The NextEV NIO Formula E Team will be heading to Sin City – Las Vegas, USA – on 7 January 2017 where Nelson Piquet Jr, Oliver Turvey and Petar Brljak will be competing in the virtual Visa Vegas eRace, which forms part of CES. This ground-breaking event will see all 20 Formula E drivers competing virtually on racing simulators and going head-to-head with ten elite sim racers – the best in the world at the discipline of race gaming.
Croatian professional sim racer Petar Brljak has been paired with the NextEV NIO Formula E Team for the Las Vegas eRace and will join Piquet Jr and Turvey to compete for a share of a $1 million prize pot – the largest prize fund in eGaming history.
The race day will take the format of a usual Formula E event with two free practice sessions, qualifying and Super Pole. The top ten drivers from qualifying will automatically qualify for the race. The other 20 competitors will battle it out in a qualifying race, with the top ten also then progressing to the final race, which will feature 20 finalists. Competitors will race on a specially devised Vegas track that will be unseen by the drivers until the event.
Nelson Piquet Jr (Car #3): “This is an amazing idea and a fantastic new concept and I’m so excited. I think it’s brilliant what Formula E is doing combining the worlds of real and virtual racers and bringing such a big prize money to eSports. I love America, I think it’s the perfect place for the eRace and I think this is going to be really fun with all the drivers together. I’ve been doing a little bit of sim training but these professional sim racers are going to be tough competitors!”
Oliver Turvey (Car #88): “I’m really excited to be going to Las Vegas for the eRace. It’s the first one like this in the world and it’s going to be really competitive between all the drivers. It will be my first time in Las Vegas and I think it’s going to be a fun event. I’m always confident and I feel I have a lot of experience doing simulator work so hopefully I can get to grips with it well and be competitive there.”
Petar Brljak (Car #68): “There was a big smile on my face as I exited the last corner of the London race and realised that I would be in the final in Las Vegas. I was immediately very excited and couldn’t sleep from all the adrenaline that had gathered up before, during and after that race because it was probably the most important one that I’ve driven. You couldn’t imagine something like this just a year ago for sim racing. A chance to go to Las Vegas, compete with real drivers and all for a big prize, and it’s very cool to be joined up with a championship-winning team like the NextEV NIO Formula E Team. I’m just ecstatic!”
