Paul Jeffrey
Premium
Welcome to the weekly roundup of action and excitement from the world of esport racing.
Well, I think it pretty obvious to say that the main headline from the last week of virtual racing has to be the incredible show put on for the very first official Le Mans 24 Hours virtual event - a replacement race held on the time and date that should have been allocated to the real Le Mans 24 Hours prior to the current world health situation effectively pausing all on track motorsport activities these past few months.
That said, although LM24 did much to steal the headlines, we still had a pretty solid week of racing - and the week ahead is fairly spectacular too!
Last Week
Ok, let's start with the headliner. Le Mans 24 Hours Virtual is rather likely to go down in history as the largest sim racing event held to-date. With 24 hours of racing, over 200 drivers and many, many professional racers from the worlds of Formula One, Le Mans, touring cars and beyond, the virtual running of the greatest race in the world was absolutely packed full of high profile talent. Furthermore, with the official association with the ACO and Le Mans, many real world racing teams and manufacturers entered teams into the running, giving the event much of the prestige associated with the real race.
Using rFactor 2 and the Prototype and GT content within the sim, and broadcast on Eurosport and pretty much everywhere online, it is probably fair to say the race was something of a success for the organisers, running incredibly well from a technical point of view, and featuring a largely very impressive broadcast for the viewers at home. With both LMP2 and GT categories running, it would be Raffaele Marciello, Louis Deletraz, Nikodem Wisniewski and Kuba Brzezinski who came out on top for the Rebellion Williams Esports team as overall winners, with the #93 Porsche factory squad of Nick Tandy, Ayhancan Guven, Joshua Rogers and Tommy Ostgaard who took a resounding victory in GTE.
Over in tintop land, the first round of the official WTCR Esports series took place on Sunday afternoon. A new series utilising the RaceRoom Racing Experience WTCR content and featuring most of the current WTCR field, the event offered an entertaining display of racing and some surprisingly adept racing from the touring car drivers, with Esteban Guerrieri coming out on top at Salzburgring, ahead of Mat'o Homola and 2019 World Champion, Norbi Michelisz.
The final round of the Formula One Virtual Grand Prix season would be in action later on Sunday as well, and once again Williams driver and Mercedes junior George Russell would be in dominant form - the Englishman securing his fourth consecutive race victory in the series to wrap up the inaugural title, bringing some much needed success to the 22-year-old following a difficult season last year in the real world championship.
Next Week
The week ahead once again promises to be a full one for sim racing fans of any style of racing, with plenty happening in both the open wheel and hard top racing categories.
Kicking off proceeding on Saturday is our grand final of the inaugural SRO E-Sport GT Series AM Championship season from Bathurst. With 8 drivers heading into the final round with a shout of taking home the championship, and every single driver still in the fight to secure that all important top 10 position to qualify for the Grand Finale in September, the last race of what has been an exceptional season is setup to be something of a spectacular event. As always this season, we've got some goodies to giveaway to the sim racing audience, and as it is finals day - we plan to give something away every 10 minutes! Make sure you tune into the race broadcast from 18:00 UTC to be in with a shout at winning.
Also in SRO E-Sport land, Sunday will see the season final of both the PRO and SILVER categories at Kyalami, with the final round of their championship set to take place at the South African venue in what should be another highly entertaining encounter for both the real world professional drivers, and their professional esport counterparts.
Following a successful debut on TV and online last weekend, the FIA WTCR Esport series returns again on Monday afternoon (televised coverage takes place Sunday), for the second round of the season at the Hungaroring, With 17 WTCR drivers taking part, using the yet to be released RaceRoom WTCR car content and enjoying the full might of a Eurosport broadcast team, it should be another fine week or virtual touring car racing..
Summary of Events:
I'm sure plenty more is happening in the week ahead too - feel free to let us know about any good entertainment in the comments section, and I'll be sure to add them to the list for future roundup articles.
Stay safe, stay inside, stay sim racing!
Well, I think it pretty obvious to say that the main headline from the last week of virtual racing has to be the incredible show put on for the very first official Le Mans 24 Hours virtual event - a replacement race held on the time and date that should have been allocated to the real Le Mans 24 Hours prior to the current world health situation effectively pausing all on track motorsport activities these past few months.
