Learn more about the
SimOps origin story
What is Sim Racing?
Very few sports can be reasonably represented in a simulation that translates the skills to and from real life.
Playing Madden won’t improve anyone’s football skills. Similarly, playing FIFA won’t improve, well, football (aka soccer) skills. Sim Racing, however, was developed with such detailed physics models that spending time in a sim can actually make you a better driver.
Modern sims are meticulous in their representation of cars, tracks, engines, and physics. From the individual layers of the tire, to the track surfaces, to fuel burn rates, and aerodynamics, every aspect of racing is taken into account.
When COVID-19 caused race tracks worldwide to shut down, drivers continued utilizing sims to practice, sharpen their skills, and race other drivers. There were even a number of televised sim races for fans to stay engaged! This moment in history shone a spotlight on sim rigs for how incredible they can be and how drivers had been using them for years.
Founder Joel Bergstein worked as a software engineer for years when he discovered racing sims and decided to build one for himself. He was particularly thrilled at the ability to safely go wheel-to-wheel racing in amazing cars on tracks from all over the world.
Joel and his wife Ruth decided they’d open a Sim Racing center in Asheville, North Carolina. They quickly found that people who had no interest in racing enjoyed it as much as racing aficionados. They discovered that the technical hurdles to opening and operating a Sim Racing center were high, and Joel realized he could do something about it.
Our Story
SimOps goes from idea to software
Joel found that the biggest challenge specific to a Sim Racing center was the logistics of centrally managing all of the rigs, servers, drivers, etc. He saw the driving fidelity depth and breadth of content for rFactor 2 as the best value for the drivers, but its processes left much to be desired.
Unwilling to accept the existing compromises and armed with experience in enterprise software design and development, he set to work developing a solution for his center.
With a focus on automation to both reduce opportunity for errors and to free up the operators, and constantly being informed by The Track’s pit crew and drivers, SimOps was born and quickly became indispensable to the center.
A change of plans
On September 28th, 2024 Hurricane Helene hit Asheville, NC. After the waters nearly reached the 14 foot ceiling at The Track, Joel and Ruth had to make a hard decision. Joel pivoted his efforts to focus SimOps as a tool to enable other operators and help build Sim Racing communities.
A bright future
Now SimOps is able to impact more drivers, more center owners, and more operators. By creating amazing experiences and enabling vibrant communities, SimOps is changing the state of Sim Racing!
Talk to us about how you can be a part of it too!
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Learn more about our software
We’ve made Sim Racing set up and management easier than ever. Reach out to learn more today.