The geeks have inherited the earth with Aston Martin becoming the latest in a long-line of car makers to go e-Racing.
With motorsport, like all other sports around the world, completely buggered by the coronavirus pandemic, Aston Martin has become the latest brand to announce its involvement in e-Racing. Making its debut last weekend in the The Race All-Star Series.
The series consists of a five-week ‘battle’ for the Pro Cup teams’ and drivers’ championships. And Aston Martin is going racing with three of its five works drivers. And this isn’t just a couple of mates playing online at home. The Race All-Star Series powered by ROKiT Phones, promoted by Canadian gaming company Torque Esports.
Launched at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic as we all went into lockdown, I personally don’t see any sign of e-Racing going away. In fact, I wonder if it might fast overtake the popularity of the real thing.
Starting last weekend and running across five weeks through May, the Pro Cup includes the world’s leading motorsport teams. And is an opportunity for the teams to go head-to-head virtually with their on-track rivals.
Aston Martin has three works drivers entered in the first round of the five-event All-Star Series; FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) GTE points-leader Nicki Thiim (DEN), reigning British GT Series champion Jonny Adam (GB) and multiple WEC GTE Am race-winner Charlie Eastwood (GB). Only two drivers from each team are eligible to score points in the Teams’ Cup and, for the first event, those nominated will be established esports racers Thiim and Eastwood.
All the drivers will compete in high-powered single-seaters on the rFactor 2 PC platform and will run in a special livery featuring several of Aston Martin Racing’s FIA WEC partners.
Captaining the Aston Martin Racing entry will be three-times 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner Darren Turner, who is entered into the separate Legends Trophy for 1970s Formula 1-style cars, alongside F1 world champions Jenson Button and Emerson Fittipaldi; Indianapolis 500 winners Dario Franchitti and Juan Pablo Montoya; and World Rally Champion Petter Solberg.
David King, President of Aston Martin Racing said: “Esports is emerging as an important new strand of the sport and a great place to nurture and hone racing skills. The Race All-Star Cup has proved highly entertaining and attracted an extremely high calibre of driver and is the perfect place for us to take our first steps into the esports universe.”
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