Audi Sport drivers prepare for battle

Virtual motorsport is about to see a whole new competition emerge on the world stage, when the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo takes to the tracks of the world with six of Audi Sport’s best drivers taking on Audi fans and SimRacing professionals.

The series will be run on the popular PlayStation 4 platform in a car developed especially for the all-conquering Gran Turismo game – the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo – and subsequently brought to life and used as a ‘race taxi’ at Formula E races around the world.

The race series is the brainchild of Audi works driver, Mike Rockenfeller (Rocky),  and will not only provide race fans with an exciting new series to stream into their own homes each week, but the series will be used to raise funds for motorsport charities, helping those in the sport who have lost their jobs and incomes as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Joining Rocky on the grid each week will be Loïc Duval, Jamie Green, Nico Müller, Robin Frijns, and René Rast, all enormously talented and successful drivers across DTM, GT3, TCR and endurance racing. Their combined talents will be tested by professional gamers and members of the PlayStation Network who will be able to win a spot on the grid each week. To do that, they will need to develop and publish a design for the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo in conjunction with #AudiTogether and #WeStayHome, with the most creative design taking the spot on the grid. The jury will consist of the six Audi drivers. 

“Since there are no real races happening at the moment, because of the corona crisis, SimRacing is experiencing an incredible boom,” says Rockenfeller. “We have decided on a console game because we can reach a particularly large community in this way.” 

In addition to providing some thrilling racing with the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo, this series will seek to raise money to assist those in the motorsport world, effected by the corona crisis.

“There are many freelancers in motorsport who have lost their income from one day to the next and are fearing for their own existence,” says Rockenfeller.

To that end, participants and motorsport fans will be encouraged to make donations during the race series and it will also be possible to bid for a spot on the grid every week.
All of the races of the #RaceHome charity racing series can be seen on the free live streaming channel at www.twitch.tv/visionrcco simply by setting up an online account.

The bad news, for Australian race fans at least, is that racing gets underway at 4am (AEST) on Wednesday, 22 April.

If that seems a little early even with the ongoing social distancing and home isolation, then the local carsales ARG eSport Cup continues to flourish, with round three getting underway this  Thursday night at 8pm (AEST) – most definitely a far more civilised hour.

This extremely competitive Australian virtual race series features only professional drivers, all driving the Audi RS 3 LMS race car at tracks both in Australia and around the world.

Last week, local hero and regular Audi Sport campaigner in both the Australian TCR series and GT3 competition, Garth Tander, recorded his first win in the virtual series. Tander left the field languishing in his wake in the second race of the night at the famed Zolder circuit in Belgium, winning with a clear 4.7 second margin.

There was no shortage of clever racing, close rivalries and plenty of sheer carnage to captivate even the most discerning race fan. But if you’ve yet to experience the racing in the carsales ARG eSport Cup, you can relive all of last week’s action here and be ready for round three, streamed live on the TCR Australia Facebook page this Thursday night.