eSPORTS+CARS has clinched its first major esports championship by winning the CJ Wilson Cayman Cup – the first virtual motorsport competition created by a real race team.
Founded by American baseball star CJ Wilson, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher’s team competes in the Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge in the US with a pair of Porsche Caymans.
To mirror the team’s efforts in 2016, CJ Wilson Racing created the CJ Wilson Cayman Cup – an esports competition run on the Forza Motorsports XBox platform.
The championship followed by the real race team’s schedule – competing on the same circuits used in the real championship.
eSPORTS+CARS racers David Hoch (known as “Harmonic”) and Evan Thorogood (“Raceboy”) dominated the championship to finish 1-2 in the series points. The efforts of the duo also earned eSPORTS+CARS the team’s championship.
Hoch won four races en route to the championship win – clinching the title at the virtual VIRginia International Raceway round. This mirrored the performance of the real CJ Wilson team who won for the first time at VIR with drivers Danny Burkett and Marc Miller.
Thorogood was a model of consistency throughout the championship and finally scored his first victory at the Road Atlanta circuit.
“CJ Wilson and his team should be congratulated on pulling together a strong virtual championship that continues to improve the professionalism of on-line racing,” eSPORTS+CARS Team Principal, Darren Cox said.
“Initiatives like this go a long way to help introduce esports and virtual racing to a mainstream audience. Both our organisations are very aligned in this goal and objective.
“To have David and Evan perform so strongly in the championship is just another example of the performance of the entire eSPORTS+CARS team since we launched. I congratulate the guys on their performances, which were by any measure, dominant.
“We’ll be looking forward to coming back in 2017 to defend our championship win and work together with CJ and his team to continue to grow the sport.”
Next up for the eSPORTS+CARS team will be the final of the Forza Racing Championship Season 1 Presented by Ford Performance.
Five eSPORTS+CARS racers have graduated to the final group of 12 drivers who will do battle over a US$75,000.00 prize pool.
The eSPORTS+CARS “Forza Ford Fast Five” includes both Hoch and Thorogood:
Alex [ChemicaL] Harrison (GBR)
David [Harmonic] Hoch (USA)
Evan [Raceboy] Thorogood (CAN)
Robin [bbb0x] Betka (GER)
Taylor [Lightning] Stomski (GBR)
DRIVER QUOTES
David Hoch – “Harmonic”
“I managed to lock up the championship by winning the penultimate race at VIR which coincided with CJ Wilson Racing winning their first Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge race,”
Hoch said.
“It is awesome to win a championship like this. I have raced on Forza for years so winning any championship there is very exciting. This is a huge one so winning something like the CJ Wilson Cayman Cup is incredible.
“This is the most competitive series I’ve ever done. A lot of guys who normally don’t race in championships like this got their feet wet and entered the series so it was interesting to see some new faces.
“It was very difficult and challenging but it was fun to race against guys of that calibre week in, week out. You really needed to get used to the car and there was a great variety of tracks as well.
“Having guys like CJ on board has been brilliant. Motorsport is popular but virtual racing is a small but growing niche and having somebody like CJ and his team getting behind it has really helped make an impact.”
Evan Thorogood – “Raceboy”
“A couple of my friends told me about the CJ Wilson Cayman Cup. Having a real racing team backing a virtual race series was a huge plus so I joined up with my friends,” Thorogood said.
“A lot of the guys in the series are very fast and we’ve had really good clean racing throughout the entire championship.
“There wasn’t a single race were I was running alone on my own. All the races I was always battling with somebody – the level of competition was pretty intense.
“It has been a great set of tracks to race on in the series. Getting to race on VIR was a blast because it was the first time any of us had gotten the chance to compete there. Sebring is another one of my favorites as well because there are a lot of passing opportunities.
“I was very lucky to be selected as the first guy to represent eSPORTS+CARS for the Xbox competitions when the team started. It was really an honor to assume that position and I’m really looking forward to the competitions coming up.”