Racing Prodigy, a groundbreaking sports, entertainment, and media property, has announced the formation of the Prodigy Racing League, the world’s first e2Real™ sports league. The racing league has been built to make motorsports more accessible using esports as a pathway to racing real cars on real tracks.
Racing Prodigy CEO David Cook laid the foundation for the company’s vision. Previously, he led the first competitions at Mazda where many of the world’s best sim racing gamers competed against the company’s top real-world racers in real race cars at the MX-5 Cup Shootout. Cook saw firsthand sim racers beating the real-world racers, revealing that skills from virtual racing directly transfer to real life. This realization showed that the access problem of real motorsports can be solved, creating the opportunity for seismic change in a sport that most young people only dream of pursuing.
“At Racing Prodigy, we are lowering the financial barriers to enter motorsports to the same level of traditional sports. Gamers just need a console, mobile device, or PC with a wheel and pedals to participate in esports tournaments, which is how we open the sport we love from the few to the many,” said Cook. “The PRL is the new home for racers of all backgrounds and abilities, where they can chase their motorsports dreams from the screen to the track.”
Four major gaming titles — iRacing, Street Kart Racing, rFactor 2, and RaceRoom — have joined Racing Prodigy to offer the opportunities of turning dreams to reality. The global search for racing prodigies begins with iRacing on June 19. Gamers must be at least 13 years old and register before the qualifying stage concludes on June 26. Racing Prodigy will livestream its semi-finals and final races on July 1 and July 2. Additional free-to-enter and pay-to-enter tournaments will be announced in the coming weeks.
Additionally, Racing Prodigy welcomes three official partners to Prodigy Racing League, including SIM-LAB, GRID Engineering, and Asetek SimSports. These foundational partners are supporting the sim racing community and generously providing prizes for tournament winners and select participants.
HOW IT WORKS
Prodigy Racing League participants will compete in esports racing tournaments among the four celebrated gaming titles across 12 tournaments from June through October 2023.
Fifteen of the top performers will be awarded a Prodigy Pass™, the “golden ticket of motorsports,” to compete in real Radical SR1 race cars at Prodigy Week™. The event will take place October 30 through November 1, 2023 at Atlanta Motorsports Park, a 2-mile racetrack designed by Formula One premier architect Hermann Tilke. Each racer will receive expert instruction on racing technique, fitness and communication.
Following the first Prodigy Week, Racing Prodigy plans to host a second Prodigy Week in early 2024 with an additional 35 Prodigy Pass winners, creating a pool of 50 of the world’s most talented drivers from which PRL teams will draft. The plan is for those drafted to receive a paid contract to compete in PRL’s first real-world racing series in the United States, to be launched in 2024.
Registration is now open for the first iRacing esports tournament, starting June 19, with additional tournaments planned across Street Kart Racing, rFactor 2, and RaceRoom over the summer and fall.
