Top 20 racers head to finals of Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship

By CARSIFU | 17 September 2021


PETALING JAYA: The Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship reaches its climax on Sept 18-19 with Malaysia’s top 20 simulator racers vying for the honour of winning a total prize pool of RM70,000 and a chance to represent the country in the GR GT Cup Asia qualifiers.

More than 800 participants participated in the championship which began with qualifying rounds from Aug 21-29, before the quarter-finals were held from Sept 4-5 to select the top 20 racers who would move on to compete in this weekend’s semi-finals.

The one-day shootout will reduce the field to the 10 fastest drivers for the finals on Sunday.

First held in 2018, the number of participants in the Toyota GR Velocity Esports Championship has grown from 400 to more than 800 this year.

With just 10,000 online spectators in 2018, last year’s event drew more than 1 million online spectators who watched the two-day event via Facebook and YouTube.

Until today, UMW Toyota Motor remains the first and the only Malaysian car company to be associated with fast-growing E-sports motor-racing activities.

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Unlike previous events which were held in public spaces, this year’s finale will be run completely online from each competitor’s home, with the race using Sony PlayStation’s Gran Turismo Sport platform.

Spectators can follow the race action which will be broadcasted on the Toyota Gazoo Racing Malaysia Facebook and YouTube pages and also over Astro’s eGG Channel.

The finals will also see several racers currently competing in the Vios Challenge Promotional, Sporting, Super Sporting and Rookie classes, taking to simulators for an exhibition race.

Spicing up the action in the exhibition race will be Promotional Class drivers Zizan Razak, Shukri Yahaya and Nabil Ahmad, as well as guest racer and actor Sharnaaz Ahmad; Sporting Class driver Clement Yeo; Super Sporting drivers Tengku Djan Ley and Hayden Haikal; and Rookie Class racers Naquib Azlan, Putera Adam and Amer Harris.

The two-day semi-finals and grand-finals will see four previous GR Velocity Esports Championship winners returning. They include defending champion Taj Aiman, and last year’s runner-up and third place winner Iqbal Suji and Mior Hafiz, as well as 2018 winner Muhammad Uzair.

The top three winners will go on to represent Malaysia in the GR GT Cup Asia qualifiers organised by Toyota Motor Asia Pacific, bringing together the best drivers from the region.


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