthe customer bases in those regions. So
you know, we've really tried tolook at you know, so you know,

(20:27):
I don't want to say small tracks, but I mean more regional tracks
that might be more you know,what we consider like club level tracks here
the US that there's a lot ofactivity as you guys both are club racers
that you know, there's great communitiesthat form around these race tracks, and
you know, we're really trying toexplore, you know, can we use

(20:49):
content in I racing to try toreach those people and bring them into this
world. So it's a it's beenan interesting process and kind of see what
works what doesn't, And you know, I think a great thing about it
is the end result is that we'reintroducing a lot of tracks that maybe haven't
been represented in the SIM world before. So I think there's some diversity with

(21:10):
our road racing and particularly internationally UMfor tracks that you know, people have
never even got a chance to don'teven know about. So I think that's
kind of a fun aspect of ourservice where you know, we really are
a global service and we can putpeople There is no borders, there is
no geographic regions. You know,you can you can race a track from

(21:30):
anywhere around the world, from whereyou live. UM. And I think
now with the expansion of what we'retrying to do with these European tracks,
I think it's just going to makeum, you know, exploring those different
parts of the world and there andtheir race tracks not that much easier.
Yeah, it's interesting you talk aboutthe club level racing and you and I
have been involved in this project thatwe got to finally announce after god knows

(21:52):
how long with two or three years. Uh, you know, we've having
a partnership now with the FIA anda lot of that, a lot of
what it's involved in that is organizingevents with their national clubs, who are
incredibly excited to see the regional growthbecause now they have relevant content that they
can use with their nationally organized FIAsanctioned leagues. Yeah, I mean,

(22:15):
I'm glad you brought that up.I mean that FIA deal is huge for
us because I think we don't reallyhave a great anchor partner in Europe for
for you know, a global orat least a more multi region perspective,
and I think the FIA allows usto really kind of speak directly to these

(22:36):
clubs, to these asn clubs,and help them kind of build up what
they want to do with esports.Again, the beauty of what I Racing
is is where digital product, whereyou know, you access our product through
our website. So I think itmakes it very easy for as and these
FIA clubs to you know, geta large group of people racing at the

(22:57):
same time very quickly. And we'vereally put a lot of programs in place
and if there are you know asnsout there that are interested in trying to
explore our you know, some ofthe things that we're doing with the FIA,
and they can absolutely reach out tous because I think we really see
that as a great way to kindof grow communities in these European countries,

(23:18):
especially that you know we hadn't reallytouched before. Yeah, we've seen i
mean just massive growth and you knowI had i'd call this morning with the
Australian FIA as in or national club. You know, they are doing some
wonderful things. We also have greatrelationships all across your motorsport. UK is
one of the biggest one, butyou know, Danish FIA all the way
up in Sweden. Their ASN hasbeen very active all over the place really

(23:42):
and we're just seeing those emails keepcoming in and really looking forward to see
how much that grows. But ourgrowth, it's i mean, we've had
a lot of European focus on content, but it's not solely European focused,
and with the upcoming NASCAR Street Courseevent, I mean that the proof is
in the pudding with with that wholepartnership. Yeah, that's that's an exciting

(24:06):
one. I mean, I thinkthat's been one area I think particular in
particular that I've been you know,I've been doing this with twenty twenty four
years now, and so you know, like I think when you first start
out, you have dreams about,you know, where these things can go
and what you can do. AndI always dream that we could kind of
get into this real world space wherewe're helping to kind of prototype or even

(24:30):
you know for try to figure outwhere a race series or a track could
go and what changes can be made. So I think a lot of these
these track building projects that we've done, like the La Coliseum, the you
know, the Atlanta Superspeedway. Um, you know, we're helping work We're
helping on the Texas project right now, which probably people don't know, Um,

(24:52):
we're we're working. You know,we worked on the Chicago Street Circuit.
UM that was that was a reallycool experience for for Greg and I.
We kind of worked on that forquite a while. UM with you
know, Ben coming to us andsaying, hey, you know, we
want to explore this idea, canyou guys do it? And we were
like, sure, yeah, wecan do it. So I think obviously

(25:15):
there's a little bit of nerves,you know, like a big race like
this, the first ever street coursefor NASCAR. I think, you know,
you get a little nerves is abouthow we could go, you know,
one one wrong move and you couldhave a you know, a very
expensive fender bender. But I think, um, I think just the talent
of those drivers, and you know, I think just watching some of the

