13.09.2022
13 September 2022
Alpine Esports is excited to share that it will be participating in the Le Mans Virtual Series 2022-2023 alongside some of the biggest automotive manufacturers and sim racing teams in the world. The first race will officially kick off on Saturday 17th September with 8 Hours of Bahrain.
The Le Mans Virtual Series 2021-2022 attracted 81 million cumulated viewers and makes its highly anticipated return this September. The 2022-2023 series will run from September to January and see 40 teams compete with manufacturers and esports teams going head-to-head for a share of the $250,000 prize pool.
The Alpine Esports team will consist of French sim racer Tom Lartilleux, Dutch sim racer Collin Spork and American sim racer Rory MacDuff as well as pro driver Sacha Lehmann from France. The staffing team will consist of Team Manager Robin Bondon, Drivers Coach Jurgen Van Bergen, and Strategy & Set-Up Engineer Laurent Keersmaekers.
Together the team have an impressive list of achievements both on the real and virtual track making them a force to be reckoned with going into the series. Most notable include Spork’s recent win at the 2022 Formula Sim Racing World Champion and Lartilleux’s victory in the Manufacturer Series at the 4th World Tour in Salzburg on Gran Turismo Sport. Lehmann was also named runner-up at the 2019: Formule Renault 2.0 European Championship.
Alpine Esports has also unveiled its exclusive Le Mans Virtual Series livery which includes a striking design with the iconic Alpine branding and colour pallet. For this year’s series, Alpine Esports will be car number 36 featuring key team sponsors logos such as leading crypto-exchange platform Binance, EKWB, Mandiant, Trak Racer and Shamir.
The Le Mans Virtual Series 2022-2023 Key Dates:
• 8 Hours of Bahrain - 17th September
• 4 Hours of Monza - 8th October
• 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps - 5th November
• 500 Miles of Sebring - 3rd December
• 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual - 14th & 15th January
“After showing a lot of potential during the last 24h of Le Mans Virtual in January 2022, the team has continued to grow and the next step was quite clear: participate in the Le Mans Virtual Series 2022-2023. We have an exciting challenge in front of us, with new people involved and we are extremely motivated. Something already binds us, the same goal: to bring Alpine Esports to as high as possible in the endurance category!” said Robin Bondon, Alpine Esports, LMVS Team Manager.
“It's really exciting to be involved in another Le Mans Virtual series and be able to showcase the Alpine Esports brand on one of the biggest stages in sim racing. The team we have brought together are extremely talented and I can't wait to show everyone what we can achieve on the track“ added Guillaume Vergnas, Alpine Esports, Senior Business Development Manager.