Some big news this month. Kiwis doing great things and Motorsport NZ stepping away from sim racing!

NZ Sim Racing

• Hugo Allan dominates Global Esports Games NZ qualifier. A clean sweep through the iRacing event with pole and wins in both races sees Hugo Allan qualify as an NZ E-Black and NZs representative in the global qualifier for the Global Esports Games. The global qualifiers will run online Sept 5th and 6th. Go well Hugo!
  Watch the broadcast recording. Read more.

• Matthew McEwen wins GT New Zealand Championship. After 6 weeks of racing McEwen remains NZ Gran Turismo Champion and has earnt himself a drive in a Toyota 86 at the Hampton Downs Racing Academy thanks to TGR NZ. Simon Bishop finished second with Scotty Greenlees rounding out the podium after Gareth Collier missed the final round.
  6 different drivers won Hectic Moment Awards and collected Playstation vouchers throughout the season: Lewis Atkinson, Troyota, Campbell Knowles, Phreelickz, Matt McEwen, and Pukeko.
  Watch the broadcast recordings.

• Two kiwis qualify for TrackMania at Esports Nations Cup (ENC). JSwag and Baiwack finished top of the Oceania qualifier to claim both qualifying spots in the regional final. NZ Esports, which manages the NZ team for ENC, has committed $130,000 towards coaching and practice for the 26 kiwi competitors who have qualified across 8 different esports titles.
  Unfortunately the Esports Nations Cup 2026, which had be scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia, has been delayed to 2027 due to the war in the region. It’s unclear if the qualification will carry over to the 2027 event.
  Read more.

News

• Motorsport NZ Quietly Ends Esport Support. Motorsport NZ (MSNZ) has put a stop to all it’s efforts in Esports. There is no longer an MSNZ Esports Pass, NZ is not included in the Tri-Nations Esports Cup, and there are no further plans.
  Read more.

• Kiwi Karl Samson interviewed by iRacing. Karl has appeared on the official iRacing website after completing an incredible achievement, winning in every car (180+), and winning at every track (150+). One of only three to have ever completed the feat and the last two did it when iRacing had a lot less content. Big ups Karl.
  Full interview. Video version on Youtube.

• FIA Esports Europe Hill Climp Cup qualifiers on now. The global esports competition is based on the traditional Europe Hill Climb Cup so you will have to excuse the misleading name. The open qualifiers are currently underway on RaceRoom closing September 7th with the top 8 globally then qualifying for the in person final in Luxembourg. All countries are eligible but you have to have an FIA license, the one MSNZ has just stopped providing when it closed it’s Esports Pass, so it’s unclear if kiwis could even qualify (likely you could go to MSNZ for special approval).
  Official site.

• Nascar 26 releases September 18. Following up from Nascar 25 the iRacing owned team have made a number of upgrades for the new release. The new game comes to PC, PS5, and Xbox X/S.
  Read more.

Extras

• MOZA announces partnership with Gran Turismo World Series. It’s an odd move considering MOZA doesn’t make any products that work on playstation and Fanatec remains the wheel supplier for the World Series events, we can only assume MOZA are paying a bunch for the marketing space. Alongside the announcement it was confirmed that MOZA are working on a wheel specifically for Gran Turismo which will be a win for NZ when it does get released with MOZA wheels readily available in NZ while Fanatec continues to ignore us.
  Official announcement.