After Wednesday evening’s spectacular Opening Ceremony at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, the third edition of the biennial FIA Motorsport Games burst into life early on Thursday morning. With a record number of both sporting categories and competing participants, all four days of action have packed programmes at five different venues in and around the Spanish city.

The City of Arts and Sciences is the home of Esports F4 and Esports GT, the Circuit Ricardo Tormo is hosting Auto Slalom, Circuit Racing, Drifting, Karting Slalom and the Rally service park and the Aspar Circuit sees both Cross Car and Karting.

Friday’s gravel Rally stages are located in Utiel and its surroundings while Saturday’s tarmac stages are based in Cortes… it was a busy opening day for all the Rally crews, too, with recces in the morning quickly followed by a Shakedown and then Qualifying for start order positions.

Team UK has crews medal hunting in all four different Rally categories. Returning Games competitor Ollie Mellors joins long-time co-driver Ian Windress in their familiar Proton Iris R5 to contest the mixed surface Rally 2 while his older brother Ben teams up with Alex Lee aboard a 1979 Toyota Celica GT RA40 in the Historic class.

The former faces stiff opposition from Spanish junior champion Alejandro Cachon who has a super-competitive Toyota GR Yaris at his disposal. Neither will it be any easier for the latter as all three medal winning entries from two years ago are returning, notably Italian golden duo Andrea ‘Zippo’ Zivian and Nicola Arena in their surefooted 1981 Audi quattro.

“The stages look nice,” reported Ollie after the recce. “They are very tricky and very technical, and the surface is very loose which will put the first few cars at a big disadvantage. It is what it is and we’ll do our best.”

“Qualifying went really well – we were joint fastest,” added an even happier Ben. “We really enjoyed it with some big power slides. We’ll have to see how the first stage goes tomorrow, but I’m hopeful that we will be there or thereabouts at the top.”

Team Flexifly represent Team UK in both Historic Rally Gravel and Historic Rally Tarmac classes. Ernie Graham and his co-driver daughter Anna are competing in the former in their Ford Escort RS while James Potter and Tim Sayer are the UK’s representatives in the Tarmac section.

The battle for Esports’ medals also started on Thursday and Team UK has high hopes in both the new GT Category and FIA F4. Kieran Prendergast is our man in the former while multiple Esports champion Matt Caruana is racing in F4 – a fiercely contested discipline that has attracted no fewer than 60 entries, more than any other at the FIA Motorsport Games.

“I’m feeling confident and looking forward to it,” smiled Caruana. “Feeling good about the track as well; there are a couple of corners where I can improve but, hopefully, I’ll get those sorted out before qualifying.”

Prendergast was also upbeat about his chances. “I’m really looking forward to it,” he enthused. “It’s now key to keep my head straight, stay positive and do the best I can.”

After qualifying today, the Esports pair face Quarter Final and Last Chance races on Friday, Semi Finals on Saturday and then Finals on Sunday.

In the meantime, Friday’s action comes even thicker and faster with crucial Free Practice sessions for all the circuit racers in the various cars and kart groupings. Those contesting both Drift and Auto Slalom categories will also be getting their first chance to impress ahead of their respective medal showdowns over the coming weekend.

You can follow all the live streaming, timing and results via the FIA website here.