A career in motorsports is beyond the reach of many; a dream very few manage to achieve, and often at great cost, after years of toil. Many have found it difficult to make a career out of racing despite impressive CVs — from karting to other junior categories — to make a living out of it. So, when a Nissan executive in Europe talked to an executive of Sony and came about with a proposal to create a platform to turn gamers into racers, not many would have given it a chance.
But since 2008, the idea has grown worldwide and shown that it isn’t impossible. While the step from virtually racing cars over 200 kmph sitting in the comfort of a living room to racing mean machines on track within six months is huge, quite a few have made it work.
Abhinay Bikkani is one such example, having now got himself a paid drive to do what he is passionate about.
The 25-year old India winner, not long ago was working in his father’s IT-services company but now participates in the Nissan Micra Cup in Canada and is currently fifth in the championship after two rounds.
Speaking about his journey, Bikkani says, “it is an unbelievable journey to go from doing a boring job to racing for a living.” Though Bikkani is not a total novice when it comes to racing — he has raced in the local Toyota Etios championship in 2013 — he says: “I started racing at 22 years without any karting experience and it is crazy that I am racing in North America right now.”
“One of the races in this championship was the support race for the Canadian GP in Montreal, and to drive there was a special feeling.”
There are quite a few such examples across the world. Last year, Jann Mardenborough, a British-driver who won this competition in 2011, won a race in GP-3 championship, which is two rungs below F1 and one of the most important feeder series.
Spain’s Lucas Ordonez was an MBA student when he learnt about the competition and was the first winner in 2008 when it started, and took part in the LMP1 class of the prestigious 24 hours race at Le Mans this year.
Karun Chandhok is one person who knows all about how difficult it is to make the top league and the former F1 driver said: “Motorsport is capital intensive, but a platform like this helps break the entry barriers.”
He also added: “Though there is lot of interest, people don’t necessarily have an idea about how to go about it properly and this is truly a game changer.”
