Sim Racing is esports subgenre which popularity has seen clear upwards trajectory the past few years, especially in Finland. This has naturally drawn HAVU's interest as well and the organization sees this as the right moment to support the sport via acquisition of Inertia SimRacing.
HAVU Sim Racing:
Simo Rautavirta
Joonas Vastamäki
Johannes Vahala
Matti Kaidesoja
Matias Vitikainen
Christer Andersson
Henry Salmén
Antti Pihlaja
Dani Korpi
Eero Tuominen
Jonne Heikkinen
Hannu Etupaltta
Rauno Kokko
Matti Nevala
Ossian Puhakka
Ilkka Kattilakoski
"Sim Racing is one of the most interesting esport subgenres as it combines physical and digital racing in a way that serves fans of both worlds. World class drivers don't only follow sim racing but also compete in different tournaments and races themselves. Sim racing also provides a much easier to access way for fans and people involved in professional racing to get familiar with and try entering the competitive side of the sport without massive investments or years of experience. Sim racing's popularity accelerated even more during the pandemic and it has been amazing for me as well to follow the sport and what kind of experience it is compared to F1 for an example. I'm specifically excited about Inertia's world class talents joining HAVU, openings and opportunities for motorsport fans and talents working in the sim racing space. Our goal is to raise sim racing's popularity in gaming space, amongst motorsport fans and on the sponsorship side of things. But also to enter the sim racing community and learn best ways to support the sport competitively. It goes without saying that the professional drivers in the scene during future seasons should prepare to be left behind as HAVU enters the track with a storm."
- Lasse Salminen, HAVU CEO
"Sim Racing has taken huge leaps forward the past few years, which means that the teams have had to develop as well. Inertia reached a point where we had to take the next step towards professionalism or get ran over by our competitors. Esports is a fulltime job and Inertia as organization couldn’t support it’s drivers on a level that competing in biggest tournaments requires. We were talking about running our own organization and negotiating with already existing organizations. In the end we clicked with HAVU on multiple areas and decided to stick together. HAVU’s values and the attitude with how they operate matched with Inertia’s and there’s synergy on multiple areas. It’s obviously bitter-sweet to abandon your own brand, but sometimes you need to leave something good behind to achieve something even bigger.
Our first significant competition under HAVU is Digital Racing eSM 2022, which is held July 2nd in Salo. Matias Vitikainen is looking for his first championship after finishing as a runner-up last year, while Matti Kaidesoja’s eyes are set on 3rd Finnish Championship. Matias and Matti are accompanied by Henry Salmén, who also has taken big steps towards the top of Finland."
- Simo Rautavirta, Inertia 2016-2022