Here we see a few sim racing tournaments to check out in 2022. The popularity of sim racing brings new opportunities.
Whilst many people are familiar with traditional motorsports events such as the Daytona 500, Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix, the Isle of Man TT and Le Mans 24 HR endurance, they may not be as familiar with some of the biggest tournaments in sim racing.
Some may not even know what sim racing is, so you’ve found yourself on the right website to learn everything you could need to know about the genre.
SimRace247.com is a great place to find out about sim racing and more. You can read up about all the latest tournaments and their outcomes, as well as some factual pieces on interesting topics like learning that F1 champion Max Verstappen is a fellow sim racer.
For those who aren’t too aware of what sim racing is, let’s quickly recap for all you newbies. Sim racing is the esports equivalent to traditional motor racing and where leagues have vast communities that are organised right down to the very last detail, not only that, sim racing is also a casual genre to be enjoyed with friends and community competitors.
Where those who compete do so via racing video games like Assetto Corsa, the DIRT and Formula 1 series of games, as well as others such as iRacing.
Some do play with a controller and the odd keyboard racer, but many competitors have impressive setups, steering wheels, pedals, gear shifters, etc, and use settings that mean they too have to consider factors such as fuel usage and tire wear into consideration, like in traditional motorsports.
So except for being in the car, it’s as close to taking part in the real thing as you can possibly get, and it’s becoming more and more popular all the time. The only thing that is missing is how you can bet on traditional motorsports at places like Heritage Sportsbook, because the sim racing market isn’t quite there yet.
But it’ll only be a matter of time before you can bet on your favourite sim racers to win the major championships they take part in just like real racers such as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
This season proved to be one of the most exciting finishes in F1 history coming down to the last race of the season. Lewis entered the race as the favorite at +250 and lost the title on the last lap but not without a lot of controversy.
Anyway, what are some of the biggest tournaments to look forward to next year in sim racing? Let’s take a look…
The VERSUS ULTRA Series
We don’t know all the information around the upcoming VERSUS ULTRA series in 2022, and that’s because it’s a brand new competitive Sim Racing competition.
Announced when Veloce Esports and Codemasters made public their intentions of setting up a new series of esports racing leagues, little information has been made available yet.
It is believed there could be a number of different series for many of Codemasters racing titles such as their GRID series and Project CARS titles, as well as some of their other titles we mentioned above.
Of the partnership, Rupert Svendsen-Cook, the CEO of Veloce Esports stated: “We’re delighted and feel very privileged to be partnering with such an established player in the industry as Codemasters, to launch what we know will be the best racing esports league in the world.”
An ambitious statement if we ever saw one, but that’s what has us so excited for it to arrive. Little has been announced though, but what we do know from the picture below is there is likely to be a Formula 1 series due to single-seater car in the middle, a DIRT series due to the rallycross car and the GT3 car could come from a couple of titles.
Another known fact is Quadrant, the esports team owned by F1 driver Lando Norris were the first team to take part officially announced.
The Real Race 2022
No date has been confirmed yet, but it is slowly becoming a staple in every SimRacing driver’s calendar. Using Assetto Corsa Competizione as the racing title, it is often a well watched event around the world. This year’s edition saw the game partner with Lamborghini to bring the newest edition of The Real Race to life, and it did not disappoint.
It had a new format that we hope sticks around for 2022, that saw drivers qualifying through three different regional rankings; North and South America, Europe Middle East and Africa, and Asia and Pacific. Racers had to compete in 10 races involving both traditional Grand Prix and Endurance events.
The 2021 winners of each region, Fidel Moreira (Brazil), Jordan Sheratt (South Africa) and Andrew O’Hara (Australia) each received a trip to Lamborghini headquarters to meet and train with their official drivers.
But the main prize, which is yet to be decided with the regional winners only announced last month, will see the top SimRacing driver go on to be an official sim driver for Lamborghini in 2022.
With COVID-19 still rife, that event could be delayed some time. But it has been an exciting battle this year, and we can’t wait to check out the Real Race 2022 when it starts again in the summer.
RaceRoom GT Masters 2022
One of the most underrated sim racing series is the RaceRoom GT Masters, one of a number of esports championships that uses the free-to-play PC racing simulation game. It features some of the top esports teams around including the official Williams and Red Bull Racing representatives.
One of the most exciting racers to take part is Dörr Esports’ Moritz Löhner, who did pretty well in 2021, managing to win his third championship. He was also the champion of the RaceRoom DTM Esports series, showing what a veteran of the game he is. Best of all, he’ll be back again in 2022 and we can’t wait for him to fight it out for another championship with some of the best SimRacing drivers around.
Final Words
These are just a few of the top events coming in the new year, with plenty of other tournaments around. Whilst you’re here, why not let us know in the comments what sim racing events you are looking forward to in the new year? And don’t forget, you’ll get all the coverage on Simrace247.com, so make sure to bookmark the site so you don’t miss out on anything
