Supercars Championship to launch sim racing series

Australian motorsport series Supercars Championship has revealed plans to launch its own esports championship.

The inception of the event is due to Supercars postponing the first three events of its championship in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Known as the Supercars Eseries, the championship will use sim racing platform iRacing, which was featured in last season’s competition. Teams will compete on a weekly basis and race in virtual versions of their real-world cars, complete with team liveries.

The entire event will be broadcast live on Fox Sports and Australian sports streaming service Kayo. Alongside the television and streaming deals in place, the series will also be broadcast live and free across Supercars’ website, social media channels, and Twitch.

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Supercars follows NASCAR as the second motorsport series to create an esports championship in light of the postponement of its respective racing series.

Sean Seamer, CEO of Supercars, said that the company is “unique and fortunate in that we are able to simulate our racing via eSports.” Details surrounding which teams and drivers that will be participating in the event are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, with the championship expected to be completed before the real-world championship resumes in June.

Esports Insider says: While the sporting world is on hold, it hasn’t stopped racing drivers from competing in near-exact replications of their respective cars. Now Supercars is the latest series to host a sim-racing championship during the downtime, could we see Formula One get in on the sim-racing action in the near future?

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