The endurance championship will officially return in September for its fifth edition
With Season 4 in the history books, it is already time to think about the new year of racing on rFactor 2 here at e-Racing Series. Get ready to hit the track in September in an LMP2, an LMGTE or... an Hypercar! We already unveiled the first big news of the upcoming year, let's break down everything else you need to know.
Signing up to Season 5
The first difference, compared to the past season, is in the sign up phase. This will mainly take place in July. This way, teams and drivers will have the time to enjoy some well deserved rest in August, and be ready to go full throttle in September.
In the first phase, we will send out invites to the teams to come and join us, indicating the class (or classes) we think suits them better. By replying to our invite, teams will benefit from a -25 % discount on the entry fee.
When this first sign up session will be over, public sign ups will open. In this second stage, teams can freely sign up to the LMP2 and LMGTE classes. In order to apply for a spot in Hypercar, teams which did not receive an invite must send a request to racedirection@eracingseries.com, bringing proof of your palmares in endurance championships across the simracing community.
This is the complete schedule for sign ups:
- 4th-17th of July: Invites will be sent out
- 18th-31th of July: Public sign ups
The time separating the end of sign ups and the first preseason race will be used to fill the vacancies in the grid.
Cars, classes and schedule
Aside from the new Hypercar class, LMP2, LMGTE Pro and LMGTE AM will stay, featuring the same car models, but with a little difference: there will not be anymore a GTE overall standings, but PRO and AM will be split and effectively race in two different championships.
Here is the complete list of cars that we will see on track:
- [HC] Toyota GR010
- [LMP2] Oreca 07
- [LMP2] Ligier JSP217
- [LMGTE] Aston Martin Vantage
- [LMGTE] BMW M8
- [LMGTE] Corvette C7R
- [LMGTE] Corvette C8R
- [LMGTE] Ferrari 488
- [LMGTE] Porsche 911 RSR
Races, tracks and official schedule
As we anticipated, following an all-American championship, Season 5 will se a more traditional schedule. While iconic track such as Sebring, VIR and Watkins Glen will stay, the eSport Endurance Series will visit Dubai, Imola, Istanbul, Spa-Francorchamps and, of course, Le Mans. Race day will still be Saturday, with the start of the race at 16 Server Time (Rome time).
Here is the full detailed schedule of the championship:
- [Preseason 03/09/2022] 2 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
- [R1 10/09/2022] 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
- [R2 15/10/2022] 6 Hours of VIR
- [R3 19/11/2022] 6 Hours of Istanbul
- [R4 10/12/2022] 1000 Miles of Sebring
- [R5 21/01/2023] 6 Hours of Watkins Glen
- [R6 18/02/2023] 6 Hours of Imola
- [R7 18/03/2023] 6 Hours of Dubai
- [R8 20/05/2023] 24 Hours of Le Mans
While we are waiting for sign ups to officially open, you can access the official test server (Make sure to own all DLCs and Moyoda GR010 from United Racing Designs, available here and to subscribe the official Workshop here):
Name: EES - TEST Server
Password: ComingHome
Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and to join our Discord community, where we tend to post some sneak peeks and anticipations.