Project CARS Pro is the new professional software developed by ioTech Studios and targeted directly to the location-based entertainment industry, and companies and individuals seeking to create a peerless experience for their public venues, events, and product launches.

The software has been created to offer business solutions to both the location-based entertainment industry and the automotive industry—everyone from arcade game and esports operators to product-launches for new cars and even academic researchers.

Since the release of Project CARS, Slightly Mad Studios and subsidiary ioTech have been actively engaged in creating bespoke versions of the “ultimate driver journey” for customers’ business needs. Everyone from Porsche—who used a tailor-made version for the launch of the new Porsche 911 Carrera S at the LA Auto Show—to track-based experience centres and more.

With Project CARS Pro, these needs have now been met with a professional product of the world’s most beloved racing franchise, either off the rack or fully-customized.READ ON

Slightly Mad Studios handling consultant, former “Stig” from Top Gear, and Hollywood stuntdriver Ben Collins has offered his considerable energy and talents to Highways England, the government-run entity responsible for England’s motorways and major A-roads, in order to educate drivers on the dangers of tailgating.

“I discovered the dangers of tailgating at a very early age—in an overly enthusiastic game of musical chairs,” Ben told the media at the unveiling of this new safety campaign. “The music stopped and so did the kid in front of me. But I didn’t. I face-planted the back of his head instead. Following the vehicle in front too closely reduces your vision to zero, along with your time to react to danger. Stay safe, stay back and look ahead.” READ ON

Stay Safe & Stay Back With Ben Collins

VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 1 | YEAR 2019

PROJECT CARS PRO:THE ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE SOLUTION FOR LOCATION-BASED ENTERTAINMENT

INSIDE AUTOMOBILISTA 2:THE NEW GAME FROM REIZA USING THE MADNESS ENGINE

SlightlyMAD W rld

SOLUTION FOR BUSINESS (PAGE 4)PROJECT CARS PRO:

LICENSING MADNESS (PAGE 8)MELINDA NEIL:

OVERCOMING FEAR (PAGE 3)BEN COLLINS:

LICENSED MADNESS (PAGE 7)AUTOMOBILISTA 2:

DEBUTS IN SHANGHAI THEME PARK (PAGE 6)

PROJECT CARS 2:

RACING THE BEST (PAGE 10)PROJECT CARS ESPORTS:

Reiza Studios began life as a modding outfit helmed by the prodigious talents of Brazilian Renato Simioni before, in 2011, releasing their first stand-alone game, Game Stock Car, which met with great reviews across the board. Reiza followed up with Game Stock Car 2012, Formula Truck 2013, Game Stock Car 2013, and then hit gold with their highly-acclaimed Automobilista racer in 2016.

Automobilista 2 is one of the more anticipated sims coming in 2019, helped in part by the announcement that it would be powered by the state-of-the-art MADNESS Engine. Renato Simioni explains the rewards of using Slightly Mad Studios’ home-grown engine … READ ON

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An affinity for organization and a love of all things automotive brought Melinda Neil to Slightly Mad Studios. Armed with a diverse background—studying Fine Arts at Concordia University, putting on art events, and years in bar management—Melinda’s first taste of the world of games development was at Rockstar Games which led on to the marketing and business development departments at EA working on the Need For Speed franchise and special projects like Speedhunters. During all of this she continued to put on car shows, art shows, events, and getting her hands dirty on the rebuild of her 1963 Ford Falcon and learning to race. Now at SMS, she handles the licensing of top-brands like she does the wheel of her ’63 Falcon ... Find out more here

Play the Game With Melinda Neil

SMS-SPONSORED MILLA SJÖSTRAND GETS A TV DEBUT IN SWEDEN

Eleven-year-old Milla Sjöstrand is slowly working her way up to the big time in regional kart racing in Sweden, with the National Championships in the summer being her number one goal.

With sponsorship from Slightly Mad Studios, the young hopeful kart racer is beginning a new season, and her drive and push for the top has seen her make some waves culminating with an interview on state-run Swedish TV, broadcast on both local and regional news.

The sports program for kids and teens named Lilla Sportspegeln has shown interest to run a longer version of the interview in its TV show later this year.

She was filmed testing her kart around her local Södertälje track during pre-season training, and she noted that, “only rookies let other drivers past. I’m not like that.” Determination meets drive!

You can watch the interview here.

