Today’s Community Spotlight is dedicated to Pan-Am Racing. Originally founded as the North American GT Series (NAGTS) in November 2020, it began its activities as a PlayStation-based league with a focus on Assetto Corsa Competizione. The North American element got lost in a few months, as the events rapidly attracted members from outside the region. The growth led to a rebranding, first to Pan-American Racing, and eventually to the simpler “Pan-Am Racing”, reflecting the community’s shift toward a more global identity.
A Welcoming and Friendly Environment
As a growing hub for competitive sim racing, Pan-Am quickly evolved from its PlayStation roots into a community that caters to players across multiple simulators, particularly iRacing and ACC. This evolution has been central to Pan-Am’s mission: to offer a welcoming environment for both seasoned racers and newcomers alike, providing a welcoming space for sim racing enthusiasts.
At the heart of Pan-Am Racing is a dedicated team of admins and race directors who ensure the league runs smoothly, as John Cannon (aka xCannon762x) told us. ‘ImNotJimmy’, the current league owner, leads the charge alongside Gage (‘fiesta13’). The admin group is well supported by a team of staff members, who handle everything from stewarding to the day-to-day administrative tasks that keep the community thriving.
The league’s leadership emphasises the importance of cultivating a community that goes beyond just competition. They believe that the key to Pan-Am’s success lies in creating a space where members feel welcome and encouraged to bring their friends along. “To me, it is vital that you have a community of people that not only enjoy racing, but also want to bring their friends and race as well. Having a welcoming and helpful community goes a long way with someone that is either new to sim racing or just new to the community helps out a ton. If those aren’t a factor, then the league will not succeed”, John explained.
Rebuilding The Community
When the community started to get away from these principles, grids started to become smaller. “Several months back, our league kind of got away from our core principles and people did not want to race with us at all even though we had the events posted on Sim Grid. The last big endurance event we had was several months ago and the grid wasn’t as full as it was about a year and a half ago”.
But a community has its highs and lows, and Pan-Am admins know it very well. They put their heads down, shifted back to the old approach that was doing wonders and began a successful rebuilding phase. “Since about March or so, we have been in a rebuilding phase to try and get back to our roots and also adding iRacing. We have been getting things going and plan to have more and bigger events on acc, if it is still around, and iRacing”.
Present and Future Championships
With the worst behind their backs, admins could begin to focus on racing once again. The two main championships running on Pan-Am Racing are the GT Sprint Series on iRacing and the Fall Championships on ACC.
“With the GT Sprint Series on iRacing we are offering something that most leagues aren’t really offering that I have seen recently. We are giving away trophies and cash to the top 3 and just cash to 4th and 5th. So, as people start to see that we are doing iracing events they may start to come race with us”. The Fall Championship on ACC also hands out trophies and is the perfect starting spot for community’s newcomers.
But what can we expect from the community in the future? John has this answer too! “Without giving too much away, my plan is to be offering endurance races again with ACC and start doing endurance races with iRacing, but we’re also looking at other events such as nascar trucks… and other stuff. So you’ll just have to join us to see what we’re planning on doing and just enjoy the racing and community that we offer and have the chance to win some pretty cool prizes”.