(25:37):
hurdles NASCAR has put them through oneof these first two years of the first
two years of the car here,you know, I think the car itself.
I mean, you want you guyswatch beat supercars too, so I
mean like it's possible, right liketo run these cars, you know,
wheel to wheel and put on agood show. So I feel very confident
that the drivers are going to beable to do it. And I think

(25:59):
it's a great you know, it'sa great experience for NASCAR to be able
to take what they do at thesepurpose built tracks and now bring them into
these areas where people might not haveever seen this stuff before, so I'm
really excited to see. You know, the event will be one thing,
Like the race is going to beone thing, but I think everything that
happens around it and potentially pulling innew fans and from the Chicago area in

(26:25):
the region, I think that's goingto be the most exciting part for the
community and industry. Is is thisgoing to help grow the sport of racing.
It's funny. Leslie and I werein Chicago visiting some friends a few
months ago and we went down thereand we walked the course along the side
of you know, the sidewalks,and it's already was interesting to see they
were already you know, doing someasphalt patching and things like that, preparing

(26:48):
a surface, because I mean,you saw it when we first took the
scan it was a little rough.Yeah, I think we scanned the track.
I think it was in the Decemberor chance. I can't remember.
Once, but I was like,literally like the day after we received the
data, I think my first phonecalled to Ben was like, they're gonna
pay this place right, We've neveri mean, even North Wilkesboro in the

(27:17):
state of disrepair that it was inwas smooth. Compared to what Chicago Street.
Of course, there were some prettybig craters you could stick your whole
foot in, that's for sure.I'm gonna be honestly though, I saw
the video. I forget who thedriver was. You know, they did
the demo there with the nexting carfired it up. You see the windows

(27:40):
reverberating on the buildings, and I'mjust kind of curious, what's going to
happen when there's forty cup cars thatget fired up. It was interesting.
Yeah, there's a lot of companiesthat are trying are selling or renting out
their offices in downtown Chicago, theirspaces just for people to have viewing parties.
So yeah, it should be interestingnow looking forward to that. Um

(28:00):
but so pivoting, Kevin's gonna lookat me funny because I said pivoting.
Yeah, let's say that word.Okay, we'll bleep it out. We
have a lot more going on theoutside of I Racing, but kind of
under our umbrella with our console offeringsand and and Aurantis as well, which
we really haven't We've kind of spokenabout, but we haven't really done the

(28:23):
deep dive on that. And soSteve's the guy that usually draws the line,
says this is what you can say, and this is what you can't
say. But now he's on thespot to see how close he can get
without leaking anything. Well, andthat's you know, again going back to
the growth of I Racing and thenumber of employees that we have, I

(28:44):
think, yeah, you know,we're not just sitting on our hands.
You know, we we bought twoyou know, game studios. You know
obviously Monster, which is a wellestablished studio that we've had a history with.
I mean, Rich Garcia was ita propious employee. UM So we've
known those guys for a long longtime. And I think, um,

(29:07):
you know, I think the Worldof Outlaws game, I think it did
exactly what I hoped it would do. I mean, I think that product
was it was already pretty far downthe road development wise, and I think
in the amount of time that wehad to really kind of influence or help
to um improve the product with them. You know, I'm really really so
thrilled with what we did. Ithink the physics is so fun and nothing

(29:30):
gives me more joy than watching,you know, going to some of the
Facebook forums and stuff that for thegame and seeing not only are there still
players that have been in years sincelast fall that are playing the game,
but that they're actively recruiting and endorsingthe game to others to try to,
you know, letting them understand thatthis is literally the best dirt racing game

(29:52):
that's been made. So like,you know, there's no question if you
like dirt, you should have hadthis game already. Um So, I
think I think that was a greatyou know, first dipping our toe in
the water. And I think we'reexcited to have this two thousand and twenty
three update in development. Actually,it was just playing a little bit right
now after this meeting that we haveour our monster call for the week.

