Round 6 entries are now officially open, and we can now reveal that the event will feature two endurance races.

Round 6 will be held on the popular Oran Park South Circuit 13-15 November, and will feature all the favourite iRace categories. In additional to the normal program of races, the meeting will also feature a 1 hour endurance race for MX5 Challenge cars on Saturday afternoon, and another 1 hour endurance race for iRace Sedan cars from Touring Car Challenge, Muscle Division (including HDT Cup) and Production Racing Cars on Sunday afternoon.

Both endurance races will include a compulsory timed pitstop for all cars. A second driver is allowed, but driver changes are not compulsory, the stationary time will be the same whether a driver change takes place or not.

Competitors are encouraged to get their entries in early. All races will be subject to maximum grid density, and we're expecting the enduros in particular to fill up quite quickly.

Entry fee for the normal events at the meeting is $395. Competitors who are entered for the normal meeting can enter one of the enduros for only $100 more. Competing only in one of the enduros is also permitted, the entry fee is $395.

Access the online entry form by clicking here.

Access the printable PDF by clicking here.

We've had a section of the iRace website that has laid dormant since the site was launched last year - the "Features" section. Other things have always seemed to take priority over getting a feature article online.

Not anymore though. We've now published our first feature article, and hopefully these become a more regular occurrence.

The first article is on how to be interviewed, and is mostly aimed at competitors. To check out the Features page, click here, or use the link in the navigation bar on the left.

Due to unprecedented interest, entries are now closed for our special event Drive Day at "The Farm".

Thank you to everyone for their interest, and to those competitors whose entries have been accepted, you will receive further information regarding the event (and instructions on how to get to the secret location) shortly.

Independent Race Series competitors have been invited to preview a fantastic Road Course one hour north of Sydney on Sunday October 4th 2009.

An exclusive "Drive Day" has been secured for Independent Race Series competitors at this 5.1 km, 23 corner road course situated in a beautiful parkland setting. The amazing layout (pictured right) has been described as "Australia's Nurburgring", and by Garry Willmington as the best piece of track he has ever driven. The venue has previously only been available to friends of the owners, but has been secured by iRace for this very special event.

Secure your place early as numbers are limited.

Entry is $295, and includes a BBQ lunch for the entrant. BBQ lunches will be available for $10 for everyone else attending.

Access the online entry form here. Please ensure you select the correct payment option if paying via PayPal.

Access the hardcopy entry form here.

Entries are now open, and close 25 September. Don't miss out!

UPDATE: Entries have now officially closed.

As always, competitors and officials at Round 4 of the Independent Race Series were in the running to win some great prizes from Kumho Tyres.

The winner in the Production Racing Cars class, with the prize for this round going to the winner of Class X, was Franck Donniaux. Franck wins a pair of Kumho race tyres.

And the volunteer official drawn out of a hat was Wayne Johnson from Goulburn. Wayne worked at the event as a flag marshall, and wins a set of Kumho road tyres.

Kumho helps the Independent Race Series recognise our hard working officials, with one randomly chosen at each round to receive a set of Kumho road tyres. To find out more about being an official for the Independent Race Series, click here.

To find out more about Kumho Tyres, and F Sport, click here.

Television coverage from Round 4 of the Independent Race Series will be screened on SBS Speedweek this Sunday, 23 August. Coverage will start at 1pm (remember to check your local TV guides), and iRace is expected to lead the show.

The coverage will then be repeated on Wednesday on Fox Sports Inside Speed - check your TV guide for exact timings of the program.

The TV coverage will feature highlights of the action from Oran Park, of iRace's biggest meeting so far. Don't miss it!

The Independent Race Series hosted its most successful round ever at Sydney's Oran Park on the Grand Prix layout on the weekend.

Record fields in a number of categories boded well for the event before it even started, and the spirit of the competitors, and quality of the racing all added up to make it a great weekend of racing.

Action got underway on Friday (14 August) morning, with unofficial practice. Qualifying kicked off after lunch, and the first of the races were held late Friday afternoon. The weather was perfect throughout, and Saturday morning brought more sunshine, and plenty of racing.

