Motorsports & Esports AI Startup Racing Towards Success

We’re delighted to announce that we have invested PLN 2,000,000 into GO4RACE, a technology company developing advanced tools for racing sports using Artificial Intelligence and connected hardware. The team, also based in Warsaw, are dedicated to improving the performance of drivers in the world of Sim Racing and Motorsports by analysing various data sets to achieve the fastest lap time on the race track. The product will be a Virtual Mechanic & AI Instructor for Racing Drivers.

The Go4Race team is led by Founder and CEO Tomasz Augustyniak; a serial entrepreneur responsible for delivering several technology projects, as well as a professional racing driver. The idea that sparked the creation of Go4Race was derived from Augustyniak’s other project - Go4Energy, where calculations, simulations and modelling are used to develop guidelines for energy efficiency in designed buildings, including “BMSCare”, which uses Artificial Intelligence to create an integrated diagnostic environment for building systems. The goal is to lower energy consumption whilst maintaining user comfort. 

An avid racing enthusiast himself, Mr Augustyniak was crowned the 2017 Polish Motorsport Champion in the ‘Historic Cars’ category. Together with his team of technology experts and racing drivers, he and the team are now using this experience to develop cutting-edge ideas in the world of motorsports and esports. 

Spearheading the Sim Racing division are two ‘Virtual Le Mans 24h Champions’ – Nikodem Wiśniewski and Jakub Brzeziński. The Williams Esports drivers provide vast amounts of driving data and a decade of experience driving virtual racing cars. They expertly combine successful esports results with real-life driving experience, enabling Go4Race to seamlessly transition between both worlds. 

The company’s main motorsport endeavours are focused on the Mini Super S Cup, where they collect data via engineers and a telemetry device. The team has established relationships with Mazda MX-5 Cup Poland and a race team competing in a Radical SR3 and SR8, providing access to a vastly increased data flow. 
 

Piotr Wasowski,  General Managing Partner here at Arkley Brinc VC, commented;

“At the cross-section of AI, connected hardware, esports and smart mobility, this project ticks a lot of boxes for us. Together with our LPs PFR Ventures, Group One and co-founder of Brinc, we’re excited to be working with some of the Polish racing industry’s top drivers on truly innovative technology that will take motorsports and Sim Racing to the next level. ”

The company’s two main projects are the ‘Virtual Instructor’ and ‘Virtual Mechanic’, which are being developed in partnership with Transition Technologies Science (TTSI is a world renowned company stemming from the R&D department of Transition Technologies). ‘Virtual Instructor’ uses Artificial Intelligence to analyse data gathered from hardware in the vehicle whilst driving, with the aim of establishing the optimal lap time. The algorithm takes into account parameters such as Yaw, G-Force, speed and driver inputs to calculate the fastest physically possible lap. Ultimately, Virtual Instructor will be able to estimate the fastest way to take a corner, even without historical data to back it up (i.e. even if the driver has never achieved it before). ‘Virtual Mechanic’ will pinpoint sub-optimal car data that influences safety and performance. It learns from previous driving data and establishes the optimal car setup. Go4Race aims to increase driver safety by constantly monitoring crucial parameters of the car, whilst increasing reliability. Virtual Mechanic offers setup changes based on gathered data and driver preference with the aim of decreasing lap time. 

 

Bryony Cooper

Managing Partner
Date 
October 6, 2021