Howdy all, and welcome to our Community Owners chat here with Jonny Ashley. Today we are going to be chatting about all things oNiD Racing and get to know the people behind the scenes who put all the races together that drivers can take part in on Simracing.GP
D - Your activity on Simracing.GP has been really impressive. Could you tell us a bit about how oNiD Racing started and how you found out about Simracing.GP?
J - oNiD started back in Jan 2021 with just a few mates starting up a little community to do a race once a month with some other drivers we met in other communities. Never meant to be anything beyond that. Then I read an article about Simracing.GP entering Beta and what features it offered. We then onboarded in May 2021.
D - You guys have been with Simracing.GP for a long time, starting with Assetto Corsa Competizione, before expanding across Assetto Corsa and even Raceroom in the recent future, if you could pick one key point on Simracing.GP that helps you run your community, what would that be?
J - Automated Servers! Really cool feature and practical! Great for owners who like me are not server minded! Really simple UI and you can be racing in 5 minutes! Easy!
D - With Simracing.GP finally coming out of Beta and the pre-release scope being completed and handed over to our amazing owners and drivers, what are you looking forward to using the most in terms of the new features offered to you guys at oNiD Racing?
J - I think the Splitting tool is great and allows anyone to go toe to toe with other platforms out there in terms of linking that up with the ranking system and creating Daily Racing too! So many cool features!
D - Let us move away from Simracing.GP specifics and talk about you as a community owner, It takes a lot of passion to commit to being a Community Owner. Throughout your journey, what have been some of the most memorable moments or achievements for you?
J - Wow tough question! I think seeing us reach where we are now is incredible; over 3000 members is a massive achievement that some communities will never reach. I feel we are very blessed! Being chosen to run Jimmy Broadbents community was a fairly big day for everyone at oNiD, when we were certain we didn't have a chance .
D - Running a Community is not without its challenges. Can you share with us some of the obstacles you've faced as a Community owner and how you overcame them?
J - I think the biggest obstacle is Volunteers and Time! To make any community successful you need a great time who is willing to give up their precious time to support us crazy community owners. oNiD are lucky we have some amazing volunteers who without, we certainly wouldn't have gotten oNiD to these dizzy heights. And they all volunteer for Free! We are blessed!
D - Perseverance is undoubtedly a vital trait for any athlete. Talking about growth, how do you continue to improve the options available to your drivers and bring the drivers the most enjoyable racing options out there?
J - I think it's all about having your finger on the pulse in regards to where the market is going? What Sims are coming out next? What do I need to do to make sure oNiD is still relevant in 6 months?
But also you need to work closely with your drivers, teams and in our case SGP. Making sure we know what people want, what's happening at SGP? Making sure we tailor our events to our audience as well as making sure we have the best features to make life easy for our drivers.
D - For aspiring community owners out there who wish to bring better racing options to their friends, what advice would you give them?
J - Believe in your ideas! No idea is too far reaching! Get a good team on board that shares your ideas and values! Most importantly, have a robust set of rules and expectations for your drivers! They wont thank you for it but they do appreciate it!
Wise words indeed! Thank you so much for joining us today, Jonny. It's been an absolute pleasure getting insights into your community, oNiD Racing.
And thank you for taking the time to read our interview today with Jonny Ashley, you can catch the next installment in the near future on Simracing.GP where we will talk about all things Sim Racing.
