International Race of Champions

The **International Race of Champions** (IROC), known as Red Bull IROC for sponsorship purposes, is a motor racing competition based out of North America, created by Fantasy Promotions and Horizon Corporation as a way to see drivers from the stock car and open wheel racing disciplines go head to head over a series of special events each year. It is promoted as the racing equivalent of the UEFA Champions League, or an All-Star game, where only the top drivers of select series are invited to take part each year.

Fantasy Promotions and Horizon Corporation set a group of engineers together to prepare identically tuned race cars for the drivers competing in the series. Each IROC race weekend is composed of a blind qualifying session, a "happy hour" practice session, and a 100 mile race. All of the races support either the GTPlanet Fandom Series or the AT&T Champ Car World Series, and the two series' organizers work in tandem to ensure no schedule clashes prevent invited drivers from taking part.

The series uses Pontiac Trans Am machines, which became reproduced after the Pontiac brand was purchased from General Motors by Geely in 2009. The Trans Am is largely similar to how it was in the 2000s, with differences coming to the engine, safety features, and other internals. The Trans Am, due to its popularity and accessible replacement parts, was chosen to kick off IROC's history.

## Background

The early foundations of IROC were planted in 2017, when Citadel Promotions sought to have the top drivers of the Indycar World Championship compete against the best drivers from the world of stock cars, sports car racing, and touring car racing. Nothing materialized from those plans, and it was rumored that the extensive research and development that Citadel put into the idea helped push it into relinquishing rights to the Indycar World Championship in 2019, though financial reports from Citadel were never divulged to the public to confirm or deny those rumors.

In 2021, Horizon Corporation and Fantasy Promotions began talks over an All-Star event, using identical machines to showcase the talent of North America's elite drivers. Discussions evolved over the course of 2021, leading to the formation of IROC, with Horizon being the company to trademark rights for IROC, while Fantasy Promotions handled logistics, such as car body, and regulations. For the 2021 season, Horizon invited the top 5 active drivers from the 2021 Champ Car season, while Fantasy Promotions also invited some of its returning drivers from the 2021 Chase for the Cup. Horizon also invited the top 3 from the Nissan Atlantic Championship standings in 2021 to take part, adding up to a total of 13 drivers. In October 2021, Red Bull was signed as the sponsor of the series. Red Bull are present in all three series engaged in IROC, sponsoring Goodsmile-Razgriz Racing in GTPFS, while being the title sponsors of Highlight Racing in both Champ Car and the Atlantic Championship.

The inaugural season was unveiled on 20 November 2021, featuring 8 races across the United States, Japan, and Canada. The series debuted a revitalized fourth generation Pontiac Trans Am, now produced by Geely alongside the new fifth generation Trans Am, which was also built on the base of the Chevrolet Camaro. All of the cars would be set up identically by a set of engineers from both Fantasy Promotions and Horizon Corporation. In IROC, drivers are not allowed to have spotters watch over them and give them information. Race engineers and pit crews are all hired and assigned by IROC on a per race basis, with each driver getting a different pit crew each race.

## Drivers

Drivers are invited to take part in IROC on a selective basis. To be eligible to be invited to compete, drivers must be within the top 10 in points in Champ Car, within the top 12 in points in GTPFS, within the top 5 of both IndyCar and Atlantics, or in select cases, must have either won the Daytona 400, Indianapolis 500, Indycar World Championship, or GTPFS Championship in a previous season.

For the 2022 IROC season, Horizon Corporation invited Hazel Lacasse, the 2021 Indycar World Champion and Indianapolis 500 Champion, David Wessel, who finished third in points, Simona Leroux, who finished fourth in points, Nicole Liechti, who finished fifth in points, and Natalia Kirichenko, who finished sixth in points. Siri Lundqvist, and Kunimitsu Kinoshita were placed as Champ Car alternates, based on their points positions in 2021 in the case that one of the original drivers were unavailable to compete. Likewise, Fantasy Promotions invited Kristina Ryan, Sonya Walker, Paul del Prete, Felix Jackson, and Mohammad Ahmed as its representatives in IROC. For the Nissan Atlantic Championship, Bianca Lucero, Trey Buchet, and Sakura Kunikida were invited due to being the top 3 in the points standings in 2021.

## Car Identification

The cars in IROC all run a universal base template by design. A driver's surname is placed on the doors of the car, while the car number is placed in front of the rear wheels, under the B and C pillar of the cockpit. Colors are determined by the driver's primary livery color from their home series, and in the instance that two drivers share near identical colors, an alternate color will be selected.

Drivers, largely, use the numbers they compete in their main series with. If two drivers share a car number, then the number is inverted for the driver with the lower points standings finish. In the case that the number is a single digit, the same rule is used to determine who drives with a 0 prefixing the number, such as 06, or 01.

## Calendar Assortment

Each IROC season is composed of 6-8 race weekends, with those weekends evenly split between Champ Car and GTPFS race weekends. IROC is guaranteed to be on the undercard of the Daytona 400, the first race of the season for GTPFS, as well as the Indianapolis 500, which is the premier event of the Champ Car World Series. The other races are determined on a yearly basis, with a mixture of short ovals, superspeedways, intermediate ovals, and road courses considered for the calendar based on availability.

## See Also

* Champ Car World Series, the premier series of the American open wheel ladder.
* GTPlanet Fandom Series, the premier series of American stock car racing.