Hello all, long time no post.

With today's bonkers announcement of the Tom Onslow-Cole-backed 'TOC Clio Series', I'm trying to think of other examples of real-life racing teams/series trying to find 'the next big thing' on the real-life track.

Off the top of my head I can think of two others: The Gran Turismo one and the LFS one, which involved Formula BMWs (just remembered, GT Academy and V1 Championship).

If anyone could provide the names of others, it would be very much appreciated.

I thought to remember that the BMW M3 Challenge game came with a similiar competion attached but can not find anything on it, not sure.

While searching I found:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06 ... ion15.html?pagewanted=all

Quote :

The father of Lewis Hamilton, a Formula One driver whose whole career had been nurtured from childhood by the McLaren Mercedes Formula One team, started a similar program in March, called “107%,” to find drivers through race simulation. Other programs have been created elsewhere.

and then
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/ ... milton-to-launch-x-758719

http://www.trackhq.com/forums/ ... style-hunt-f1-stars-4896/

Though it seems beside the idea nothing much happend.

It's just something to do when everyone has no budget to run the real thing, it will never seriously take off. imo of course.

There was V1 which attempted to use public LFS servers to gauge driver talent (and other metrics like consistency) and invite them to a real test day. AFAIK those plans fell through and V1 is pursuing a different strategy at finding driver talent.

Right now driver development plans are certainly using sim racers to measure and evaluate how talent develops and how to improve upon it. However, this data is used to help drivers who already have the funding to go racing.

So the idea of going from sim racing to fully funded drive is still quite a rare occurance, though it's only because of funding issues. the concept of professional or fully-paid drivers for ANYONE are pretty much extinct now.

The problem isn't with sim racing as a valid judgement of driving talent or not.

The problem is that driving talent in motorsport, in the current economy is the least demanded quality almost, the number of drivers who can race competitively on a national/continental level far out numbers the amount of paying driving roles available.

A driver has to be marketable, or he needs to have some really wealthy connections, now anyone of you who had been to a sim racing convention will probably agree not many people among us are what you called....charming or attractive.

That's the issue in a nutshell.

Well you also need to be in decent physical condition also...

Thanks for the replies, guys. I'm going to write a short piece this week about some of the examples you guys have come up with. Will give ya'll credit.

This is iRacing I assume? (the one in the OP)

Is it really hard to read?

Quote from the only link in OP:

Quote :

This new deal, facilitated by the owner of GamePOD.co.uk, will see a fourth season of TPS’ Virtual Clio Series, re-branded as the Tom Onslow-Cole Clio Series, involving ten events with the Clio Cup 2008 mod for rFactor, starting in March and finishing in August 2013.