An all-new racing series, the Electric Scooter Championship (eSC), has been launched, with city-based races set to take place beginning next year.

The venture is benefitting from the input of Grand Prix Drivers’ Association chairman Alex Wurz, as well as former Formula 1 and current Formula E driver Lucas di Grassi.

The eSC will feature special high-speed versions of the stand-up electric scooters now common in many urban areas. The concept is to “make international motorsport more accessible, affordable and sustainable than ever before”.

Backed by Wurz and di Grassi, the series’ two prominent ambassadors, the eSkootr Championship (its official title) promises speeds of up to 60mph on uniquely designed city circuits.

While claiming to remove the barrier of high costs in order to be able to race in an international championship, eSC aims to promote a “safer, smarter and more sustainable micromobility choice” by showcasing the zero-emissions way of urban commuting.

Formula E driver di Grassi believes the success of that city-based series offers a blueprint for the new eSC to follow, and says the performance of the scooters will be spectacular.

“I think you need to separate the concept of an extreme racing scooter from the escooters you see on city streets (today),” di Grassi said. “With this series, we have created a superfast race machine capable of speeds greater than 100km/h; that can accelerate faster than a road car, and which will reach 100km/h in only a few seconds. That’s the kind of machine we’ll be racing globally next year, and it will need to be ridden by professionals.”

“We are in the early stages of creating our calendar,” di Grassi continued, “but the aim is that we are in a position to go racing in 2021; and we already have a glide-path toward prototype roll-out and testing, with an opening round in the second quarter of next year.

“Speaking personally, I want to see us take these events into the heart of the city – an environment where few motorsport categories, with the notable exception of Formula E, are capable of regularly treading – wouldn’t it be fantastic to see eSC races in, say, Brooklyn, or London, in Mumbai or Sao Paulo?

“The usual rules for hosting a race no longer really apply. We can create tracks that exist outdoors or indoors – or a combination of the two – and they can be rigged and de-rigged within days, rather than the months it takes to ready a street circuit for an international road race.

“This climate of agility is important, too: We’ve moved into a society where change isn’t simply rapid; it’s constant. And this is a championship that can really move and flex with the current needs of people and places. It’s totally portable, it can race anywhere.”