The Tobacco Dock in London played host to 2019’s EGX Rezzed show, a videogame event that has, through the years, become a de facto “best of British” talent display.

One of the highlghts of the show, according to media outlet VRFocus, was at the Porsche stand where, the website notes, “racing simulator specialist Vesaro was displaying one of its Commercial VR simulators with full pneumatics and Oculus Rift headset—which has a retail price starting from £20,000 GBP—where players could race on Project CARS Pro title Porsche 911 VR-Racing Experience built specifically for the car manufacturer by Slightly Mad Studios.”

You can read more here.

We asked Project CARS fans to send in a selfie-video about why they enjoyed Project CARS 2, with the winning entries taking home three Fanatec sim-racing setups worth over €700.

Entries to the competition came from around the world, and the creativity made choosing a winner a seriously difficult job.

Enjoy the top two winning entries.

SLIGHTLY MAD NEWSFROM AROUND THE GLOBE

SLIGHTLY MAD NEWSFROM AROUND THE GLOBE

EGX REZZED

Pay it Forward

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Project CARS 2 Propels Louisiana Hopeful to Glory

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Louisiana-based KPLCTV named young Aaron Jeansonne as their “Sports Person of the Week” on March 28th. Sixteen-year-old Aaron, in 2017, became the first-ever driver from Louisiana to be drafted into the Team USA Scholarship—a scholarship program that gets American drivers into European and South American driving series, with Bryan Herta and John Hildebrand amongst its principals. For Aaron, that meant a year in the world’s most competitive young driver series, the National UK Formula Ford 1600 championship.

Aaron asked viewers on KPLCTV to, “Think about it like this. I was sixteen years old and I’ve never raced in anything in my life and I was over there saying how I was going to be a professional NASCAR or Indy Car driver. It sounds ridiculous. And I live in a trailer. That person should not make it anywhere.”

But Aaron had a secret: since he was a boy, he had access to racing games such as Project CARS 2, which he has used to train his way up into a career at the very top of racing. You can watch all about how Aaron’s training on Project CARS 2 has given him a highway to his dreams here.

Since Project Cars 2 released, I’ve experienced the game, or sim, in action at events all over the world. The advances in hardware are bringing ever-higher levels of immersion and realism to the genre, and unlocking the deep potential within the MADNESS engine. Feeling the fabric of the tyres at your fingertips as the virtual rubber stretches and gnaws at the virtual tarmac is what kept the engineers at Slightly Mad Studios up for many all-nighters, and is the racers delight. But some forces and emotions are more subtle. They can’t always be reproduced.

As a late starter on the racing ladder at the ripe old age of 19, I was about to learn all about forces and emotion when I had my racing baptism. I found myself at the sharp end of the grid, surrounded by veterans of a similar age but who actually knew what they were doing. They say it’s hard to describe these moments but I’ll never forget that first race.

The officials cruelly give the competitors a thirty-second warning board prior to the starting lights going live. Thanks to the gargantuan forces of gravity affecting your intestines, these seconds pass like decades. Ratchet-strapped into your rocket and sweating from unusual places, you wish you’d gone for one more piss (trip to the bathroom) while you still had the chance.

Your heart has taken its own queue and is trying to noisily leave the building. You still control your lungs though, and take the opportunity to heave in enough oxygen to perform multiple root canals. It’s not enough. Just when you think your chest will burst open like Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’, they show you the five-second board.

The pulse hardens further as you await the light. Finally the red light fills your retinas, and instinct takes over.

My first races took me by surprise because I didn’t win them, which came as no surprise to anyone else. Something crucial was missing in me: fear. I saw no pattern in the fact that I totally destroyed three cars in the first half of my first season. One got t-boned and the next one barrel-rolled. Finally I went for an adventure around the outside of three competitors at Hawthorne’s, Brands Hatch’s fastest corner, hitting the wall at 120mph before coming to rest in a fraction of my former car.

At this stage both my team and sponsors expressed their unwillingness to continue unless I stopped wrecking stuff. You don’t fear getting hurt when you love what you do. But the idea that my racing career could end put the fear of God into me. I adopted the simple adage that to “finish first, you must first learn to finish” and landed a string of podium results followed by my first win.

Fear is an essential element of control in racing because it forces you to calculate risk in order to achieve results. That’s why competing online or in an official Esports race with Project Cars is virtually no different to the real thing. When you really want to win, it draws out exactly the same emotions and you have to learn to control them. An Esports racer will face fear in the same way as a Formula One driver when the stakes of failure are high. That’s what I love about the growth of Sim racing globally both professionally and for casual gamers.

