Arrow McLaren SP’s rising IndyCar star Patricio O’Ward and FIA Formula 3 racer Sophia Florsch are among the new additions for The Race All-Star Esports Battle 3, running alongside the brand new Legends Trophy event.
Ex-Red Bull Formula 1 junior O’Ward is likely to be one of four current IndyCar drivers in the field, as series frontrunners Felix Rosenqvist, Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta are all set to return the star studded line-up for another shot at victory. Former IndyCar racer Stefan Wilson is another new addition to the field.
Florsch returned to racing last year after a huge crash in Macau in 2018 fractured her spine.
She will race for Campos in FIA Formula 3 in 2020 when the season gets going, but first she will join a host of other drivers including fellow FIA F3 racer Devlin DeFrancesco in the All-Star Esports Battle 3.
YouTube star Archie Hamilton – a strong racer in his own right – has also signed up for the first time to take on the best The Race invitees have to offer.
Sportscar racers Matt Griffin and 2012 DTM champion Bruno Spengler make their All-Star Battle debuts, while ex-Champ Car racer Ronnie Bremer and former IndyCar driver Gabby Chaves also join the grid.
The format will be the same as last week with three heats – two for real-world pro drivers and one for sim racers – before last-chance qualifier and a grand final featuring five Esports racers against the pros.
The track, cars and start time for the event on the rFactor 2 platform will all be revealed soon.
Last week’s outright winner Rudy van Buren is back for more, along with his World’s Fastest Gamer successor James Baldwin.
The grid is bustling with a strong list of real-life racers including Juan Pablo Montoya and his son Sebastian, Formula E points leader Antonio Felix da Costa and fellow series challenger Maximilian Gunther and the top real-life racer from the last race, Daniel Juncadella.
Juan Manuel Correa – still recovering from the huge Spa crash that claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert last year – will also race again, alongside his ex-Formula 2 team-mate and Ferrari junior Callum Ilott.
Philipp Eng joins fresh from finishing third in F1’s first Esports stand-in race in the coronavirus pandemic.
The Race All-Stars Esports Battle 3 runs alongside a new event, The Race All-Star Esports Battle Legends Trophy – which boasts a field so far holding an incredible 528 F1 starts, 24 F1 wins, 2378 IndyCar starts, 177 IndyCar wins and 17 overall or class victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans between them.
Among the Legends are Emerson Fittipaldi, Dario Franchitti, Johnny Herbert, David Brabham and Paul Tracy.
Recently added to the huge Legends grid is ex-Benetton F1 driver and five-time Le Mans winner Emanuele Pirro.
The first All-Star Esports Battle took place on March 15,using 2012-style F1 cars on the Nurburgring Grand Prix track. Max Verstappen’s hard-charging exploits provided huge entertainment but it was Esports star Jernej Simoncic who won overall.
The second event one week later using the Indianapolis road course featured the racing return of Nico Hulkenberg following his F1 exit, and was won by another Esports big name in van Buren.
