(Reuters) – British gamer James Baldwin has won a season’s real racing worth more than $1 million after being crowned World’s Fastest Gamer in Las Vegas.
The 22-year-old competition winner will now start an intensive driver development program in Britain ahead of a professional race debut in 2020.
Head judge and Indianapolis 500 and F1 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya said in a statement after Tuesday’s finale that Baldwin was “just a little more complete” than the other nine contestants.
Brazilian former F1 racer Rubens Barrichello was another of the judges.
Season two of the competition featured eight champions from top motor racing esports series and two separate qualifiers.
The winner will now have a year as a professional racing driver with a GT sportscar team.
Baldwin, the 2019 eROC (Race of Champions) champion and reserve for the Alfa Romeo F1 esports team as well as racing for Veloce Esports, has some previous real racing experience in karting and Formula Ford, a junior single-seater series.
Season one winner Rudy Van Buren, previously a sales manager in the Netherlands, won a year as simulator driver with the McLaren Formula One team.
Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar