After the grass-dipping exploits in the iRacing Spa 24 hours, iRacing has gone overboard with bans.
Image credit: Porsche
Round 2 of the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup Qualifying Series, in which any player with a Class A licence can compete, took place on 30 July. The top 15 of the Qualifying Series will go on to race the bottom 15 from the 2022 main series. Those 30 drivers will take part in the Contender Series later this year to earn their place in the 2023 main series.
The drivers competed on the Silverstone International layout, which skips a majority of the Grand Prix circuit and goes straight from The Loop to Chapel. There isn’t a whole lot of track to extend or cut, but the consequences of the Spa 24 hours did lead to some bans being handed out.
What Happened?
During the annual 24 hour Special Event, plenty of drivers starting running their tyres on the grass which subsequently cooled them down. This led to them running about half a second a lap quicker, and it caused uproar within the community.
iRacing announced that they would be taking action against grass dipping exploiters, banning a couple of the drivers. But it would appear from the PESC Qualifying Series round that they went a bit far.
Throughout qualifying and the race, drivers were taking the corner heading onto the Hangar Straight. In doing so, many drivers touched the tiniest bit of grass. This was apparently too much for iRacing to bear.
Despite the fact that in the game itself, drivers weren’t receiving an off-track notification, many still received bans for it. On the forums and in the ban notification emails, going off-track to any degree was worthy of being banned.
After the negative reaction to the drivers receiving bans, iRacing began taking the steps to undo what happened. This very unfortunate affair was undoubtedly born out the catastrophe of the Spa 24 hours.
What do you make of this PESC Qualifying Series controversy? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
