Gamer to racer Jann Mardenborough from Cardiff will bring his unique expertise to the World’s Fastest Gamer judging panel during the finals.
Mardenborough previously won Nissan’s GT Academy competition, transitioning from Gran Turismo gamer to full-time racing driver in 2011.
In his very first year of real-world competition, Mardenborough won the British GT round at Brands Hatch. He subsequently finished third in LMP2 at Le Mans and took a GP3 series win at Hockenheim.
Now, Mardenborough races in Japan’s Super GT series with Nissan. He won his first GT300 race in 2016 at Fuji and scored his first podium in the premier GT500 class competition in 2018.
“I’m really excited to be joining the World’s Fastest Gamer California Dreamin’ tour as a judge and the blue team leader,” Mardenborough said.
“After winning my own gamer-to-racer competition, I know just how well esports skills can transfer to real-world driving, and I’m excited to see how these ten finalists do.”
The “California Dreamin” tour begins in Los Angeles on 18 October and runs up the California coastline before finishing at Sonoma Raceway north of San Francisco on 29 October.
The ten gamers vying for the World’s Fastest Gamer title will be split into two teams, with Mardenborough heading up the blue team in a head-to-head competition against Rudy van Buren’s orange team during the 12-day competition.
Former Monaco Grand Prix, two x Indy 500 and three x Rolex 24 at Daytona winner Juan Pablo Montoya will act as the head judge. Montoya heads to the competition after claiming his first driver’s championship in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship last weekend.
The gamers will battle it out with in-game and on-track competitions to find the winner who will earn a real-world race drive worth more than $1 million in 2020.