Having competed against fifty of Australia’s best sim racers in the Erebus Academy’s Eseries last year, Emerson Harvey and Corey Shepherd have claimed their prize.

Hopping into a Toyota 86 for the first time, Harvey and Shepherd spent last Saturday undertaking a driver training course at Norwell Motorplex.

After dominating the Under 18’s competition, Shepherd was looking forward to his opportunity to jump off the sim and onto a real race track.

“Being a part of the Erebus iRacing Competition was awesome and I am very grateful I had the opportunity,” Shepherd said.

“I think it’s great that Erebus offers these opportunities to sim racers as I believe the transition between sim racing to real racing is becoming closer these days.

“To win the competition, and the amazing prize to go with it, was an added bonus.”

With both drivers predominantly racing on the sim, ‘Hard Charger’ recipient Harvey was ready to take full advantage of the opportunity to get in an actual race car.

“It was such a great experience, Norwell has really good facilities and great people,” Harvey said.

“There are a lot of technical aspects of driving a race car, more than meets the eye so it was really good to get a deeper understanding of that side of driving.”

Having both thoroughly enjoyed the experience, Harvey and Shepherd are looking to continue their driver training and hopefully begin racing on a real track in the near future.

“I’m definitely going to do more driver training now. It was a great experience,” Harvey said.

Similarly, the experience has reignited Shepherd’s passion for racing and has encouraged him to continue working towards his goals.

“After jumping out of the sim and giving the real thing a go, motorsport has become an even bigger dream of mine,” Shepherd said.

“I really hope to get involved in real racing but we will have to wait and see what future opportunities may arise.”

The Erebus Academy wishes both drivers well on their motorsport careers, both online and offline, and look forward to helping more of the next generation in the future.