Following its announcement in February, the returning GT Challenge esports community competition within rFactor 2 will kick off later today, 27th March 2023.
Now that qualifying is closed, using the native Competition System, we can see that several well-respected and race-winning drivers have made the provisional entry list.
Over 500 competitors have qualified for the opening round. These include former GT Pro Series champions Jan von der Heyde and Jernej Simončič, Race of the Season Daytona winner Turkka Hakkinen and Le Mans Virtual Cup race winner Mia Rose.
Also qualified to participate are both of Ferrari Esports’ newest recruits, Alex Siebel and Dennis Jordan. Burst Esport’s Dawid Mroczek and Michi Hoyer join their team-mate Simončič. Former GT Pro Series race winner and current R8G Esports driver Timotej Andonovski is also present on the qualifying leaderboard.
There is no prize money on offer for this incarnation of the championship, however, the top split (30 drivers) will receive a live broadcast on the rFactor 2 Twitch channel plus live stewarding. All other splits will take place at the same time and will feature the incident review request feature.
GT3 cars will be used, following a recent update to their tyre model and Balance of Performance, alongside a North American tracklist.
Each round features a 15-minute Sprint Race and a 45-minute (top 10) reverse grid Main Race, with six rounds to decide the 2023 champion. There’s also a 10-minute practice session and 15-minute qualifying session to determine the grid, while the final round, at Daytona, will feature a 90-minute race.
You can watch the opening round at Long Beach on the rFactor 2 Twitch channel live, from 7.15 pm BST / 8.15 pm CEST / 2.15 pm EDT / 11.15 am PDT, Monday 27th March 2023.
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