A recent addition to the SimGrid host family, but with lots of experience in organising events. In today’s Community Spotlight, we are covering Sim Racing Belgium! This community was founded in 2020 and has friendship and respect as its core values.
The bond created between members has led to the creation of its own racing team, mainly participating in endurance races. We interviewed one of its founders, Tim De Borger, who took us through everything we needed to know about this racing group.
Sim Racing Belgium Early Days
Sim Racing Belgium started its activities as a simple Facebook group where a few friends and hobby enthusiasts gathered. “As the group grew, the need to host an ACC league quickly became apparent”, Tim told SimGrid. “I took on this task and shaped Sim Racing Belgium into what it is today. We are now in our 8th season of the ACC league and also organise events in Raceroom and iRacing.
This year, we decided to transition from SGP to SimGrid for various reasons. With this move, we hope to establish ourselves as a community worth following and participating in”. With over 1300 members on Discord, there is of course a big group of people working behind the scenes to ensure everything runs smoothly.
The admin team consists of Jonas Vermeulen and Tim De Borger. Relevant to SimGrid is the ACC Crew, which includes members like Joeri Van Brussel, Kris Nuyts, Yentl Van Thielen, Gaetan De Vos, and Tim Spaens, as well as a long list of stewards.
Collaboration with the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium
While the community has a vast user base worldwide, as the name suggests, a lot of activities are focused on Belgium. In particular, SRB has cooperated with the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, the national motorsport federation. “They asked us to organise the qualifiers for the GT-Esports event at the FIA Motorsport Games. This was also our first championship on The SimGrid”. A significant milestone for the community.
Internationally, Sim Racing Belgium is best known for their ACC League, now in its 8th season. This championship features a 75-minute race every two weeks, with seasons running from February to June and September to December. Each race is streamed on Twitch and includes live stewarding. There are three classes: PRO, PRO/AM, and AM, so everyone is welcome to participate regardless of skill level.
The 8th season of the championship will be a crucial step for the community, as it is the first time hosting the league via SimGrid. It is worth mentioning that Sim Racing Belgium also hosts a weekly Wednesday event, usually as preparation for the league races, which might evolve into a fun championship in the future.
Racing For Charity
While the focus of the community has been on sprint formats, Tim suggested that in the future we might see more endurance racing. Even more interesting, the admin team is considering tying this activity to a good cause, as they have done before.
“During our last 24-hour event for “Make-A-Wish International,” we raised over €5000. This is something worth repeating, and we believe that through The SimGrid, the potential is even greater. We would like to establish ourselves as a prominent community on The SimGrid”.
