Fans take on rally drivers in the ŠKODA Motorsport eChallenge

LIFESTYLE

The rally world championship has been suspended. So the ŠKODA Motorsport team decided to stage its own series of virtual races on the popular DiRT Rally 2.0™ platform. All motorsport and video game fans can get involved.

21. 4. 2020

Rally enthusiasts will get a chance to drive a ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo and test their skills against leading pros like Chris Ingram (2019 European champion), Pontus Tidemand (2017 world champion in the WRC2 category), Oliver Solberg, Martin Koči or Petr Semerád.

“Not just the fans, but the rally teams and drivers themselves can’t wait for a return to racing. But that may take a while yet, so in the meantime we’ve decided to organise our own online version of Rally Argentina. Now, absolutely anyone will be able to take on professional drivers from our customer teams competing in ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo cars, at least in the virtual world,” explained Michal Hrabánek, head of ŠKODA Motorsport.

The unique ŠKODA Motorsport eChallenge will take place on the virtual course of Rally Argentina from 22 to 26 April, the same dates as the actual world championship event was scheduled for.

The gravel roads of Rally Argentina offer more than just beautiful natural surroundings – the winding and narrow time trial courses, lined by cliffs and boulders, make for a real sporting spectacle as the drivers try to squeeze the most out of their cars. Achieving a good time requires very precise driving and masterful control of the car. So the virtual Rally Argentina will be a tough challenge for both real-life drivers and gamers. On the ŠKODA Motorsport Facebook profile (@motorsportskoda), team engineers will help the competitors cope with the course as well as possible, giving the players recommendations for the best way to set up the car before the race, just like they do for ŠKODA Motorsport’s customer teams before actual rally events.

The gravel roads of Rally Argentina offer more than just beautiful natural surroundings – the winding and narrow time trial courses, lined by cliffs and boulders.

“The basic rule of a rally is: never give up. While the cars are now garaged waiting for the next competitions, we are delighted that the whole family of fans, drivers and ŠKODA Motorsport customers can come together again, albeit in the virtual world. In this way we can at least partially make up for the rally events we are sadly missing out on right now,” said David Jareš, coordinator of the ŠKODA Motorsport customer programme.

Pros versus fans

The ŠKODA Motorsport eChallenge is open to anyone who owns DiRT Rally 2.0™ by Codemasters®, whether for PC, Playstation® or Xbox®, and has a registered player profile. The game’s realism makes it popular with many professional drivers who compete in ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo cars in real life. And it is their times the gamers will have to beat. Standings will be constantly updated on the ŠKODA Motorsport website and social networks, just like during real WRC events.

DiRT Rally 2.0™ is part of one of the most successful racing series in history, with around a million copies sold. This is the 13th version of the game series originally titled Colin McRae Rally. One of the cars the famous Scottish world champion from 1995 used to compete in was a ŠKODA FABIA WRC.