Sim Racing On The Rise

South African racing driver David Perel is also a sim-racer extraordinaire. With this form of racing’s meteoric rise, in the time of COVID-19, PM managed to catch up with him to ask where the world of virtual motor racing is headed.

- Ray Leathern

'Simulators are for racing drivers what treadmills are for runners. It’s not quite the real thing, but at least you’re running,’ is the tweet permanently pinned to the top of David Perel’s Twitter feed. Although it was posted back in 2018, way before the outbreak of the coronavirus, the statement’s true gravitas has only multiplied in light of world motor sport’s unprecedented lockdown this year. Since March and the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown, sim racing has enjoyed a massive increase in popularity and has become a necessary adjunct for sponsors seeking new outlets for exposure while real-world racing was off the table.

South African David Perel is a three-time Blancpain GT Champion, two-time Spa 24-Hour winner and Ferrari GT racing driver for the Italian-based Rinaldi and Kessel Racing teams. Yeah, for real! But he’s the first to admit his success is rooted in the virtual world. And while he, rather modestly, describes himself as a ‘handy sim racer’, he’s in fact just established the Coach Dave Academy with the aim ‘to improve the race craft and knowledge of sim racers through coaching by a professional racing driver.’ Within just 12 hours of launching, the academy was oversubscribed with hundreds of applicants, and he needed to implement a waiting list. Basically, his stock in the virtual-racing world has blown up and, by extension, so has his standing in real-world motor sport.