The only aspect of real racing that we cannot recreate is gravity and we should leave it well alone. Simulator rigs that lift and roll the car around in an attempt to replicate gravity fail on every level other than inducing motion sickness. In this last year, however, I’ve noticed a more subtle approach with rigs being tuned to move only as much as the springs of the car compress. So you feel the effect of bumps, braking and acceleration and the rest is handled visually with VR.

Now that I’ve got the Cougar in the car with me I don’t crash so often. My last big one was at the London Motor Show in front of a small crowd of spectators. With my Oculus headset on I was immersed at Oulton Park circuit and blind to the crowd, when I spun my Formula 3000 car and crashed. It happened quickly but I had just enough time to brace my arms across my chest and tuck my chin down before slamming into the virtual ‘wall’. As the motor died all I could hear was laughter. It’s hard to look fearless when you adopt a fetal position in a Simulator.

“You gotta learn to drive with the fear—and there ain’t nothin’ more god-damn frightnin’ than drivin’ with a live cougar in the car.” —Ricky Bobby Sr., ‘Talladega Nights’.

BEN COLLINS - OVERCOMING FEAR

INSIDE

A Solution For Every Need

The studio, along with subsidiary ioTech Studios, have now created a software solution named Project CARS Pro, which is nearing its launch date in July.

This new professional software is both an off the rack as well as a fully-customizable solution to partners’ and clients’ needs. The software can be purchased as a ready-to-go package or molded into bespoke versions catering to any company or individual’s specific needs be that new tracks, newly-designed cars, or a combination of experiences.

The “out-of-the-box” version of Project CARS Pro has all the features to get an operator on the go fast with the flexibility to choose exactly which settings are available for each pod, as well as simplified operator and user interface to enable smooth service for the perfect customer racing experience—every time.

Key to Project CARS Pro is the ease-of-use that puts customers straight into the racing action, thereby maximizing playtime and repeat visits with a driving experience that can be customized to suit every demographic and skill level.

Content, meanwhile, features the groundbreaking ‘tech” and gameplay from the multi-million selling Project CARS franchise, including custom driver assists, variable weather, seasons, time of day, and a host of other features that guarantee a fully-scalable experience for the operator, and non-stop fun for players.

The Complete Software Package

The software can be purchased as a ready-to-go package or molded into bespoke versions catering to any company or individual’s specific needs. The industry-leading Director and Broadcaster modes from the Project CARS game franchise will also be

available for Project CARS Pro.Along with the ‘Command Station’ mode, a one-stop regulator where operators have full control over a TV-style feed of the racing action that can be fed to one or multiple screens located at the selected venue, a new mode has been added: the Automatic Broadcaster.

The Automatic Broadcaster AI controls which car the camera tracks, changes camera angles, and chooses the best action to follow by analyzing the race.

With the Automatic Broadcaster, venue operators can have the best director for their races without the need to control the feed, resulting in moretime to spend on better customer care.

Combining these Broadcast modes with free live-streaming software such as OBS and streaming races from venues online to enhance the business’s social media presence is a simple process that takes no time at all to master.

Product Launches & More

The customizable nature of Project CARS Pro means that the platform can be used to great effect for the launch of new cars and other automotive products.

Since this is not a retail video game, the studio has the scope to create be- spoke content to suit individual clients’ needs—everything from newly-simulated cars to AAA-standard tracks and graphics—as well as updating the software far more frequently than a retail video game.

The extremely customizable nature of Project CARS Pro can also be well utilized by automotive experience centres where the software can be employed as a safe virtual training tool before customers are sent out onto the real race track.

If the experience centre venue already features as a track from the Project CARS franchise, the studio can offer a software platform with customized UI and in-game branding. If the venue or track isn’t featured in the Project CARS franchise, meanwhile, the studio can create a bespoke version on demand.

Similarly, if the cars that are offered at the experience center are not featured in the Project CARS franchise, they can be developed to provide customers with the best possible virtual experience including high-fidelity car simulation for safe driver training.

Read about it here.

The software can be purchased as a ready-to-go package or molded into bespoke versions catering to any company orindividual’s specific needs

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A project that has been on the radar and keenly anticipated by both our LBE (location-based entertainment) and professional partners, Project CARS Pro is now available.

