Screen to Speed: Meet Racer, Engineer Emily Howe
While you may just be hearing of sim racing due to its increasing popularity, veteran racer Emily Howe has been in the driver's seat since she was just three years old. sim racing is not just a video game, it is sophisticated software that accurately simulates competitive auto racing right down to the real world variables of fuel usage, tire wear and tear, and handling.
The Esport’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. “The advent of just the online aspect of it over the past 10 to 15 or so years, has really transported it to the top level of Esports," said Howe. “The biggest change came in 2020 during COVID, when all the real life series got locked down and they moved to sim racing. And so all of a sudden, you had this influx of hundreds of thousands of people moving to sim racing.”
But the popularity of sim racing is not just limited to people who were trapped in their homes and looking for fun. Sim racing creates such a realistic simulation that many who have embraced the sport are coming directly from the real life track as Howe explains. “Sim racing is very much one to one with, you know, real life racing. Most of the real life teams that are now moving to sims to do their engineering work to do their preliminary work. There's a lot of crossover between manufacturers and sim racing. Mercedes and iRacing have a very big crossover. BMW is a big partner. I believe Kelly Moss has their own in-house sim, who are you know, one of the partners behind Screen to Speed so there is this massive overlap between sim racing and the stem side of racing in general.”
Barriers to Racing
Auto racing has long been a popular sport in America and around the world but as Howe points out there are major obstacles in the path to becoming a part of the real life racing world that simply do not exist in sim racing. “There is a massive financial barrier between sim racing and just getting into real life racing cars, you know, just cars, licenses, equipment, that's tens of thousands of dollars.”
Money is not the only barrier that may stop a racer's dream from becoming reality as Howe explains. “If you have an engineering degree, say you're in Kansas, you know, a lot of times you'd have to pick up a move either across the country to Charlotte or across the country to Indianapolis or out to California to work one of these race teams in their shop, and it's just a very big barrier. And within those barriers within the STEM field, the engineering field is very, very male dominated, and it's very hostile to people of color and women and the trans people and the gender non conforming people and so a lot of people who will be very, very good engineers and very, very great in the STEM field, just get pushed out of it before they're even able to showcase their, you know, their knowledge and their talents.”
Leading by Example
None of these obstacles have stopped Howe from pursuing her dream while being her authentic self. The trans racer has found a community within sim racing thanks to events like Screen to Speed that allow her to showcase the skills, knowledge and immense talent she possess while leading by example for the next generation of racing enthusiasts.
“When I came out as trans two years ago, and started transitioning, I thought that I would be alone on an island and that basically all my prospects in the future within sim racing would dry up. But Prismatic motorsports was formed last year, which is a sim racing team for gender non conforming and trans people. And so, through Prismatic, as an owner of Prismatic, we've been able to gather over 100 people within our community and have 16 drivers on our roster. And we now compete and lead, we're visible, and now we're able to showcase our talent as trans people, and so be able to break those barriers down collectively.”
“My motto typically, is one of the Dale Earnhardt quotes that I've always loved and lived by - stand your ground. A lot of times it turns out bad but a lot of times you win races too.”
