The iTested Series is live this week, and the races are already running. From July 21 through July 26, iRacing is hosting official multi-class sessions at Watkins Glen International’s Boot layout with IMSA GTP, LMP2, and GT3 sharing the track. The series exists to test one specific feature: iRacing’s new multi-class rolling start procedure, which assigns a separate pace car to each class instead of sending the whole field behind a single lead car.
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iTested is iRacing’s framework for running new features through live official testing before they ship to the full service. Real member sessions generate edge cases and data that no internal QA environment can fully reproduce. By running the feature as an official series with real results on the line, iRacing gets a data-rich window that accelerates the final stages of development. Drivers who participate also earn the iTested Award badge, a permanent mark on their account that can only be picked up through these limited-time series.
If you have done any multi-class racing in iRacing, you know what the current start looks like. One pace car leads out the entire field, GTP and LMP2 and GT3 all bunched together, while the faster classes manage gaps to the slower classes ahead of them. It works, but it is a long way from how real endurance racing handles starts. Real IMSA and WEC events manage each class independently, with its own pace car and its own green flag window.
That is what the iTested Series is testing this week. iRacing’s new system assigns a dedicated pace car to each class. Instead of one release for the whole field, the classes are brought up to speed separately and released in sequence. Each class gets its own green flag, and the timing is controlled by designated start zones on track.
Start zones are the key change for anyone getting on track this week. The current system lets the leader time a run off the final corner and dictate when the green drops, turning the start into a game of who blinks first. With start zones, there is a fixed window on track where each class must take the green. Drivers who accelerate before the zone get penalized. The result is a cleaner, more predictable start for every car in the field and far closer in style to how professional endurance starts work at circuits like Daytona and Le Mans.
There is also an iRating safeguard built into the format. Incident points will still count toward your safety rating during iTested sessions, so the racing carries real consequences. However, the sessions will not affect your iRating. For drivers who want to try the new format without putting their rating on the line, that removes the main reason to sit it out.
Races run every hour on the :30 across three classes: IMSA GTP, LMP2, and GT3. Each session is 30 minutes. Drivers who already earned an iTested Award from a previous run can earn another one by participating this week. The badge is granted after the week wraps up on July 26, so anyone who completes at least one session qualifies.
iRacing has also asked every participant to save their replay files from iTested sessions. Those replays go back to the dev team and give engineers a detailed look at what actually happens in live conditions, from edge cases in traffic to how the start zones perform under real race pressure. That data feeds directly into when and how the multi-pace-car start goes service-wide across iRacing’s multi-class catalog.
To get in, pull up the iTested Series in your iRacing UI and register for any session through Saturday July 26. The multi-pace-car start procedure runs from the opening lap, so you will get to see the new format in action from the moment the field rolls out.
