48 made it through pre-qualifying but only 26 would progress to the championship. Bring on qualifying night.

The MOZA NZ iRacing Championship (NZIRC) is a sanctioned national sim racing championship, the first one we’ve had on iRacing. The championship will run the Porsche 911 Cup (992.2) car with a fixed setup. With over 120 entries it’s set to be the most competitive sim racing series in New Zealand, that national title clearly attracting the top talent in the country.

In order to qualify drivers first had to go through an open hot lap pre-qualifying around Virginia International Raceway. The top 48 drivers based on fastest lap time progressed into qualifying night. This saw the 48 split into two groups of 24, each with it’s own qualifying, sprint race, and feature race at Circuito de Navarra. The top 13 from each grid progress through to the 6 round championship.

Group 1

In group 1 it was Tom Bewley who laid an absolute marker down. Pole, race 1 win, and then even the reverse top 10 didn’t stop him. It only took 4 laps before Tom was up into the lead where he drove away from the field to win by 15 seconds. A remarkable result that makes Tom the clear favourite heading into the championship.

Tom has one particular advantage over the rest of the field that might have contributed to his dominance, he races the full metal Porsche 992 in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia. At just 18 Tom already has a wealth of motorsport experience. Learning his craft in karting Tom has since won the Toyota GR86 series and earnt a Porsche NZ scholarship that has him racing in Australia this year. In sim racing we’ve previously seen Tom in the Toyota 86 E-Cup and hes currently racing in the Australian Porsche Pro Invitational Series. Tom is part of Momentum Racing, a team with multiple drivers represented in the NZ iRacing Championship.

Conor Brodie and Ashton Dunn are also in the hunt for the iRacing Championship. Finishing 2nd and 3rd across qualifying and the two races they kept it close with Tom until the reverse top 10 feature race. While Tom cut through the field in the first two laps Ashton would take until lap 15 to get up to second with Conor making the move to third 7 laps later after 35 minutes of racing. With the same format being used in each round of the championship the ability for drivers to come through through the field in the reverse top 10 is sure to be a key difference maker.

An early rivalry may have formed between Conor and Nieko Scolesy. Nieko finished race 1 in 7th and was looking good in 4th in the feature for a long time. Battling hard to keep Conor behind Conors feelings about Niekos driving became clear when the two came together on lap 14, Nieko spinning around. Conor came on the radio with a simple “Karma”. Nieko eventually finished 14th in the feature, combined with his 7th in race 1 that was enough to see him through to the championship.

16 year old Nieko is another driver straddling traditional motorsport and sim racing. Earlier this year Nieko won the Toyota 86 Winter Series and has since earned support from the Tony Quinn Foundation to help tackle the Toyota GR86 Championship over summer.

Bryce Harding capitalised on the reverse top 10 feature race format. After a calm race 1 he started on pole in the feature and quickly showed his pace. Getting away from the field early Bryce was matching the speed of the front runners and proving difficult to overtake, eventually finishing close behind Conor in 4th.

It wasn’t such clean sailing for all the drivers however. Blake Dowdall and Ben Groves had to show their resilience to fight back after dramas in the feature race to salvage enough points to qualify. Blake Dowdall displayed great speed to both qualify and finish race 1 in 4th. In the feature race however he reported clutch issues, jumping the start and dropping down the order on the opening lap. Naturally that jump start landed him a drive through penalty which put Blake right at the back in 22nd. Not counting himself out he put his head down and pushed on, working his way back up into 16th by the end of the race and earning enough points to qualifying for the championship.

18 year old Blake is a full blown GT4 driver, racing a Ford Mustang GT4 over in Australia, he was the 2025 Formula Ford champion, and came in with the top pre-qualifying time. He’s clearly one hell of a driver and will be one to watch this season. Blake missed out on the Tony Quinn money to Neiko Scoles so no doubt will have a point to prove when they get on track with each other in the NZ iRacing Championship. Blake has already proven himself on iRacing competing as one of the top kiwis in the Tri-Nations cup, back in the LPL Taimana Series, and winning a season of the iRacing Formula Ford series.

Ben Groves, a driver who competed at the top level of the GT7 New Zealand Championship, had a poor qualifying. Starting in 17th he was the biggest mover in race 1 working his way up to 12th. Just inside the top 13 cutoff it was looking good until lap 2 of the feature race a collision and spin put Ben down to 17th once more. Once again putting his head down and driving fast Ben worked his way back up to 10th, finishing with the most overtakes of anyone across the night.

Ben Groves too has traditional motorsport experience. Racing his MR2 he’s had success including winning the Coronet Peak hillclimb. After competing in the CareVets Toyota 86 Scholarship day Ben is now hoping to put together a season in GR86 championship. Racing for Hooncorp Esports Ben was joined on the grid by teammate Robert Henry who scrapped through in the final qualifying position, while his other Hooncorp teammate Ewan Baker raced in group 2.

Group 2

In group 2 it was Raymond Mallin who was setting the pace. Raymond took pole with a 1:36.664, fractionally better than his Momentum Racing teammate Tom Bewleys pole time from group 1 of 1:36.688. Much like his teammate in group 1, Raymond took both race wins, coming through the pack in the reverse top 10 feature race to take the lead on lap 8, opening a gap of 8 seconds to second place by the end of the race.

