The SRO-organised esports championship for esports pro drivers has started this week, with the first round of the GT World Challenge Asia Esports completed on Thursday and will now be followed by the first round of the GT World Challenge Europe Esports Championship.
Two rounds will happen this week, one 60-minute Sprint Series race and one three-hour Endurance Series race – both at Monza.
As highlighted back in March, there are three sets of regional championships: Asia, America and Europe. All have a Sprint and Endurance Series. The Sprint Series will consist of 10 events for Europe, with America and Asia each contesting five. There will also be five European Endurance Series races and three each for Asia and America.
The Monza Sprint race will be held later today, 21st May, at 8 pm BST / 9 pm CEST, while the Monza Endurance race is taking place on Saturday 22nd May at 4 pm BST/5 pm CEST. Both will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel.
The Sprint Race entry list is a who’s who of esports talent. Among the many notable names included are Joshua Rogers, Jeremy Bouteloup and Tommy Østgaard who all competed in PESC earlier this year, James Baldwin who swept to British GT Esports glory last month, Kevin Siggy who was a race winner in GT Pro Series Season 3 and fought for the Formula E: Accelerate crown and David Tonizza who was the F1 Esports 2019 champion and is a current Ferrari Academy Driver.
Notable teams represented on the virtual grid include Jean Alesi Esports Academy, Romain Grosjean’s R8G eSports, McLaren Shadow, BMW Motorsport SIM Racing G2 Esports, LADA Sport ROSNEFT, VRS Conada Simsport and Williams Esports alongside many other established outfits.
The Endurance field also has a very strong lineup, which includes teams such as Team Rocket RJN, Predator Simracing by R8G, Sainteloc by R8G, Team Fordzilla and Team W.R.T by SDL eSports. Traxion contributor Ross McGregor will also be taking part in the race for JOTA. The three-hour event has two drivers per car, Ross teaming up with 15-year-old sensation Robbie Stapleford. Later in the season, our very own John Munro will be in the hot seat too.
You can view the full Sprint Race entry list and Endurance Race entry list for what is set to be two incredibly close and competitive races.
Assetto Corsa Competizione will of course be the simulator used for this championship, a platform that’s also being used for many high-level esports events at present. Just yesterday, the 2021 Lamborghini eSports The Real Race was announced, in April the British GT Esports championship wrapped up and the SRO is also organising the Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series, where real racing drivers also recently took to the sweeping corners of Monza.
Be sure to watch this latest event at the weekend, we’ll be cheering on car 38 during the Endurance race!
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