Media technology company Motorsport Games teased a list of this year’s $250,000 (~£181,383) Le Mans Virtual Series participants that include some of the world’s best-known motorsport and sim racing names.
At least 38 entries are expected to participate including multiple drivers for Alpine, Porche, and Ferrari. Twelve different nations are represented on the entry list from Europe, the Middle and the Far East.
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Per a release, race and/or championship title winners from the WEC and European Le Mans Series (past and present) include Rebellion Racing, JOTA, Panis Racing, Team Project 1 and Team WRT. Endurance racing teams will include but are not limited to GR Racing, Proton Competition, D’Station Racing, and ARC Bratislava.
Entries will be split between two categories of cars — Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE), with 21 and 17 each, respectively.
LMGTE offers a choice of Aston Martin Vantage GTE, BMW M8 GTE, Corvette C8.R, Ferrari 488 GTE and Porsche 911 RSR GTE cars to entrants. Leading marques such as BMW, Ferrari and Porsche will be represented by their own official esports teams together with Red Bull Racing Esports, BMW Team Redline, TESLA R8G Esports, and GR Wolves Racing.
Real-world racers will be joined by a number of successful sim racing competitors including Yas Heat, Mahle Racing Team, Race Clutch Alpine, Romain Grosjean’s R8G Esports team, Floyd ByKolles-Burst, Williams Esports, Team Redline, Red Bull Racing Esports and Jenson Button’s Rocket Simsport. These teams will compete with an ORECA 07 LMP2. Williams Rebellion Esports, winners of the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual-winning partnership will return to defend its title.
A full list of Le Mans Virtual Series entries and drivers will be released on September 14th. An additional 20 cars are expected to join the event during the season finale that runs from January 15th to 16th at the 2022 Autosport International motorsport show.
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Le Mans Virtual Series will feature some of the world’s most famous racetracks — Monza, Spa, Nürburgring, Sebring and Le Mans.
Following on from the success of the 2020 Virtual Le Mans race, this year’s sim racing competition has been expanded with a new format and a $250,000 prize pool. The series will consist of four events taking place between September and December using the Factor 2 sim racing Platform.
Esports Insider says: Professional drivers already use sim racing to acquaint themselves with tracks and to practise their skills. This makes sim racing a natural way for both real-life teams and esports organisations to continue engagement and competition even when in-person events have resumed for the foreseeable future.
