RM70,000 Up For Grabs In Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship Season 3

The Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship returns for its 3rd season this September. With it comes RM70,000 worth of prize monies, as well as a chance for the victors to represent Malaysia in regional e-motorsports competition.

Virtually Challenging

The Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship will kick off in September with a series of qualifying rounds, a semi-final round, and a challenging 4-race format grand final.

There will be 4 online qualifying rounds, limited to 180 participants per round, that will run over
two consecutive weekends: 3-4 September and 12-13 September 2020. UMW Toyota Motor expects some 720 racers to compete for this virtual race championship. Qualifying will “take place” at the 4.5km Fuji International Speedway in Japan with racers piloting a GR Supra RZ.

The 20 fastest drivers from qualifying will then advance to the semi-final which will be held on 26th September at UMWT headquarters in Shah Alam. The semi-final will involve two individual races held in Japan. The first is a 22-lap race at Kyoto Driving Park behind the wheel of a TS050 Hybrid prototype sports car. This will be followed by an 18-lap battle around the 5.8km Suzuka Circuit in a Dallara Super Formula SF19.

Subsequently, the 10 fastest drivers will book a spot to compete in the grand final on 27th September at the same venue. The battle to become champion and win the grand prize money of RM20,000 will be decided over 4 races with points awarded for every round. Race 1 will see drivers competing in a GR Supra RZ at the Autodrome Lago Maggiore circuit in Italy (15 laps); Race 2 at Autopolis Racing Course Japan in a FT-1 Vision Gran Turismo (18 laps); Race 3 behind the wheel of a TS050 Hybrid sports car at Circuit de la Sarthe in France (10 laps); while the final race will take place at the famous 13.6km Belgium Spa-Francorchamps circuit with a Toyota-powered Dallara Super Formula SF19 (18 laps).

Rewarding Representation

With RM70,000 worth of prize money, this is billed as one of the most lucrative and rewarding local online racing series. The Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship offers a cash prize of RM20,000, RM10,000, RM7,000, RM5,500, RM4,500 to the top five overall winners.

Meanwhile, prize monies amounting to RM4,000, RM3,500, RM3,000, RM2,500 and RM2,000 also awaits those who finish in 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th positions respectively. Furthermore, a prize of RM500 each will also be given out to those who finish 11th to 20th positions.

Racers will also stand a chance to win additional cash in the form of RM450, RM200 and RM100 awarded to the first, second and third place winners at each of the four grand final races.

The top three racers will also earn the honor of representing Malaysia in the first ever GR Supra GT Cup Asia 2020 regional e-motorsports competition organized by Toyota Motor Asia Pacific (TMAP) in October 2020. The GR Supra GT Cup Asia 2020 will see the Malaysian virtual racers competing against the best from Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and India.

Celebrity Races

Season 3 of the Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship will also feature a special 10-lap exhibition race involving racers and celebrities competing in the Toyota Vios Challenge and Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival.

TGR racers will go head-to-head in a 10-lap race behind the wheel of a Toyota GR Supra Racing Concept race car at the 4.5km Fuji International Speedway, while celebrities will drive a TS050 Hybrid sports car in a 17-lap race at the Tokyo Expressway.

Racing Into a New Norm

“The race must go on, amidst a post-pandemic era and in the new norm, and while physical motor-racing involving Toyota is not expected to return until the first quarter of 2021, the past five months presented UMWT with the perfect opportunity to advance our virtual racing activities and to bring the Gazoo racing spirit and motorsports to the masses,” said Toyota Gazoo Racing Malaysia’s Chief Motorsports Officer Akio Takeyama.

Takeyama, who is also UMWT Deputy Chairman said, the company kicked off its online racing campaign with organizing the Toyota Gazoo Racing Online Challenge that featured five individual rounds being held from April. The challenge attracted gamers as young as six years old who participated in a competition which utilized Sony PlayStation’s popular Gran Turismo Sport platform in a quest to find the fastest “racer” at five different virtual circuits around the world.

UMWT is the first and remains as the only Malaysian car company to be associated with the fast-growing E-sports motor-racing activities, and Takeyama said the company is honored to have been able to positively contribute to the growing interest in online racing in Malaysia.

Encouraging E-Talent

First held in 2018, Mr. Ravindran K., President of UMW Toyota Motor, said the number of participants who competed in the Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship grew to 657 virtual racers in 2019 from 400, with 720 participants expected to compete in 2020. The event he added, had also successfully grown an online audience from 10,000 in 2018 to 110,000 spectators in 2019. Some 300,000 viewers are expected to tune in to the Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship live streamed online races this year.

“Online racing, particularly the growing interest in Simulator Racing, has exponentially grown, more evidently over the last five months, and it has successfully attracted both real world racers and virtual racers,” Mr. Ravindran said.

“These initiatives underline Toyota’s commitment to bring motorsports to the masses, promoting the Gazoo Racing philosophy that embodies performance and excellence, and introducing to the market the brand’s new range of race-bred and race-inspired GR-badged vehicles.”

For more information on the Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship and to register to compete, visit www.toyota.com.my.