Jimmy Broadbent: our Hero of the Month

Jimmy Broadbent: our Hero of the Month

Dec 30, 2020 9 Min Read Posted by OverTake Team

YouTube star and charity event host Jimmy Broadbent has earned our Hero of the Month award for December.

Photo credit: Jimmy Broadbent

Before we at OverTake call 2020 a wrap, there is still one more honor to give in the esports racing world: our Hero of the Month award for December. For the last month of this special year, we have chosen content creator Jimmy Broadbent to be awarded the prestigious title!

Hero of the Month

Jimmy, or ‘Jimmer’ as he is known, has done a lot for the sim racing world in this challenging year. Just at the end of November, his charity event Race for Mental Health took place and raised a little over £70,000 for the mental health organization Mind. For this alone, Jimmy deserves our respect and earns his Hero of the Month title. But besides that, there is more to know about the Briton, so let’s get to know him a bit better!

Jimmer’s way to sim racing

When asked about his way into the wondrous world of virtual racing, Jimmy revealed that it was actually sort of a second choice for him – at first.

I was just […] one of that typical kids that always wants to be a racing driver, but of course, mom and dad never agreed with that, so I never really got to do any of that sort of stuff. So then I found that you could go racing in video games. […] And I just got completely lost in it.

As young Jimmy then discovered more and more racing games and simulators, he got increasingly ambitious at racing, becoming eager to maximize his speed and get the most out of his car. Just a little bit later, he started thinking about making videos about this on YouTube. However, he stood a bit in his own way at first.

Besting his inner demons

The time Jimmy got started with YouTube was actually a very tough one for him personally. He was struggling with depression, and the Briton fought to stay motivated for just about everything. In an interview with Streamlabs Blog back in 2019, he talked about the start of his YouTube journey and how he admirably managed to pull himself together for it:

I first seriously became involved in content creation for YouTube back at the end of 2016, where I was currently unemployed and actually suffering from some mental illness at the time. I thought: ‘You know what, I’m going to just try and be productive and do something with my day as opposed to just lie in bed,’ and made a little pact with myself that I would make a video a day just to keep myself occupied.

In his career as a content creator, Jimmy was highly inspired by fellow YouTuber Empty Box, who produces a lot of quality content about sim racing and was especially active back in 2018. On the other side, Jimmy mentions the creator chuggaaconroy as one of his biggest influences. He especially admires the passion and enthusiasm the American creator shares with his audience in every video. Jimmy has tried to do the same on his channel ever since – and it’s not going badly, to say the least, as the creator has recently hit 600k subscribers!

Stories from the shed with Jimmy Broadbent

Visiting Jimmy’s YouTube channel, one is greeted by a video that calls him a “shed dweller” – and this is no simple metaphor. During a very trying time in his life a few years ago, Jimmy’s struggles with mental health cost him his job, relationship and also his home. Around that time, he moved into an old shed in his mother’s backyard – and stayed there. The YouTube channel DRIVETRIBE reported on the YouTuber’s unusual living circumstances at the beginning of 2020.

As fancy housing is not one of Jimmy’s priorities, he over time collected the means to fulfil one of his more pressing desires. His absolute dream car, a 1993 Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R, has been his now since around April 2020. More than happy with his investment, he reflected on owning the model and choosing it over an apartment in a vlog on his channel. Spoiler: There were never any regrets whatsoever, even when he took his mother for a spin and scared her with the sheer speed of the vehicle.

2020 from Jimmy’s perspective

Besides the Race for Mental Health Jimmy hosted at the end of November, he was a very present figure in this special year for the sim racing scene. For the esports racing scene, the content creator actually considers the 2020 season one of his favorites. Seeing how many great events were made possible this year, we at OverTake will have to agree for the most part – also looking back on our own event Clash of Racers II, in which Jimmy took part as well!

We at OverTake aren’t the only ones that think Jimmy deserves to be honored at the end of this year. Car manufacturer BMW awarded him the title of Sim Racing Influencer of the Year on December 5. Having realized a great project on racing simulations that went up to over 2.5 million views, we think Jimmy more than deserves the award and congratulate him as a team!

Follow Jimmy on social media and leave some kind words:

Twitter
Instagram

Also check out our last two editions of Hero of the Month:

SEBASTIAN JOB: OUR HERO OF THE MONTH

EMILY JONES: OUR HERO OF THE MONTH

Who do you think deserves to be the next Hero of the Month? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!

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