BRANDON, S.D. (KELO) — The dirt track racing season is still two months away, but fans have found a way to turn some laps of their own at Huset’s Speedway.
Hayden Neisteadt is a 14-year-old race fan. He’s also fond of video games, especially World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing 24.
“The way the graphics work, the way the cars run, the way the racing is at the track, you can throw big slide jobs, you can rip the whip, you can run the bottom, you can do whatever you want,” 14-year-old Hayden Neisteadt said.
The game was released last September but was updated last month, and now features 51 dirt tracks, the newest of which is Huset’s Speedway.
“The friends that like racing, they come over, we race, and it really draws them to want to go out to the track,” Neisteadt said.
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“Everything looks exactly like it is, there’s no distortion of anything when you watch the game,” Huset’s Speedway General Manager Doug Johnson said.
Huset’s GM Doug Johnson says the process of adding Huset’s started two years ago when the game’s creator, iRacing, came out to scan the track.
“That was a couple day process just to take their vehicles around, they had a cameraman that went around and took pictures of everything, I mean the most detailed things you could think of,” Johnson said.
“Everything that you see in our simulation, in our games, are digital replications that are millimeter accurate to the real world racing facility,” iRacing vice president of sales and marketing Otto Szebeni said.
Otto Szebeni is with iRacing, an online, subscription-based service based in Boston that deals with all types of motorsports.
“Huset’s actually was one of the first tracks that proactively reached out to us and said ‘hey, we really want to be in this game’,” Szebeni said.
It didn’t happen immediately due to location, but reigning World of Outlaws champion David Gravel, who drives the number 2 Huset’s Speedway car, also made his voice heard.
“He’s been a gamer since he was a little kid, and so he’s like ‘how come we’re not in this thing?’,” Szebeni said.
Now, with Huset’s part of the lineup, gamers couldn’t be happier with the finished product.
“Rave reviews and people are super excited to be able to see their heroes and race against their heroes in the digital space,” Szebeni said.
And it’s a collaboration that’s proving to be a win for the World of Outlaws.
“We love the partnership with iRacing in general for the sim racing and for the game, it’s been great for our drivers, for our series, for our tracks,” World Racing Group Executive Director of Digital Cristina Cordova said.
World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing 24 is currently available on a number of platforms.
