Briton crowned World’s Fastest Gamer, wins IRL racing career

British gamer James Baldwin has won a season’s racing in real life, an opportunity 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.

Baldwin had to fend off several challengers in a two-week competition that featured both gaming and track races to scoop the top prize.

The Briton passed pole-sitter Mitchell de Jong in the four-man final race of the knockout competition on the Vegas track on Tuesday to scoop the big prize.

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 2 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 sports car 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 1 winner Rudy Van Buren, previously a sales manager in the Netherlands, won a year as simulator driver with the McLaren Formula One team.