26-year-old Scot Graham Carroll has qualified for the FIA Formula E Championship Visa Vegas eRace, which has a $1m prize pool.
Graham gave up his racing career on the track due to how it expensive it became, and now has the chance to instead become the best sim racer in the world.
He’s one of ten so-called ‘eRacers’ who have qualified via the Road to Vegas Challenge, and will take part in the Formula E eRace. This will consist of 30 drivers overall, including 20 actual Formula E racing drivers such as Nelson Piquet Jr and Jérôme D’Ambrosio.
The final will take place at US tech trade show CES around January 5th to 8th 2017, which has a $200,000 top prize and a $1m prize pool overall – billed as the largest in eSports racing history.
“When I was younger and thought of qualifying for major races, I never thought it would be from my parents’ loft.”
Graham Carroll
The virtual race will be a bespoke Las Vegas street race lasting 50 minutes.
Managing his career as a racing coach alongside competing in online races, Graham moved from the racetrack to a gaming rig set up in his parents’ loft, in his hometown near Edinburgh, Scotland.
Graham Carroll said: “When I was younger and thought of qualifying for major races, I never thought it would be from my parents’ loft. My mum and dad’s passions in gaming and racing must have played up in my genes. The prize on offer is life-changing and qualification just vindicates my decision to not give up on my dreams – I’m fully intending to win in Las Vegas.”
Here’s the full prize pool breakdown:
- 1st $200,000
- 2nd $100,000
- 3rd $50,000
- 4th $42,500
- 5th $35,000
- 6th $32,500
- 7th $30,000
- 8th $27,500
- 9th $25,000
- 10th $22,500
- 11-30th $20,000
- Pole: $25,000
- Fastest lap: $10,000
Here’s a video of Graham ahead of one of the ‘e-races’:
Will our Driver Ambassadors @NelsonPiquet @thereal_jda do better in Berlin vs @FIAformulaE Visa #VegaseRace hopeful @grahamcarroll33? pic.twitter.com/gD9iRcjm7N
— Visa Europe (@VisaEurope) November 20, 2016
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
