How racing driver Jack Hawksworth is taking on the best – from his living room in Yorkshire

THE season may have been stopped in its tracks by the coronavirus outbreak, but Jack Hawksworth is still competing with some of the world’s best Formula 1, Formula E and Indy Car drivers from the comfort of his own living room in Saltaire.

With the Weathertech Sports Car Championship in America suspended until July 4, Hawksworth has been honing his skills on a computer simulator in two virtual championships live on TV.

He has been competing against Formula 1 drivers such as Lando Norris and Nicholas Latifi, fellow Yorkshireman Oliver Rowland from Formula E, Sebastian Montoya (the son of Formula 1 and Indycar star Juan Pablo Montoya) and British driver and pundit, Billy Monger in the Isolation eSeries on BT Sport, while also taking part in a simulated version of his own GT Daytona class championship.

“It’s great entertainment for the fans and very enjoyable,” Hawksworth told The Yorkshire Post.

“I’ve got the simulator set up in my living room. I’ve got my computer in here, my curved widescreen TV, real pedals and a real racing seat that would fit straight into a car, so it’s quite the contraption!”

The West Yorkshire driver had completed the first race of the 2020 season at Daytona in January where he finished ninth and then took part in one testing session at Sebring before the season was suspended, and he has not been near a track since then.

“We only had one race before it was stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak,” added Hawksworth. “The plan at the moment is for the series to restart on July 4th.

“That’s what we are preparing for at the minute. But in the meantime I think the racing world has found a new way of keeping our little industry going and virtual racing has become the new normal.

“I’m involved in two series of virtual racing. Basically the series I race in America – the Daytona Class IMSA series – is running an online championship with all the drivers competing in their usual cars on the same style circuits every Thursday evening.

“The Isolation eSeries is different as it is based on a Formula 3 car and all the drivers taking part are from a series of different backgrounds. There’s Formula 1 drivers, CART drivers, IndyCar and sports car drivers who would never normally compete together in real life, racing each other virtually on a different track each Monday evening.”

While advances in technology make the action look incredibly realistic for the viewer, Hawksworth believes the racing is even more competitive than the real thing for the drivers as well.

“For the people watching at home, it looks very real,” he said. “In terms of driving, there is definitely realism to it but there is no real ‘feel’ for the car like when you are driving in real life. Everything is visual and audible but there is definitely a crossover between the two.

“Whenever you stick a bunch of racing drivers into a competition against each other – regardless of what it is – they all want to beat each other. So many of them have spent hours and hours practicing on these machines.

“If anything it’s more competitive than the real thing.”

The result is brilliant entertainment for the fans at a time when any kind of live sport is hard to come by and it is an initiative that Hawksworth is fully behind and enjoying thoroughly.

“It’s good fun to do, it’s good exposure for the sport and it’s good for the people watching,” he added. “That’s the beauty of it. All people can watch at the moment is replays of old matches and races.

“What we’ve been able to do with the virtual racing is provide a new concept and a race. Just not a race on a track, but it’s still a race.

“There’s still overtaking, there’s still storylines and live competition.

“It has brought a lot of drivers together who would not normally compete together and I like that aspect of it.”

The Isolation eRacing series, takes place on Mondays at 6pm on BT Sport 1, while the Daytona GT series can be found on the Global SimRacing YouTube Channel on Thursdays at 11pm.

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