Race
Hot laps now; selected sprint and endurance programmes next.
BIR SIM RACING ·00:00.000
Built before broadband. Racing for what comes next.
BIR is an independent international sim-racing team founded by Ignat Bobrovich on 25 March 2000. From computer-club Formula racing and replay-file international leagues to touring-car competition and today's global hot-lap events, BIR has spent more than a quarter-century turning precision, persistence, and community into speed.
25.03.2000
Team founded
Pre-broadband roots
Computer-club and replay-file racing
Virtual → real
Touring-car endurance and sprint racing
Now recruiting
Drivers and partners
The comeback
History earned the name. The next grid must earn it again.
BIR continues to race, currently concentrating on fast-lap competition and selected events. Occasional top-20 performances show that the pace is still there. The next step is to build a deeper driver roster, a repeatable training programme, stronger media output, and the partnerships required to return to sustained front-running competition.
Develop
Recruit talent, analyse data, and turn individual speed into team performance.
Activate
Give partners authentic content, events, community challenges, and measurable visibility.
Since 25.03.2000
Four stages, one continuous team
2000
The first grid
An early organized virtual Formula racing season; BIR is founded by 13-year-old Ignat Bobrovich and finishes as team runner-up.
2001–2005
Beyond the local circuit
Championship wins, pre-broadband international competition, and the BIR-Eventa partnership culminating in the 2005 drivers' and teams' titles.
2012–2015
From pixels to the circuit
BIR members carry their preparation culture into real touring-car racing, contesting endurance and shorter-format events and recording podium results.
Today
The return
BIR preserves its archive, races in fast-lap formats, and builds a new competitive programme with drivers, contributors, and partners.
Founder
The founder who never really left the grid
Ignat Bobrovich entered his first esports race at 13. He founded BIR as its captain and driver, later carried the team's culture into real touring-car racing, and built a wider career as an esports entrepreneur, educator, and author. His book, published by Springer Nature, turns more than two decades of experience into practical guidance for the next generation.
“At first I wanted the fun. Then, after winning qualifying and the races that followed, anything except first place began to feel like defeat.”
Sim racing
Sim racing is where sport, software, and human performance meet.
Sim racing is competitive virtual motorsport built around realistic vehicle physics, track modelling, racecraft, and specialist controls. It ranges from fastest-lap challenges to sprint and endurance racing. Unlike most esports disciplines, it also has a direct training and talent-transfer relationship with real motorsport.
Think you have the pace?
BIR is looking for disciplined drivers who can combine speed, consistency, clean racecraft, and a willingness to work as a team.
Want to build the comeback with us?
Partner with a racing story that connects early esports history, modern competition, content, technology, and real motorsport credibility.
Journal
Latest from the team and the archive
BIR archive · 9 min
BIR at 25: the team that started before broadband
A quarter-century after a newspaper advert sent a 13-year-old to a computer club, BIR is still racing. What the archive actually shows.
BIR editorial · 2026-03-25
Sim-racing history · 8 min
How virtual Formula racing worked before broadband
Voice starts, human judges, LAN cabling, and printed standings: the operating model of an early virtual Formula season.
BIR editorial · 2026-02-18
Sim-racing history · 7 min
What was LFRS, and why replay-file racing mattered?
The Little Formula Racing Series let drivers on dial-up compete internationally by exchanging event files, saves, and checksums.
BIR editorial · 2026-01-29
Current sponsors