250 young iRacers will go head to head for major prizes and bragging rights when the inaugural Erebus Academy Junior eSports Competition begins tonight.
Launched on May 4, the competition that hosts two age groups, 13-15 and 16-18, received 250 entries from Australia and overseas including competitors from Europe, South Africa and New Zealand.
“We opened it up to the public in those age groups and are blown away with the interest and response we’ve had to the series from here and overseas,” CEO Barry Ryan said.
“We’ve got competitors from every state and territory in Australia taking part as well as several overseas entrants. We hope they all have a really positive experience, learn and improve on their skills and hopefully get a taste of what the professional drivers do when they can’t be racing on track.”
The competition starts tonight at Summit Point in America where competitors will take part in a two-hour time trial session held from 4-6pm (13-15yo) and 6-8pm (16-18yo) (AEST).
Racing in Legends Cars, sessions will be open for competitors to post their fastest times, with the Top 40 from each age group gaining automatic entry to race day.
Tomorrow, Friday May 17 the competitors travel to Okayama International Racing Circuit in Japan this time in the Holden V8 Supercar.
Again, a time trial will be conducted with the Top 40 from each age group receiving automatic entry to race day.
The final day on Saturday sees a four-race schedule, at Summit Point in Legends Cars and Okayama in the Holden V8 Supercar.
Competitors will have 10-minutes of practice, followed by a 10-minute qualifying and 10-lap race.
Prizes will be awarded for each race with major prizes going to the entrant with the average lap time across both time trials circuits in each age group.
Major prizes include a full days training at Queensland’s Norwell Motorplex in a Toyota 86 and a race prepared Go-Kart with Sera Driver Development.
The timing of the series was a big factor for the team with so many of the competitor’s being school aged.
“We were really conscious that the competition caused as little disruption to any schooling the competitors have,” Ryan said.
“In the current climate we know it’s so important that kids keep to their school or home school schedules and we did our best to fit in with that. We hope they have a lot of fun and that we welcome new fans to the sport.”
The iRacing based competition will be run in conjunction with online racing producer Just Sent it and can be viewed on several channels.
Broadcast details: Time trials will be broadcast on the drivers Twitch accounts from 4pm each night, before highlights are shown on the Erebus and Penrite Racing Facebook pages.
From 12pm on Saturday, racing will be broadcast live on Erebus Motorsport and iRacing eSports Network Youtube channels, iRacing TV and the driver’s Twitch accounts.