Tolman Motorsport is joining the world of e-sports with a multi-event sim racing program under the HCR banner.
The McLaren Customer Racing team responsible for operating the McLaren Automotive Driver Development Programme in the British GT Championship says it is an opportunity to apply skills and expertise in the virtual world.
Tolman eSports by HCR is the result of a partnership with Happy Cat Racing, a team of 24 sim racers with three wins in The Online Racing Association 24 Hours of Le Mans, 12 Hours of Sebring and Daytona 24 Hours. The team will take part in the iRacing VRS Endurance Series, racing McLaren MP4-12C GT3s in Tolman’s real-world liveries, starting at the 3 Hours of Road Atlanta on Sunday, May 17.
Virtual races will be identical to real life with drivers formulating strategies, paying attention to tire wear and avoiding penalties to win. Tolman’s engineers will be on hand to provide technical support and guide car setup.
Chris Bell, team manager of Happy Cat Racing, said, “The Tolman partnership is a huge step for Happy Cat Racing and we look forward to repaying the team’s faith with further success and development within the sim racing community. We would like to thank everyone involved in bringing the partnership together and we look forward to working toward our goals.”
Christopher Tolman, managing director of Tolman, said, “We’ve been incredibly impressed with the quality of the racing and the production, and we’re confident this is the right place for us to be competing, especially as it also enables our real-world racing drivers to get a foothold in e-sports.”
