Sim Racing and Esports News Roundup for October 13, 2022

Do you want the opportunity to learn from a proven sim racing winner? In this edition of the Sim Racing and Esports News Roundup, James Baldwin explains how he won his second SRO Esports Championship. Watch and learn.

In addition to James’ experience, Atharva Desai highlights his recent experience racing in the iRacing VCO 2022 Fall Cup with a lot of detail, including telemetry.

I also bring you video from last weekend’s revolutionary GP Explorer that took place at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit, the inside scoop on what makes Williams Esports tick, an introduction to the McLaren 720S GT3 and much more.

From Sim Racing to the Real Thing

• It looks like the GP Explorer event that I mentioned last week was a big success. GP Explorer, organized by famous Youtuber Squeezie, had 22 internet celebrities testing their driving skills on the Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans driving real world F4 cars and it was the first of a kind. There were nearly 40,000 attendees cheering for their favorite Youtuber as well as approximately 1 million fans watching on Twitch. Even Charles Leclerc took some out from the Japanese Grand Prix to watch!

Competitive Sim Racing News

• Over at Traxion, Williams Esport’s Seb Hawkins discusses the team’s recent Le Mans Virtual Series success and how representing AMG is pivotal. “Obviously, a factory brand being involved in sim racing is great for the community anyway. It’s been really nice to work with a top manufacturer that not only competes in sim racing now but has a prestigious name in motorsport. For us to operate that name…we strive to be as professional as possible and our drivers are hugely honoured to be part of that, too.”

• Motorsport UK has confirmed that 12 teams have been selected to compete in the 2022 ROKiT British F4 Esports Championship, with a mix of real-world outfits and pro sim-racing teams. “ROKiT Racing Star, the ground-breaking esports initiative, will field a team in the 2022 championship. Earlier this year Monica Boulton-Ramos and Deagen Fairclough won the inaugural ROKiT Racing Star Esports competition and received a fully funded Hitech GP and Motorsport UK Academy-supported drives in ROKiT British F4 for 2023.” Up for grabs is a share of a £6,000 prize pool, an invite for the winner to the prestigious Night of Champions at the Royal Automobile Club, and many more prizes from the series’ partners, to be confirmed in due course.

• IMSA’s first professional virtual racing series debuts this weekend with the IMSA Esports Michelin Global Championship, whose first race is Sunday. “The series will feature the world’s top professional sim racers and teams competing for cash purses totaling $25,000 in the four-race series. Races will be broadcast on iRacing and VCO YouTube, Facebook and Twitch social media channels, with the debut event starting at 1:45 p.m. ET Sunday.”

• In the video above, James Baldwin explains how he won his second SRO Esports Championship.

• Race driver Atharva Desai discusses his recent experience racing in the iRacing VCO 2022 Fall Cup. He includes details for each session, telemetry photos and more. “This article highlights my experience in the VCO cup championship. I also included a full breakdown of my racing data and an analysis of it. The race was a fixed setup and the car was predetermined. It was an iR-04 formula car with a custom VCO setup required by all drivers to use. The track however was not announced until one day before race day. On this occasion, the race was held at Fuji International Raceway in Oyama, Japan.”

General Sim Racing News

• Coach Dave Academy introduces you to the McLaren 720S GT3. “The McLaren 720S GT3 joined the illustrious GT3 roster in 2019, taking over as Woking’s stalwart from the ageing 650S GT3. Powered by a 4-litre V8 engine planted right in the middle of the car, this car is a born-and-bred racer. It’s now up on its jacks as we look Under the Hood of this fan-favourite.”

• Season 5 of More Female Racers is set to launch and if you are a female sim racer or know someone who is, then this is a great competition to consider. “More Female Racers Powered by Mercedes-AMG is a championship series all about getting more female racers into the world of sim racing! This will be the 5th season of a successful campaign where we have seen new female racers come in to have their first ever experience of sim racing, we have see those with experience coming in and improve and we have seen females teaming up together to become SimGrid Endurance Cup Split 3 champions and go on to race in the SRO Esports series globally! Season 5 introduces an all-new format! Shorter races designed to encourage more action on track as well as driver taking part solo to encourage ex-co-drivers to take up the role of engineer. Season 5 will also be another spec-series, this time driving the mighty Mercedes-AMG GT4.”

• The Assetto Corsa Competizione console update is out now and it adds a new tire model and 400Hz physics. See the update highlights in the video above.