YesterYear Racing™ to Launch IROC Series in 2025

YesterYear IROC Series Logo

Today, Allen Wannamaker, Founder of the YesterYear Racing™ League, formally announced the creation of a YesterYear IROC Series that will begin in 2025. The original International Race of Champions (IROC) Series was created in 1973 by Les Richter, Roger Penske, and Mike Phelps. The Series took racers from different racing disciplines globally and had them compete in four races in the United States during a calendar year to determine a winner. The concept was to create an all-star racing series of sorts whereby drivers from different disciplines raced identical cars with identical set-ups primarily on oval tracks. The IROC Series had a unique points system and raced different makes of cars through the years including the Chevrolet Camero, Dodge Daytona, Pontiac Trans Am, and the Porsche Carrera RSR.

The YesterYear IROC Series will race four races just like the original IROC Series did and follow the exact same points system. Drivers are only invited to the exclusive Series if they win a season in one of the following iRacing™ leagues (YesterYear Racing™ League, Bootleg Racing League, Old Bastards Racing League, and the Red Light Racing League). In addition, the winner of the YesterYear Race of Champions, held at Pocono on September 17, 2024, and the winner of the Bootleg Stone River Shootout, held on September 21, 2024, will also be invited to participate. Tracks for the 2025 Series have been chosen and include the Daytona International Speedway (2008), Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Atlanta Motor Speedway (2008), and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. When asked about the track choice Wannamaker stated, "I wanted the tracks to be diverse and loosely follow the actual 1985 Series. Daytona and Mid-Ohio were chosen since they were two of the tracks that were used in 1985. Atlanta and Thompson were chosen based on location and layout. Location, as the Series will race in the South, Great Lakes Region, Southeast, and Northeast. Layout, since I wanted to capture different disciplines. So in these choices we have a super speedway, and road course, a 1.5-mile oval speedway, and a short track."

The car choice for the YesterYear IROC Series ended up being the Cadillac CTS-V, which some might view as surprising, but to Wannamaker, it was an easy choice. "First, the Cadillac CTS-V is a fun car to drive. It is also very versatile and comes with the iRacing™ sim so no one will need to purchase the car. For anyone that has not driven it yet, it is a complete blast to drive on both road and oval courses!."

YesterYear IROC Cadillac CTS-V Prototype

According to Wannamaker, driver number and car color will be chosen at randon just like they were in 1985. With respect to design, Wannamaker said that Todd Liston, one of the Bootleg Racing League members and a driver that also qualified for the 2025 YesterYear IROC Series, helped out with the design of the Cadillac cars. "Todd was nice enough to help with designing the cars. We have a prototype (shown), but the final version might look slightly different. We will use the actual colors of the cars used in 1985 and will add a few colors if necessary. The 1985 IROC Series had twelve drivers that participated in all races. We will likely have 18-19 that qualify, but some drivers might not accept the invitation, so we won't know the final car count for a bit," noted Wannamaker.

When asked if he would race the Series, Wannamaker stated, "I will only race the Series if I qualify for it, which I have not done yet. I come from the Ric Flair school of thinking with this stuff. To be the Man, you have to beat the Man. And if you cannot beat the Man, you do not race in the Series. And that goes for me too." Thus far there are only 13 drivers that will receive invitations to the exclusive YesterYear IROC Series with another 5-6 expected to qualify before year-end.

In addition to all the work that went in to creating the YesterYear IROC Series, all four races will be broadcasts live by the Virtual Grip Network (VGN). When asked about the partnership, Wannamaker said "I really couldn't think of a better broadcasting partner for this Series than VGN. Maconi Entertainment has been great for us this year in the regular YesterYear Racing™ Season, but VGN is associated with the Bootleg Racing League and they are partners of YesterYear Racing™ in that they send drivers to the League. In addition, they do quite of bit of cutting edge stuff during the broadcasts like get in the car during practice and take some laps around explaining the nuances of each track, as well as in-car interviews during cautions. VGN has also been out there quite awhile and have built up a stellar reputation. Lowell Jewell, Ryan Senneker and all the guys do a great job with VGN. Lowell is the Boss of the Bootleg Racing League who just celebrated 30 years of being a sim League. Thirteen of which has been on iRacing™. I bounce things off of Lowell from time-to-time and view him as a mentor because he has seen it all, and I mean ALL with respect to sim racing and running a League."