Project CARS Pro, an exclusively business-to-business developed product, has been methodically built around the needs of our professional customers. For instance, we understand that business owners need to spend more quality time with their customers rather than being chained behind a PC to run the software or fixing issues. We also understand from our professional licensees that not all customers want to experience hardcore sim racing: Indeed, to the contrary, a rigorous survey of our existing partners made it abundantly clear that the vast majority of people using LBE are families and casual gamers who just want to have fun.

With Project CARS Pro, our professional customers will therefore now have the product that has been perfectly adapted to both their needs, and those of their customers’ which, at the end of the day, equates to the same thing—after all, a happy customer leads to a successful operator.

PCPro will allow LBE operators and customers to calibrate game modes and difficulty levels to the required level in the blink of an eye. More importantly—LBE not being a niche line of business for techies anymore—we have developed the UI and the UX in such a way that anyone can operate the software without prior knowledge of racing or even the retail game. Indeed, the software was designed to be fully intuitive, resulting in the release version not even requiring heavy localisation for overseas markets.

Content wise, licensees will have access to the very best from a franchise that can boast many of the world’s elite cars and tracks.

Beyond PCPro for arcade and VR-room for professionals, PCPro Custom is a further addition to the product that will be an ideal tool for wider professional applications that we can tailor-make according to our customers’ specific requirements.

It is important to mention that we will offer options for our current commercial licensees who will, we trust, want to switch from their current commercial license to the vast new potential that comes with Project CARS Pro.

So stay tuned: You will hear from us soon!

For more information please contact us here.

PROJECT CARS PRO, THE ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE SOLUTION FOR LBE, IS NOW AVAILABLE

“Tech wise, PCPro will support LAN multiplayer, triple screens, retail and commercial VR headsets, and will come with a simple event-management-system for smaller venues. Customers will have the choice of getting PCPro directly from a dedicated cloud space or, in the near future, from third party partner platforms. This is a crucial element since our professional partners will no longer have to rely on Steam to run their commercial software.”—Nima Azarmgin, COO ioTech.

5 Images from VR-Simulators Glasgow

SHANGHAI: WANDA AUTO THEME PARK WOWED BY PROJECT CARS 2 Qingpu district is a suburban district of Shanghai municipality. It is renowned for its tourist attractions that include the Zhujiajiao Ancient Town, Oriental Land, Jinze Ancient Town, Lake Dianshan, and the Qushui Garden. As a consequence, Qingpu has been attracting a growing number of expats not only for its quality of life, but also thanks to the presence of international schools.

Since the first of June 2019, however, Qingpu has also become famous for its new indoor theme park, the Wanda Auto Theme Park, a multi-billion-dollar attraction which will now also host the first ever Project CARS 2 attraction ride in the world.

Indeed, after a year of intense and fruitful collaboration with our Chinese partners Wanda Group and Motus Technology (Wuhan) Co. Ltd., we are proud to announce that the very first Project CARS 2 attraction is now live.

THE GENESIS TO THE TICKET TO RIDE

In late-2018, ioTech opened discussions with the Cultural Industry Group department of the Beijing-based conglomerate, Wanda Group, focused on building a Project CARS 2 attraction hosted in the planned Qingpu Wanda mall indoor racing park. ioTech, in this scenario, would be responsible for designing and developing the software running the attraction, whereas Motus Technology would be in charge of building the four 6DOF

platforms (six-axis full motion rigs) as well as integrating the individual rigs’ sound and projection systems along with the massive spectator screen.

To build the attraction, Motus Technology used four real BMW Z4s—without the engine—in order to provide a compelling and unique racing experience which would be reliant on ioTech adapting the retail version of Project CARS 2 into a software product that could be easily used in a theme park environment, complete with relevant UI and UX flow.

Our mission was clear: an easy-to-understand and operate UI for the attraction’s operators and users; a UX adapted to a family entertainment centre (FEC); and 99.99% software integrity to run four motion platforms in single or multiplayer, in either arcade or full simulation mode, and also supporting spectator broadcast mode.

On UI side, the two main features we developed were the configuration panel for the operator, and the do-it-yourself feature for clients that allows them to select their preferences via the DIY screens while queuing to register for the attraction. Our approach from the beginning was to give the operator the freedom to choose the type of race and vehicles they wanted for each session. However, thanks to our experience with LBE and sim racing, we also designed FED-friendly pre-sets for Wanda to make sure that casual and hardcore racers would both equally enjoy the experience. In this regard, we defined two main modes: arcade and professional.