Round 1 with Tom Bewley going head to head with Raymond Mallin is now setup for a titanic battle.

Raymond, or just Ray, has plenty of racing experience to lean on, predominantly in karting. Starting when he was 12 Raymond has worked his way up to winning multiple titles and even representing New Zealand on the global stage. At 18 years of age he also has a season in the GR86 championship under his belt, a very similar pathway followed by Tom Bewley.

Alex Sprague qualified P2 and chased Raymond home in the first race but it didn’t go his way for race 2. Tagging a spun Jack Groenewald Alex picked up some damage which hampered his ability to come through the field in the reverse top 10. Alex finished 9th in the feature and secured his spot in the championship where he’s certainly one to keep an eye on.

Alex is quickly becoming a regular in top NZ iRacing competition having competed in the Toyota 86 E-Cup the past two years (finishing 5th in 2025, and 4th in 2026). In full metal race cars he is the reigning 2KCup South Island Champion, did some testing in Toyota 86s, and is now racing in Formula Fords at just 17 years old.

Xavier Simmonds and Ewan Baker have also shown themselves to be strong contenders. Finishing 3rd and 4th in the sprint the two showed their capabilities in the reverse top 10 feature race but would ultimately only make it back up to 5th and 6th.

Ewan Baker is a very familiar name at the top of the iRacing scene in NZ. He has battled at the front of the Global Esports Games NZ qualifier (3rd), Toyota 86 E-Cup (3rd in 2026, and 3rd in 2025), Tri-Nations (including top kiwi in 2023), 4th in the Taimana Cup (ahead of non other than Xavier Simmonds), 2nd in the Samsung iRacing NZ Cup (8th the year before). This man is forever on the podium but still the championship escapes him. Could 2026 finally be the year Ewan reaches the top?

If you’re still not sure about Ewan consider as well that he represented NZ in the Asia Pacific Motorsport Games in Malaysia on ACC, along with the sim racing world cup in Monaco on rFactor 2 (qualifying him as an E-Black), and he’s currently racing in the Australian iRacing Porsche Pro Invitational. This is a man well versed in sim racing.

Jack Groenewald put his name in the ring as a top contender with a 5th place in qualifying and the sprint. Come the feature race however he was spun by Ryan Delany on the third corner, dropping him right to the back. With damage Jack rage quit, hinting at the hot temper we’ve seen during the Delta Sim Sports (DSS) Toyota 86 iRacing series where Jack was frequently at the front but just as frequently brought in front of the stewards. Incredibly Jacks 5th still earnt him enough points to scrape into the championship in 13th despite only finishing one of the two races.

Reigning NZ Gran Turismo Champion Matt McEwen was another driver caught up in the Jack spin. Carrying minor damage Matts attempted comeback in the feature race was halted. In the sprint Matt had also been in an incident at turn three, that time taken out by Paul Booth who went on a lap 1 charge knocking Mandela Pluck off the track a few corners later. Sent to the back in race 1 and then carrying minor damage in race 2 Matt was unable to qualifying for the iRacing championship.

The reverse top 10 of the feature race did work out nicely for one driver in particular, Josh Silcock. Josh drove well in the sprint to recover from a disappointing qualifying. Moving up from P15 to finish P10 this put Josh on reverse grid pole for the feature race and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Eventually finishing in second it was only Raymond who was able to get past as Josh put up strong defence throughout the race and made his claim as one to watch heading into the championship.

Josh is no stranger to racing at the front of a big championship both in the sim and traditional motorsport, but over in Rally. In the sim Josh was finished the NZ Toyota 86 E-Cup in second place earlier this year and in full metal motorsport Josh is currently holding second in the New Zealand Rally Championship Challenge 2WD class with the title fight going down to the final round.

Seth Comer, Luka Bogunovic, Edward Meyer, and Cory Crossan will all be disappointed in their efforts not making the 13 and therefor not progressing into the championship. All 4 drivers had spins all their own fault in the sprint race while in top 13 positions. The spins put them towards the back and each were unable to recover enough spots across the night.

Brody McConkey managed to qualify after not even making it into qualifying. He was the 4th reserve driver, having finished pre-qualifying in 52nd, and was only included in qualifying after other drivers withdrew. Credit to Brody, now he has his chance in the national championship.

Notably missing from the entry list for this season are E-Black Hugo Allan, NZTEC 2026 winner Cooper Prout, and NZTEC 2025 winner Antal Sabo. The door is open for a new champion.

Hugo has a schedule clash with his trip to Las Angeles to represent New Zealand in the Global Esports Games later in the year so was unable to take part.

Cooper Prout likewise has a schedule clash but his is with a round of his Formula First season, Cooper now in his third year in the series.

Antal Sabos reason is unknown.

With the driver lineup now set the MOZA NZ iRacing Championship kicks off in full on Wednesday November 4th.

Starting off at Silverstone the championship runs each Wednesday across 6 weeks with every race broadcast live on NZ Sim Racing TV from 7:40pm.

With history in the making you won’t want to miss it.