Esports meets the Le Mans 24 Hour race in a brand new $100,000 competitors

The ACO, the biggest automotive group in France, and the organisation behind the enduring Le Mans 24 Hour race, has introduced a Forza 7-based esports collection boasting a $100,000 prize pool and the backing of F1 champion Fernando Alonso. The first spherical of the newly-introduced Le Mans esports collection passed off on the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone within the UK over the weekend.

The ACO are partnering with automotive media and tech firm Motorsport Network, to carry the collection to life. The collection launched at Silverstone, however three extra qualifying occasions – in Fuji (Japan), Birmingham (UK), and Sebring, Florida (US) will happen forward of the Grand Final, which can happen in the course of the Le Mans 24 Hour Race subsequent yr.

In a video (which you’ll watch beneath) president of Motorsport Network James Allen says that the Le Mans esports championship might be “truly accessible.” The firm’s Chairman, Zak Brown, says he hopes that esports will turn into motorsports’ new “grassroots”. As he factors out, that’s beforehand been karting, an costly passion that’s not obtainable to everybody.

Speaking on the announcement of the collection (by way of Eurogamer), Fernando Alonso, who gained the 2018 Le Mans Race, and who now’s heading up his personal esports staff, says that “The possibilities that esports has are unlimited. We have probably not reached the limit yet, we will keep discovering more.”

The championship will happen throughout each on-line competitions and offline occasions to happen at races and automobile exhibits over the following a number of months. Registration is stay on the official Le Mans esports series website, with qualification open till the top of August. Expect to see extra motorsport involvement with esports over the following few years, because the F1 and World Rally Championship governing our bodies each look to increase into the realm of digital racing.