The Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports Powered by Mobileye season is set for an explosive start as a huge field stacked with the world’s finest GT3 sim racing talent heads to the legendary Bathurst circuit in Australia this weekend.
A total of 47 cars will fight it out across the virtual Bathurst 12 Hours – held on the Assetto Corsa Competizione platform – to determine both who will be crowned the Kings of the Mountain, but also who will scoop the first share of an incredible €58,000 prize fund.
The field will be split between Pro and Silver entries, with the Pro category reserved for drivers and teams with links to real-world manufacturers and OEMs, while the Silver class caters for the finest teams and drivers from the Assetto Corsa Competizione community. In total, 185 drivers will compete across the 47 cars.
Pro class studded with stars
From the 18-strong Pro class entry, there are already a few drivers and teams that have stood out in other SRO Esports competitions this season, namely Mercedes-AMG Team Unicorns of Love and Williams Esports.
Tobias Pfeffer emerged as the first-ever winner of the new SRO Esports SIM Pro Series (held live from the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS paddock) at Monza last month, beating Tobias Gronewald to the win for Unicorn of Love. For Bathurst, the two will team up and be joined by Bastian Richter and Michael Tauscher in what promises to be a formidable squad.
Tinko Van Der Velde was the star of the recent Mobileye GT World Challenge Esports Europe Sprint Series, taking a commanding victory in round one at Monza for Williams Esports. For this event the team will switch from Mercedes-AMG to running an Audi R8 LMS Evo II, and Van Der Velde will share with Igor De Oliveira Rodrigues, Vojtech Fiala and Charlie Crossland. Williams’ Mercedes-AMG Team car will be crewed by Dennis Schöniger, Dáire McCormack and Dominik Blajer.
There will also be a host of factory entries from brands such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, BMW, McLaren and Honda HPD.
David Tonizza headlines the Automobili Lamborghini Esports Team entry, sharing the Huracan GT3 Evo2 with Danilo Santoro, Luca Losio and Mattia Crupi. Scuderia Ferrari Esports Team will field a 296 GT3 for Jordan Sherratt, Chris Harteveld, Andrea Capoccia and Jonathan Riley.
BMW M Team BS+Competition has Nils Naujoks/Gregor Schill/Arthur Kammerer/Philippa Boquida in its M4 GT3 while HPD JAS Pro has twin Honda NSX entries for Sean Massison/Karl Wittmer/Nicolas Hillebrand/Josh Staffin (JAS RED) and Ar Muhammad Aleef/Cardin Lu/Josh McKean/Nicolas Alvorado (JAS BLUE).
McLaren Veloce calls on Luke Whitehead/George Boothby/Grantas Kareckas/Marciej Malinowski for its 720 GT3 and teams such as Legion of Racers cannot be discounted, with Andika Rama Maulana/Dillan Tan/Moreno Pratama/Fadhli Rachmat at the wheel of its Mercedes-AMG GT3.
It’ll also be worth keeping an eye on VS Racing by Ballas eSport, which will run Dario Iemmulo, Francesco Fidelibus, Marcello Bonaccorsi and Leonardo Porco, who impressed at Monza by scoring the wildcard entry for the SIM Pro contest from the public qualifying session.
IGTC Esports Powered by Mobileye Entry List: Bathurst 12 Hours
[Fonte SRO Esports]
