This was published 8 years ago
Motor sport: Matt Simmons enjoying the big time on the GT circuit
By Mark Fogarty
This time last year, Matt Simmons was an Australia Post courier driver with big dreams of converting his skill behind the wheel of a gaming console into a career as a real-world racer.
Just two weeks later, Simmons made his fantasy come true by winning an international competition to join a development program aimed at turning gamers into racing drivers.
Real world: Former postie and video gamer Matt Simmons will compete in the 24 Hours of Spa on Sunday.Credit: Chris Brown
A fortnight before the anniversary of his life-changing success on August 12, 2015, he is lining up for the world's biggest GT sports car endurance race as a member of a factory-backed racing team.
Simmons' journey from virtual to reality began in his bedroom in the northern Brisbane suburb of Wayville Heights, playing driving games on a low-budget console set-up, and has taken him into the cockpit of a Nissan GT-R GT3 racer.
His latest step up the ladder towards establishing himself as a professional racing driver is competing in the 24 Hours of Spa, scheduled to begin at 12.30am AEST on Sunday.
Run at the famous Spa-Francorchamps F1 track – a classic 7km course that winds through the Ardennes forest in Belgium – the twice-around-the-clock race is the most prestigious event on the international GT calendar.
The 24 Hours of Spa is the highlight of the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup championship and the second leg of the inaugural Intercontinental GT Challenge, which began with the Bathurst 12 Hours in February.
Simmons, 27, is partnered with Britain's Sean Walkinshaw – younger brother of Holden Racing Team owner Ryan Walkinshaw, Mexico's Riccardo Sanchez and France's Romain Sarazin, a fellow graduate of the Nissan GT Academy.
They are competing in the Pro-Am class in a factory supported Nissan GT-R run by British team RJN, which won last year's Blancpain GT title.
Simmons is contesting his fourth GT endurance race after being promoted from the GT Academy development squad for his first full season with the financial backing of Nissan Australia.
He quit his job driving an Australia post courier delivery van after winning the international final of the 2015 Nissan GT Academy, the culmination of a global contest between gamers aspiring to become real-world racing drivers.
Simmons was judged the best of the finalists in a six-day shootout that involved a series of races and physical challenges at the Silverstone track in the UK.
On the eve of starting the 24 Hours of Spa – the fourth race of his maiden season in car racing of any kind – as a fully fledged factory race driver, Simmons is still in awe of his incredible opportunity.
"It's exceeded every expectation by far, but it's been just as challenging as I imagined," he told Fairfax Media. "It's just such a steep learning curve, being put into the biggest GT championship in the world.
"There's quite a lot of pressure. You need to perform quite quickly and what I've been trying to do each race is to get better and better each time I'm in the car. In general, this experience has been amazing up to this point and I know the 24 hours of Spa will be another step forward in an amazing experience."
Simmons and his teammates weren't able to extract the maximum speed from their GT-R in qualifying for the 24 Hours of Spa and will start 60th in the 65-car field.
But he is confident they have honed their machine into a strong contender for the gruelling race, which is a test of adapting to notoriously changeable weather conditions around the majestic track as well as long distance reliability, and are aiming for a top 20 finish overall and victory in the Pro-Am class.
"Anything's possible," Simmons said. "It's 24 hours, so starting at the back hasn't really deterred us. We still as positive as we can be because in 24 hours anything can happen and we know what we need to do to go through the field.
"We're confident we have a strong race package. That's what we've been working towards because we know that's more important than one lap speed. It doesn't matter whether you start first or 60th, you can still win. So that's where we feel we can still be in the hunt."
The race marks the 25th anniversary of Nissan's first and only victory in the 24 Hours of Spa.
In 1991, Australia's David Brabham partnered Sweden's Anders Olofsson and Japan's Naoki Hattori to a 21-lap walkover win in a Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 – famously nicknamed "Godzilla" for its all-conquering success in Australian and international touring car racing.