Halifax eNASCAR champion races his way to $100K grand prize

Growing up, Keegan Leahy was always passionate about video games and NASCAR.

Like many, he dreamt about racing the tracks by becoming a professional NASCAR driver.

While those plans didn't come to fruition, Leahy got into the next best thing: professional esports. 

Eight years ago, he started racing while studying at university. At the time, it had only been a hobby.

“I kind of got into this really intense competition side of it,” Leahy told CityNews Halifax. “As it was growing and getting bigger, I was also improving too. I finally broke through and got that big championship win last week.”

On Oct. 12, Leahy was competing in the 2021 Coca-Cola iRacing Series Championship. Halfway through the race, he took first place and held the position all the way to the finish line.

I have no idea how to process this. It was a long, long time coming. @MBontempi95 was there from the start and spotted me to this win. So much preparation from my @CoandaSimsport teammates and so glad to be able to represent @23XIRacing and @realVRS as a ENASCAR Champion!! pic.twitter.com/UrKAlF7JqZ

— Keegan Leahy (@KeeganLeahy) October 13, 2021

His win scored him a $100,000 grand prize, some of which he plans to put toward his student debt but most of which he plans to save.

Leahy won the series championship by earning three wins and five top-five finishes; it put him five points ahead of Logan Clampitt of California.

The 90-minute race saw the top 40 drivers race for 167 laps.

It was Leahy's fourth time competing in the championship. In 2019, he had finished in second place.

Many people might be able to envision eNASCAR as nearly any kind of racing video game you might see on a PlayStation, Xbox or computer. However, the goal is to make the simulation as close as possible to real life.

Moreover, NASCAR partners with eNASCAR's series by doing promotions and hosting broadcasts of the live races.

“They're half-distance races, the season's about half the length, but the racing is just like the real-life stuff,” Leahy said. “Minus the G-forces, minus the expensive crash if you end up hitting a wall or something.”

On top of practice and preparation, he said one thing he has to do before racing is to ensure that he's driving well. If he isn't, his competitors can take advantage of his mistakes and come out on top.

He also has to ensure the mechanical side of his virtual car, such as tire pressure, springs and cameras, are all set perfectly.

“That's something I really love doing, too,” Leahy, who has a science degree from Dalhousie University, said. “I jump on the engineering side; I like to think my education background helps with that, but it's also just something I'm super interested in.”

While it might not be extremely physically demanding, he said he considers it like any other sport.

“It sure requires a whole lot of time and preparation to get good and improve at it,” he said. “Like I said, I've been doing this for a long time and it took me this long to get to this point.

“I love it. That's the short reason why I've gotten to this point and why I'm really good.”