The Last Garage won’t be the platform of choice for eROC after all

During the recent Sim Formula Europe event, The Last Garage’s Marcel Offermans stated his embryonic project would be the platform for the next eROC (eRace of Champions) competition this coming March.

However, in a blog post published today (5th February 2025) the affable Dutchman confirmed that this would not be the case:

“We also had plans to be in Sydney, Australia for the Race Of Champions, but we decided to not go there in the end,” the post stated, “because the hardware requirements for running the racing simulation were not met by the organizers so we could not guarantee a smooth experience,” it concluded.

“That means the eROC will use Assetto Corsa again this year, like before,” he continued, verifying that the hotly-contested esports competition will use a modded version of Kunos Simulazioni’s Assetto Corsa instead.

eROC’s provenance

eROC’s past winners include Jarno Opmeer and Lucas Blakeley, with winners gaining the chance to take on professional racers in the real-world event. Blakeley even defeated Formula 1 stars Valtteri Bottas and Sebastien Vettel in head-to-head races, giving credence to the virtual competition (despite the rather ad-hoc nature of the AC mod it has used in the past).

Offermans blames the organisers of the Asutralian-based eROC event for the change in plans, with the hardware on offer failing to meet his project’s requirements. This announcement comes as a blow to fans eager to see more of TLG in action, with Offermans causing a stir by announcing he was working on off-road physics and a possible spiritual successor to Richard Burns Rally.

However, Offermans still plans to forge ahead with his project’s bold new direction:

“We will be running a rally simulator that includes a real stage in a Dutch rally, a project we’re collaborating on with Motorsport in Motion, but more on that later,” he said, referring to the innovative two-seated sim cockpit idea he mooted at Sim Formula Europe.

Donkervoort details

In terms of TLG’s other 2025 plans, Offermans revealed more about a tie-in with sim hardware manufacturer Heusinkveld to create sportscar maker Donkervoort’s next road car.

The pair will help create a virtual facsimile of the Dutch marque’s F22 successor, thanks to funding from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

“We’ve just kicked off a joint two-year R&D project with Heusinkveld and Donkervoort to create a “digital twin” of their upcoming car,” he stated.

“This is a project that is executed with a subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, an MIT-R&D collaboration project executed by the RVO [Netherlands Enterprise Agency],” he concluded, commenting on what is an intriguing crossover project for sim racing as a whole.

Would you like to see more of The Last Garage in 2025? Let us know in the comments below.