Our driver Jimmy Mansi keeps us up to date with his blogs and how he is supporting the rookies at oNiD Racing as a sim racing instructor.
It is great to see our sponsored sim racing driver Jimmy Mansi racing in top leagues but also showing great support to the grassroots of sim racing by supporting rookies at oNiD Racing.
We at simrace247 have and will always show support to all levels of drivers and racers in the sim racing community. We STRONGLY BELIEVE that recognition for those that enjoy sim racing, rookie or veteran, male or female, old or young is part of the sim racing family and are welcome here within our community and the leagues we support.
Jimmy helping out with the oNiD Rookies
Hey all.. This one is going to be a little different to my usual race update blog.
A while back I was approached by oNiD Racing asking if I’d like to be a part of their new Rookies Championship as one of five coaches. I was introduced to oNiD by a friend who I met when I first started out on ACC on PC back in November 2020. Since then I raced loosely in their mixed class championship until the season was over. The racing was good, competitive, clean and most importantly, fun. Since then I have done a few community events with them and signed up for their GT3 2022 World Series.
oNiD is growing rapidly as a community and this is down to the fact it is run incredibly well. You’ve got a group of people who do it because they love it and that’s what makes it so good. It’s the perfect mix of the right things being taken seriously and the others not. Everyone who joins the discord is welcomed with open arms, pointed in the right direction and assisted with any questions they have quickly and efficiently.
So, the Rookies Championship.. Well, it’s exactly what it says. So oftenly, newcomers to a game/sim are overlooked or placed in a championship that can overwhelm them due to the speed, aggression and sometimes attitudes of ‘seasoned vets’. oNiD wanted to change this, they have made a championship that is solely for newcomers and people who play ACC just for fun but not as frequently as some. Somewhere the racing is still competitive, respectful and enjoyable.
Within this, oNiD have 5 Rookie Coaches (myself being one) to support newcomers and those who may need some assistance on track. We have a dedicated channel on discord where the drivers can ask questions around setting the cars up, racing etiquette and the most commonly asked one.. ‘What can I do better?’.
On top of this, every Monday there is a 2hr practice server for drivers and coaches to get together and analyze performance by watching onboards and answering questions the drivers may have. We also go out and do live laps, explaining what we are doing. As well as all of that, each week a hotlap is released by myself with a voice over to help (see below) and we have a constant practice server running each week at that week’s race event circuit.
Rookies filled up very quickly and recently had its season opener at Brands Hatch. This attracted oNiD’s second highest active viewer count on a stream (each round is streamed on twitch with commentary) which is a brilliant achievement in itself.
It is very easy to go and watch the fastest guys race in the hope you will see some amazing battles and entertaining racing.. A lot of the time, the fastest guys don’t have an abundance of overtaking, due to the fact they are so evenly matched on pace. Within the Rookies Championship, we have 3 classes based on speed and racecraft which was acquired from pre season evaluation races.
The classes are Pro, Silver and AM.. so there are technically three championships within one. Which makes for some brilliant racing. The opener did not disappoint and the viewers were treated to some fantastic action from start to finish over both 30min races.
What was impressive, is that in the second race, there was a big incident which resulted in 9-10 cars being in the pits.. Not one driver returned to garage, they all drove their damaged cars back and once the damage was repaired.. They returned to the track to carry on their race. This was great to see, a real show of commitment from all the drivers. You can catch up on the races by heading to oNiD’s twitch channel and watching the stream back.
oNiD’s idea with this Rookie Championship is an absolute masterstroke in my opinion. When you are new to ACC, you can instantly look at the quickest drivers and want to be that quick, wanting to race against them in the same championships.
You can get their setups (through paid subscriptions) because it is easy to believe that if you have their setup, you can drive just as quickly as them.. And you couldn’t be more wrong. There is so much work, understanding and commitment that has to go into a sim like ACC if you want to compete at the very top and it has to be constant. It’s not a ‘pick up and play’ sim (no sim is or should be).
So what we are doing as coaches is taking newcomers to a level where they are comfortable and confident in themselves, racing wheel to wheel and can ‘spread their wings’ so to speak. We’re helping those who drop in and out of ACC to have a solid understanding of things and most importantly, creating an environment where anyone is welcome to come and try their hand.. Hopefully they’ll stick around and join us in the many events oNiD have running (check these out on simracing.gp) as well as racing in other events.
I strongly recommend anyone who is new to ACC or looking for a new community/league to race in, to check out oNiD (they also do some iRacing as well).
Thanks for reading and check me out on @JimboMansi_46.
Credit goes to @ben22racing for the images
Visit the oNid Racing Community
- Discord: oNiD Racing Community Discord
- Website: oNiD Racing website
- Twitch: oNiDRacing – Twitch
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