Episode 0524 - iRacers Lounge Podcast

3/12/2026 – I Paid For Those Buttons – Episode 0524

iRacers Lounge Podcast – Conversation Topics

Show Introduction

On today’s show: iRacing announces a new GT3 series, it’s week 13 and time for release notes, should you upgrade to the Simucube 3?, another trip down the rabbit hole of formula wheels, are haptic seats worth the costs?, 2026 Season 2 social media round up and we found the Podium 1 rig that we all can afford.

And remember you can follow along with us on your PC or mobile device in real time as you listen to the show and see for yourself all of the great topics and products we’ll discuss by visiting iracerslounge.com and selecting show notes. Hope to see you there..

TITLE SPONSOR READ:

https://www.premierracingsetups .com/

Topics

Freedom 250 Track Map

2026 Season 2 Preliminary Schedule

https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/93285/2026-season-2-preliminary-schedule-pdf

INDYCAR At Arlington Track Preview

New Build Social Media Round Up

2026 Season 2 Build Release Notes

https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/93268/2026-season-2-initial-release-notes-2026-03-09-03

Can You Tell Which Is Real?

Auto Launch Sessions

DTM Series Coming To iRacing

https://www.iracing.com/iracing-teams-up-with-dtm-for-all-new-iracing-dtm-series

The Only Podium1 Rig We Can Afford

Hocevar’s Hosting

IMSA Global ESports Championship Schedule

2026 Sim Gaming Expo Tickets

Sim Racing Expo – Charlotte, NC

May 22 – May 24, 2026

NEC 2026

https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/93057/2026-iracing-nuerburgring-endurance-championship

Sebring 12HR

https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/93459/2026-sebring-12-hour-powered-by-vco

IMSA Classic 500

https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/93454/imsa-classic-500-special-event-update

This Week In iRacing

https://www.iracing.com/this-week-in-iracing-march-10th-to-march-16th-2026

Podcast Housekeeping

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We are in the regular rotation… (Mike)

https://performancemotorsportsnetwork.com/

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Fantasy

Hardware/Software

21R P1X

Worth It?

Feel Everything

Tract Time Series One

Simracing PC Fully Customizable Button Box

Should You Upgrade?

Grip Royal Steering Wheels

https://griproyal.com

Snap Link Orbit Arm

https://printedsimracing.com/products/snaplink-orbit-arm

Next Level Racing Integrated Haptics

Stream Deck Plus XL

MOZA mBooster Mounting Plate

https://focussimracing.com/products/focus-sim-racing-mbooster-mounting-plate

New iRacing Stream Deck Plugin

https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/93128/tool-iracedeck-free-stream-deck-plugin-for-iracing-200-controls

Build My Rig

https://buildmyrig.gg/

RS Mega+ By eRacing Lab

https://eracing-lab.com/products/rs-mega-plus

MOZA HMA150 Motion

Results

NASCAR iRacing Series

Friday Open – NiS – Phoenix

David – P7, just got lucky towards the end with a 2 tire stop, but still had to fix minutes of damage and work my way up
Brad- P34 Started p4 but was collected in an accident on lap 35 that ended my race with too much damage.Not sure that I have ever had a good Phoenix finish in NiS.

Sunday Open- NiS – Phoenix

Tony – P30 caught in a wreck early on, same ole song and dance.
Greg -P4 – top 8 all race had 2 – 50 plus long runs and green flag pitstops
Kyle – P8 Started P15 Behind Tony. Slow start to the race with plenty of cautions. Lap 18 running P6 and P7 over drives turn 1 spinning me and collects tony and sends him to the inside getting T-Boned by another car ending Tony’s day. Repaired the damage and had a fast car. Definitely a long run setup. Going from 23rd to 2nd and running down the leader after a 65ish lap green flag run. Pitted with 60 to go and restarted 2nd. Couldn’t find the speed and grip I needed to pass the leader and slowly faded to finish P8.

Sunday Fixed- NiS – Phoenix

Mike- P9- initially came from 23rd up to 13th second run I faded a bit then I got wrecked not too much damage but the car wasn’t the same after that then green flag stops at the end to split the run in half and that saved me got a lot of spots, and I finished P9.
Justin – P wrecked out

Wednesday Open -NiS – Las Vegas

Tony – P28 was pinched against the wall when an asshat made it 3 wide when i backed off he wrecked the car next to me causing damage. I just couldn’t recover. Remember when iRacing used to be fun?
David – P17, screwed over by caution timing and then slammed into the wall, then slammed out of line by a guy cutting the apron on a track where the apron isn’t racing surface. I’ve been caught up or hit 13 out of 14 nis races,
Brad- P21 wrecked again. Started p8 and was in the top 10 until lap 24 when the leaders wrecked for about the third time. I could not avoid it and ended up with 11 minutes of damage. I went 9 laps down getting enough fixed to where the car was drivable. Managed to get all the damage fixed and made up 7 laps with lucky dogs. This is one of the best tracks on the schedule but unfortunately no one in NiS can drive it. Trying to stay positive!

Thursday Open- NiS – Las Vegas

Mike- P5! I was super fast and had a problem where I spun out three different times on my own in the middle of the corner, totally embarrassed and lost all my track position each time, but was able to drive back up through there. Never was really in contention to win but nice to get a top five
David – P 28 wrecked. Guy was pinching me early, fixed 7 minutes. Get wreck on last lap because a guy turns another guy into me. I’m tired of this
Joe – P3

Official Series

League / Hosted Races

MEC Sebring 6 Hour

Will, Brad and William – P4 in class (we think). Official results have not been posted. We had a rather chaotic start to the race as Weaver qualified and was planning to start but switching Discord channels messed that up. Westbrook jumped in the car with lottery seconds to spare. He would avoid multiple accidents in the opening laps. The car was turned over to Weaver and he got into a good rhythm quickly. I would take over the car for my double stint but would get a Safety Car about 20 minutes into the first stint. After the restart we were just outside the top ten but would get murdered on the second lap after the SC before going into LeMans. The car was heavily damaged and we had to use our fast repair. That would cost us a lap that we never got back. I would have a sin early after a second stop for tires. I spent about 2.5 stints in the car and would turn it over to Westbrook and Weaver to finish. Westbrook would have a lazy spin early in his stint resulting in very minimal nose damage that did affect top speed. That was fixed when Weaver got in to take us to the checkers. We should have been p10 overall and p4 in class. A very good points day after the DNF in the season opener at Daytona.
Tom & David & Kyle- p10, we had a car spin in front of us and got rear ended to loose our wing. I just keeps happening

Final Thoughts

Words Spoken in Closing Audio Clip -“”Thank you for listening to the iRacers Lounge podcast make sure to go subscribe to us on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Google Play, Facebook & Twitter, See You On The Track .”

TITLE

I paid for those buttons

Description

So sit back, relax and join us on the iRacers Lounge Podcast.

iRacers Lounge Podcast is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, Podbean, Spreaker, Podbay, PodFanatic, Overcast, Amazon, and other podcast players.

Sponsors:

Hosts:

Mike Ellis – https://x.com/mikedeanellis

David Hall – https://x.com/dmixmage

Greg Hecktus – twitter.com/froozenkaktus

Donnie Spiker – https://www.instagram.com/spikerman19/

Brad Wrenn – https://x.com/bradwrenn

John Kerley – https://x.com/KerleyJohnE

Justin Pearson – https://www.facebook.com/justin.pearson.5811

Bobby Jonas – https://x.com/bjonas71

William Westbrook – https://www.facebook.com/william.westbrook.35

Kris Randall – https://www.signalcraftstudio.com/