Sim Racing and Esports News for January 27, 2022

Sim Racing and Esports News for January 27, 2022

Here are some interesting sim racing developments from the last week that will be of interest to race drivers who participate in sim racing. This week I look at the stats behind last weekend’s Le Mans Virtual Series, the new partnership between the Canadian Touring Car Championship and EGT Canada, the journey of sim racer Cem Bolukbasi to the real thing and some great articles on where sim racing fits into the overall motorsport landscape.

Series News

  • Last weekend’s Le Mans Virtual Series was followed by more than 81 million fans. You can watch highlights here. Here are the stats:
    • 360,000 hours were consumed by the #LeMansVirtual audience
    • 8 million TV/OTT audience (source: YouGov Sport)
    • 4 million digital impressions for 24H Le Mans Virtual (Source : YouGov Sport)
    • 2 million social media impressions (FIA WEC, ACO, LMVS) through the season
    • 7 million video views (across FIA WEC, ACO and Traxion GG – Source: Hookit)
    • 200 drivers hailing from 39 different nations
    • 50 cars split in two classes (29 LMP and 21 GTE)
    • 116 simulators located across 28 different countries
    • 2 servers (1 main/1 backup) operated rFactor2 and 0 server issues
    • 33,000 connections on the official Alkamel timing system (Source: Alkamel)
    • 407 laps completed by the winner, #70 Realteam Hydrogen Redline
    • Organisation team of 120 people including production, sporting, marketing, media and digital, TV, logistics
  • Here is a bit of background about Team Redline, the champion of both categories in the race.
  • The Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC) has teamed up with EGT Canada for a virtual championship. “We are very happy to be partnering with EGT Challenge and believe that this virtual platform is a fantastic way to promote motorsport. Julien Hébert and his team of dedicated people are great at recreating a real racing atmosphere. Motorsport and its future development can benefit from the virtual community and we’re in!”, says Dominique Bondar, General Manager of RACE Events. Here is the full Virtual CTCC/EGT Championship Schedule:
    • Race 1 – February 4, 2022 – Calabogie Motorsports Park
    • Race 2 – February 18, 2022 – Watkins Glenn
    • Race 3 – March 4, 2022 – Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
    • Race 4 – March 18, 2022 – Circuit Mont-Tremblant
    • Race 5 – April 1, 2022 – Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve
    • Race 6 – April 15, 2022 – Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières

The Big Picture

Sim Racing and Esports News for January 27, 2022
Cem Bolukbasi

I have some great articles for you this week on how sim racing fits into the overall motorsport picture and its value to traditional motorsport.

  • “Costs of real racing cannot go down significantly enough. A set of racing tires cannot cost $50; travel and crew costs cannot reduce enough. While cost-cutting should be a focus, the motorsports industry needs to spend time on growing the value – which should come from growing the audience. But how do we do this?” Sim Racing is Just Getting Going explains.
  • Finally, I have mentioned him before but in the space of five years, Cem Bolukbasi has gone from F1 Esports race winner to preparing for a full-time real-world campaign in Formula 1’s leading support series. The Race looks at his career so far in From gaming to the cusp of Formula 1.

That is it for this week’s Sim Racing and Esports News. As always, if you have any sim racing-related news that you think the race driver community would be interested in, do not hesitate to contact me.

Mark Boudreau
Author: Mark Boudreau

Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a former lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.