Supercars Eseries schedule, broadcasts locked in

The full schedule for the upcoming 2019 Gfinity Supercars Eseries has been announced, with 16 races to decide this year’s champion on the iRacing platform.

Six events will be held on Tuesday evenings between September 24 and November 19, the week of the season-ending Coates Hire Newcastle 500.

The first three through September and October are separated by a fortnight, before weekly rounds from November 5.

All six rounds of competition will be broadcast live on Fox Sports and streamed through Kayo Sports during the prime timeslot of 7:30pm to 9:30pm.

“Fox Sports is delighted to partner with Supercars to broadcast the Gfinity Supercars Eseries for Foxtel customers and Kayo Sports subscribers,” Fox Sports General Manager Motorsport, James Harrison, said.

“The eseries is a great extension to our traditional coverage of Supercars and promises to bring some exciting racing via the iRacing platform.

“We are also thrilled a Fox Sports car will take its place on the virtual grid.”

The series will also be broadcast live across Supercars.com, Supercars and Gfinity AU social media channels, including gaming-focused streaming platform Twitch.

It gets underway on September 24 with a live studio event at Gfinity’s state-of-the-art Esports Arena in Sydney.

Sim racers from the 12 participating teams will be flown in to compete, before racing remotely in the following five virtual rounds to decide this year’s champion.

In the week of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, Round 2 on October 8 is a centrepiece event with a single 250km race.

The other five events feature a three-race format, with 16 races in total to be held across 14 circuits.

Supercars venues Mount Panorama and Phillip Island appear twice, including forming the November 19 finale with the now-defunct Oran Park.

International venues include Monza, Suzuka, Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, the Nurburgring and Silverstone.

A new draft will also be held next month, to give talented sim racers a shopfront window to join the series.

“The series has stepped up for 2019 and we are delighted to welcome the Fox Sports team to the competition and for the entire series to be broadcast live on Fox Sports,” Supercars' General Manager – Commercial Jamie Black said.

“A spectacular opening round with a live studio audience in Sydney will kick off the schedule through to the finale, contested alongside the Supercars Championship decider on the streets of Newcastle.”

Fox Sports joins the grid

Boost Mobile has already confirmed its two entries and will be joined by a Fox Sports team when the competition begins.

Several more Supercars teams will be revealed in the next two weeks.

“Last year competitors represented themselves, whereas this year teams will contest the 2019 competition,” Black said.

“These include Supercars race teams and others representing high-profile consumer brands.

“Boost Mobile Racing was the first Supercars team to field an entry and today with Fox Sports, with more to follow in the coming weeks.”

Join the field – draft being held next month

In a first for the eseries, details for the 2019 draft have been released.

Used as a method to identify exceptional sim-racing talent for competing teams, the draft will take place in early August as a three-stage process.

In the first stage, aspiring drivers from the public will have the opportunity to set their best lap time on iRacing around Mount Panorama across August 1-3.

The fastest 16 lap holders will move through to stage two on August 4, going head-to-head in a series of races to determine a seeding order.

During stage three, teams wishing to select a driver from the draft instead of appointing their own will have the opportunity to do so via a ballot system.

With thousands of registered iRacing competitors in Australia, the tournament is expected to attract the most talented sim racing drivers in the country, with registration opening on Monday July 8.

For more information on the 2019 Gfinity Supercars Eseries, click here.