With the 2018 Race of Champions set to kick off this weekend, the draw for the ROC Nations Cup and individual competition took place at the King Fahd International Stadium where the two-day event will take place.
Similar to previous years, the home region has been well represented, with Team Saudi Arabia, the hosts, joined by Team Lebanon and Team UAE for the Nations Cup. Also making their debut this season will be a team made up SIM Racers, as Rudy Van Buran, winner of McLaren‘s World’s Fastest Gamer competition will be joined by the winner of the eROC event that will conclude this week.
The other driver yet to be announced is the second Saudi representative, with World Rally Championship driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi set to be joined by an ROC Factor winner.
Nations Cup
The Nations Cup will see all pairs split into three groups with the winners and runners-up of Group A and B progressing to the Semi-Finals, joined by the winner of Group C which features all three Middle East teams.
From there, it will be the classic best-of-three race event until two Nations are left in the final.
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Race of Champions
The individual Race of Champions draw also took place, with this taking place the day after on the Saturday. Each group will have a pre-shootout in order to eliminate four drivers, but also give an opportunity for each of the ROC Factor winners and the SIM Racers to qualify.
Group A, made up of the Pan-American drivers, including defending champion Juan-Pablo Montoya, will see both Mexican competitors, Memo Rojas and Abraham Calderon duke it out. While both SIM drivers will go head-to-head driving real machinery in Group B.
B and C are mostly the European groups, with Sweden’s Joel Eriksson racing the fastest of the two Lebanese representatives from Friday. British F4‘s Karl Massaad and rookie Mansour Chebli will vie for the spot.
Finally Group D will see the remaining competitors as the final spot will see the ROC Factor Saudi winner face either Khaled Al Qubaisi or Khalid Al Qassimi from Team UAE.
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The top two from each group will advance with it being a knockout tournament, culminating in a best of three final to crown the ROC Champion of Champions.
The event will take place on the 2-3 February.