(30:15):
But uh, you know, Iwas just playing the Switch version of it,
um and it's it's it's functioning,um and you know, we're excited
to get that out this year.Obviously, the update is going to go
out to the Xbox and PlayStation aswell for purchase for a two thousand and
twenty three update. Um So,and that's on track. I think,
you know, we'll here in thenext few weeks, we'll have some more

(30:37):
information to release, but um youknow that's on track for this fall.
Um. The Ronta Studio. Ithink is is is exciting as well.
I mean, I think you know, that is more of a project.
UM. That studio started out asbasically two brothers, Christian and Thorsten Folkers
and uh and there they their ownyou know engine, UM game Engine.

(31:00):
And it's been a little bit slowbecause you know, we've been building a
team around there. But I'm reallyexcited. You know, we're up to
about seven people on that team.UM. We're currently right now porting the
product that they had in existence already, which was with essentially they had up
UM as a pre release on Steam, which was not really feature complete.

(31:22):
It's it's in a lot of ways, it was a tech demo for them
to try to find a company thatcomes in to buy them or to partner
with them to help them complete thegame and to make future games. And
that's what we did. I mean, um that I'm super excited that,
like we're taking this existing product andfinishing it and porting it to the consoles.

(31:44):
And it's a great exercise for thatteam specifically because they've never shift a
console game, so they they've nevergone through the process of you know,
submitting builds to Sony and Microsoft inthe in the bug process, and you
know, everything that happens with that, it's all kind of this is all
a great experience for them and hopefullyyou know, we've rebranded the game that

(32:06):
we're calling it Exocross now, andwe've we're adding another environment, we're adding
another car were at, we're makingfeatures, we've we've poured it over the
AI from eye Racing into the productwhere we're just about to start some sound
work on it. Um. Youknow, it's really um taking shape again.
It's it's great. It's already running. I've been running on the Xbox.

(32:29):
We have that's already on the PlayStationin Xbox, and you know,
our hope is to have that xonly there for developers, by the way,
only went for developers. Correct,Sorry dead kits and and sadly and
you guys don't have dead kits soyou can't even play either. So no,
no, but but it is worthadding that that we did just update
our irising dot com added a sectionh slash Arontous Games and there's updates there

(32:54):
on what's happening with Dragon Exocross.You can sign up to get specification or
email things like that. I don'twant to go to sales pitch, but
if you're interested in that game,you know, that's the place to go
to find more information since we don'thave Steven every week, you know.
Yeah, And I think our goalis a fourth quarter release for that it's
will be digital only, but itcould slip into the first quarter. Again.

(33:20):
With a new studio and kind oftrying to bring in new capabilities and
trying to do a project that they'venever done before, there's a lot of
unknowns there still, so I thinkwe're but the good news is it's a
really fun game, like even thechanges that we've made. Again, this
is going to be like a recurringtheme. If you ask me about our
products and particular console products, isthe first thing and the only thing that

(33:45):
cares that I care about from froma game perspective, is it fun to
drive. Like we're a racing gamecompany, So the first thing that I
do think these products have to beis fun to drive. And I can
sure you already that the even thechanges we've made from Drag to Exocross,
it's already more fun to drive thaneven the Drag product. So that's obviously

(34:09):
an area that we start with first. But again the beauty of a console
game is that it allows us toexplore some new areas that we've never even
been for. I mean, thisis a futuristic, other world racing game,
like I mean, who would havethought that I Racing had any affiliation
with a product that would do that. But again, from you know,
from us, from a team,you know, we've always had a lot

(34:30):
of ideas of what we would dofor more mass market games, and I
think these console games allow us toadd some things to products that we've always
wanted to do that we've always thoughtcould be good in a mass market game
that didn't really ever fit with aneye racing product. So, you know,
there's so much we can do inthis console space. We're only really

(34:51):
scratching the surface. And honestly,the game that we're having we're designing for
the next product after Exocross. It'sthe most excited I've ever been about a
console game ever. So I feellike in a lot of ways, that
game is what I was put inthis place for, in this job for

(35:12):
the next last twenty five years forso I could not be more excited about
the direction we're going with all ofour products. I Racing in the console,
the two console studios, and Ithink you know, again going back
to our theme of this is fifteenyears like sitting here fifteen years later after
we launched I Racing, where you'relike, is this thing going to work?

