James Baldwin, otherwise known as ‘Veloce James’, has won the World Fastest Gamer competition and a $1million race contract

Photo: World’s Fastest Gamer

British gamer James Baldwin has won the World’s Fastest Gamer competition in Las Vegas to be crowned the second-ever winner, earning a professional racing contract for 2020.

Baldwin, who races for Alfa Romeo in the Formula 1 esports Series, beat nine other gamers who made the finals to be crowned the second-ever winner of the contest.

The competition aims to find the very best racing talent from the video game world, with the grand prize of a $1million professional contract the next step in converting virtual talent to real-world racing star.

Baldwin won both the sim racing stage of the competition in Los Angeles and the real-life race in Las Vegas to be crowned the overall winner by a judging panel consisting of Juan Pablo Montoya, Rubens Barrichello, season 1 winner Rudy van Buren, GT Academy winner and Super GT driver Jann Mardenborough, as well as contest founder Darren Cox.

He will now begin an intensive driver training programme ahead of a professional season of racing in 2020.

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Baldwin said it was an unbelievable achievement to win, and that he had learned a great deal throughout the competition.

“It feels surreal to be the World’s Fastest Gamer,” he said.

“I don’t believe it yet, and I won’t believe it for a few days. My whole career, my whole life almost have revolved around racing. This makes it all worth it.

“The last 12 days have been an absolute pressure cooker. But that’s the point of it, to train you to be a racing driver. It’s also been amazing even off track because I was able to meet some amazing people, the other competitors of course, and the production team and everyone involved in World’s Fastest Gamer, plus meeting my hero, Juan Pablo Montoya, it’s just been a dream come true.

Photo: World’s Fastest Gamer

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is to not overthink. That’s what I was doing at Laguna Seca. “Being confident in my abilities and not overthinking is what I’ll take away from this competition, and what I’ll take into the race car next year as well.”

The 22-year-old dominated the finale, overtaking pole man Mitchel de Jong and going on to win by 10 seconds.

His dedication to teamwork and drive to improve combined with his sim racing and Vegas victories put him head and shoulders clear of the competition according to the judges.