The IT Nerd

I’d like to introduce you to Nicolas Hamilton. If you follow Formula One like I do, you’ll recognize the name as he’s the brother of Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain. He’s also got cerebral palsy, when meant that he couldn’t follow in his brother’s footsteps. That was, until he was introduced to Sim Racing at age 15. I’ve written about Sim Racing in the past, but here’s one way where it can truly change lives.

Nicolas devoted so much time developing his skills and abilities on the simulator that he was soon winning Esports championships and gaining huge notoriety in the online racing community. But that wasn’t enough for Nicolas; eventually his single-minded dedication saw him able to transfer his online skills into the take-no-prisoners, physical world of real-world motorsports. In 2011 started racing real cars The Renault Sport Clio Cup. In 2015, with a car that was specially modified to accommodate his needs, Nicolas secured a deal with AmD Tuning to race an Audi S3 in five rounds of the British Touring Car Championship, the top motorsport series in the UK, thereby becoming the first driver with a disability to compete in the series. Nicolas is now also part of Channel 4’s Formula One presentation team.

The story is remarkable and it’s documented in a short film called “Inspired to Drive – The Nicolas Hamilton Story”. The film was shot on location in Los Angeles, California, at CXC Simulations—a high-end engineering firm that has revolutionized personal racing simulation equipment—as well as on location in London. The film was produced by automotive filmmakers Donut Media. I’ve embedded the short film below:

A unique Project CARS Esports season began last Friday. This is a series that pits amateur and professional car racing aficionados from all over the world against each other in a series of competitions that identifies the fastest simulated car racing drivers in the world. The winners, which will be identified in October 2016, get to split almost $23,000 in cash prizes.

Over 200 teams with over 10,000 players have registered to compete in the 2016 Logitech G Championship Series and NVIDIA Challenger Series. Each series consists of ten rounds over a 6-month period designed to identify the fastest virtual race car drivers in the world.

Players of any age, either amateur or professional, can compete from anywhere in the world. Each player or team is required to use the Project CARS driving simulator, and use their own equipment (which may include virtual reality headsets) and steer their vehicles around the laser-scanned virtual race tracks. The competitions consist of a series of rounds that coincide with real-life motorsports events occurring on weekends throughout the spring and autumn of 2016. The lap times for each event are recorded and posted to a leaderboard. Points are awarded for leaderboard positions. The winner is selected by determining the highest score at the end of the season.

The favorites heading into the 2016 season are world-renowned Team Redline who have won well over 100 individual and team-based championships from the top levels of sim-racing. Their star driver, Greger Huttu, who many believe to the best sim-driver in history, is a 5-times iRacing World Champion, and has dominated simulated auto racing since 1999. Team Redline also includes other real-world race car drivers including Max Verstappen (Torro Rosso F1 driver), Richie Stanaway (Aston Martin WEC driver), and Nick Catsburg (GP3, Blancpain GT3 driver, and Spa 24 Hour winner).

To get started one needs a decent race seat—anywhere from $200 to $20,000 (for full motion and G-force rigs); a good set of wheels and pedals—anywhere from $500 to $5,000—and a strong PC, Playstation4 or XBOX One. The newest virtual reality technology like the Oculus Rift which offers the ultimate added realism and comes with Project CARS included costs $599. Check out http://www.projectcarsesports.com/race-like-a-pro for more info on recommended gear.

In 2016, approximately 130 million people worldwide, with an additional 125 million occasional viewers, tuned in for the big international Esports events. Competitive gaming revenue is expected to top $450 million in 2016, and $1.1 billion by 2019. Esports, where professional gamers play video games in competition with others, have grown to a large spectator events, which has resulted in companies such as ESPN, and Electronic Arts to form Esports divisions in recent months.

For more information, visit http://www.projectcarsesports.com/home/project-cars-esports-gets-eur20000-prize-pool and http://www.projectcarsesports.com