Official news and rumors

[Mystical]

All ICR official series news and rumors will be contained in this thread.

Currently 4 categories of news:

Official News
Confirmed news that is from the source/factual

Rumor
Unconfirmed rumors of possible events and/or speculation

Silly Season
Any news specific about drivers retiring, switching rides, team sponsorship changes, and/or team expanding/shrinking or switching manufacturers.

Opinion Piece
Opinionated piece on a particular driver, team, subject in the ICR Series

 

[Mystical]

The ICR Series currently has 17 manufacturers. All of the manufacturers except for Volvo started in 2020 when the ICR Series first opened up. Volvo began a year later in 2021 being the first manufacturer to join after launch. Subaru has been working closely with the ICR Union to get the final touches on their official entry to the series so they can begin racing. Its is now being reported that Subaru are in talks with their first teams and drivers to they want to sign on to race under the Subaru Manufacturer.

Speaking with a Subaru spokesperson on the matter:
"We are very excited to possibly be the 18th manufacturer in the Series. As you can image it is a very competitive series meaning a lot of work has to be done to seal the deal on getting multi-car team and drivers willing to race for our Manufacturer. Thankfully with this Series having lower divisions for less skilled drivers we have an immediate pool of interest racing enthusiasts who will be willing to try out manufacturer and as a result some of them will end up being quite talented on full sponsored cars if they can make it to the Provisional Division. In the meantime we are in the final touches getting the manufacturer fully approved to race and getting some big teams with sponsorship together. We have no doubt once this all falls into place we be a manufacturer at the forefront for many wins and championships"

While Subaru may be securing their spot soon you might not see their cars on the track in the immediate future though, at least not the fully sponsored teams that start stright in the Provisional Division. With a large backlog of teams signed up already in the Provisional Division that have not started their first season yet Subaru will have plenty of time to scope out their teams before the first races they will qualify in.

 

[Mystical]

Large rumors and possible leaks are circulating that major companies such as Meta, Tesla, Amazon, Google, etc when joining the ICR Series plan to field multiple cars well beyond the 5 cars per team with no penalty limit. The amount of cars these teams plan to field is beyond what one would consider normal for a typical 4-5 car team. This brings up discussion if the ICR Series officials are concerned at all on teams using brute force fielding 20+ cars all under one team.

While a team can have 20+ cars for example, usually these cars are divided into sub-teams and competing against each other with separated financial and team process spread across Divisions as they enter the series too. One example being Microsoft who has one team for the Halo games, another for Microsoft products, and another for other Xbox Studio titles. All these teams while sponsored by Microsoft are not financially all benefiting from race wins and division advancements. However, if the rumors are to be believed, Amazon for example would be fielding 20+ Amazon sponsored cars all at once where it would create this surreal Division Season where an entire field is just Amazon competing against itself. The result of this all profits going to Amazon and also leaves no slots open for other teams to enter the seasons in a timely matter. That amount of cars from a single team ensures 100% Division advancement. This could ruin the very spirit of the series and not be fair for smaller teams and also larger teams using the sub-team category correctly for the cars they field. The backlog of entries is already bursting at the seams at the writing of this rumor with nearly 70+ new cars/drivers who have yet to enter their first Provisional Division season yet.

The ICR Series does have a team size penalty but not a cap, if a team has more than 5+ cars racing in the same Division and Season under the same sub-team (as in they all work together benefiting from the financial output) they receive monetary penalties that are not insignificant. This system is in place to discourage the larger teams that have a larger budget to eventually 'tap out' and not see a positive financial outcome in having many cars in a single Season field. However a mega team like Meta or Amazon would be willing to possibly forgo this monetary fine and field as many cars as they can order for the ICR Series. They no doubt will be able to pay top dollar for good drivers as well and top equipment making it a literal Army. Some question then"why not have a hard cap? This may be looked into further but for now the reasoning is to alow teams to expand or contrast as large as they financially are willing to and in most cases with how many divisions the ICR Series has not all the drivers would realistically be in the same season or Division at the same time. This also allows for as many sponsors to find cars and drivers to race with, the ICR Series is in high demand by advertisers and it would be against the ICR Series Union to want a Cap that could suppress their income and popularity.

