Esports

The Forza Racing Championship started its second season last month in the open-world arcade racer that is Horizon 3. This week, the competition returns to Turn 10’s sim-oriented Motorsport title, offering players the first challenge that could lead to one lucky person finishing the year off $10,000 USD richer.

The Electronic Sports League (ESL) is the largest international eSports organization, providing various public multiplayer competitions for players from all over the globe. In close cooperation with game developer Kylotonn, one of these commenced this past January, using the tricky stages of rallying simulator WRC 5. As the official WRC site reports, the tournament recently finished, awarding aTTaX Johnson a brand new Hyundai i20.

After a successful inaugural season, Turn 10 have revealed that the Forza Racing Championship eSports competition is returning for a second season, set to kick off on November 7. With the event being sponsored by Michelin, Logitech G and Playseat, players will ultimately go at it for cash and prizes worth more than $150,000.

It’s been an arduous week, but it all came to a head earlier today at the 2016 GT Academy International Race Camp. With a two drivers from each region remaining, the last event would see all six teams battling it out on track in identically-prepped 370Z race cars. In the end, it would be Johnny Guindi Hamui, a student from Mexico, that would be crowned champion, but not without a fight.

It’s all been building to this. Today will see one person crowned the 2016 GT Academy International champion, beginning their path to becoming a race car driver as part of the Nissan Driver Development Program. Less than three months later, the winner will be making their competitive debut alongside Jann Mardenborough at the 2017 24 Hours of Dubai in January. You can watch it all unfold above, starting at 14:00 Silverstone time (click here to convert).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXqYs0xOV6Q

Over the course of the past few months, the qualifying rounds of GT Academy 2016 have quietly taken place across the globe, as thousands of potential competitors took their best shots using a pre-release version of GT Sport. Six regions were earmarked for International Race Camp (Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, North Africa, Philippines, and Thailand), and after all the dust had settled, six finalists were selected from each to represent their team in Silverstone.

UPDATE: Due to high demand, Matt has decided to open up the competition to a second race, to be held two hours after the first. Get all the details here.

Quick: What is the first thing that comes to mind when you read the word ‘Ginetta’? Is it the manufacturer’s storied history of producing sports cars for the aspiring racecar driver? Perhaps the name rings a bell because of games like Gran Turismo or, more recently, Project CARS. Or maybe no significance comes to mind at all.

We’re sure many of us have some annoyances about certain things — commonly referred to as pet peeves — that puts us in great discomfort every time we think about it. Everyone’s got something that makes them tick, so it shouldn’t be unusual to hear even racing drivers have a few of their own, as they often find themselves in rough and seemingly merciless conditions. NISMO TV has a sampling of the personal bugbears its racing drivers grapple with, including GT Academy grads.

Earlier this month, Formula E announced a competition which would ultimately have its pros taking on 10 of the world’s fastest virtual drivers in an eRace worth $1 million in cash.

With more mainstream simulation titles than ever and many routes to becoming involved in the eSports scene, the racing genre is flourishing in the competitive environment. However, with so many options and opportunities many questions arise; ‘how do I become a better driver?’ ‘What is the most effective use of my time practicing?’, to name but a few. Chris Newman aims to make entry into high-level sim racing a less-daunting prospect with his free eBook ‘Virtual Race Driver’

As the engine of eSports fires on all cylinders with the likes of GT Academy qualifiers, the Forza Racing Championship, and iRacing’s NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series, Cloud Sport and Formula E are looking to add a significant spark with the recently announced ‘Road to Vegas Challenge.’

According to an official NISMO Facebook post and AutoDeal, the currently-underway 2016 GT Academy season has found its first dozen Silverstone-bound finalists. This selection of drivers from North Africa and Philippines will compete in the International Race Camp this October at the famed British circuit.

Project CARS and Ginetta Cars have entered into a partnership to give competitors an opportunity to reap the rewards of a potential racing career, courtesy of the Ginetta x Project CARS eSports Cup.

The third week of the Forza Racing Championship kicked off earlier this week. Elite competitors are placed behind the wheel of the 2016 Ford #66 Ford Racing GT Le Mans, and are expected to navigate the many twists and turns of Watkins Glen. Those participating in the Open Series will have to endure a variety of tracks in the Leagues events, piloting the same racing version of Ford’s latest supercar.

In case you’ve been living under a particularly large rock, a little thing known as the Olympics just wrapped up in Rio on Sunday. A testament to the capabilities of the human body, the best technology available, and the relentlessness of VISA advertising, it offers a global stage for the absolute best to compete against one another.

Heading into the weekend, it was Laige’s race to lose in terms of the Forza Racing Championship according to many in the community. The French driver has 7 national championships to his name in the Forza world already, after all. Saturday’s 128-driver knockout events saw Laige progress to the final race of Week 1 on Sunday, alongside the other 15 drivers that qualified:

Last weekend saw a landmark achievement for one of the most promising graduates from the GT Academy programme, as the 2011 U.S. winner Bryan Heitkotter was able to to take his first overall win in professional motorsport — which was then swiftly backed up by a second win the day after.

The Forza Racing Championship kicked off earlier this week with the 2015 Mustang GT as the first featured car. In the Elite Series, players were challenged to take their pony car around the turns of Monza in a dedicated Rivals event.