Decorated Israeli race car driver Alon Dai, who served as the Asian champion in Formula Renault for 2009 and the champion of the European NASCAR series in 2017, 2018 and 2020, joined the eSports team “Team Finest” – the first professional gaming group in Israel – in January.
Born and raised in Ashdod, Dai began competitive driving in Israel’s go-karting circuit at the age of 10 and won second place at the Israeli Championships in 2001. In 2006, he began competing in international competitions, including the English Championships and the German Karting Championships, becoming the first Israeli athlete in the field of motorsports to receive the status of an outstanding athlete In 2009.
Dai previously said that before he started driving competitively, he played car racing video games, which led him to eventually become Team Finest’s sim-racing (car racing games) driver. He will also represent Team Finest as a sponsor for his racecar.
Quick to pick up virtual racing, Dai qualified for a preliminary tournament called eNASCAR International, where he will compete in five different events. “As someone who came to the world of racing through computer games and simulators, joining Finest is a great opportunity for me to take gaming a few steps further in the hopes of representing Finest in the first-place podium," Dai declared.
Team Finest – known to be the first professional esports group in Israel – was founded in 2019 by Rubik Milkis. The organization runs five teams in four popular games: Fortnite, FIFA, Counter-Strike and Valorant – the latter of which it has a professional women's team competing in.
"The combination of the worlds of e-sports and motorsports to create an elite team led by Alon, who is a three-time European champion at NASCAR, is the right and natural combination," said Milkis, who is also the company's CEO. "This partnership brings the competitive part of racing to a new level and I am proud to lead this project in collaboration with Alon Dai, who will take an integral part in team building as well as an active part in all upcoming competitive virtual frameworks."