For each of the four-round races scheduled on the 24th of March, 31st of March, 7th April and 14th April as per the iRacing British Sim Racers Touring Cars (BSRTC) PRO Series' Calendar for this year, Eclectic Motorsport drivers John Roberts and Benjamin Hackeson are set to be sponsored by The Potshotpete Twitch Gaming Channel and independent game Shoppe Keep.
While the sponsorship aids in compensating for the respective drivers' race entry fee on the aforementioned dates, both the Channel and Game are granted all the advertising opportunities that arrive with the Eclectic Motorsport sponsorship package for independent gaming talent.
These include spots to flaunt their brand images on the sponsored drivers’ cars' roofs, hoods and side panels that iRacing's broadcast cameras are most prone to cover, a 30 second ad slot during each of the races' three breaks between rounds to debut trailers within, and an animated pop-up spot for the races' eventual MotorsTV International broadcasts.
Furthermore, the participation of the team's reserve drivers George Simmons and James Leggett at Watkins Glen on the 24th, followed by the availability of a sponsorship slot for full-time driver Andrew Whitehead means that each of the sponsors will have their brand images replicated on a second team car as well during the race. This is of course, until Whitehead's sponsorship slot is occupied by another sponsor looking to advertise their independent gaming projects.
Jack Davison has been one of Higher Eclectic Ground’s recent additions to its circle of Video Artists bringing it a plethora of live streamed gaming content thrice a week via the Potshotpete Channel. His two week tenure on the Community has already seen the Twitch gamer creatively delve into The Division, The Forest and lend coverage to members TinyAtomGames' recently released indie 8-bit shooter, Story of a Cube.
Shoppe Keep meanwhile, is the handiwork of non-member developer Arvydas Zermaitis of Strange Fire. Currently available on Steam as an Early Access release, Shoppe Keep continues to garner for itself a considerably positive response - for being a long awaited, RPG shop keeping game that tasks players with selling potions, armour and other apparel to rogues, barbarians, wizards and more in a fantasy themed world of adventurers. Interestingly, the developer has also hinted at potentially sponsoring Hackeson for the entire course of the Season.
The news arrives exactly a week after the BSRTC PRO Series - an iRacing based, simulation Touring Car Championship that comprises of nearly 50 drivers competing for a $10,000 prize fund amid broadcasts on Apex Racing TV, iRacing Live and MotorsTV International - kicked off its 10th Season at Philip Island.
While the action that ensued was typical of Touring Car & BSRTC high speed action, Eclectic Motorsport got off to an unfortunate start as a stream of inevitable incidents and accidents plagued the rounds of Andrew Whitehead, Benjamin Hackeson, John Roberts & George Simmons, causing the team to start the Season at the bottom of the Amateur Division Championship's Table.
Now as 2015 PRO Series Amateur Division Champion Roberts and Whitehead rest at positions 17 and 16 of the AM Drivers' table, PRO driver Hackeson - who finished the recently concluded BSRTC Winter Series in 5th place overall - occupies position 25th on the Drivers' Championship standings.
However as is usual with the BSRTC, standings and performance of the team is expected to fluctuate sharply through the course of this nine month season - given the hard-earned talent that continues to reside on board.
By branding the former XLDesigns team of Andrew Whitehead, John Roberts, Ben Hackeson, George Simmons and James Leggett to Eclectic Motorsport, Higher Eclectic Ground has been offering independent game talent from both within and outside its community the opportunity to advertise their games, YouTube channels, brands and other gaming projects via the event by sponsoring one of the team's full-time drivers for an inexpensive fee on a monthly basis.
While John Roberts and Benjamin Hackeson are sponsored until the 14th of April this year