The hunt is on for starting places in the 2024 DTM eSports Championship

• First of two qualifying races for the DTM eSports Championship
• 64 sim racers battle it out on Friday for a permanent starting place
• Friday’s race to be shown live on the DTM YouTube channel at 19:15

Munich. Who will be racing in the 2024 DTM eSports Championship? To decide the 32 permanent starting places in the series, which boasts a prize purse of € 50,000, the best sim racers in Europe will go head to head in two shoot-out races on 19th January and 2nd February. The first opportunity is Shoot-Out 1 which takes place this Friday, 19th January, from 19:15 at the virtual Oschersleben circuit. 16 of the 32 permanent places will be won over the course of three races on the RaceRoom sim racing platform.

64 drivers have previously secured a place in Friday’s qualifying competition with a flying lap time. They include many big eSports teams, who are looking to qualify for the DTM eSports season with their drivers: Mouz, Coanda, Williams, Dörr Esports, the R8G Esports team of former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean, Fordzilla and Veloce. The Scuderia Ferrari Esports Team will also be involved for the first time. However, only 16 racers will qualify for the 2024 DTM eSports Championship on Friday evening.

Two groups of 32 drivers will contest first a 10-minute qualifying session, before a 20-minute race decides who will receive the coveted starting places. The six fastest drivers from each of the two groups can breathe easy – they will have qualified directly for the 2024 season. The drivers in positions seven to 22 receive a second chance. They will battle it out for the remaining four places in race three.

The 16 drivers quo qualify will join a further six competitors from Shoot-Out 2 (2nd February) at the season-opener, which takes place on 8th March at the virtual Norisring. A total of six races will be contested. The livestream of Shoot-Out 1 starts at 19:15 and will be broadcast live with English commentary on the DTM YouTube channel at youtube.com/DTM.