(35:34):
Is there going to be people thatwant this thing to Now we're talking
about you know, essentially five differentproducts that are going to come out over
the next two years. You knowthat's that's pretty exciting. Yeah, it's
a wild time to be here,great time to join I Racing a few
years ago. Thanks for bringing meon board. Guys appreciate it. Not
mad about it, but yeah,so let you touched on. And this

(35:54):
will be kind of a theme ofthe podcast, even though we were recording
this before we recorded the podcast becausewe needed to see how long Steve would
talk if we're completely honest. Um, So this summer fifteen, fifteenth anniversary
of I Racing, there's been alot that's gone on. Steve, You've
got to have some stories, youknow, this is a chance to totally

(36:15):
roast anybody you feel necessary. Kevin'sa great example. Spot you didn't you
didn't that would prep for this.Like I'm trying to think if I have
any good stories. That honest emailwas that it was in the email email

(36:38):
better than the ones I said.He doesn't even skive mind, So you
know it's funny. I think,Um, it was hard. It's hard.
It was hard to get here.I looked back. I think that's
what the best thing I could sayis that I could look back on the
last you know, I mean,it's really started in two thousand and three.

(36:59):
Um, you know, you lookback on these twenty years and it
feels like it's that like it feelslike it went so fast. It feels
like just yesterday that you know,there was like six of us in our
first office. You know, Kevin, I think you remember it was like
Turnpike office. You know. Iremember like Greg Hill basically built like the

(37:22):
first everyone's first computer. Like Ithink we still have those original computer cases
somewhere in the office. But Ijust remember like sitting on this completely bare
floor in this office where there's nofurniture, and we have like ten PC
cases all lined up on the floorand we're, you know, Greg's methodically
going through and putting components in eachone of those computers as as we're kind

(37:45):
of building the first set of computersthat wrote code for Eye Racing, and
um, you know, I thinkwe did everything back then, you know
it, networking, everything, likeI mean, there wasn't there wasn't any
luxuries, you know, and Ithink now you look for you know,

(38:06):
you look at we have this beautifulyou know, twenty thousand square foot office,
you know, with a huge broadcastroom and you know, multiple studios
and two hundred and fifteen employees,and it's just it kind of blows your
mind to think we've come this farright and and honestly, like I don't
know of many studios that can saythat they've been in existence as long as

(38:30):
we have and doing the same productthat they've been doing as long as we
have. And you know, nobodyleaves Eye Racing, you know. I
mean at almost every employee that washere day one. I think every employee
that was here day one is stillpart of Eye Racing. Um. You
know, I think that's a testamentto the culture that John and Dave and

(38:52):
Tony and you know the management teamis put in place of you know,
creating an atmosphere people want to cometo work and you know, and rewarding
people for success and um, youknow, encouraging people to follow their passion
and what they think is, youknow, a right decision and a product.
And you know, I think we'rehere because we you know, we

(39:14):
did we made a lot of rightdecisions, but certainly we've made some bad
ones too. I mean, Ithink I raised some two point out there.
There's a decision of you know so, but I think you have to
make mistakes, right, Like,if you don't make mistakes, you don't
you don't figure out a better wayto do things. And I think,
um, I'm really thrilled and proudof what we've done. And um,

(39:38):
I know you wanted a funny story, but I think this is more just
a proud story of of what we'vebuilt and more importantly, the community that
we've built. I think we've establisheda great relationship with our community. We
try to listen to them, wetry to give them what they want,
and in return, I think theyappreciate that and they and they keep,
um, you know, being amember and buying content and allowing us to

(40:04):
keep doing this. So I thinkit's we really really are lucky. I'm
very lucky, and I appreciate everyday I have here. Yeah, we've
come a long way. I mean, I remember when I first started and
you'd be on a plane trying togive the you know, the elevator pitch
of what Eye Racing is or wasgoing to be, and you know,
it took thirty minutes to try toexplain what we're doing. And people are
like, oh, okay. Andnow you get on a plane and sit

(40:27):
next to somebody and they're like,oh, you work for I Racing.
That's kind of cool. Yeah,you know, but we've come a long
way. I'm a long way.So now it's uh. I obviously have
not been here as long as asyou two. I think it's just celebrated
my fourth fourth anniversary here. Butit's been an adventure for the last four
years, that's for sure. Grantedwe've had some interesting variables thrown into that

(40:50):
period of time, but I've hadthe opportunity to do some stuff I never
thought. Steve calling me on aMonday says, hey, you're going to
be here running a broadcast on NBCwith but during the pandemic on Saturday,
I had no idea what I wasdoing that was that was interesting, but
we made it work and we've werebetter off for it. So it's been