The theme park will officially open its doors on the 22nd June 2019. If you’re a fan of the franchise, you should definitely go and experience both the Wanda Auto Theme Park as well as the Project CARS 2 attraction. You’re in for a great time!

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REIZA STUDIOSMOVES TO MADNESS ENGINE FOR NEW RACING GAME

RENATO SIMIONI ON: AUTOMOBILISTA 2

Automobilista 2 is the culmination of a project we’ve been slowly putting together for over 8 years now. With Automobilista 1, even though we still retained our distinctive Brazilian angle, we took a more decisive step towards providing a fairly diverse motorsports experience while retaining a certain level of consistency and sophistication across the board. It evolved to be a very tidy, comprehensive racing sim that gathered a small but loyal following in the sim racing community. With Automobilista 2 we’re aiming to deliver a major evolution to its predecessor—bigger, better, prettier, and with some very exclusive elements which will be announced in due time.

RENATO ON: WHAT EXCITES HIM MOST ABOUTAUTOMOBILISTA 2

The first Automoblilista was already pretty ambitious in terms of the range of motorsports disciplines it simulated, and with Automobilista 2 we’re going further and more in-depth in that concept.

The game will feature a bigger roster of cars and tracks, not only adding bigger profile brands but also expanding on the more “exotic” types of cars and tracks that Automobilista 1 became known for.

There will also be a major game mode focused on a certain motorsport’s icon which we are very excited about, and hope to deliver more news on soon.

Finally, the MADNESS engine provides a substantial technological upgrade, allowing us to improve in every area that matters for a quality sim racing experience.

RENATO ON: WHY HE CHOSE TO USE THE MADNESS ENGINE

While evaluating options for Automobilista 2 and the possibility to migrate to a new engine, the priorities were to improve or expand where Automobilista 1 lacked while at the same time retaining the strengths that made it unique.

Thus if we were to change to a new game engine rather than just continue to develop what we had, it could only be justified if the engine was similar enough in key areas so that wewouldn´t have to start everything from scratch, while at

the same time providing a major boost where we were still falling short—the three key features being a more advanced graphics engine, a fully dynamic weather system, and a generally more sophisticated, modern codebase. At it turns out, the MADNESS engine delivers on all those requirements, and once we got a chance to start working with it, it was clear this was the way to go.

The relationship with SMS began when {SMS CEO} Ian Bell approached us circa mid-2018 for a possible collaboration.

Although I don’t think licensing the MADNESS engine for Automobilista 2 was the first idea he had in mind, he was open to evaluating options, and we ended up arranging a deal to use MADNESS for Automobilista 2, for which he was kind enough to grant a trial period so we could evaluate the engine and how we got on with it before committing.

As it turned out, we found that the engine had massive potential, and the friendly rapport that we quickly established with SMS made this clearly the right path to go on.

RENATO ON: THE REWARDS OF THE MADNESS ENGINE

To begin with, the physics and AI are for the most part an evolution of what we were already used to, so that has allowed us to continue progressing from the solid base we already had on those fronts.

The SETA tyre model is a bigger departure from our old tyre model, which is always a tricky move considering how much of good racing simulation physics rely on not only an advanced tyre model, but one that’s manageable to work with. Luckily, SETA has proved surprisingly accessible and very versatile, and we’ve been achieving good results with it pretty much from the get-go.

On top of that, the MADNESS engine features models for a large range of drivetrain and aero systems, and a variety of rule sets, all of which suits Automobilista 2 with its varied and different motorsport disciplines.

Last but not least, Livetrack 3.0 is arguably the most advanced technology for dynamic track conditions in consumer level simulators, and that is a crucial feature for a truly realistic racing experience.

Naturally there are some things we’ll be adding or tweaking to our own requirements, but all in all we couldn´t ask for a better platform for the racing sim we aim to create.

“The MADNESS engine provides a sub-stantial technological upgrade, allowing us to improve in every area that matters for a quality sim racing experience”

WHY DO MANUFACTURERS AND OTHER BRANDS PUT A PREMIUM ON APPEARING IN AAA-GAMESAND FRANCHISES?