Muscle Division saw the inclusion of HDT Cup at this round, and some great racing. The outright honours were dominated by Stuart Inwood in his impressive Nissan R33 GTR Skyline. Inwood was victorious in three out of the four races, only missing out on the handicapped Race Three when his handicap proved too huge to overcome. Brett Morse (Mazda RX7) was also impressive, taking second outright for the category. Third outright was Greg Boyle (Nissan). In the sub categories, Rod Gurney was top Muscle Car, Merrick Malouf was the winning Ute, Todd Betland took out Saloon Car honours, Steve Berry was the best of the Improved Production cars and Stuart Inwood also took out the Japanese Turbo category.

In HDT Cup, there was plenty of action, and Adam Lloyd emerged the outright victor for the weekend. He won from Adam Tipping and Keiran Macklyn. In the sub categories, Troy Harrison won Class B Classic and Keiran Macklyn won Class A Classic. The HDT Cup proved to be a massive success, with the combination of affordable machinery, a recognisable brand, and close, fair racing proving very popular!

In the Production Racing Cars, there was an upset at the front of the field. Anthony Soole has had the upper hand all year, with Franck Donniaux plagued with reliability issues at earlier events. Not so this time out though - despite some VERY close racing, Donniaux (Subaru WRX) took a clean sweep of wins to end up victorious in Class X. Soole (Lotus Exige) secured second in Class X, with Daniel Flanagan (Commodore Ute) taking third in his first run in the car.

In Class A, Clark Stott (Mazda 3 MPS) proved too good, to take the class honours over Geoff Kite and Hans Riehs.

Class B was very nearly a family affair, with Carly Black (Peugeot 206) fighting it out with father Barry Black (Peugeot 306), Neil Byers spoiled the party though, pushing his Mitsubishi 380 to take class honours ahead of Carly followed by Barry.

Class C was another family affair, husband and wife duo John and Kylie Willmington taking on the class in a pair of Nissan Pulsars. John dominated the category (outdoing a number of higher classed cars), ahead of Chris Reeves (Proton Satria) and Josh Riehs (Proton Satria). Kylie did very well on her debut though, finishing fourth in class, and just one point behind third!

Formula Tasman & LeMans Sports saw a promising field, with some truly exotic machines fighting it out. Chris Farrell brought along his beautiful 2001 Swift Formula Atlantic, and was never headed all weekend, the car looking planted on the track, and Chris driving very nicely. Farrell took out the Formula Tasman win, and outright victory. Ed Singleton pushed hard in his immaculate Singletini Radical, taking the LeMans Sports honours. The placings in each category were: Formula Tasman - second Craig Dawson (F391 Dallara), third Chris Lynch (F397 Dallara); and LeMans Sports - second Andrew Macpherson in the formidable Mosler MTR, third Neil Kenny (Mallock MK31).

The Touring Car Challenge saw a diverse field do battle, with some excellent racing, and plenty of spectacle. Andy Cantrell in the ex-Glenn Seton Falcon V8 Supercar was untouchable throughout the event, taking pole and victory in two of the races, to take the outright victory. Close behind though was Dameon Jameson in his awesome Jaguar, who took two race wins, and second outright. Third outright went to Joe McGinnes in his crowd pleasing XT GT Falcon. Class honours went to Cantrell for V8 Supercar, Phil Groeneveld for V8 Giant and Dameon Jameson for Muscle Car.

A welcome addition on the card at Oran Park was the MX5 Challenge. The large field of these nimble machines joined the RocketSports ranks, and enjoyed two standalone races. In the RocketSports outright, the MX5's proved unbeatable, with David Raddatz taking the victory. He was closely followed by Matilda Mravicic, and Nick Martinenko. The Holden Roadsters mixed it up with the MX5's, putting on a great show. Graham Smith ended up on top in the Roadsters, with Rod Moynahan second and Terry Mayfield third.

In the MX5 Challenge, honours in the Turbo category went to David Raddatz, in the NA Slick category, Shane Otten took the win, and in the NA Road category Corey Stevens took the honours.

Overall, the whole meeting was a huge success, and thanks must go out to everyone who helped make it happen - the outstanding competitors, new and old, the volunteer officials and marshalls, Oran Park management and of course the hardworking iRace team.