(41:13):
a lot of fun. I'm lookingforward to the next next four in the
next ten years. But uh yeah, good times. Well, Steve,
thanks for your time, appreciate it. We're gonna bring you back whether you
like it or not. All Right, it's fun to chat and you know,
keep up the good work the podcasthas made since Strides. It was
a little rocky at first, butnow you guys have since seen to be
getting your stride. It only tookfifty episodes, all right, and we'll

(41:37):
get back to you. Always greatto sit down with Steve. Kevin.
He might be the most frequent guestwe've had on the show. Is that
time. That's ironic, really,that's our ironic that that he is the
person that's been on the most umbut always great insight. And once again

(41:59):
we touched on it during the interview. This is the fifteenth anniversary of I
Racing this summer, and Kevin,you've been around since before I Racing was
even a product. That is true. I'm old. I've been here for
a while, so he said it. Look can I say, yeah,
we've come a long way. It'sbeen a privilege to be here since uh
we were in early development and thenthrough launch and see how far we've we've

(42:22):
come, and you know, wewere talking about different stories and things,
and you know, back in probablytwo thousand and nine or so, we
were we had a mobile marketing trailerwe were bringing around racetracks and events to
try to get the word out whatis eye racing? Right, because nobody
had heard of it? What wasit? And we were at Martinsville pouring

(42:44):
down rain, you know, beforethe race. And this was back when
speed Channel was still around our speedvision I guess with speed Channel at that
point, and they did like apre race show. Um so, so
I took one of our flags offof the off of the bariler and I
was walking through the audience trying toget just a little TV time to get
our logo on TV, which Idid for about thirty seconds. And then

(43:07):
you know, think twenty twenty,we were actually the main deal on TV.
Right, I mean, what achange, right, we were running
We've talked about it a lot,but we were doing you know, full
NASCAR races on Big Fox. Rightthat that was a huge change. We've
come so far, continue to begroundbreaking on projects like that, you know,

(43:27):
working with NASCAR, other partners,Horseship, BMW, whoever it is,
you know, doing things innovatively andjust continuing to try to push and
get better. So it's really beenfun. You know, if you asked
me seventeen eighteen years ago, wouldI still be here? You know,
I wouldn't have known how to answerthat. You know, when I started,

(43:49):
we literally didn't have a product,and we were just trying to figure
out how to how to get itto a place where we could launch.
And it sounded like, hey,that's cool, I'll give that a shot.
But here we are, and Ithink we've got a pretty great product
and a pretty great team now agrow real team, and it really is
wild to see how far it's come. I mean, Greg, you and
I got hired within a week ofeach other in twenty nineteen, but I

(44:12):
had had some history going back toback in the day. I started my
career out of Bleacher Report and someeditor assigned me to rank the top fifteen
NASCAR video games of all time,and I put E Racing at number one,
with the caveat that it wasn't avideo game, it was a simulation.
And if you remember back in theend Racing News days and David Phillips,
David Phillips really loved that I hadbought into the marketing message unintentionally because

(44:37):
I ended up writing for D RacingNews for a couple of years after that,
and then it kind of came fullcircle when the rally Cross projects started
happening in twenty seventeen. I wasthe guy who made sure that my former
employers who shall remain nameless, actuallysigned the licensing deal because I've reminded them,
we're gonna lose it if you don't. So I guess all of that,

(45:00):
all that laid the groundwork for meto be here, and uh,
it's been. It's been an absolutelyblast to be here. I think it's
the thing that stands out the mostfor me. And once again, I've
Chris and I've only been here fouryears of the fifteen years of I racing.
But the way in which we talk, the way in which discussions start,
whether it's with cars or tracks oryou know, with these the organizing

(45:22):
bodies that put on put on theseevents, it's now it's a much more.
It's very it's collaborative. You know, they're coming to us and hey,
what what can we do, howcan we grow? How can we
use work with I racing and leverageof the brand and grow both in concert
with each other, rather than oh, well, you can license our car
and that's really cool. And we'veseen some you know, awesome collaborations.

(45:45):
Uh. The one that sticks outimmediately left my head the BMW M four
GT three we had that we werein the middle of development of that car.
I hadn't even seen the light ofday, and we were working with
their engineers to while they were stilltweaking on the car. I think we
released as a prototype right or whatever. They were even done with it.

