Ticket to ride: Travelling around the world playing Gran Turismo

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from Dunedin News

From reporter Hamish McNeilly:

Simon Bishop has represented New Zealand and travelled around the world – all thanks to a video game.

The 32-year-old has been playing the racing simulation game Gran Turismo, developed for PlayStation, since 1999.

"I always liked cars as a kid ... and it is a very fun game to play.’’

That was when it was Gran Turismo 2, with the game now up to Gran Turismo 7, a game he himself makes an appearance in as a non-player character.

In recent years Bishop moved from playing on a controller to a portable racing rig, which includes a steering wheel, adjustable seats, foot pedals and takes pride of place in his bedroom.

It is from this corner site in his Dunedin flat where Bishop practices for about three to four hours a day during the competition season.

It was when the game moved to online racing that he realised he was good at it.

That coincided with the launch of the 2018 Gran Turismo World Championship and it had "basically been a whirlwind since then’’, he said.

He went to Tokyo, Japan, on an all-expenses-paid trip. It was his first time leaving New Zealand.

He qualified in second spot, before finishing third and coming away with the realisation “I could race with these guys”.

"It was a moment of self-belief" he said.

People often pictured e-sports, even at a high level, would involve larger people "covered in Dorito dust’’.

‘’But everybody has to be really fit, because you have to perform your best in tricky conditions,” Bishop said.

Another highlight was racing in person at the famous Nürburgring track in Germany, where he raced as part of a three-person Toyota team alongside the real 24-hour race.

"And we won. Basically that was the launching of this career."

The victory was one of the most famous moments in the world series history, decided ‘’right at the very end’’.

"That was pretty amazing ... it kick-started the entire year."

Soon he was jetting off on another all-expenses-paid trip, this time to New York, staying in the heart of Times Square.

The e-sport competition has taken him to Japan, the United States, Taiwan, Germany, Monaco, Australia, and Austria.

There was no prize money in the sport, but Bishop, who was sponsored by Logitech, said the travel opportunities made it all worthwhile.

He was heading to Austria again at the end of the month to compete in the Gran Turismo World Championship.

The top 12 people at the 30-strong event would qualify for Monaco in November, and "the goal is to make it".

"I have done two world finals, the last one in 2020, representing New Zealand," he said.

"It was always my dream as a kid ... to race cars."

One of his former teammates had moved into racing a real life car, with those drivers increasingly using simulators to train on.

While he would be considered too old for competitive racing, it would be a different story if he was 15 or 16, he said.