Esport Minute | A Round-Up Of Sim Racing Esports Action

Paul Jeffrey · May 16, 2020

Esport continues to occupy the majority of viewing time for those missing the thrill of real racing, so let's take a look at the week just gone, and what to look forward to in the days ahead.

Virtual motorsport continues to go from strength to strength, as the racing held during the week past once again showcased how close our hobby is towards replicating the thrills of real life motorsport action.

Last Week
In tin top action, the Australians had much of the fun with thrilling races in both the AGR eSports Cup for TCR Audi iRacing cars, as a mix of experienced and young drivers from the world of Australian motorsport battled it out on the now sadly demolished Oran Park racetrack in iRacing.

Stars from the world of the popular TCR Australia series showed great pace and racecraft on the iRacing simulation, with wildcard entrant Josh Files (of TCR Europe fame) also showing strongly with a race two podium finish.

Keeping it 'down under', the Supercars All Star Esport Series once again produced some fantastic action, with the field taking to the Circuit of the Americas for a three race battle that featured McLaren Formula One driver, Lando Norris.

Norris would be making his second guest appearance in the series at the American venue, and took to the category like a duck to water as he secured his first race victory in a dominant performance during the shorter race 2 sprint event.

In GT racing, the SRO E-Sport GT Series PRO and SILVER categories would be at Spa-Francorchamps for their second round of the championship, with Audi driver Lorenzo Marcucci comfortably taking the victory spoils of the real world drivers. Former Formula One World Champion Jenson Button would have a difficult race, the 40-year-old in the wars as he retired early on in his his Jenson Team Rocket RJN liveried McLaren. Another star name trying their hand in the series would be follow F1 racer and double Formula E Champion Jean-Eric Vergne, however the Frenchman lasted even less time than his British rival, having failed to even cross the line on the opening lap.

In the SILVER category, Andrea Capoccia would end up on top in a close fought race, the Audi man managing to secure an eventual race victory with 11 seconds in hand over the chasing pack.

Moving on to open wheel machines, yet another entertaining F1 Virtual Grand Prix took place last weekend, taking to the Barcelona circuit as Charles Leclerc enjoyed more than his fair share of action throughout the race.

George Russell and Leclerc would have a battle royal for the race victory, with Russell taking the place on track but carrying a three second penalty, only for the Ferrari driver to gain a penalty of his own in the dying moments, allowing Williams George Russell to take home his first race victory of the series.

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois would have a solid race himself, ending up in 12th position and best of the football stars taking part in the event.

Speaking of football players, check out this start from Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1259543119772758016

Next Week
The week ahead is again packed full of exciting action to enjoy, with the best of the best from the world of Formula E set to battle it out in rFactor 2, the next round of the SRO E-Sport PRO and SILVER series, and a debut for both Formula 2 and Formula 3 drivers in the world of virtual racing.

Keeping it closer to home, RaceDepartment will be hosting the first round of their new SRO E-Sport GT Series AM Championship races on Saturday evening, with a field of 45 community AM drivers taking to the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit for a 60 minute dash to the chequed flag. Unique in that the series is running a 'fan first' approach, those who tune into our race broadcast from 19:00 UTC on the RaceDepartment Twitch channel can be in with a shout of winning a £650 widescreen BenQ curved gaming monitor! Check out the details here.

Summary of Events

Formula E Race At Home Challenge - Saturday 16th May - 14:30 UTC
SRO E-Sport GT AM Championship - Saturday 16th May - 19:00 UTC
SRO E-Sport GT PRO & SILVER Championship - Sunday 17th May - 12:45
Virtual F2 & F3 - Sunday 17th May - 16:00
GT Rivals America - Sunday 17th May - 3pm ET
WTCR Esports - Monday 18th May - 18:30
Supercars All Star E Series - Wednesday 20th May - 10:00

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!

RichardHessels · May 16, 2020

Great update in these strange and difficult, but for simracing exiting times.

groove200 · May 16, 2020

great update....I cant keep up with all that's going on !

