I am excited to announce my newest partnership with VRLA Tech. During these rough times, many of us are social distancing and the sports we loved are all on pause. For us racers especially, we’re lucky to have such a large and growing esports platform where we can still fulfill that competitive urge from the distanced safety of our own homes.
This has given us an opportunity to combine esports and motorsport more than ever before. VRLA Tech will be powering my esports endeavors while also providing me with a valuable tool to train for real-world races via iRacing and other popular simulators.
My VRLA Tech “Apollo” model will offer a strong platform to run the software needed to fuel competition in esports series and training for events once we get back underway. With a powerful PC that can be ordered through a reputable company, I save the time and effort of building my own, while knowing there is a strong team standing behind the products that build.
Sim racing is not new though and is not just for these unprecedented times. I first got into racing games with the first Gran Turismo release in 1997. I eventually moved to PC racing sims such as Sports Car GT, Grand Prix Legends, and GTR. Today, sim racing is a highly legitimate form of motorsport and is proving to be an alternative pathway into motorsport for aspiring drivers. The other benefit to having a simulator setup at home is the ability to learn new tracks before a race weekend, practice race craft, and once again, fulfill that need for competition. Gone are the days of a cheap wheel clamped to a computer desk. Today, setups range from mild to unimaginable.
VRLA Tech is a California based company and quickly becoming the industry standard when it comes to moderately priced technology hardware. They build and sell custom configured servers, workstations and gaming PC's. Through this partnership we can work from both an esports standpoint but also business to business networking as well through the large motorsport community.
Currently, iRacing has seen massive popularity among racing series due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Series ranging from NASCAR to IndyCar have started hosting and televising these esports events, many with real world drivers taking part. The iRacing platform also hosts six World Championship series and pays more than $300,000 in cash prizes annually.