Have you ever wanted to race in a live, head-to-head autocross event from an exotic venue with the cream of the world’s motorsports talent? Well, now you can, and you need only be (really) good at sim racing to get involved.
The second e-Race of Champions (eROC) event gets underway this evening with an invitational live stream. On offer is a place at the eROC World Final in Mexico in January 2019, with a money-can’t-buy prize of a race seat at the Race of Champions (ROC) itself.
As the name suggests, tonight’s racing is by invitation only. ROC has invited a number of the best racing gamers in the world for a one-off, 16-strong showdown. These include Forza World Champion Aurelien Mallet, WRC eSports champion Jon Armstrong and rFactor Formula Sim Racing champion Michele d’Alessandro. They’ll be joined by drivers from the F1 esports outfits at Sauber, Williams and McLaren.
Each player will be taking part from their own home for the event, which gets underway at 2200UTC.
But this is just the curtain-raiser. Alongside the invitational event, eROC will launch a worldwide event to find another finalist.
Taking place across December, eROC will stage two qualifying events. The two fastest players in each of the four regions — Europe, Americas, Asia and Australia/Middle East/Africa – in each event will qualify for the online final. Joining them will be the 16 next fastest drivers across the regions. They’ll then take part in a top 32 shootout in a live online final a week before the Race of Champions, for a second place at the eROC World Final.
The eventual winner of the eROC competition will get to join Team Sim Racing All Stars in the ROC Nations Cup. Taking place in the Foro Sol amphitheater within the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez F1 circuit, the sim racers will get a chance to race for real against motorsport champions in identical cars.
For 2019, these drivers include Sebastian Vettel, Tom Kristensen, Mick Schumacher and defending ROC champion David Coulthard. They’ll be taking the sim racers seriously too, as last year’s sim racing team was no pushover. World’s Fastest Gamer winner Rudy van Buren scored wins over Timo Bernhard and his F1-bound McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
ROC president Fredrik Johnsson said:
“We were thrilled with how well the first ever eROC went earlier this year in Riyadh – and how amazingly well the simracers could transfer their skills from the simulator to the real track. Now we know it can be done, we want to find the next big star, starting with Wednesday’s eROC Invitational Live Stream featuring many of the world’s best simracers.
“We hope you enjoy watching the action, wherever you live. Then we are opening up eROC to everyone anywhere in the world in December. Everyone on Earth will have the chance to compete – and if you’re good enough, you could find yourself racing at ROC Mexico against some of the world’s best drivers in identical cars.”
You can watch the live event right here:
https://www.facebook.com/theraceofchampions/videos/538287666655674/
