ADAC SimRacing Expo and Blancpain attract thousands of spectators to the Nürburgring 05.09.2019: A story of success for six years Some of the world's best virtual racing drivers thrills the crowd in the ring°arena – Aston Martin, Ferrari and Lamborghini race across the real circuit.

A story of success for six years



Some of the world's best virtual racing drivers thrills the crowd in the ring°arena – Aston Martin, Ferrari and Lamborghini race across the real circuit.
 

The ADAC SimRacing Expo attracts some of the world's best virtual racing drivers to the Nürburgring, as well as some top nobs in the industry of software and hardware manufacturers.



This weekend the success story of the ADAC Mittelrhein e.V. took place for the sixth time at the legendary race track in the Eifel. The Blancpain GT Series with outstanding cars such as Aston Martin, Ferrari and Lamborghini once again made a guest appearance on the real asphalt. Several thousand spectators watched the full program on three days.
 


The ADAC SimRacing Expo in particular, the meeting of virtual motor sports enthusiasts and all notable software and hardware manufacturers has developed rapidly in recent years. As in the previous year, 26 manufacturers were represented this year (2017: 18 / 2016: 14 / 2015: 13 / 2014: 11 manufacturers). This illustrates impressively the importance that the ADAC SimRacing Expo enjoys in this scene.
 


Marc Hennerici, Managing Director of ADAC Travel & Event Mittelrhein GmbH, says: "You notice it not only in Germany, but worldwide: The eSports boom continues to grow. We are glad that we recognized this early on and with the ADAC SimRacing Expo we have set up an event that is growing as well and is unique worldwide in its size. The mix of manufacturers' trade fair, competitions and supporting programs is hard to beat in terms of versatility".



For the first time the various virtual races took place in the ring°arena. The organizers of ADAC Mittelrhein e.V. had divided the ring°arena in half and set up a huge stage with an enormous video wall in the middle, 24 simulators in front of it. A total of 169 riders from 19 nations were in, including Australia, Japan, the USA, England and France.
 


Highlights were again the virtual races of the Porsche SimRacing Trophy where some of the world's best virtual simulation racers were in. Among them was Joshua K. Rogers, who won the Porsche SimRacing Trophy superiorly. The Australian from Team VRS Coanda Simsport also won the team race ADAC Digital GT500 powered by ARAL Ultimate with his US-American partner Mitchell De Jong. This makes DeJong the only one who has won the team race twice so far. He was already at the top of the podium in 2017.
 


In the team competition there were also two drivers who are usually at home on the real race track – and quite successfully. BMW factory drivers Bruno Spengler and Nick Catsburg premiered at the ADAC SimRacing Expo. At the qualifying, the 2012 DTM Champion and his team-mate reached tenth position on the grid and set an exclamation mark. After all, the two of them held their ground against – for the moment – world's best SimRacers. Unfortunately, they could not repeat this performance during the race due to a racing accident.
 


In the second year of the Porsche SimRacing Trophy at the Nürburgring a race for the various local ADAC clubs from all over Germany took place, the ADAC Digital AllStar Race powered by ARAL Ultimate. 24 teams had qualified for the weekend at the Nürburgring – and six of them for the finals. The drivers of the MSC Adenau were in top form and finished first and second. A duo of AC Mayen finished third on the podium.
 


There were also slot car tracks and a huge area for gaming exhibitors. A livestream of the SimRacer races was sent in two languages; over 613,000 spectators were reached via Internet.



Hennerici continues: "The ADAC SimRacing Expo has been a great success for years. I am very happy that we have confirmed this again this year and that visitors, manufacturers and SimRacer were again very satisfied with the event at the Nürburgring". Hennerici is therefore very confident that he will be able to organize a successful ADAC SimRacing Expo in 2020 as well.
 


On the real Grand Prix track at the Nürburgring the engines of the GT3 cars had howled. During the two races of the Blancpain GT series there were thrilling duels to marvel at. The first race on Saturday was won by Lamborghini drivers Marco Mapelli and Andrea Caldarelli. Victory in the second race was secured by Ricky Collard and Marvin Kirchhöfer in an Aston Martin.





co|wana GmbH,Florian Lenhart- also photo