(46:07):
It was kind of they had builtit was more than a test mule,
but they had a working car thatthey could test, and we built that
and then we we had been updatedand once they finalized things so that that
I don't think that I've ever beendone. And then you look at our
relationship with NASCAR. I mean we'reupdating those cars in concert, not just
visually, but the physics, youknow, the bones underneath, you know,

(46:30):
in basically real time with the waythey update the rules or the packages
and things like that. We havethe world championship winning Formula One car on
the service, the Mercedes W twelve. I mean, what an opportunity to
work with those guys. We satdown with James Vole's guest podcast We've ever
done. Also super nice guy,really nice guy, full of energy and

(46:50):
information, doing a great job atWilliams f one. By the way,
right now, it's but it's beena it's been really cool to even in
the last four years see the growthum. I was talking with Auto yesterday
in the Chili Bowl also known asthe Kitchen I Racing and it's it's just
reminiscing on you know, cool stuffand cool projects. It's it's been a
lot of fun. All right,Memory lane is closed. We're moving on

(47:14):
to East Sports. Let's talk aboutthe tag Hier Porsche E Sports super Cup.
Kevin, we have a champion,we do Ris. That's just supposed
to go to Chris. He's gotthe notes. I'm no, no,
no, it's it's okay. JordanCaruso Alti Sports had a fantastic year in
the Porsche tag Hire E Sports SuperCup. Just consistency, consistency, consistency,

(47:39):
that's what wins you with championship inthat series. I mean, if
you remember last year, Diogo Pinto, I believe, only won one race
out of the twenty combined sprints andfeatures across the board, but just stacked
so many top five, top tenfinishes with good finished trouble and yes,
not not doing things that get youtaken out, you know, and it's

(48:00):
smart. That's the way you wina championship. And that's exactly exactly,
and that's exactly what Jordan Caruso did. Came out of the gate, had
I believe, he won the firstTag Horrier Pole award of the season and
the opener and just never looked backfrom there, you know, and some
years you just you have that.The bigger question is obviously always can you
do it again? You know,some of the past champions that were back

(48:22):
this year, Sebastian Job again,Diogo Pinto, had a couple of roadblocks
along the way that set them backa little bit. Still put on some
amazing performances, still were upfront andwinning some races. We had a lot
of new winners this year, youknow. But again, yeah, it's
a consistency series. And Jordan Carusodid that head and shoulders above everybody else

(48:43):
this year and now he gets afat paycheck to celebrate with. So I
believe that the Porsche Series got overtwo hundred thousand dollars, and let's talk
about a series that has over threehundred thousand dollars in prize money, NASCAR
Cocacola EE Racing Series. I justhad the second can close his finish in
the NASCAR history. I knew that, but it helped that Cisco or Drew,

(49:05):
whoever hit the button, put thegraphic up the exact same time as
I was talking about it, soI could read it. Definitely, I'm
assuming that I'm taking that one.But Jordi Lopez team Dylan Esports has had
an amazing start to the season.Tucker Mentor comes out wins his first ever
I NASCAR start at Daytona. There'sonly a couple of other guys who've ever
done that, and one of themis named Daler and Hart Junr. So

(49:28):
not bad company to be. Someguy right doesn't hold an executive position with
us or anything, but I digress. Tucker goes back out in Charlotte.
Now, Jordy Lopez has been upfront all season. He's been leading a
lot of laps. You know,both Jordy and Tucker have really been carrying
the torch among some of the rookiesJordi gets out there Worldwide Technology Raceway at
Gateway, there's only a couple oflaps left. We have everybody on different

(49:52):
tire strategies. Garrett Mains, Ibelieve, didn't take any tires. Jordy's
onto A lot of the field ison four and you're coming down to the
white. You know that the raceis going to end on the next flag,
and they're just battling for the win. Unfortunately, you know, unfortunately,
especially for Garrett Mains, there's contactand Garrick Go's spinning. That sets
up the battle between the rookie andthe legend in Michael Conti at Junior Motorsports,

(50:15):
and they're leaning on each other downthe front straight away. Shades of
Ricky Craven and Kurt Bush at Darlington. But in the end it's the rookie
who It's the rookie who gets.I believe it was point zero zero four
seconds ahead on the line, andshould have his playoff ticket punched with that
victory, because I think he's prettysecurely in the top twenty in points.

