Australian eSports motor racing league is go

Australia's first officially sanctioned eSports motor racing event will take place this weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The Motum Simulation VSR Showdown is endorsed by the Confederation of Australian Motorsport, or CAMS, and kicks off with qualifying on Friday September 21.

The racing series is part of the Shannons Nationals in Sydney and is the first time in Australian history that a CAMS-sanctioned eSports virtual racing series will be held.

CAMS officials will oversee the racing and provide judicial support to the event. In all, 23 races will run on Saturday and Sunday, involving 27 drivers, and several heats and finals.

The racing will be facilitated on the iRacing videogame hooked up with Motum Simulation's MP6-VR machine.

It's not the first time an officially-sanctioned motor racing event has taken place in the virtual world, with Gran Turismo Sport's online mode already finding FIA endorsement. But as CAMS commercial director John Murphy explains, it's an exciting time for motorsports in Australia.

"The popularity of eSports presents a huge opportunity to attract new people to motor sport and sim racing clearly has the potential to be new discipline of racing in its own right,” he said.

"We've had great interest from the sim racing community, which is not surprising as the Motum Simulation equipment is world class, the competition is incredibly easy and affordable to enter."

Even carsales.com.au's global ambassador, Daniel Ricciardo, has used the Motum simulator and the popularity of e-racing is on the rise after several Aussies have gone from armchair gamer to professional racer, such as the 2015 Nissan GT Academy winner Matthew Simmons.

The VSR Showdown taking place in Sydney will see CAMS issue its first digital licences to 12 online qualifiers then to the three finalists this weekend. Future events will take place in October 2018 and February 2019, with talk of a CAMS-sanctioned Australian Championship the ultimate goal.

Find the Motum Simulation VSR Showdown at Shannons Nationals in the Amaroo South Pit Building, which can be found between turns four and five of the Gardner GP Circuit.

For those who like to watch, you can live stream the action on the iRacing Esports Network via YouTube, and there's also a live stream at thenationals.com.au.