We reached out to the ICR Series Director of Operations for their response on this upcoming possible situation looming over the series:

 

[Mystical]

The long awaited non-seasonal ICR Series Race Event Divisions are now available for drivers to race in. Unlike the Division Series From Novice all the way up to Race Legends these two race divisions are run on a per-race event. In basic terms the races events run are never-ending and drivers from any skill level and division can compete in them at any time, as much, or as less as they want. These are known as horizontal divisions which won't improve or demote a driver's Division status but can improve their overall driver rank.

The Competitive Ranked and Unranked 'playlists' (better known as race lists) provide drivers and team unique opportunities different from the Seasonal Divisions. For the full breakdown of these non-season Divisions the ICR Series Overview page has a new section detailing their info.

Events held in the Ranked and Unranked Divisions will be broadcast for viewers just the same as the Seasonal Division races (with some more lightweight broadcast graphics though). Even though these Divisions are not the main seasonal events large broadcasters and view count is to be expected still with how popular the ICR Series is. Viewers can't get enough of the racing and the drivers want more ways to continue racing while they wait for their next Division season to begin.

 

[Mystical]

The Novice Division since the first season was shared between 3 different streaming broadcast companies (Youtube, Twitch, and Mixer). Starting in the 11th season of the Novice Division Kick.com will enter as an additional streaming service. Unlike every other division, the Novice Division only broadcasts with online streaming services compared to the traditional Cable tv broadcast channels. Despite being the lowest division in the series with the least experienced teams and drivers millions of fans of the Series still tune in each season for the races. Expanding to a 4th streaming service opens up even more accessibility for the fans and places to watch the racing.

One challenge is the Novice Division is only 3 races per season so there isn't enough room for all 4 stream services to host a race. Currently the plan going forward is one streaming service will rotate out for a season. There might be a change where a streaming service hosts and entire season and rotate between them on a season by season basis.

 

[Mystical]

The ICR Series will be expanding its broadcasting quality with an all new experience for premiere races: The 4k Ultrawide experience. Key races in the higher division schedules are planned to be recorded for viewers in the most immersive experience ever. Viewers will see beyond the borders of a 16:9 wide screen ratio and be enveloped for the first time ever in an IMAX scope allowing them to see in the highest quality possible.

The races that will be broadcast in this ultrawide format will be denoted in the series schedules with the ultrawide icon. While viewers at home will only see a select few races in this format all race cameras will be broadcasting in ultrawide going forward (even the lower divisions where no ultrawide races are planned to be broadcast in this format).

This news doesn't do it justice alone. See below some of the released photos from the series demonstrating this extreme resolution and width for yourself:

 

[bobnascar]

this is awesome!

 

[Mystical]

There's been rumors swirling around quietly that the ICR Series is planing a major overhaul to not only the ranking system but the Divisions as well. The Ranking System determines a drivers skill level but doesn't currently correlate at all with the current division a driver is in. Its possible this new refactor (if true) could make ranks more important but also more visible to delineate the divisions themselves. As it currently stands the ranks really only serve the purpose of placing drivers in competitive race matches of similar skill outside of the 9 official divisions. While the ICR Series has a massive fanbase of viewers the ranking system is still quite hidden and the ICR org could be looking to change this.

Speaking of divisions it sounds like the changes coming will also affect divisions. From the sources we've talked to it doesn't sound like divisions will be going away but rather changes in how drivers advance or fall back to a previous tier when performing poorly in the standings of a season. While we don't have a full and clear picture of what it will exactly look like at this point it seems many drivers were consulted on the changes and it doesn't appear it will affect the actual racing schedules at all, if anything it will allow more racing and less frustration for drivers who yo-yo up and down in certain divisions always getting beat out by the new and more skill drivers.

With these possible changes coming the whole package ICR presents itself visually could be seeing a change both on race day graphics and season schedules/division visualizations too. Only time will tell what it will look like and how big of a change it is but one thing is for sure: racing will continue and we doubt the ICR Stock Car Union will jeopardize that in any way.

