With the New Year celebrations now behind us, we can look forward to 2017 as the year of eSports and sim racing reaching dizzying heights. Just around the corner is the first $1,000,000 sim racing competition ever to be held, the VISA Vegas eRace! In a field of twenty Pro Formula E drivers and ten sim racers from around the world, the well known sim racing team, Team Redline, has no less than five drivers entered in the competition. Altogether 30 drivers will be competing for the main cash prize of $200,000! The event will be held on January the 7th at this year’s CES event in Las Vegas.
The short video produced by the FIA Formula E Championship and shot at Playseat‘s headquarters in The Netherlands, is a cool introduction to five of the best sim racers on the planet. Olli Pahkala (registered member on ISRTV), Greger Huttu, Dom Duhan (manager, not competing), Bono Huis and Aleksi Uusi Jaakkola introduce themselves and give us a little background information on their beginnings in sim racing and what their thoughts are on the biggest eSports sim racing competition in history. The fifth member of the team, Enzo Bonito, is not featured in the video but will be competing in Vegas. ISRTV will be following the team closely and hopes to have some exclusive behind the scenes info as the competition progresses.
Speaking with Dom Duhan today, the guys are preparing to fly out tomorrow, January 3rd, and are all very much looking forward to taking part in this historic event!
Playseat – rFactor2 – Cloud Sport
All 30 of the competitors will have the use of Formula format Playseat racing simulators and the software of choice, a special Formula E version produced by MAK-Corp and based on rFactor 2’s engine. Cloud Sport will be on hand to ensure the competition is correctly regulated, guaranteeing as much realism as possible.
The sim racers mentioned below are now guaranteed a minimum of $20,000 for taking part in the richest eRace in history, which takes place at the CES in Vegas on January 7.
The ten sim racers headed to Vegas in their qualifying order:
- Graham Carroll 148 points
- Olli Pahkala 147 points
- Greger Huttu 137 points
- Enzo Bonito 123 points
- David Greco 122 points
- Bono Huis 118 points
- Petar Brljak 117 points
- Aleksi Uusi Jaakkola 117 points
- Patrik Holzmann 109 points
- Aleksi Elomaa 106 points
Playseat’s officially licensed Formula E simulator:
How to watch the Visa Vegas eRace:
History will be made on Saturday when 10 of the best sim racers in the world battle with the 20 Formula E drivers for a share of $1milllion in the Visa Vegas eRace.
It’s the richest race in the history of sim racing, with every driver guaranteed at least $20,000 and the winner bagging a whopping $200,000.
The race will be broadcast live across the world at www.twitch.tv, and the live link will also be shared on www.fiaformulae.com.
With Jack Nicholls and IndyCar legend Dario Franchitti calling the action as they have for the majority of ePrix, the eRace will also be available on live TV in a number of countries including France, Spain and Russia.
To see if there is live broadcasting in your country, click here http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/championship/tv-schedule/
To make sure you don’t miss any of the action, here is the event timetable (all times PST -8 UTC)
Friday, January 6
8.40pm Free Practice 1
Saturday, January 7
9am Free Practice 2
1.25pm Qualifying
3.25pm Qualifying race (14 laps)
4pm Race (28 laps)
Time convertor – 4pm PST
EST – 7pm
GMT – 12am (Jan 8)
CET – 1am (Jan 8)
JST – 9am (Jan 8)
IST – 5.30am (Jan 8)