The next confirmed event for the Independent Race Series will be held at Oran Park (South Circuit) 13-15 November. The team are working hard on securing an event in October - details will be announced as soon as they are available. We're working hard to keep bringing you our trademark brand of mate-against-mate, affordable racing.

So, watch this space!

Press play to start the slideshow. Click the fullscreen icon (lower right corner) to view in fullscreen, then click show info to see the details on each driver.

Round Four kicks off in just over 12 hours, and it's looking like the biggest iRace meeting yet.

The round, to be held at Sydney's Oran Park, on the GP layout, will feature racing by all the iRace categories: Formula Tasman & LeMans Sport, Touring Car Challenge, Muscle Division, Production Racing Cars and RocketSports. Additionally, the round will see the debut of the brand new HDT Cup category, and the inclusion of the MX5 Challenge.

The Independent Race Series prides itself on mate against mate racing, and catering for a diverse range of competitors and cars. This round will feature a number of notable competitors:

Andrew Macpherson will be driving the awesome Mosler MT900GTR (pictured right) in the combined LeMans Sports and Formula Tasman category. He'll be up against lady racer, Michele Guyer in her March Formula Holden and Ed Singleton (who made quite an impression in Muscle Division in his last appearance) in his Radical. Chris Farrell will driving his 2001 Swift Formula Atlantic, which should suit the GP layout very well. The Formula R boys are also back, and always push hard.

In the Touring Car Challenge, Darren Saillard will be the man to beat, but Andy Cantrell (pictured left) will be looking to do just that, after being narrowly defeated at the last outing at Oran Park. Friend of the series, David Towe will take the wheel of the ex-John Bowe Mustang, and will no doubt adapt quickly from his light BMW M3 to the hulking V8 Mustang. Steve Ingwersen will be keen to make an impression in his Commodore V8 Supercar, and Joe McGinnes is always spectacular!

RocketSports will be joined by the MX5 Challenge for this round, with nearly 20 of the nimble handling Mazdas in the field. The Holden Roadster brigade have been working on the handling of their cars, and Rod Moynahan, Clive O'Connor, Graham Smith and Terry Mayfield (pictured right) will be battling it out. The MX5 Challenge will also have two standalone races on Saturday.

The Production Racing Cars category has gone from strength to strength. The affordable and accessible nature of the machinery, and the closeness of the racing has really driven that growth, and this round looks to be the biggest yet for the category. Pushing hard for a great result will no doubt be Anthony Soole. He'll be challenged by Richard Mork, an Oran Park expert. Hans Riehs always goes hard, and will be doing double duty this weekend, driving his BMW Mini as well as a HDT Cup car. The girls will be well represented too, with Carly Black doing a great job in Class B, and Candace Shafell returning to Class C. Kylie Willmington (picutred left) will be making her debut in a former championship winning car. Kylie's husband, John is currently leading the Class C championship, and we've received some inside information that Kylie will give John a serious run for his money. Kylie has secured support from Caltex Depot, Jax Tyres Penrith and Penrith Muffler Man, and will be driving a Nissan Pulsar.

And last but by no means least is Muscle Division. Muscle Division will feature the largest field at this round, and will incorporate the brand new HDT Cup category. Muscle Division has seen RX7s run strongly in previous rounds, but they are yet to take a round win - Alex Hay, Gerry Murphy, Brett Morse, Keith Linnell and Steve Anslow will all be looking to rectify that this weekend. Previous round-winner Howard Glinn will be back in his Dolomite Sprint, and watch out for a round long battle between him and Neville Simmons like we saw at the last round. The big story of this round though is the HDT Cup. A category that was only conceived after the last meeting at Oran Park in May, HDT Cup has generated massive interest, and sees a massive TWENTY cars entered for the first outing! Watch out for strong performances from Todd Betland (pictured right), Hans Riehs and Chris Reeves, and the no doubt numerous dark horses, new to the series.

Practice gets underway at 0930 Friday, with Qualifying from 1330. The first of the races will take place from 1510 on Friday afternoon, with the bulk of the racing resuming at 0900 Saturday. The full schedule is available to download here.

Admission for spectators is free on both days. The pits are accessible, and the teams friendly, so come along and check out the Independent Race Series.