The victors of the 2023 Porsche Esports Challenge USA event.
The victors of the 2023 Porsche Esports Challenge USA event.
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Spectating Gran Turismo esports at Porsche Rennsport Reunion 7 exhibition

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 5 min

Fresh from seeing an inspiring Gran Turismo movie, Randall Haywood got a rare chance to see a real Porsche racecar exhibition — and he won $15,000 in a Gran Turismo 7 esports tournament at the same time.

Haywood was one of 16 finalists who traveled to the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca track for the Porsche Esports Challenge USA. And the 22-year-old won the esports competition for the second year in a row.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.