"A class win for us is a minimum requirement": Jimmy Broadbent and Misha Charoudin on their targets for this year's Nürburgring 24h
- Benjamin Crundwell
- 57 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Every motor racing fan has had the same dream, of racing on their simulator and then getting scouted into a real race car. For many this stays a dream, but for Jimmy Broadbent, Steve Alzarez Brown and Misha Charoudin, the dream has become real.
Traditionally, race car driver's start in karts, then find a seat in a junior programme which later turns into a professional race seat. Jimmy Broadbent, Steve Brown and Misha Charoudin have by-passed the system, proving that filming sim-racing (or touristenfahrten laps in Charoudin's case) is a valid way to jump the pay wall blocking talent from entering then industry.
Jimmy Broadbent has been posting sim-racing videos to YouTube since 2012 - until 2021 these videos were produced in a shed at the end of his mothers garden. In 2025 he hit one million subscribers, by this point he was four years into his real life racing career. Broadbent started in the Britcar Endurance Championship, with Mazda MX5s, and a Praga R1.
In his second season racing cars, Broadbent won the Praga Cup Championship, taking five wins in 11 races. He went onto to join the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) in 2023, preparing to race the Nürburgring 24h in 2024, with a BMW M4 GT4 in the SP8T class with his fellow YouTubers, and previous overall Nürburgring 24h winner, Manuel Metzger.
Like the other two, Broadbent produces content while racing at the Nürburgring, so his subscribers can follow the journey with him. He said: "For a lot of drivers their main focus is to just drive. Whereas for us it's not just that, it's driving, plus having to think about cameras, having to think about pieces to camera, having to think about the structure or story of the video, whilst you're there driving.
"But to be honest, we've all been doing it for so long now that I think it's just second nature to us."
Steve Alvarez Brown technically started racing in real life before his YouTube career, but had to stop racing karts due to the high costs. During his karting career, he helped his University win the BUKC, by taking the Heavyweight Drivers' Championship, and later won the Premier Sprint Championship in Club 100.
Many of Brown's early YouTube videos focused on these karting races, alongside his sim-racing content. Like Broadbent, Brown hit one million subscribers in 2025. In 2022 he took part in a few sportscar races, including the MX5 Championship and the Radical SR1 Cup Championship, before making his Nürburgring debut in 2023, where he and Broadbent drove a BMW 330i in the VT2-R+4WD class.
2024 should have been Brown's maiden Nürburgring 24h, with a BMW M4 GT4, however he was caught speeding in a code 60 and his license was revoked before the race. Undeterred, Brown returned with the team in 2025, and made the start of the race this time.
Misha Charoudin had a different introduction to racing, as his YouTube channel was mainly based around driving cars on the touristenfahrten. Having completed thousands of laps of the track since 2015, Charoudin's experience earned him a spot in the YouTube M4 in 2024.
The fourth driver on the team is Nürburgring 24h overall winner, Manuel Metzger. Metzger has an enormous wealth of experience at the 'ring, having raced there since 2011. His overall win came in 2016, alongside Maro Engel, Adam Christodoulou and Bernd Schneider.
Metzger has raced with the team since 2024, helping the drivers extract the maximum performance from the car via setup and driving techniques. Broadbent described having Metzger as a teammate as "invaluable", then went on to say: "I think all of us have a good base of driving skill.
"Having Manny (Manuel Metzger) there has helped us push to another level, to the point now where we can really be competitive with the fastest teams because of his help with data and pointing out small things we can improve.
"So it's been amazing to have him be part of our team."
The three YouTuber's and Metzger have taken multiple class wins in the NLS since they joined in 2024, but have failed to win the Nürburgring 24h, finishing 2nd in both their attempts. This year the drivers are determined to use everything they've learnt to prove their talent with a class win, Broadbent said: "A class win for us is a minimum requirement. We've had two years now coming second in class which has been pretty hard to take.
"So now obviously we have one goal which is to have the class win at the N24 (Nürburgring 24h). We'd love to mix it with the other cup cars, I think it's a possibility for us, I think we can probably be on the podium in cup (compared to all Porsche Cup cars) if we had a really good run, but the goal really is to get that class win. So the sky is the limit, we will see what's possible."
Charoudin had a similar view to Broadbent: "we always compare ourselves to the veterans in the Cup 2 class and so far we have been doing quite well. Let's see where we end this week."
There is only three cars in their class, so the No.632 Black Falcon by Team Fanatec YouTube car is guaranteed a podium. The No.632 won't have to worry about beating the the No.146 WS Racing team car, which was forced to withdraw when it was involved in a crash in Qualifying 1, but will have to beat the No.320 Four Motors team of 'Smudo', Henrik Bollerslev, Marco van Ramshort and Nano Lopez to win the class.
They have started the job well, beating the No.320 to pole, but converting that to a win is exponentially harder.
Broadbent, Alvarez Brown and Charoudin have the extra responsibility of creating content during the week for their YouTube channels, when asked wether this added extra stress, Charoudin said: "It's been a way of life for many years, so in a way it doesn't feel like an extra burden anymore, rather than simple part of the day like having lunch.
"Attention used to put some extra pressure, but with that come the mistakes. Besides, I think we have proven already that we are 'not just some influencers', so we are there to enjoy and share the ride with others to inspire."
Jimmy Broadbent, Steve Alvarez Brown, Misha Charoudin and Manuel Metzger will be racing the No.632 Porsche Cup car this weekend in the AT2 class. Catch all the action on YouTube, to see if they can extract the advantages of their vast simulator experience by taking a class win at the Nürburgring 24h.
