Sim Racing: Customer racers join works driver and sim pros

Munich. On Tuesday, drivers from BMW M Customer Racing teams had the opportunity to take to the track with sim racing pros at the first BMW Motorsport SIM Racing Track Day on the iRacing platform, and gain further experience in the discipline in the digital BMW M4 GT4. They received tuition from well-known ‘instructors’: BMW works driver Philipp Eng (AUT), who enjoys great success in the simulator himself, and the three sim racers Alexander Voß, Laurin Heinrich and Nils Koch (all GER).

 

Those taking part from BMW M Customer Racing included Ben Tuck (GBR / Walkenhorst Motorsport), Daan Pijl (NED / MDM Motorsport) and Ben Green (GBR / FK Performance), as well as Jon Miller (USA / ST Racing) and Toby Grahovec (USA / Classic BMW) from the USA. The event also offered the opportunity for customer racers to have a close exchange and to prepare together for the coming races when they meet again at real racetracks.

 

On the iRacing platform, entrants took to the virtual Grand Prix track at the Nürburgring. The race car was the BMW M4 GT4 in, inter alia, the yellow livery of BMW M Customer Racing Official Supplier M4 GT4, Ravenol. Race procedures were also simulated, with a free practice session, qualifying and a race. Instructors used a voice app to give the participants valuable tips on set-up work with digital race cars.

 

“With their various commitments and activities, BMW has long demonstrated how seriously they take the field of sim racing,” said Eng. “This event showed that once again. I think it’s great that customer teams and drivers from the BMW Sports Trophy are also being given the opportunity to collaborate with sim experts.”

 

“I was really happy to do the BMW Motorsport SIM Racing Track Day”, Green confirmed. “It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from speaking to Philipp and the sim racers. It was great to see their set-ups and how they drive the car, which is slightly different in the simulation versus real life, so it was good to learn from their experience. Simulators are very important for me as I use them for practice tracks that I would not get the chance to test at, or at least to get up to speed before I go to the track in real life. I think it’s a very useful tool for that and I am spending more and more time on sim racing as it can train the mind in different ways and you can really benefit from it.”

 

Meanwhile, the BMW Motorsport SIM Racing season is well underway. The next round of the BMW SIM M2 CS Racing Cup at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife (GER) took place on Wednesday. Victory on the rFactor2 platform went to Erhan Jajovski (MKD) from the R8G e-Sports Sim Racing Team. The BMW SIM 120 Cup then enters its next round on Sunday, when the best iRacing drivers will go head to head on the iconic Spa-Francorchamps (BEL) track.

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