When asked about the reward for winning the 2025 YesterYear IROC Series, Wannamaker said it took him awhile, but he finally came up with something he thought most would want to win. "I wanted something unique, something that fit with racing, and something I would want to win. It takes awhile for my brain to start thinking outside the box on things like this. I have to chew on it awhile, then leave it, then come back to it. It took me months to come up with the Old Red Boot (the annual trophy for winning YesterYear's regular Tour Modified Season), but not quite as much time on this one. As a Southerner by birth, I have always liked whiskey. There is nothing like winding the day down with whiskey neat in a rocks glass with maybe a small ice cube. Anyway, the winner of the 2025 YesterYear IROC Series will receive a bottle of American Badass Whiskey made by Garage Oil Spirits (https://garageoilspirits.com/home) out of Texas. Seems fitting to me."

Ogle Sets "Fire" to the YesterYear Fall Final

With his throwback Teddy Christopher livery in tact, Tom Ogle returned to the YesterYear Racing™ Series Tuesday night after a one-race hiatus. The Ohio native produced his second "Grand Slam" of the season by winning the race, getting the pole, leading the most laps, and setting the fastest lap of the race. When asked if he could foresee getting back into the Championship picture after missing a race, Ogle replied, "All I can do is go out here and run the best I can during the remaining two races. The dominoes will fall where they fall."

YesterYear Racing™ uses the Bob Latford point system which is the actual point system all NASCAR-sanctioned series used in 1990. The system rewards consistency over "flashes of brilliance." When asked about the point system Allen Wannamaker, founder and creator of YesterYear Racing™ said, "We try to emulate everything possible with respect to what was happening in history. In this case what was happening in 1990. The Latford system was around for 35 years and there is a reason for that. It was a great system. Missing a race under that system is a killer, but it is not totally out of the realm of possibility that Tom could come back and win it. He will need help to do so though. Mainly from Lady Luck."

The Series takes a 3-week break before heading back to Thompson Speedway on October 22 for the 100-lap YesterYear World Series. That race will mark Round 14 of 15. The Series then goes back to the "Paper Clip" for the Southern 200.

Pittman Dominates the Field at the Blue Ridge 100

Tuesday night's Blue Ridge 100 seemed like a sprint race after last week's 150-minute Race of Champions marathon. Drivers had one set of tires to work with in the 41-minute event, but most did not need them. Ryan Pittman began his night on the pole and led 88 of the 100 laps to cruise to victory. Post race Pittman commented," The track was slick tonight, but it is my favorite track on the platform. I ran into some issues back in April when we visited here, so I was determined to perform well this time out." Perform well indeed, since with the win Pittman moves into third place in the standings 41 points behind Brian Bianchi with three races remaining in the season.

Thomas Ogle, who had been one of the more dominant drivers all year, was a no show Tuesday night. Allen Wannamaker, Founder of YesterYear Racing™, said, "Tom had told me a couple of weeks ago he would have to miss the race tonight. I was a bit bummed for him since YesterYear does not drop any races like other leagues. We mirror as close as possible real world history in our Series and unfortunately dropping races is not something they did in 1990." Ogle might be out of the championship hunt this year, but the Ohio driver already punched his ticket to the exclusive YesterYear Racing™ IROC Series that will launch in 2025.

The Series moves on to Stafford Motor Speedway for the Fall Final on Tuesday, October 1 with Brian Bianchi holding a slim 12-point lead over OBRL-driver Lloyd Moore in the standings. After the Fall Final, YesterYear takes three weeks off before returning for the final two races of the season which will be at Thompson Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway respectively.