Super Trofeo Stories: Anthony McIntosh and Glenn McGee

In recent years, the relationship between the virtual world of esports and real racing has become ever more apparent. Helped in some ways by the global pandemic in 2020, sim racing evolved from a fringe practice to a tangible route into real world competition.

Perhaps the most glowing example of the virtual to reality tag, particularly in Lamborghini Super Trofeo, is that of Glenn McGee and Anthony McIntosh. A sim racing world champion before making the switch to the real-world scene, McGee has raced against some of the best in the business.

Alongside racing newcomer McIntosh, sim racing has not only been a platform for more recent success, but in fact it is used as a way for the pairing as increasingly professional preparation for the Am class competitors.

In an ironic twist, McGee and McIntosh’s partnership began during a time where sim racing was arguably at its peak, during COVID-19 lockdown. But it wasn’t in the virtual world that the defending Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Am champions and World Finals winners crossed paths, but at a physical trackday outing in Florida.

“During COVID is when I got started in racing, because I got sick before COVID and almost died,” explains McIntosh.

“And then I got healthy again, COVID started so I needed to do something, and I looked into buying a car because I had never really had a nice car before. And because the brand’s factory had shut down, the car never got shipped to me.

“So then, I thought about renting a race car for a trackday but nobody would rent a car to a guy who had no experience, so I went to a place in Florida that would give you your licence and allow you to drive some formula cars. And that’s where I met Glenn.”

Between them, McGee brought McIntosh up to speed but the former’s journey to real-world racing came four years prior by upsetting the applecart in the Mazda MX-5 Cup shootout.

Having become iRacing world champion, he was invited to take part in an end-of-year shootout against real-world drivers, with the chance to race at Daytona the prize for the winner.

“I’m actually the only driver to go from Pro sim racing straight into real-world racing; I was a world champion in iRacing and in 2016 after winning that, there was a manufacturer that offered a real-life shootout and their shootout always had a gamer competing, and that was me,” said McGee.

“I was probably there as a marketing tool, but I was the fastest driver there in the wet by about a second and a half, and they ended up picking me for their championship. I raced in the MX-5 Cup in IMSA, but I had a bit of a lull there because it is so hard to find funding and get everything together, and then I met Tony, who I started coaching before we did our first year in GTs in 2023.”

McIntosh and McGee first partnered last year, competing in Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America, their first season in GT racing. The pair were a revelation in the Am class, taking five victories en route to the title against fierce competition.

“We didn’t really expect to have achieved what we did last year so quickly,” says McIntosh.

“The championships we raced in before, we were up against professional, young drivers and I am in my 50s now, and they are all super hungry because they got there via scholarships, so they have to prove themselves. So, when you’re used to competing against those drivers all the time, you don’t know how you will fare against other drivers because the competition in MX-5 Cup is 150% all of the time.

“You have three guys behind you trying to overtake, three guys ahead that you’re trying to overtake, one guy next to you so when you look at car awareness, situational awareness, you’re always on the look-out. So, when you’re in Super Trofeo and you only have one guy in front of you, it’s not a big deal, you can just concentrate on your own job.”

For McGee, key to their success in 2023 lies in his own experiences in sim racing, something McIntosh has also benefitted from.

“A lot of sim racing transfers over to real life racing too,” explains McGee.

“The way I look at driving in gaming is similar to how I look at it in real life, so the transfer for me is quite easy, or certainly easier for me. Visually, it’s all the same: braking points, the cornering but the g-forces and the feel of the tyres is perhaps where the sim drivers struggle a bit because the driver in real life has to figure that out.

“Both of us are lucky enough to have really good feel with the car and that’s helped us a lot in the adaption to the real-world. A lot of sim racers would ordinarily be within about two seconds of an F1 driver, but the feel is what they’re lacking.”

Because of his relative inexperience at the wheel of real-world cars, McIntosh is a frequent user of sims in order to get himself up to speed before events. Ahead of the opening round of the European championship – which the pair contested a solitary round alongside a full campaign in North America – the virtual world proved a crucial asset.

“When I come to a track I don’t know, it’s about muscle memory for me,” says McIntosh.

“When you need to turn in, when you are forced to learn all about those visual cues, that’s important and it helps me get up to speed, because we don’t have that long in the car before qualifying and the races, just two one-hour practices.

“Finding out how difficult some corners are, where the overtaking opportunities are, how much the tyres are going to fall off and how much the car is going to react, that’s what you learn in the sim and then you find out how accurate the sim is when you arrive at the track. And iRacing does a really good job of that. The track scans are so accurate and normally every time we get to a track, it’s spot on.”

The relationship between sim racing and real-world competition has evolved significantly since the pandemic, providing both professionals and amateurs the opportunity to hone their skills. McIntosh and McGee have certainly proven that.