Last weekend, the Real-Time Racing beta test kicked into higher gear as 5000 beta testers virtually joined FIA GT driver Bas Leinders on track at Zolder, competing in an official FIA GT practice session.
Leinders’ Ford GT was equipped with iOpener Enabled GPS technology, allowing sim racers to race the Belgian driver right from their home. Now, Leinders has spoken to the RTR staff about his experience, you can check out the interview below (you might have to click “Read More”).
If you??re interested to join the Real-Time Racing beta program, make sure to visit their website and pre-register for a beta key. Furthermore, you can win one of ten beta keys by entering the VirtualR competition here.
Bas tells us about your experiences last weekend during the FIA GT at Zolder. How did the race weekend go for you, Renaud Kuppens and the Marc VDS Racing Team?
Initially everything went very well, our pace was good on the dry and extremely fast on a wet track. During the race I was battling with the Nissan and thanks to a different strategy we got in front of the Nissan GTR. Unfortunately we had an issue with the fuel calculation, on our dash it said 11 litres on board but we ran out of fuel half a lap from home
Now the season has ended, what are your plans for next season? Are you looking forward to the new changes that have been announced to reform the FIA GT?
We were already preparing 2010 and the new GT1 World Championship this year, as our car is build to 2010 technical regulations. It is going to be very exciting to race a world championship, do not forget that only F1 and the WTCC have a world title in circuit racing. To be able to race with and against these prestigious brands will be an enormous experience.
On Friday night you and your team mate Renaud Kuppens visited the RTR RaceRoom and you both drove a few laps in our simulators. What are your impressions of that test drive? Did it meet your expectations with regards to your real Matech??Ford GT1?
A perfect simulation is impossible even for the F1 teams, but the game is really amazing, the graphics of the track and the car are just mind blowing. Personally I did not like the brakes as the paddle is too soft and impossible to control and the real car has slightly better traction than in the game, luckily because next year traction control will be banned in the championship.
During the Saturday practice and qualification sessions a large group of gamers, sitting at home behind their own pc, drove with their virtual cars against your real car in real time! Did it influence your driving in anyway?
There is almost nothing in the world that can influence my racing on the track, even other people on track so no I really did not think about it untill the evening, but it is very nice that all these people got the chance to race us and I really hope that soon all the GT1 field will be equiped with the loggers so that there will be a real fight on track.
What is your opinion about the iOpener Enabled feature which makes is possible for gamers to race in real-time against real drivers in real cars on the real track?.
This new concept brings the gaming to a new level, the game is bringing virtual reality together with the real world, exciting and scary at the same time, maybe the gamers can run me off the track for real in the future, that is if they can follow me, haha