I believe that Project CARS offers, hands down, the best in-game vehicle experience you can find in a video game. It’s where you can drive your dream car on your favourite racetrack, or try out a new car from a brand you’ve never really been exposed to. More than that, it also offers some rides the vast majority of people in the world will never get close to—the IRL experience.

These days, where less and less of the younger generation are getting their driver’s licenses, automotive video games are often their only exposure to brands. How would you know if you would rather drive a Ford or a Ferrari? Car manufacturers need to be able to showcase their vehicles, get exposure, and create brand loyalty to their potential customers—including those who live in remote areas, for instance, who will never see one of their cars up close.

WHAT’S WITH THE HEAVY FOOT?

Being at the track is my absolute favorite place to be. I’ve had my 1963 Ford Falcon for around 15 years now. I do most of my own work where I can, including upgrading to a 302, so I can make a better run down the quarter mile. I started drag racing 7 years ago, slowly upgrading the car each year and, along the way, enjoying the challenge of improving my racing skills, improving my reaction time and getting the car faster down the track.

WHAT’S WITH THE TOY CARS?

I am a Hot Wheels addict! I’ve seriously lost count and have run out of room to display them all. I mainly collect my drag racing heroes Shirley Muldowney and Don “The Snake” Prudhomme cars, nostalgia gassers, Red Barons, and lowriders. And of course the Project CARS 2 set that we did in collaboration with Hot Wheels. My childhood dream come true was walking through the development area at Hot Wheels when we were working on that series. I’m one of those irritating people who refuses to open them because I feel that the packaging artwork is just as important as the car itself.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES OF BEING A LICENSING MANAGER AT SMS?

The biggest challenge these days is that the video game market has become massive, rivaling—and in some countries exceeding—the economy of the film industry.

With so much competition, you need to be able to offer the best opportunity for the vehicle manufacturers that you want to include in the game. The team at SMS are all so passionate about motorsport but with diverse interests so that all brands are given the sincere care and treatment as if it were the real vehicle, from build to marketing. It’s this depth to our games and their creation that helps me ensure we engage fully with our partners.

ARE GAMES WHERE THE ACTION IS NOW FOR BRANDING AND MARKETING? ARE MANUFACTURERS ONBOARD?

Most of the manufacturers now understand how huge the video game industry is these days. Certainly there are a few dinosaurs around who still don’t quite understand, but they are learning. Their exposure to gaming harks back to the early days, so when they see the outstanding work done by the team here at SMS, they often need to confirm back asking if the screenshots are real or

in-game. We have some amazing partners who are very progressive and completely understand the value of our games as advertising as well as development tools for their brands. Esport is not just in basements and small arcades anymore, it sells out arenas. Our partners are now seeing the value of in-game inclusion to be a part of esport events, with some of them even discovering driver talent for their real world testing and racing programs.

PLAY THE GAME WITH MELINDA NEIL

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When not on the phone dealing with licensing for the studio and ioTech, Melinda can be found either racing or tinkering about with her 1963 Ford Falcon that now boasts a 302 motor. “I race for world domination and putting Chevys on a trailer!”

The UK’s first racing academy for disabled drivers—Team BRIT—was launched on February 27th with former Slightly Mad Studios’ handling consultant and the first disabled driver to race in the British Touring Car series Nic Hamilton demonstrating the team’s car and usability.

Nic has spent years driving with the use of hand controls, having been diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age, and was excited at the prospect of Team BRIT fielding three disabled drivers to compete for overall honors at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Team BRIT’s original goal was to help bring wounded military personnel to the race track, but such has been the success of the program that it has now been extended to the broader community living with disabilities.

“I’m all about championing disability in motorsport, having been working at establishing myself in the sport since 2011,” Hamilton told the assembled media. “Disabled people are used to being told what they can’t do. I’m all about proving what’s possible. I’ve learned that sharing my story inspires others, which can only be positive. This is a huge step forward in motorsport and something I’m proud to support.”

You can find out more here.

Kiwi esports broadcasting company LetsPlay.Live announced the first season of the LPL Pro Star Insurance Project CARS 2 ANZ Championship for 2019—fuelled by Mammoth—in late April.

Over 30 racers from across Australia and New Zealand competed online in the open division early 2019, racking up points on the leaderboard with the top 16 drivers qualifying for the chance to compete live on SKY TV and Twitch in the LPL Pro league.

Contestants will be competing across 7 weeks for a share of the $6,000AUD prize pool and the title of ANZ Champion.

