I thought some of you simracers out there might be interested by the following...

We are happy to announce the launch of HSO. Historic Simracing Organisation is a simracing league with a new concept, ready to offer you the best of fun starting in January 2009.

Our motto is simple : every HSO championship tries to be an historical re-creation of a great motor racing series of the past. Our aim is to get as close as possible to the real races of gone days, without anihilating the fun of online simracing and of course taking into account the limitations of the sims we use.

HSO will organise 9 different championships in 2009. Running three different sims, single-seaters or tin-tops, year-long or half-year schedules, these championships will allow you to re-live a few of the mythical racing seasons of the past, from 1965 to 2002. Here are the nine series briefly introduced to you, coming in chronological order :

1965 British Saloon Car Championship

From the Mini to the Mustang, the Cortinas, GTAs, Falcons, etc. get on board for some serious close-combat saloon car racing on the greatest British tracks of the Swinging Sixties !

Sim : mod Historic GT & Touring Cars for rFactor
Schedule : 7 races on Wednesday nights, from January to June 2009
Race Length : between 15 and 40 minutes depending on races
More details : Forum BSCC 1965

1967 Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship

The ultimate GPL challenge. The full 1967 Formula 1 season driving the mythical cars of the King of Sims.

Sim : Grand Prix Legends
Schedule : 11 races + 6 non-championship races on Saturday nights, from January to November 2009. Qualifying sessions on Thursday and Friday nights preceeding the race for the 11 WC Grands Prix, just before the race for the non-championship events.
Race Length : up to 2h30mn
More Details : Forum F1 1967

1967 Formula 3

1967 British Formula 3 Championship and Trophées de France de Formule 3. Using the 1,000cc screamer cars of the 65FD carset, get ready for the best wheel-to-wheel racing GPL has to offer.

Sim : mod 65FD for Grand Prix Legends
Schedule : 20 races on Wednesday nights, from January to November 2009.
Race Length : British F3 : two 15-20 minutes sprints at each meeting | France F3 : one 30-40 minutes race
More Details : Forum F3 1967

1976 European GT Championship

The place for big 1970s GT cars - Capri, Corvette, BMW CSL, Porsche RSR, De Tomaso, all the great names of the era are here, waiting for you on some of the most prestigious circuits of Europe.

Sim : mod Historic GT & Touring Cars for rFactor
Schedule : 7 races on Sunday nights, from September to December 2009.
Race Length : between 1 and 2 hours depending on races
More Details : Forum Euro GT 1976

1979 Formula World Drivers’ Championship

On one of rFactor's best mods, feel what it was like to be a Grand Prix driver 30 years ago. From Buenos Aires to Watkins Glen, a full season of Grand Prix racing with the fabulous wing-cars of the era.

Sim : mod GP79 Master Series for rFactor
Schedule : 15 races on Sunday nights, from February to December 2009. Qualifying session on Saturday nights preceeding the race, with also another session earlier in the week for those unable to attend on Saturdays.
Race Length : between 1h20 et 2h00 depending on races.
More Details : Forum F1 1979

1979 BMW M1 Procar Championship

Guest star of the European F1 Grands Prix of 1979 will be the BMW Procar show. A "spec" series using specially tuned BMW M1 cars, it will be the ideal meeting ground between the GP stars and the GT and Aurora drivers.

Sim : mod BMW M1 Procar 1979 for rFactor
Scheudule : 9 races on Saturday nights, from February to November 2009.
Race Length : around 25 minutes.
More Details : Forum Procar 1979

1979 Aurora AFX Formula Championship

Using a mod tuned by our HSO expert, this championship will be our exclusive feature this year. The series is based on the Aurora F1 Championship of 1979 which saw a number of private teams and independents race Formula 1 cars, usually ex-works cars of the previous years. Less powerful than the original 79 mod cars on which they are based, the Aurora F1 cars all use the same down-tuned Ford-Cosworth DFV engine and the same hard-compound tires. The ideal learning ground for the 1979 F1 Grand Prix 100% wannabees .

Sim : mod HSO Aurora Series for rFactor
Schedule : 15 races on Wednesday nights, from January to December 2009
Race Length : around 1 hour
More Details : Forum Aurora 1979

1989 FIA World Sports-Prototypes Championship

In the fading years of a golden era, 1989 stands as one of the best seasons in Group C racing. We will focus on the World Championship and its 300-mile races. This race format allows you to chose to race solo or two drivers by car. Jaguar, Porsche, Sauber-Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota, Aston-Martin, Mazda, Spice - pick a beast… and race on !

Sim : mod GTP for Nascar Racing 2003 Season
Schedule : 8 races on Saturday nights, from February to December 2009. Either one or two drivers per car
Race Length : between 2h40 and 3h00 depending on races
More Details : Forum Sport-Protos 1989

2002 SCCA Trans-Am Championship

The SCCA Trans-Am series was one of the most popular features of the North American racing scene for decades. The 2002 season was the one you'll be able to re-live with us, with the typical field of Corvettes, Vipers, Mustangs and XK-R Jaguars mixing it on the road and street circuits of that year.

Sim : mod PWF Trans-Am for Nascar Racing 2003 Season
Schedule : 11 races on Friday nights, from January to November 2009
Race Length : around 1 hour
More Details : Forum Trans-Am 2002


All in all, it's more than a hundred race we invite you at, for our first season of online historic simracing.

