Honda Performance Development teamed up with Europe’s JAS Motorsport to create a new HPD JAS Esports Academy. Its mission statement is to “[cultivate] the next generation of racing talent through sim racing,” which it will do via the popular Assetto Corsa Competizione racing video game.
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On May 11, the Esports Academy held open qualifiers to find the top 25 drivers in Europe, Asia, and North America, live streaming the three-hour event on YouTube. From this select group, it then picked out a handful of drivers to join its Esports GT3 Driver Academy based on a variety of factors including “finishing position, pace, racecraft, strategy, and more.”
The winning drivers were just announced today. For North America, Honda selected Zach Patterson, Josh Staffin, and Cardin Lu. For Europe, it selected Nicolas Hillebrand and Ben Creanor. Asian team members have yet to be announced as the racing season begins later in that region.
The new team members will participate in the SRO Esports season, competing in a variety of virtual sprint and endurance championships while also getting personalized coaching and marketing support.
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Sim racing esports has been on the rise over the last decade. Current and ex-pro drivers regularly go wheel-to-wheel in iRacing and many global racing competitions now sponsor major international sim racing championships. It will even be at this year’s Olympics.
But sim racing is proving lucrative not only because of its entertainment value but also because of its potential to uncover real racing talent. Honda says that “sim racing is so close to its real-world component” and will give its new academy drivers the chance to practice their skills in real racing cars and offer them mentorship as well.
So far, a few sim racers have enjoyed genuine success in real-life racing. As more manufacturers like Honda get involved, it’s possible one of the world’s future motorsport champions will have started off behind a screen with nothing but plastic pedals and a Logitech wheel.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.