THE latest craze during the COVID-19 pandemic is online motorsports.
The iRacing platform has been used to good effect for many years, with the speedway fraternity embracing the concept.
Speedway Australia recently held an Australian Super Sedan championship, with West Australian Tim Ryan claiming the honours and all that goes with a physical championship as well.
Ryan stepped up again in the latest event run over the weekend – round one of the World eSeries Sprintcars held at the virtual dirt track at Charlotte.
The online version of the WSS proved extremely popular, with many of the usual sprintcar drivers forming part of the huge field, along with others from such sports as Formula 1 and regular, experienced sim racers, just like Ryan.
Ryan was just a sim racer originally, now with around 10 years of experience behind him.
That experience has allowed him to claim the honours in the World of Outlaws iRacing series, which gained him enough prizemoney to buy his own physical wingless sprint speedway car and go racing on clay ovals in Australia.
Ryan drew first blood in the WSS eSeries on Sunday night with a win in the A Main feature race and gained enough points over the three nights of racing to claim the lead in the series.
Speedway Australia sport development officer Adam Brook said the format had become a valid platform for those already racing to hone their skills or a pathway to a possible physical career for sim racers.
“Tim is one of the new generation who has come from iRacing and used that as a springboard to get into speedway,” Brook said.
“He has had some good results in wingless and is now an Australian champion because he won the national sedan iRacing title.
“That talent has been recognised by John McLellan who owns the J&S Drilling sprintcar team.
“He is one of the World Series Sprintcars contracted teams and has brought Tim Ryan on as his young protege for the iRacing series.
“Who knows where that could lead?”
Brook said the whole J&S team watched the opening round of the eSeries and were excited to see their car win.
Brook said the quality of the fields at the iRacing event helped it gain popularity quickly.
“I was surprised by the volume of sprintcar drivers who actually have iRacing,” he said.
“Interestingly though, it is the same front runners we see at state and national level that are successful at iRacing.
“In our last event we had about nine or 10 Australian champions in our field and every one of them made the top 24 or top 48 of the 337-odd competitors.
“It shows these guys use this as a tool to fine tune their own driving.
“iRacing has clearly shown it is a path to real racing and is a tool to help hone your skills.”
The weekend’s sprintcar event showed an impressive lineup, with Ryan claiming the honours, but WSS rookie of the year and Australian Formula 500 champion Jock Goodyer in third place, national Production Sedan champion Joel Berkely in fourth, plus Australian Speedcar champion Kade Brown in sixth.
But apart from that, Brook said the events were open to everyone, not just physical drivers, unlike some other forms of iRacing.
“Some other bodies are reluctant to let the public race against their stars, but we encourage it,” he said.
“We want that fan at home who has always dreamt of racing a speedway car to go wheel-to-wheel with the likes of Jock Goodyer or any of our national champions.
“This offers them the opportunity to do that, which is why it has been so successful.”
That scenario was brought home to Brook after the weekend’s World eSeries event.
“We had Brendon Hartley, the Formula 1 Toro Rosso driver do the World Series round last week,” he said.
“I had a fan write me a message to say he was so terrified sitting on the grid next to Brendon Hartley, but he got to do it.”
Round two of the online series kicks off on Monday, May 1.
