NASCAR and the simulator platform iRacing promises a race purse of $300 000 to the finalists in ENASCAR Coca Cola iRacing Series, a simulator racing series that is partly broadcasted on NBC Sports.
– I’ve been following how the E-sport market have developed and this fall it came clear to me – the E-sport is growing and the traditional sport is struggling in the continues digitalizing society, Jonas says.
The project have been developed together with Pontus Nilsson, team manager for FORS eSPORTS.
– I’ve followed Jonas efforts across the Atlantic and when Jonas pitched this idea it felt obvious to step onboard, Pontus says. The fact that we’ve already have attracted these guys [Alexander Wegert, Tomas Andersson and Linus Broström] feels unbelievable. It’s a very nice bunch of guys who also are the highest rated Swedes in ovalracing at iRacing. I’m excited over to see how we can develop this further.
The talents Linus Broström, Tomas Andersson and Alexander Wegert affiliated to the team in the end om 2019 which today is reviealed.
– We have the three best active drivers in the same team and it is of course a delicate challenge to be leading in our niche at our first day after the unblinding of this effort, Jonas says. We’ve already raced two races in Road to Pro where Linus Broström finished eighth already in his premiere so we have already shown our concept to be compeditive.
Linus Broström are looking forward to see what the team can bring and predicts a bright future.
– It’s going to be a lot of fun working with Jonas, Linus says. He has already shown that he has a lot of racing knownledge and he has given good advice which have helped me a lot in a couple of races. The future is looking bright for us and I believe that we might have something big in progress here. Jonas was very clear about his short- and longterm goals for this team, which made this effort seem very serious. Before this I’ve mostly raced by myself, but now we can hopefully do more races together and help each other to prepare for the races, support during the races and evaluate the race afterwards together. Also, this gives you something more to work for, both for yourself but also for the team and you can take great advantage yourself by helping others.
Tomas Andersson was attracted by working side by side with Jonas Fors.
– I joined this effort because it is the most ambitious Swedish effort on a eSport-team I’ve heard of and considering that Jonas Fors was the guy behind it was a simple choice when I got the proposal, Tomas Andersson says. To work with Jonas is simple since he is social, responsive and very humble in the face of this challenge since he doesn’t share the same background as us [Tomas, Alexander and Linus] within the E-sport community. It’s going to be very interesting to see where this project will progress since Jonas wants to run the eSports-team side by side with his racing efforts.
Alexander Wegert sees FORS eSPORTS as a chance for Sweden to get more exposure in the oval community of iRacing than it have had before.
– I feel that Sweden really has a chans to get more exposure in the iRacing ovals since it’s very few Swedes out there and most of them are not organized and I joined this effort because now we have that opportunity, Alexander says. I want us to become a family in the team where we help each other out, where no one is better than the other and where we encourage eachother to create a team feeling. If someone has a bad race, the team should be there for support and when you have a good race the team should be there to celebrate.
The whole E-sports team has some experience of auto racing, but from very different areas, a strength If you ask Jonas Fors.
– We have three very strong individuals to deal with here, Jonas says. Ponuts Nilsson has been a crucial support who have built the foundation to make this effort possible and I am so thankful for the time and commitment he have invested and shown to make it possible to attract drivers of this class. Tomas Andersson is from a Rally family and has driven on Daytona, Linus Broström is a former Junior Touring Car compeditor and Alexander Wegert has raced gokarts, folkrace and done tests in Formula cars and Junior Touring Cars. Alexander has also competed in drifting, won tournaments on Dreamhack and worked professionally within Esports.
FORS eSPORTS are competing in Road to Pro, the qualifying league to the eNASCAR sanctioned Pro Series. From the Pro Series you qualify to eNASCAR Coca Cola iRacing Series, the largest tournament of simulator racing in the world.
– We compete against NASCAR teams who have eNASCAR as a part of their operations, Jonas says. We have a lot to learn and a lot of connections to do. We do also have a responsibility to represent Sweden. Our main challenge is to get the drivers to share their secrets and develop eachother but also to find the right setups for the cars on each track.
The effort isn’t necessaraly focused on oval racing only.
– Since it’s NASCAR I’m racing in, it felt natural to start with the same cars and culture on the eSport-platform, Jonas says. Maybe already later this year branch out to road course racing too, but that community is a complete different organism. We might pick the talents we like, that show interest and fits our enviroment or propose to a already existing team to be our satellite.