The field for the first-ever Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours race that will be held on the traditional mid-June weekend date of the French classic this year has been set.
With the real race pushed to September due to Covid-19, the organizing Automobile Club de l’Ouest has managed to attract a star-studded lineup that will be competing in the event, including a driver field that is majorly made up of real life race drivers, teaming up with sim racing pros.
Using rFactor 2 as base, the Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours will be split in two classes, LMP2 and GTE. While LMP2 is a single-make class using the Oreca 07 LMP2, the GTE class has plenty of car variety with Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin & Corvette present.
Standing out in the 50-car entry list are the two works efforts from real-life Le Mans behemoths Porsche & Toyota who are bringing their works drivers to compete in the virtual world. While Porsche can rely on a virtual version of their 911 RSR, the Toyota drivers are “downgraded” to LMP2 as their real-life Toyota TS050 Hybrid will not be available.
The amount of participating pros certainly is impressive as all entries are made up at least of 50% of real race drivers with two squads, Penske and United Autosports, fielding all-Pro lineups while all other entries have at least one sim racer participating.
It’s nice to see a healthy amount of female drivers competing as well, with Porsche bringing Junior works driver Simona de Silvestro while W-Series champion Jamie Chadwick will be driving an Aston Martin.
The field includes one all-female driven car as well as the Richard Mille LMP2 will be driven by Katherine Legge, Sophia Flörsch & Tatiana Calderon. The real-life team is rounded out by a female sim racer as Emily Jones completes the squad.
Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours Entry List
The first Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours will be run on June 13 & 14, the event will of course be live-streamed in its entirety.