That said, although LM24 did much to steal the headlines, we still had a pretty solid week of racing - and the week ahead is fairly spectacular too!
Last Week
Ok, let's start with the headliner. Le Mans 24 Hours Virtual is rather likely to go down in history as the largest sim racing event held to-date. With 24 hours of racing, over 200 drivers and many, many professional racers from the worlds of Formula One, Le Mans, touring cars and beyond, the virtual running of the greatest race in the world was absolutely packed full of high profile talent. Furthermore, with the official association with the ACO and Le Mans, many real world racing teams and manufacturers entered teams into the running, giving the event much of the prestige associated with the real race.
Using rFactor 2 and the Prototype and GT content within the sim, and broadcast on Eurosport and pretty much everywhere online, it is probably fair to say the race was something of a success for the organisers, running incredibly well from a technical point of view, and featuring a largely very impressive broadcast for the viewers at home. With both LMP2 and GT categories running, it would be Raffaele Marciello, Louis Deletraz, Nikodem Wisniewski and Kuba Brzezinski who came out on top for the Rebellion Williams Esports team as overall winners, with the #93 Porsche factory squad of Nick Tandy, Ayhancan Guven, Joshua Rogers and Tommy Ostgaard who took a resounding victory in GTE.
Over in tintop land, the first round of the official WTCR Esports series took place on Sunday afternoon. A new series utilising the RaceRoom Racing Experience WTCR content and featuring most of the current WTCR field, the event offered an entertaining display of racing and some surprisingly adept racing from the touring car drivers, with Esteban Guerrieri coming out on top at Salzburgring, ahead of Mat'o Homola and 2019 World Champion, Norbi Michelisz.
The final round of the Formula One Virtual Grand Prix season would be in action later on Sunday as well, and once again Williams driver and Mercedes junior George Russell would be in dominant form - the Englishman securing his fourth consecutive race victory in the series to wrap up the inaugural title, bringing some much needed success to the 22-year-old following a difficult season last year in the real world championship.
Next Week
The week ahead once again promises to be a full one for sim racing fans of any style of racing, with plenty happening in both the open wheel and hard top racing categories.
Kicking off proceeding on Saturday is our grand final of the inaugural SRO E-Sport GT Series AM Championship season from Bathurst. With 8 drivers heading into the final round with a shout of taking home the championship, and every single driver still in the fight to secure that all important top 10 position to qualify for the Grand Finale in September, the last race of what has been an exceptional season is setup to be something of a spectacular event. As always this season, we've got some goodies to giveaway to the sim racing audience, and as it is finals day - we plan to give something away every 10 minutes! Make sure you tune into the race broadcast from 18:00 UTC to be in with a shout at winning.
Also in SRO E-Sport land, Sunday will see the season final of both the PRO and SILVER categories at Kyalami, with the final round of their championship set to take place at the South African venue in what should be another highly entertaining encounter for both the real world professional drivers, and their professional esport counterparts.
Following a successful debut on TV and online last weekend, the FIA WTCR Esport series returns again on Monday afternoon (televised coverage takes place Sunday), for the second round of the season at the Hungaroring, With 17 WTCR drivers taking part, using the yet to be released RaceRoom WTCR car content and enjoying the full might of a Eurosport broadcast team, it should be another fine week or virtual touring car racing..
Summary of Events:
- Renault Esport Series - Friday 19th June - 17:00 UTC
- SRO E-Sport GT Series AM Championship - Saturday 20th June - 18:00 UTC
- The Tripe Crown - Saturday 20th June - 16:00 UTC
- Lamborghini The Real Race - Sunday 21st June - 17:00 UTC
- SRO E-Sport GT Series PRO & Silver Championship - Sunday 21st - 11:45 UTC
- WTCR Esports - Monday 22nd June - tbc
- W Series Esports - Thursday 25th June - 18:00 UTC
I'm sure plenty more is happening in the week ahead too - feel free to let us know about any good entertainment in the comments section, and I'll be sure to add them to the list for future roundup articles.
Stay safe, stay inside, stay sim racing!
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