 

[Mystical]

ICR Series revealed today changes (effective immediately) to both the ranking and division systems in the series. The overview article has been updated with the new system along with new pdfs and excel sheet for user to download if they want to full details.

Here are the major highlights:

• Divisions now have a visible rank associated with them
• Each Division is made up of multiple skill 'classes' For example Novice division has an A, B, C and D-Class (D the lowest tier)
• In the old system there were 9 Divisions, now there are 13, none of the old divisions were removed, 4 new ones added in-between
• In previous system teams and drivers with sponsored cars would start out in the Provisional division. Now all drivers will start out in the A-Class Novice division
• Since divisions now include multiple classes within, all current drivers will start in the A-Class of the current division they are racing in for fairness.
• All races that have historically occurred will be labeled as A-Class races for that division, also seasons still remain for divisions, for example if B-Class in Beginner division has had 5 race schedules then it will have had 5 Season completed
• As the ranking system now directly correlates to a driver's current division placement the old ranking system no longer exists. The Leaderboard will continue to track points, wins, and championships but does not dictate any non-official matchmaking races
• An overhaul the broadcasting package on raceday has occurred. The ticker will now be represented in the iconic teal ICR logo colors instead of a color from the division. Races will also have the division and class logo represented during the race so it is easy for viewers to know which racing division and class the race occurred in. Some seasons have yet to be uploaded yet so the change will not appear immediately for viewers
• No changes to the decals on a car. The ICR logo is still the same official one used. Only change is the division banners on a car roof will represent the new design

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The long story short the Divisions remain but how drivers are categorized in them (now by skill Classes) will dictate how they advance upwards. Driver will no longer de-rank to a lower division but depending how they perform they can move up or down in that division. If they perform well enough (win or finish in the standings of a season above the cut line) they advance to the next Division. Once a driver reaches the next division they will not de-rank to a lower division. However, drivers can still go lower in the current division if they perform poorly. For example if a driver makes it to B-Class in the Provisional Division but then starts to race poorly they can drop as low as D-Class. The driver will then need to work their way back up through to A-Class and also do well in that season's standings to advance to the next division. Winning a championship in a Division when in the highest class for that division rewards the driver with a class skip in the next Division as well so there is an extra incentive to be the best.

While we won't go into detail here (as the overview article displays it better) ICR organization did reveal some of the thought process behind the new rank icons too:

"We took a good look at the old ranking system and the emblems we designed and did a complete overhaul. We wanted icons that represented racing better and were not as convoluted while also each one above it in skill looking cooler and more prestigious than the previous. Many hours went into the design process.

For example the Entry level division ranks we went with a Chevron like design inspired from Japan's new driver emblem that new driver must have on their car.


As driver get to the higher ranks the emblems become silver, gold, and only the best of the best will achieve the Onyx material level. We incorporated checkered flags, trophies, and a 'Thunderbird' (fictional) inspired from cars that were named after animals such as the Ford Thunderbird.

These ranks alongside the names of the divisions will not only clearly delineate a drivers skill but also give viewers the ability to easy recognize their skill level."

When asked about what these changes mean for the actual on-track racing and how drivers who are already competing in divisions are affected the ICR org also explained it:

"Nothing really changes with the on-track experience. Drivers will still compete in seasons and need to do well in the standings of said season to advance further and further. This new system will make sure the cream rises to the top faster while still allowing less skilled drivers to have competitive races in their Division. We want a good show to occur whether you are watching a Novice C-Class race or we see a Race Legend X-Class event. Drivers of similar skill will naturally end up in their intended Division/Class range and drivers who perform too well or not good enough will sort out quicker than before.

While each division we did tweak how many points are earned per race and other guidelines the end result will be the higher a driver gets in Division the races become longer, the scheudle becomes longer, and the cutoff line in standings to advance to a higher division becomes harder. You can see this intended outcome in the new Division Rules sheet we revealed today" (Division rules excel sheet can be downloaded from the overview article) Lastly like we did today with these changes we will continue to monitor and tweak the series as we go when we feel things need adjustments. The series as a whole is built on flexibility to make sure the racing in divisions it not too hard advance or too easy to exploit by more powerful teams."