Motorsport UK teams up with Britcar for first official community esports event

Paul Crawford, Esports Manager at Motorsport UK, recently spoke to the Traxion.GG team regarding the motorsport governing body’s plans to create an officially sanctioned sim racing hub, including community events to help encourage and grow esports and motorsport in the UK.

This has culminated in today’s (31st October 2022) announcement of Motorsport UK’s very first community sim racing event, including a tie-in with real-world sports and touring car endurance series organiser, Britcar.

The Buttkicker Britcar 24hrs of Silverstone is set to take place across the 26th-27th of November using iRacing and will feature three car classes: TCR, Mazda MX-5 and GT3, with 20 cars permitted in each category.

Teams can be made up of between two and six drivers, with the ‘driver fair share’ rule in place to ensure fairness. The winning drivers in each category will receive prizes, although these are yet to be announced.

It is the second major sim racing endeavour undertaken by Motorsport UK in recent times after the successful launch of its ROKiT British F4 Esports Championship earlier this month. The series attracted several professional real-world and esports teams including JHR Developments, Arden YRDA and Apex Racing Team.

The Britcar 24-Hour was a popular endurance race held at Silverstone throughout the mid-2000s until 2018 when the rights were sold to Dutch promoter Creventic. Perhaps its most famous edition was in 2007 when the Top Gear team took part in their diesel-powered BMW 3-Series, an experience that moved Jeremy Clarkson to tears.

This year saw the emergence of the Motorsport UK-sanctioned British Endurance Championship, run and organised by Britcar. The multi-class championship is for teams of two drivers in two or three-hour races, with the added status and professionalism of a National-level series.

Britcar sees the British Endurance Championship and Buttkicker Britcar 24hrs of Silverstone as a precursor to help re-launch its much-missed real-world 24-Hour event in future:

“Britcar is delighted to be back associated with the 24 Hour name, a big part of the vision is to bring back the 24 Hours in the coming years, and in a big way!

“With such a huge presence also growing in the virtual world, it is a fantastic opportunity for us to be re-associated and we look forward to co-hosting Motorsports UK’s first 24-hour Esports event,” stated Simon Stoneham, Marketing and Sponsorship Director at Britcar.

The Motorsport UK Buttkicker Britcar 24hrs of Silverstone enjoys sponsorship from British Endurance Championship partner Goodyear as well as patronage from sim racing haptic feedback specialist Buttkicker.

“Motorsport UK’s Esports programme is really starting to gather momentum now, and our first event open to the sim racing community at-large is a significant step in that process.

“We’re also very proud to partner with Britcar and bring one of the UK’s most iconic ‘twice around the clock’ races to the digital arena and extend our thanks to Buttkicker as the Title Partner for their help in enabling it to happen,” said Motorsport UK’s Crawford.

Teams and drivers wishing to enter the Buttkicker Britcar 24hrs of Silverstone and find out more information can visit the event page via the SimGrid website. The race will feature live stewarding and will also be broadcast on RaceSpot TV’s YouTube channel.

Are you interested in taking part in the Buttkicker Britcar 24hrs of Silverstone? Let us know in the comments below.