Honda’s official esports series, the Honda Racing eMS, is returning for a third season with Gran Turismo 7, in a new global format with qualifiers beginning later this week.
The competition had seen some changes over the first and second seasons, and the format tinkering continues with the 2025 version of the event. Initially a hot-lap competition with a live final for Japanese players, the second year saw players from elsewhere invited to form half of the grid in the grand final in Aoyama, Tokyo.
This year the net is cast a little further, though there won’t be a live final event. Instead there’ll be three separate online finals, all in early December, which will crown champions in Asia-Oceania (ASOC), North America/Latin America (NALA), and Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA).
Qualification for these events will once again be determined by an online hot-lap event, taking place within the Sport Mode/Time Trials section of Gran Turismo 7. Open to anyone aged seven and above (or six and above in Japan), the time trial puts you into the Gr.2 Honda NSX Concept-GT ’16 in a special HRC livery at Autodrome Lago Maggiore. It’s not been specified which of the 12 layouts, but the wording implies the Full Course and the screenshot suggests the regular direction.
The top ten eligible times in each region — players aged 18 and above (or 19 in South Korea, or 21 in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) — will then qualify for their respective finals events which take place on December 6 and 7, 2025. However there’s a spot reserved for the 2024 champion, Takuma Sasaki, in the ASOC finals, leaving nine qualification berths.
Despite the limited opportunity to qualify in previous seasons, both the 2023 and 2024 events saw 200,000 players apiece set a time, so we’re expecting higher participation this time round with 30 — or rather 29 — places up for grabs.
As with previous events there’s also a little sweetener. All players who record a time in the rankings will receive the car used in qualification, in the HRC livery as a reward. We’d also assume, though the event hasn’t yet gone live, credit rewards as with a regular time trial — though the prize values and boundaries may be tweaked a little.
Once the event goes live on Friday August 29, after the inbound 1.62 update, you’ll have just shy of a month to set a representative time before it closes at an as-yet unspecified time on Sunday September 28. Good luck to all who take part!
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