Registering is of course free, and can be made on the HSO Forum - only price to pay is to use your real name when creating your account . The HSO site is also here to give you all the details on the various championships as well as the latest news about the league.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the sim-circuits in 2009 .

Cheers

Martin Audran, Antoine de Mautor, Guillaume Siebert, Frank Verplanken

Hi fellow simracers ! Now entering its fourth year of existence, Historic Simracing Organisation remains the only online simracing league devoted to the recreation of existing races and championships of yesteryear. The well known rFactor remains our basic platform, but the undisputed King of Sims, Grand Prix Legends, will also be back this year with its latest Sportscar mod. With five different series featuring a wide range of racing classes (single-seaters, Sportscars, GT, Touring Cars) the 2012 season promises to be an eventful one at HSO and should fulfil the expectations of every gentleman simracer with a taste for historic racing.
2012 will also see a unique experiment, in the form of a legendary multi-race event held throughout the month of October…

Here is the 2012 season preview, with all the links you need to join us on the HSO Forum and on the track :

1968 South African Springbok Trophy Series

South Africa and Mozambique… two rather exotic destinations for international motor racing, and a rather controversial one too back in the dark days of the apartheid regime. Despite being geographically isolated from the rest of the racing world, the South African racing scene (including the nearby Rhodesia and Mozambique) was very healthy in the 1960s and 1970s, and played host to several international meetings each year. Apart from the South African Grand Prix for Formula 1 cars, the most notable races were those of the end-of-season Springbok Trophy Series for sportscars. The 1968 edition of this mini-championship (5 races) was particularly interesting as, unlike in the World Championship, over 3-litre prototypes such as the Mirage M1 were allowed to participate. The big race on the schedule, the Kyalami 9-Hours, will be run by teams of two drivers per car, while the four other races, who will be run solo, will be between 2h30 and 3-hours in duration.

Sim : GT67 mod for Grand Prix Legends
Schedule : 5 races on Sunday nights, from September to December.
Length : long races from 2h30 solo up to 9h by teams of two drivers.


1972 European GT Trophy

1972 was the first year the FIA organised a European GT series for Drivers, a championship that will feature the highlight of the 2012 HSO season : the Tour de France Automobile. This event, run over 8 nights throughout the month of October, will mix regular circuit races with hillclimbs and special stages, and promises to be a very unique event on the simracing scene. Nine other races will complete the championship schedule, including three on the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife. On the cars side, the all conquering Porsches will be facing a strong opposition consisting of Chevrolet Corvettes, DeTomaso Panteras and Ferrari 365 GTBs.

Sim : Historic GT & Touring Cars mod for rFactor
Schedule : 9 races on Sunday nights, from January to November 2012. Tour de France Automobile races on Wednesday and Sunday nights in October.
Length : between 1 and 2 hours depending on events.


1972 SCCA Continental F5000 Championship

After having explored the Tasman and European shores last year, the acclaimed HSO customized Formula 5000 mod and its fabulous V8-engined single-seaters will this year venture to the USA for the SCCA Continental Championship. The 8-race schedule includes some of America’s finest road racing circuits, among which Riverside, Elkhart Lake, Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca. With big and varied fields, the F5000 races always have a special thrill to them, making it the closest thing to GPL available on rFactor in both spirit and form.

Sim : HSO F5000 72 mod for rFactor
Schedule : 8 races on Sunday nights, from January to June 2012.
Length : around 45 minutes.

1981 Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft

Porsche 935, BMW M1 Turbo, Ford Capri Turbo... three names that will for ever be associated with the fabled years of Group 5 “Silhouette” racing of the late 1970s. In 1981 the fading category, who was soon to be replaced by Group C Prototypes, was for the last time used as the top domestic class in Germany via the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft. For this last season, the insanely powerful Group 5 cars were joined by the slower Group 4 GT cars who competed in a Trophy of their own. It is therefore with a special HSO mod (combining the original DRM Division 1 cars and the Group 4 version of our in-house BMW M1) that this spectacular championship will be held.

Sim : HSO 1981 DRM mod for rFactor
Schedule : 13 races on Wednesday nights, from February to November 2012.
Length : between 40 and 60 minutes depending on races.


1987 Australian Touring Car Championship

One of the top Group A Touring Cars series in the world was the legendary Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC), which in 1987 featured a great field of highly tuned cars. This championship will be run over the first semester, from January to June, and will feature nine 1-hour races in which tyre wear management should be a major factor. After the Summer break, the ATCC field will be back for the traditional post-season classics, such as the Bathurst 1000, the Australian GP support race in Adelaide or the WTCC Wellington 500. Always a favourite among HSO members, our TCL series should once again provide us with big fields and highly competitive races.

Sim : Touring Car Legends mod rFactor
Schedule : 9 championship races on Wednesday nights, from January to June 2012. Post-season classics from September to December.
Length : championship races are around 1-hour long.

Next to these 50 or so regular season races, Open Events will also be held, on rFactor as well as on other historic sims. Registration at HSO is free and must be made on the forum using your real name. The HSO site will also provide you with all the details on our past, present and futures races.

Join us in 2012 !

Martin Audran, Antoine de Mautor, Guillaume Siebert, Frank Verplanken