James Alan "Jimmy" or "Jimmer" Broadbent is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

, content creator, sim racer and e-sports commentator. Broadbent's

YouTube channel YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most v ...

br>Jimmy Broadbent
has over 850,000 subscribers and is mainly about gaming, sim racing and his real life racing. He drives the Praga R1 for

Praga Praga is a district of Warsaw, Poland. It is on the east bank of the river Vistula. First mentioned in 1432, until 1791 it formed a separate town with its own city charter. History The historical Praga was a small settlement located at ...

in the Praga Cup alongside Gordie Mutch. He also commentates for Polyphony Digital's

Gran Turismo series (''GT'') is a series of racing simulation video games developed by Polyphony Digital. Developed for PlayStation systems, ''Gran Turismo'' games are intended to emulate the appearance and performance of a large selection of vehicles, most of whi ...

. Broadbent's popularity has been partially attributed to his modest background, having lived in a shed in his mother's garden for a long period of time, and his honesty with personal struggles, both traits in stark contrast with the trend of internet celebrities portraying an artificial idyllic life.

YouTube career

Broadbent began to create content for YouTube in 2012. He reached 10,000 subscribers in 2017; by 2018, he had around 86,000 subscribers. He was temporarily banned by YouTube between 14 and 15 April the same year by accident. On 4 June 2018, Broadbent reached 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. In November of 2020, Jimmy raised over £71,000 for

Mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

in memory of his father, Alan Broadbent. By the end of the year, he had over 600,000 subscribers.

Commentary role

Broadbent was invited by Polyphony Digital, the creators of the Gran Turismo video game series, to work as a commentator on their FIA-Certified Gran Turismo Championships.

Sim racing

Broadbent alongside fellow YouTubers, Streamers and sim racers like Stephen J Bailey are part of Doug Henson Racing. In 2019 Broadbent and Bailey alongside Adam David Hodgkinson and Nathanael Lupson won the 2019

iRacing ''iRacing'' is a subscription-based online racing simulation video game developed and published by iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations in 2008. All in-game sessions are hosted on the publisher's servers. The game simulates real world cars, tr ...

24 Hours of

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

Virtual in the Audi R18 2016. Broadbent took part in the 2020 Formula 1 Bahrain Virtual Grand Prix. During the race Broadbent and

Lando Norris Lando Norris (born 13 November 1999) is a Belgian-British racing driver currently competing in Formula One with McLaren, racing under the British flag. He won the MSA Formula championship in 2015, and the Toyota Racing Series, Eurocup Formul ...

were in a battle for fourth place, with the former prevailing. Broadbent then took part in the 2020 Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours piloting the Aston Martin Vantage GTE for Mahle Racing alongside former IndyCar Series driver Robert Wickens, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters driver Ferdinand Habsburg and sim-racer Kevin Rotting. They classified in 46th place overall and 17th place in their class. Broadbent returned to the event in 2022 racing the Porsche 911 RSR GTE for Team Project 1 x BPM alongside René Buttler, Bram Beelen and Tim Neuendorf. In the end, the team finished in 33rd place overall and 14th place in their class.

Motor racing

In March 2022, he founded Team87. In December 2022, it was announced that Broadbent would be taking part in testing of the 2023 spec BMW M4 GT4 in Spain with

BMW Motorsport BMW M Motorsport (formerly BMW Motorsport) is the division of BMW responsible for motorsport-related activities, including works-run competition programmes in touring car racing, sports car racing, motorcycle racing and Formula E. The current orga ...

Britcar

In 2021, it was announced that Broadbent would take part in the 2021 Britcar Championship with Team J2

, driving the Praga R1 alongside Jem Hepworth. During the first round of the championship in the

Silverstone International Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and Ba ...

circuit, Broadbent finished in P6 in Race 1 and P8 in Race 2. In the following race in

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population o ...

, Broadbent retired from Race 1 and finished in P10 for the second race. The third race of the season in Oulton Park proved a challenging one as Broadbent finished in P23 in Race 1 and then P12 in Race 2. In the fourth round of the season, Broadbent returned to Silverstone, this time in the Silverstone GP circuit. He finished the race in P6. Due to a support race fatality, the next round in

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...

was cancelled. However, for the final race of the season, it was announced that Gordie Mutch would be replacing Hepworth as Broadbent's teammate to compete in

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

. The most successful race weekend of the year, Mutch and Broadbent went on to win both races in the Donington Round. In the end, Broadbent finished in P5 in the Overall Championship Standings.

Praga Cup

In 2022 Broadbent re-signed with Praga for the manufacturer's one make series known as the Praga Cup. He drove alongside Gordie Mutch. The team went on to win five races and the championship.

Personal life

Broadbent's father Alan Broadbent committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

when Jimmy was only 13 years old after struggling from

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...

and depression. In an interview with

DriveTribe DriveTribe is a Social networking service, social networking platform founded as an online hub for auto enthusiast content and digital socialising. Founded by presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond alongside entrepreneur Erne ...

in 2020 Broadbent told that around 2014 he "lost everything" due to depression and other mental health issues, especially regarding

sociability Social behavior is behavior among two or more organisms within the same species, and encompasses any behavior in which one member affects the other. This is due to an interaction among those members. Social behavior can be seen as similar to an ...

. He lost his job, his house and his fiancée broke up with him. He stated that he had struggled and still struggles with depression and

suicidal thoughts Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. With nowhere to live, he moved to a shed in his mother's house's garden. He stayed there and also produced content from there. The shed eventually became an inside joke of Broadbent and his YouTube community. In 2021, Broadbent bought his own house and currently lives there.

Racing record

Racing career summary

^* Season still in progress.

Complete Britcar results

Complete Praga Cup results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broadbent, Jimmy 1991 births Living people English YouTubers YouTube streamers English racing drivers People from Hastings