LPL have welcomed back headline sponsor Star Insurance to the league following a successful Project CARS partnership in 2018. They also welcome aboard Mammoth Supply Co. who will be supplying players, crew and fans with icy cold flavoured milks throughout the league.

The Project CARS 2 ANZ Championship series premiered Thursday April 11th at 7pm NZT on SKY Sport and twitch.tv/letsplay.live.

Read more here.

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NIC HAMILTONHELPS LAUNCH DISABLED DRIVER ACADEMY

LPL PRO STAR INSURANCE

PROJECT CARS 2 ANZ

It’s been another period of intense competition in the Project CARS 2 esports scene. Virtual drivers from all around the globe have been battling for success, with some incredible prizes and opportunities on the line.

The first of these was the Finals of McLaren Shadow, held at the prestigious McLaren Technology Centre back in January 2019. Project CARS 2 was one of five titles featured in the finals, including an exclusive VR race with HTC Vive technology.

The finalists raced wheel-to-wheel in our virtual recreation of the 720S supercar, which McLaren themselves say is “as close as it gets to the real thing.” The immersive addition of VR raised the challenge for all of the drivers, and McLaren recorded their heart-rate levels in the race as being even higher than when they were given the chance to drive one of their real GT4 race cars!

Brazilian, Igor Fraga, a real-world Formula 3 driver, came out on top to secure a place in McLaren’s official esports team, which will surely open new doors for him throughout the world of motorsport.

Drivers from the Project CARS esports community also found success in the eRace of Champions (eROC), a sim-racing competition attached to the annual Race of Champions stadium event, which sees drivers from a variety of motorsport series face-off in head-to-head races.

The eROC invited top drivers from various racing games to compete on a virtual recreation of the real Mexico City stadium circuit where the ROC itself was to be held. James Baldwin from the UK, one of the world’s top Project CARS drivers, came through to win the eROC and earned a place in the real Race of Champions. There he raced alongside the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Mick Schumacher, David Coulthard, Tom Kristensen and many more. He even picked up a couple of victories against the pros along the way. It was a fantastic advert for the talent coming through in the Project CARS esports scene.

We also recently held our flagship major esports series for Project CARS 2, the Playseat® SMS-R Series. Powered by The Events

House. The Events House is the world’s leading esports agency for sim-racing, whose work includes the F1 esports Series, and our own Renault esports Series back in 2018. They ran the SMS-R Series in partnership with Apex Online Racing.

In the SMS-R, ten of the world’s best esports racing teams each brought two drivers to form a twenty car field of colossal talent. As well as teams with a great history in Project CARS tournaments, the series also attracted top talent from iRacing, GT Sport, and Forza Motorsport. Making it a best-of-the-best competition. But there was a twist…

These twenty ‘Pro Class’ drivers, shared the circuit with ten ‘Challengers’ who earned their place in the tournament through online qualifying events. This was a huge opportunity for some new faces to show off their skills, win some cash, and maybe get scouted by one of the big teams to take the next big steps in their virtual racing careers. In fact, numerous Challenger drivers this year have

been signed by major esports teams including FA Racing, the official team of Fernando Alonso.

The races in the SMS-R were a multi-class affair, with the Pros and Challengers on

McLaren recorded their heart-rate levelsin the esport race as being even higher than when the drivers were driving one of McLaren’s real GT4

race cars!

PROJECT CARS & GLOBAL ESPORTS:McLaren, Race of Champions, & SMS-R

track together, in different machinery. The Pros in the Mercedes-AMG GT3, and the Challengers in the Mercedes-AMG A45 TCR.

Title sponsors, Playseat® provided a €20,000 prize pool for this year’s tournament, and we had some additional backing from Logitech G and Overclockers. The Finals took place at Mercedes-Benz World at the UK’s historic Brooklands race circuit on May 11.

The titles went to deserving winners in both classes. The VP Gaming team won the Pro Class crown. After years of solid performances in Project CARS esports they finally took the extra step to win a major title thanks to a consistently brilliant performance throughout the series. The Challenger Class trophy went to “Khaki” a fan-favourite sim-racer and previous Project CARS championship winner.

We have more tournaments in the works as we begin to plan the future of the Project CARS franchise, so watch this space.

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James Baldwin raced alongside the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Mick Schumacher, David Coulthard, Tom Kristensen and many more. He even picked up a couple of victories against the pros along the way!

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