Bobby Labonte Joins Prodigy Search Committee

Racing Prodigy, a revolutionary platform aimed at making motorsports more accessible through esports, announced a new addition to its Prodigy Search Committee: NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Labonte. Labonte joins the influential content creator, Cameron Das, in the quest to unearth the next generation of racing talent. Their mission will come to life on October 12, 2023, at 10 a.m. ET when they take center stage on the Prodigy Search Selection Show.

Spec MX-5 racer Nathan Saxon and Spec MX-5 Shootout nominee Kamden Hibbitt are finalists for Racing Prodigy’s third Prodigy Search Selection Show, livestreamed on YouTube, Thursday, October 12 at 10 am eastern.  

During this live event, Bobby Labonte and Cameron Das, alongside host Arjuna Kankipati, will handpick two promising racers who will be awarded all-expense paid trips to Prodigy Week part 1, set to unfold at the Atlanta Motorsports Park from October 30 to November 1. The 12 chosen individuals, including the two from this selection show, will partake in the Prodigy Racing League (PRL) esports tournaments, where they’ll undergo rigorous training and real-world testing, all for the chance to secure a paid racing contract in the upcoming real-world PRL series, slated to debut in 2024.

The inaugural PRL season is already well underway, having garnered tens of thousands of racing gamers hailing from 90 different countries who participated in the tournaments during September. Winners of these tournaments automatically earn coveted Prodigy Passes, granting them entry into the highly anticipated Prodigy Week. Additionally, those racers who manage to land themselves within the top 500 positions in any of the four partnered game tournaments can submit videos and surveys to Racing Prodigy, vying for the opportunity to be selected as Prodigy Pass recipients.

For this third Selection Show, Racing Prodigy has narrowed down the competition to 20 finalists from the PRL RaceRoom Tatuus F4 Cup, PRL rFactor 2 Radical SR3 Cup, PRL SK Racing TKM Continental Cup (mobile), and PRL iRacing Chevrolet Silverado Cup. These finalists are all eagerly awaiting the decision of Labonte and Das, who will determine which two will receive the coveted Prodigy Passes.

Bobby Labonte expressed his excitement about the event, saying, “It has been really cool to see how gaming in racing has evolved from the time I got involved back in the Papryus days to today. I’ll race anything, so it’s nothing for me to jump on the sim and have some fun. I do believe there is talent out there who might not have the right opportunity to race but are working hard to develop and fine-tune their driving skills in esports. So, I’m excited to meet these sim racers from around the world, hear about their ambitions, and then see how they do in a real race car on a real race track.”

To get an insider’s perspective on what Bobby Labonte is looking for in racing talent, don’t forget to tune in to the Prodigy Search Selection Show, which will be streamed live on Racing Prodigy’s YouTube channel on October 12 at 10 am ET.

In recent news, former F1, IndyCar, and NASCAR driver Max Papis, along with sim racing content creator Random CallSign, selected Siro Zambra from Switzerland as the latest Prodigy Pass winner. Zambra was plucked from the PRL iRacing FF1600 Cup Challenge and has less than three years of sim racing experience.

Prior to that, on August 20, IndyCar driver Linus Lundqvist and sim racing content creator Aarav “Aarava” Amin constituted the first Prodigy Search Committee, and they selected American David Dalton Jr., who made his esports racing debut in the PRL iRacing GR86 Cup.

With the sixth (mobile-based) and seventh (PC-based) PRL esports tournaments concluding part 1 of season 1, Garrett Lowe from Charlotte, N.C., and Dominik Lukomski from Poland secured Prodigy Passes during the PRL iRacing Chevrolet Silverado Cup. This tournament was unique as it took place at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, marking PRL’s first foray into oval track racing.