(50:37):
A lot of controversy there. Wewere talking about it earlier and I'm not
a steward and I'm not representing theStewards. But from my point of view
on the couch, that was thatwas some good racing. I enjoyed it
and I was entertained, And alot of people have a lot of opinions.
But yeah, like they said inGladiator, you know, are you
entertained? Yes? Yes, Iwas, So that was fun. We

(50:59):
also have more championships coming up,and Chris just keep throwing it back to
you, but this one is yourin your sweet spot with the off road
dirt stuff. If you are newto the show. Chris kind of likes
dirt. I don't. I mightbe putting it. Is that overselling it?
Kevin? I don't. I don'tknow where you get that impression?
Is you a dirt guy? Ihadn't heard that. Oh okay, now

(51:20):
there's there's not you know, Connorberriesdefending I Racing off Road Championship Series,
truck over my shoulder or anything.Now where would you get that impression anyhow?
Yes, since I have named theseries, High Racing off Road Championship
Series comes back on Wednesday's starting Junetwenty eighth. We start a little bit
later this year and we're running untilabout the end of August nineteen returning drivers

(51:43):
out of twenty four from last year, so a lot of people who are
closely matched. We've talked about thedirt refresh that is going to reshape some
things because these guys are quite abit faster right now. But Connorberry's back,
going for another one. Keaton Swayis back to challenge him again,
only a hand full of rookies.Parker retz Lap highlights the rookie class.
Former NASCAR Coca Cola I Racing Seriesdriver and a current NASCAR EXFINDI Series driver.

(52:07):
So cool, too cool to seesome crossing over. Parker was in
our All Star races last year fora little bit. All Stars are coming
back to there's going to be areally exciting grid for that. Trying to
get some supercross riders in there,trying to diversify it up a little bit.
But a lot of your favorite streamersare going to be back, a
lot of your favorite crossover drivers fromother pro series are going to be back.

(52:30):
It's gonna be really cool and I'msure I will go out there and
get my boat wood for a fewraces too. Looking forward to seeing that
part specifically, Yeah, I'll wearthe Ricky Bobby suit and do it from
the motion rig again the least dustor you can wear that shirt that you're
wearing now that might do it.So now now I got to wear the
Ricky Bobby suit if I'm doing anythingin the cockpit. Come on, Well,

(52:52):
I'm I'm looking at the count orthe clock here, and I know
Kevin's got to go in a coupleof minutes. But exciting stuff on I
Racing Big Release. We have anotherhuge one coming in September. A lot
of good content coming out. Prettydiverse lineup of content coming out. Cars
and tracks. Yeah, I saidcars plural, don't add me. Kevin's
already nervous. Kevin. You haveone more thing to mention though, don't

(53:15):
you. Oh yeah, Kevin.The program we're doing with Racing Prodigy.
If you guys haven't seen it,We've done some stories on it. There'll
be some social The time Attack Qualifierkicks off next week in the Toyota GR
eighty six. But it's a coolprogram that's designed to get some racers into
real cars and it's I know youguys have all heard about programs like this

(53:37):
in the past. This one's abit different. It's got way more potential.
I think you should check it out. Check out their site, Racing
Prodigy. I think dot gg maybeit's on screen I can't see, or
dot com, I guess, butcheck it out. It's easy to get
into. You register on their site. You do a time attack, you
try to get one of the fastesttimes. Really worth checking out if you

(53:59):
have any interest and ever getting ina real world race car. Yeah,
the opportunity to hop in you knowradical sr ones. Uh, those things
scream so that it would be alot of fun. Um. We didn't
talk about our fans. By theway, fan counter, I think we're
up to five five awesome. Yeah, judging by responses on Twitter, I
think we have five fans now.I don't know whether us being on camera

(54:22):
is going to move the needle upor down down to three. Yeah,
I can't count that high, sohopefully it goes down. Thanks for listening,
Thanks for listening and watching. Maybethe I Racing Downshift. Don't forget
to rate, review, and subscribeon Apple Podcasts, Spotifying, anywhere else.
Chris has put this thing for KevinBobba and Chris Leoni. I'm Greg

(54:43):
West and we'll see you on thering. Meister season three, the O