BrunoBæ · May 16, 2020

Personally its quite interesting with this new situation.
Because as completely blaze I am when I see E-sport racing announced with some youtubers and more or less unknown sim racers

- then Its completely the opposite when I see a race announced with as example some wellknown RL F1 or IMSA or LeMans drivers.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: By coincidence I just dropped in to a fight between Jan Magnussen and Jenson Button.
Oh man - eventhough it was a pure coincidence then I watched the race to the end just because I wanted to see if Button could overtake Magnussen before the end.

And furthermore It was great to see these 2 drivers respect each others driving more or less as in RL. Hehe to the opposite of normal sim drivers

Shaun Clarke · May 16, 2020

Durge Driven · May 17, 2020

I would like to see Hot Lapping event with servers across all studios
This would give Pro drivers more freedom to put in 15 minutes when they are free
Interesting leader board

Also drifting and time attack could make good spectacles and again neither would require
driver to be present every minute

BrunoBæ · May 17, 2020

You are right Time Attack and Time Trial with wellknown RL drivers could be fun to "watch".
I mean you could allways watch a replay of their best run.
And in such single player mode there would be no chance for one of the mandatory simracer boys to take a Button or a Norris out just to show how good he is.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: And if there furthermore was a possibility to merge 2 different laps with different drivers to one replay then it could be interesting to compare driving styles.
Just like it was possible to merge replays in NR2003 & mods.

Durge Driven · May 19, 2020

Bruno is one thing the rFactor2 server could do no other sim before or since can do ..........

Alonso can hotlap every single car listed and retain all times without ever leaving the ~~garage~~ server
Thus not having to wait for multiple reloads and rejoining saving more of his valuable time

So there all you hotlap pretenders stick that in your pipe and smoke it

BrunoBæ · May 19, 2020

Durge Driven said:
I would like to see Hot Lapping event with servers across all studios
This would give Pro drivers more freedom to put in 15 minutes when they are free
Interesting leader board

Sorry. I suddenly see that you in your post above is presenting your old horse "How to compete trans different commercial game engines".
IE between different commercial game engines on the same platform.
I didnt see that because I was solely focussing on your proposed hot lap format including wellknown RL drivers.

But seriously then as example iRacing will never allow part of their game engine(Tire Model/Physics) to be made to run in some transgender racing game

beside other drivers using as example AMS2, rF2, pCars2 or ACC physics.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Another thing even if it was possible is that it will never be possible to BoP(Balance of Performance) reasonable between the different racing game physics. And therefore it will be a handicap selecting a game engine which as example change to driving on ice when you get too near to the edge of adhesion between tire and tarmac. No pro driver would ever choose such a lousy engine if they were allowed to choose a much more forgiving game engine conserning tire physics.

Durge Driven · May 20, 2020

Only funning

no less it is true what I tell offliners to do more fun when you can drive any car
and to make a server just you can join is easy no ports needed and no lag
Like you can't do it offline
The other great things about "onlining' offline is no Pause unless you want it !
You can be rubbering a track with ai and window key to desktop watch a VLC and browse lol sweet

Same as saying iRacing is only hardcore sim, true in one way , it's only one does not have aids I think ?

Durge Driven · May 20, 2020

BrunoB said:
Sorry. I suddenly see that you in your post above is presenting your old horse "How to compete trans different commercial game engines".
IE between different commercial game engines on the same platform.
I didnt see that because I was solely focussing on your proposed hot lap format including wellknown RL drivers.

But seriously then as example iRacing will never allow part of their game engine(Tire Model/Physics) to be made to run in some transgender racing game beside other drivers using as example AMS2, rF2, pCars2 or ACC physics.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Another thing even if it was possible is that it will never be possible to BoP(Balance of Performance) reasonable between the different racing game physics. And therefore it will be a handicap selecting a game engine which as example change to driving on ice when you get too near to the edge of adhesion between tire and tarmac. No pro driver would ever choose such a lousy engine if they were allowed to choose a much more forgiving game engine conserning tire physics.

I never bag other sims
I see glass half full
Concentrate on positives in each

My future sees one engine for all sims and hardware compatibility

Hypothetically just think on some of the positives

ACC is the right track , distinctive series, less content the whole thing is built around
one set of principles ... GT3-GT4 ....whatever you get what i mean

I think that is way to bring huge console crowd .....consistency across studios