John Gaw promoted to head of Prodrive - MotorSportsTalk

Aston Martin’s racing director, John Gaw, has been promoted to the head of its racing parent organization, Prodrive. Gaw will now oversee all of the company’s racing activities.

Beyond Aston Martin, which runs in the FIA World Endurance Championship, TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and British GT Championship, Prodrive also plans entries with MINI in the FIA World Rally Championship, US-based Global Rallycross Championship (GRC) and enter the new FIA World Rallycross Championship. A release from the organization also says Prodrive is interested in Dakar and Formula E.

“These are exciting times for the business,” Gaw said in the release. “We already have confirmed programs in 2014 for our Aston Martin Racing works and customer teams. You will see our customers running MINI rally cars in the WRC and national series and we should have rallycross programs in the GRC and the new FIA championship. I would also like to see us running cars in the new Formula E championship, which I believe has a tremendous future, and to be competing in the Dakar, which is a natural progression given our 30 years of rallying experience.”

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”