A 21-year-old racing driver from Wokingham who lives with autism has had the chance to race against one of his F1 heroes.
Bobby Trundley, who is a driver for all-disabled racing team, Team BRIT, has been competing with the team’s sim racing arm, eTeam BRIT, and last weekend took to the virtual track against former F1 champion, Jenson Button.
Bobby was diagnosed with autism at four years old and first sat in a cadet go-kart at the age of 10 when his passion for the sport was ignited. He soon found that it helped him manage the challenges that autism brings.
Having won a number of karting titles, Bobby joined Team BRIT in 2019 and in his first season, racing in the Gaz Shocks BMW 116 Trophy he won four out of his five races. Last year he moved up to GT4 racing in the Britcar Championship, driving the team’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4, taking a ‘driver of the day’ award and finishing strongly each race.
During lockdown, Bobby is racing with eTeam BRIT which is currently running its GT Challenge, welcoming sim racing teams from all over the world to compete on virtual versions of racing’s most famous circuits.
On Friday 8th January, Jenson Button joined the race, representing Rocket eSports and taking on 28 racers from eTeams across the country, including Bobby and a teammate from eTeam BRIT. Drivers competed on the state-of the-art rFactor2 platform, creating realistic racing simulations for PC users. Following the race, eTeam BRIT lies in third place in the championship overall and will race against Jenson once again next week.
Bobby said: “It was an honour and a privilege to compete in the same race as Jenson button, something I’d never thought would be possible!
“Unfortunately due to a racing incident, my car sustained extensive damage which sadly brought my race to an early conclusion. This will only increase my determination for the next race! Bring on Adelaide!”
Jenson and Bobby will return to the grid in the next round of the eTeam BRIT GT championship at Adelaide on Friday 22nd January at 7pm. To watch, visit:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/eteamBRIT
Twitch: www.twitch.tv/eteambrit
