On March 22nd, iRacing.com will hold a dozen races over a 24-hour period as a special fund-raising event to support the Red Cross relief efforts following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, named ‘Racing For Japan’.

iRacing has more than 25,000 members in 87 countries, including more than 200 Japanese members, and all iRacing.com racers are eligible to participate and asked to donate to the American Red Cross’s Japan Earthquake and Tsunami fund.

The event will consist of six Street Stock races at Thompson International Speedway, and six Mazda Roadster races at lime Rock Park. The first of the races will be a 40-lap Street Stock event at Thompson which starts at 01:00 GMT (March 21, 9:00pm ET), with the first of the 40-lap Roadster races at Lime Rock two hours later at 3:00 GMT (March 21, 11:00pm ET). The racing then alternates between the two tracks with a race starting every two hours.

iRacing 24 Hours of Racing to support Japan Relief Efforts

“Just as in real-world motorsport, racing is the common bond for everyone in the iRacing community,” said Dave Kaemmer, iRacing.com’s co-founder and chief technical officer. “In both the real and the virtual worlds the social connections and the friendships that racers develop with one another are just as important. In iRacing we really do bring together people from all over the world, and in this case we are mobilizing them to respond to a tragedy that touches us all. We have the potential to generate a substantial amount of money to support work that will be essential to the address the needs of individual victims of this disaster.”

David Kaemmer will be joining other members of iRacing.com’s staff in making personal donations and driving in simulators at the company’s offices throughout the event.