          |
THE PITS NEWS
![[Sim Racing News]](pics/srn.jpg)
CART
Both Microsoft and Papyrus will be releasing CART Racing sims this month, Papy, a rerelease of their Indycar2 with better Rendition support, and Microsoft with their CART Precision Racing. Our own Jim Getzen is keeping up to date on the Microsoft Project and Papys, you can find out more about Microsoft's stuff at Jim's CPR page.
Jim, who is known for his excellent Grand Prix II site, The Grandstand, has come on board to help us with our GP2 area, which frankly, needed a little work. We're glad to have him on board, and are looking forwards to having him with the team!
Congrats go to Pat Dotson of Eurosport Racing, who won the inaugural Touring Car Championship, and to Tom Petersen, who won as the leading privateer. BMW came home with the Manufacturer's cup. Our final software release for the TPTCC is scheduled for the end of this month...v.2.0. We should have all the bugs fixed, as well as new cockpits, new screens, new sounds, a set of graphics for the Paintshop, and other nifty updates. To find out more, click here! As well, don't forget the touring league, run by Sean Staples. The Pits Touring Car Championship League.
The BGN Track pack is out NOW! It's been met with rave reviews and is a definite must-get for any sim racer.
Don't forget our updates can now be found at http://members.aol.com/simracing.Cheers!
Jan Kohl
Nov 1997
THE PITS HISTORY
19 Nov 1995 - Jed wrote a utility to fix the damage and other options for the Indycar II demo. Shortly thereafter, he started "The Pits" for this utility and others that he wrote. Meanwhile, over here, I had the "Castle Graphics" site, dedicated to real and simulator racing, and wrote the Quikfix Guide, to aid people in setting up their NASCAR Racing cars.
December 1995 - I had been in conversation with Jed, and on a visit to the UK over Christmas, we met briefly in a pub in his local villiage and had a few beers. Much about racing was discussed, and many beers consumed. All in all, an enjoyable afternoon...
January 1996 - Jed wrote me an email about setting up a mirror site over here, as the transmission band of his site was rather slow from the US. I quickly agreed, and The Pits US Mirror was born. Meanwhile, Gerhard Lingenberg was creating the track coverters, and Jed began working with him to make other excellent patches.
February 1996 - Work began on the "Daytona Project". This was and idea of Jed's to take the Talladega track, and modify it so that it resembled the Daytona Motor Speedway. The AI would be fixed as well, so that they would take more realistic lines through the corners.
late March 1996 - The Pits was growing by leaps and bounds. I combined my simulator racing side of Castle Graphics with The Pits. The Daytona Project was nearing completion. Things were looking great... rather like the calm before the storm...
April 1996 - On a fateful day in April...I recieved a phone call. The caller was Andrew from ISC...International Speedways Corp. "So what?" ..you may say. ICS owns the REAL Daytona and Talladega tracks...and they were calling me personally to let me know that their next move would be to call a lawyer to deliver a letter to "cease and desist" all efforts on the Daytona Project. Why? Their copyright laws were being violated. If Sega, who had the rights to use the Daytona name for their arcade racing game were to be informed that our Daytona Project was being made for NASCAR Racing...they would be a bit upset. As well, ISC and any other company is bound by US copyright laws to use all legal effort to protect those copyrights, or risk losing them. So we had no leg to stand on. Jed and I spoke, and we decided it was best to drop the Daytona Project. That triggered one of the biggest newsgroup/email wars in Rec.autos.simulators short little history. People were incensed...who does ISC think they are to bully two small non-profit programmers and not let them modify some tracks in a racing simulator? But ISC was right...and Jed and I cancelled the Daytona Project before a working copy ever made the Internet.
May-July 1996 - The Pits was thrown into the doldrums...having played our biggest card, and the opponents holding a Royal Flush, we folded. No new utilities were released, and very little was done except answer email. Jed continued contact with ISC, and spoke of options for Daytona and for the track being released in future simulators. However, people had other ideas. Many tried to copy our lead, and create a Daytona, but all fell short, and not only that, but put ISC in a further bind. It would be possible if Sega and NASCAR became incensed at the at the amount of copyright violations on the 'net, that Daytona would not be seen in any simulator for a long, long time. But meanwhile, other things were happening...Ed of Papyrus had finished his project, Hawaii, and that threw a whole new monkeywrench into the equation. To be able to race 30 other people, in a simulator, REAL TIME! What a concept, and a racer's dream come true! Hawaii was put into beta-test stage, and a select few were competing on Hawaii to clear the bugs. Finally, it was opened to the public, and announced that next year NASCAR would sanction it as their new racing league...the NRL.
August 1996 - So opened a new chapter in The Pits. Papyrus had asked us to distribute the Hawaii software over the 'net via The Pits. Now we had a mission. Grand Prix II was released, and therefore more utilities were required. We obliged. The US Mirror gained it's own domain, the one you are sitting on right now...theuspits.com. Then...another swing and a miss. Jed, tired of the constant barrage of email and flames, decided that he had had enough. So on one fateful weekend, the original Pits disappeared from the 'net without a trace. I duly informed the public of what had transpired...and quickly became overwhelmed with letters of dismay over the loss of The Pits UK. Now the mirror became the primary...and we turn another page...
September 1996 - The long awaited arrival of the NASCAR II demo. It was unprecedented in the amount of people who attempted to get the sim on it's arrival at another site. The site went down under the heavy load of 100,000 hits in 12 hours!
November 1996 - The Pits finally made it to it's first birthday! Things have certainly changed over the last year for The Pits, and we sincerely thank all our supporters who have made it what it is today.
December 1996 - NASCAR Racing II, Kahn, and Kali...what an addition to the racing arena. Now sim racers can enjoy multiplayer racing, free, anytime you want. This should add a whole new spectrum to the online racing scene.
May 1997 - Things are progressing smoothly in the racing sim world, the patches for NASCAR II were finally released, and the NASCAR Racing Organization seems to be on track to be released shortly. Track converters for NASCAR II have been released, so now stock car drivers can turn left and right again! 3D work has been going on by several members of the sim racing community, with lots of progress...new Indycar car shapes are being released right and left!
July 1997 - The Pits made history again with the release of the first package designed for NASCAR II racing, The Pits Touring Car Championship. This used a completely redesigned platform for N2 with different tracks, car bodies, and cockpit graphics.
