Dear reader,
I am writing this special edition from the departures lounge at Charlotte airport.
I’ve got the Canadian GP in my earphones, some buffalo wings on the table and a lot to think about after an electrifying weekend at the first American SimRacing Expo - life is good.
In the last 48 hours we’ve experienced the sensory and calorific challenge of a food Americans call “grits”; we’ve assessed the plushness of Asetek’s carpet and we’ve watched, in awe and disbelief, the spectacle that is professional pillow fighting on the hotel TV.
The SimRacing expo is always, in equal parts, energising, exhausting, encouraging and draining. But this time, I’d throw in “intriguing”.
When this email reaches your inbox, I’ll be on the “red-eye” flight from Chicago to London wishing I had a coffee…
Tom Bunten, Traxion.gg
SPECIAL | SimRacing Expo debrief
Quick-fire notes from the expo and a view of the future of the SimRacing Expo in America.
A solid first show with bags of potential
As the kids say, there’s a lot to “unpack” after this sim racing expo. Overall, I’d say that the weekend was a very encouraging first chapter of South West Vision’s American Story.
There were fewer visitors and fewer exhibitors than there were at last year’s SimRacing Expo in Dortmund. We were missing the likes of Logitech, Moza, Cube Controls and GSI, but arguably, that’s to be expected in year one.
We were lucky to speak to a lot of visitors at the show. I was taken aback by the distances people travelled to attend the event and the extent to which they engaged with the exhibitors. The mood in the hall was expectant.
At 10am on Saturday and Sunday, when the doors opened, sim racers could be seen trying to disguise a casual jog to get to their sim rig of choice first, gloves and racing boots already donned.
The crowd, whilst smaller, made the event feel alive from start to finish with their distinct American style of enthusiasm and passion for sim racing.
One subscriber to our Traxion Control Podcast even asked Tom and John to sign their racing boots!
If this was the warm-up, I’m excited for this show to come out swinging next time. Talking of which, right towards the end of the SimRacing Expo, organisers South West Vision confirmed that the event would be returning to Charlotte next year.
Quick-Fire Observations
Trak Racer has been working hard. It brought the world’s first consumer-level bike racing simulator, a new Hot Wheels collaboration and a licensed Aston Martin cockpit. Still no sign of Trak Racer’s own wheel base and pedal line up.
Simagic is making moves. The brand arrived in Charlotte with the biggest, most established product range they’ve ever showcased. The innovative Zeus range with its detachable screen shows some real ambition from the Chinese outfit.
Fanatec arrived with a quieter setup that usual, perhaps due to the absence of any new products to showcase. They did however win the prize for the comfiest beanbags, providing me with a nice 10 minutes of downtime to play some iRacing Arcade.
New American Brands were a welcome addition to the show floor. Max Pepis Innovations showed off some incredibly creative NASCAR wheel rims whilst SimCraft showed some beefy looking motion rigs.
Asetek demonstrate continued commitment to sim racing. Despite being acquired for their liquid cooling capabilities by CQXA Holdings, there still appears to be an appetite for Asetek Racing, with the Danish team bringing along its new handbrake and shifter.
iRacing made its SimRacing Expo debut with a stand showing off iRacing Arcade, NASCAR 25 and of course, iRacing. Other than iRacing Arcade’s new local split screen multiplayer mode, which was admittedly a lot of fun, iRacing had nothing new to demonstrate at the show.
Project Motor Racing was jubilant! With newly appointed Chief Creative Officer, Aris Vasilakos, stood front and centre on the stand, the troubled Straight4 Studio seemed to have a spring in their step at the positive reception to our recent interview with the former Kunos talisman. The team offered up access to their new build which included their new Rusty Knoll (aka Road America) Circuit DLC, a significant upgrade to their physics engine and a surprise new test track.
Track Titan hosted a modest but interesting activation on the Fanatec stand. Visitors to the show were able to turn laps whilst being assessed by the Track Titan software, ultimately being assigned a driving style related to a real world Formula 1 driver. I didn’t have time to give it a go, but I expect I would have been marked more Mazepin/Latifi, less Verstappen/Alonso.
Conspit impressed our resident celebrity, John Munro. Between taking selfies and signing clothing, John managed to try the new Conspit Shifter, it’s first ever, and dubbed the peripheral his “highlight of the show” - big praise indeed!
Asetek won the Thickest Carpet Cup with an average depth of 22.5mm. The carpet was plush, soft and deep. Money well spent if you ask us.
Tom inspecting the quality of Asetek’s carpet - professional journalism.
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News Highlights This Week from Traxion.gg
Like sim racing? Have ears? Then listen to the new, weekly format of the Traxion Control Podcast!
Our AI Pledge
If you’ve ever read a Traxion.gg article, you’ll know that the writers over here all have very distinct voices and opinions. It’s this character and sound that I think makes Traxion special.
Human creation is becoming a rare commodity with which the media seem to trade less and less. But not at Traxion. We don’t use AI to write our articles on the website, and I pledge to you, that I will never use AI to write this newsletter.
Last week’s poll results
Last week I thought I’d get a read on how many of you are interested in titles like Forza Horizon 6 and how many were only here for the hardcore sim racing news. Interestingly there was an almost equal split between those who had played, those who hadn’t played but will in the future, and those who haven’t and wont.
Two thirds of us here will play Forza Horizon 6 - impressive yet unsurprising given the monumental download number from the opening days of this game’s tenure in our game libraries.
Community Spotlight
This week’s community spotlight goes out to all of the visitors to the SimRacing Expo this weekend who came and said hi - especially those who declared themselves readers of this newsletter!
The word “community” gets thrown around a lot these days, and it’s easy to be skeptical of the existence of any real community when so much of how we interact with our readers, watchers and listeners at Traxion is online.
This weekend was a nice reminder that our community really exists - we really do have a shared passion and we really are our best selves when we’re together discussing and debating our niche surrounded by the companies, creators and curators who build it.
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