Bentley Motorsport persisted despite the postponement of public events as four Bentley Continental GT3s raced in the SRO E-Sport GT Series Charity Challenge last March 29.

The action took place via Livestream on YouTube as race drivers, engineers and fans around the world stayed at home, while many of them have also turned to e-racing to get their motorsport fix. SRO, the organizer of the multiple real-world racing series, hosted the event from Monza, Italy, for the Assetto Corsa Competizione game.

The race featured 50 GT3 cars as the four Bentley racing drivers battled with 46 other contestants, 36 real-world racers and 10 sim racers, in the fundraising competition. Bentley works driver Al Buncombe (GBR), K-PAX Racing’s Andy Soucek (ESP), CMR’s Arjun Maini (IND), and JRM’s Martin Plowman (GBR) each raced a Bentley in the one-hour sim race.

Bentley drivers have worked closely with Bentley Motorsport’s technical team in developing the car prior to the event.

Bentley’s Director of Motorsport, Paul Williams said “while it is, of course, disappointing to have to postpone rounds of the 2020 racing season, the health and safety of everyone is paramount. So, we have taken the skill set of our motorsport department and put them into action in the virtual world.”

Williams also noted that the team’s drivers and technicians have been busy during the week before the sim race to work on the setup of the virtual Continental GT3. In addition, the virtual car’s lap time around Monza is representative of its real-world performance on the track.

“We applaud the team at SRO not only for their handling of the COVID-19 situation, but for quickly putting on a charity event with such an impressive entry list,” Williams said. Buncombe, the Bentley works racing driver, also lauded SRO for putting on a “fantastic” charity event,” Williams added.

Bentley Motors is the most sought after luxury car brand in the world. The company’s headquarters in Crewe is home to all of its operations including design, R&D, engineering and production of the company’s four model lines, Continental, Flying Spur, Bentayga and Mulsanne.