JACKSON, Minn. — MyRacePass is unveiling a new fantasy racing platform which will allow race fans across the globe to interact with the on-track action across all MRP-affiliated tracks and series.
MRP Fantasy Racing will be available through the MyRacePass app and allows fans to select drivers to their rosters from any class competing at an available track or event on a given night.
Bonus “attendance” points will be on offer for fans playing MRP Fantasy while at the race track and the long-term goal of the new fantasy game is to further engage fans who come to the track each week.
“The biggest thing with MRP Fantasy is that we want everyone to know it’s something we’ve been working on since we first started the company,” said MyRacePass co-founder and co-owner Josh Holt, who worked alongside MRP’s Director of Front-End Development Ross VanEck and Director of Back-End Development Zach Calmus on the project.
“It really got serious more recently. We launched a pick-them style fantasy game on our old website, SprintSource.com, back around 2011 and we’ve been learning from that ever since we launched that,” Holt recalled. “We’ve had several hundred teams play on that over the years. Once we launched our app, the ultimate goal then was to get past that to work toward giving promoters more and more tools to be able to help engage the races fans and help streamline their operation to make things more efficient without costing them a whole bunch of money.
“Really, if you look back further, the idea for this started quite a few years ago. I’d be in the tower looking down, and I’d see race fans on Facebook or all these social media handles and they’d be looking at what their buddies are doing at the lake or what have you … and that’s not what we want,” Holt continued. “We want the race fans who are there in the stands to be 100 percent engaged with what’s going on at the track. The MyRacePass app is helping accomplish that and in the long term we believe that MRP Fantasy is going to be one more way to help do that.”
MRP Fantasy Racing will launch with this weekend’s 42nd annual AGCO Jackson Nationals for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, with a slow rollout of the app update for consumers.
Those wishing to play will be required to download the latest version of the MRP app from their mobile device’s app store. The subscription cost is $54.99/year, which also includes MRP Live and MRP Insider.
By Saturday for the Jackson Nationals finale, the update to the MRP app will be available for all fans.
Each race night, fans participating in MRP Fantasy Racing can visit the MRP app and select the track or tracks they wish to play by clicking the fantasy banner, joining a group and making their picks.
Drivers can be selected from one or all of the competing classes each night.
Points will be updated as the night progresses, allowing for fantasy players to follow their team on the MRP app and see how their drivers are performing.
MRP officials intend for every one of the several hundred events available per weekend on the app to be available for fantasy players, but this weekend’s kickoff will only encompass the AGCO Jackson Nationals and a handful of other events.
The Jackson Nationals will be a free-to-play fantasy event, but the rest of the tracks that become available to fantasy players this weekend will be under the $54.99/year subscription cost.
Holt noted that roughly 30 MRP-affiliated tracks will become fantasy available the first weekend in July, with the remaining MRP-affiliated tracks and series open to MRP Fantasy Racing by the middle of the month.
“That’s one of the things that I think is cool about all this, is how many different tracks you can play through MRP Fantasy,” Holt explained. “It’d be hard to do it physically, but they could play a few hundred events in one weekend, you know? There’s no limit on how many games you can play.”
When it comes to fan engagement, Holt noted that MRP Fantasy doesn’t just come down to getting race fans’ eyes onto the on-track action, either. It also allows those fans to tune in to drivers they might not have followed in the past.
“I myself have learned more of these drivers’ names,” said Holt. “When you get someone that you might not recognize who’s traveling and might have success in your lineup one night, then you may start to pay attention to that particular driver more and pick them more often.
“It just makes it fun and it keeps players engaged in the selections that they’ve made.”
Once the game is fully rolled out and gameplay begins for the fans, Holt noted that further announcements — such as prizes for top-ranking players — will follow at a later date.
But the first step in the process comes with Thursday night’s Jackson Nationals opener, when MRP Fantasy Racing goes live and completes a vision nearly a decade in the making.
“It’s going to be fun. A lot of people have taken time to test it and make sure it’s ready,” Holt said. “From all accounts, everybody is really excited about it.”
For more information on MRP Fantasy Racing, visit https://www.myracepass.com/experience/fantasy.
To download the MyRacePass app, search “MyRacePass” in the app store on your mobile device.