First Porsche Esports Carrera Cup GB title decided | FOS Future Lab

After leading for much of the season, the reigning Porsche Esports Supercup champion had suffered a major setback in the double-points overseas round at Le Mans in round nine. That meant he’d surrendered the championship lead to main rival Kevin Ellis, but results in the four races since gave Job the overall lead again by a slender margin.

It all came down to two rounds at the Brands Hatch circuit, and it was Job who got off to the better start with a bonus point for pole position. Despite having three team-mates to help with the qualifying slipstream, Ellis could only manage third on the grid, losing out by just under a tenth of a second to fellow Apex driver Peter Berryman. However, Job was over a quarter of a second clear ahead and without the help of his team-mate; Graham Carroll was not allowed to qualify as a result of accumulated time penalties across the season, and would start from the back of the grid.

With such a gulf in the times, the result from the first race was almost inevitable. Job simply streaked off down the road, and had all but broken the slipstream behind by the time Berryman and Ellis swapped. The winning margin ended up at almost three seconds and Job also claimed the fastest lap point, though with Ellis claiming second the title was still not decided.

The reverse grid race two did give Ellis some hope too. Isaac Price – sixth in race one – would take pole, but the four Apex cars would line up behind, leaving Ellis’s progress to the front much easier than Job’s. It got a good deal less complicated when Price ran out of road at Druids on the first lap. Ellis was able to slip past team-mates Berryman and Jamie Fluke, but Job also managed to sneak past Berryman into fourth. Job made quick work of Jon Robertson, in a move that lasted from Druids to Surtees, with Carroll making a copycat pass on Berryman behind, while Jamie Fluke and Ellis swapped positions to promote Ellis into the lead.

Controversy has never been far away from the PECCGB reverse-grid races, and so it proved again in the final round of the season. Spotting an opening into Paddock Hill, Job went for the pass on Fluke. Despite their best efforts to go through the corner two-wide, the obvious happened as Job’s car got just too close and pitched Fluke into a spin right into the infield tyre barrier. With Job braking to avoid Fluke, Robertson was able to repass and demote the Red Bull driver back to third, with Carroll acting as wingman to keep Berryman away. It didn’t take long for Job to get back past, with another move in Paddock Hill just two laps later. This time everyone escaped unscathed, though it wasn’t until Druids that Job was able to complete the pass. Job set off in pursuit of Ellis – just a second up the road – and it wasn’t too long before Carroll was joining him with a pass on Robertson at Surtees. As the clock ticked down, the lead pair eventually ended up on the same piece of road. Knowing Job’s penchant for passes into Paddock Hill, Ellis wisely ran low past the start and forced him to take the outside line. That gave Ellis the inside for both Paddock Hill and Druids, but ultimately he was only able to hold position with a rather robust hip check on the run to Graham Hill. Job briefly ended up on the grass, but gathered it all up to make another push onto the final lap.

There wasn’t enough time remaining though, and Ellis took the chequered flag by just under 0.2 seconds. Following a post-race investigation, the stewards applied a ten-second penalty to Job, but such was the pace of the two cars that this only dropped him to sixth. That was more than enough to confirm his title and £7,000 prize. Ellis will take second, and £5,000, with Carroll in third overall winning £2,500.

As one British championship ends, another was confirmed this week. The British GT Esports Championship, now in its seventh season, will move in-house under SRO Motorsports Group and shift onto the Assetto Corsa Competizione platform.

There’ll be two championships running simultaneously, with a GT3 event featuring professional racing drivers from the British GT and a public GT4 series. Anyone can qualify for the GT4 event, so long as they have the ACC simulator on PC (not console versions), with the British GT and GT4 Pack add-ons.

In total, the British GT Esports Championship will run for five rounds across March and April. Each race will feature a four-day public online qualifying event beforehand, during which anyone can try their hand. For the first round at Oulton Park, the top 20 qualifiers will win a spot in the race, but from there on you’ll need to be in the top ten in any given qualifier, as the top ten finishers in each hour-long race will automatically qualify for the next.

The championship points leader at the end of the five-race series will qualify for the GT World Challenge Europe Esports event, and will win a sim-racing prize bundle from SRO partner Fanatec worth around £1,700. That’ll consist of a Fanatec Clubsport Steering Wheel Formula V2, Clubsport Pedals V3 and Podium Wheel Base DD1. There’s also a VIP British GT experience for the winner, at a round of their choice.

First qualifying for Oulton Park begins in a week, on Monday 15^th March, with the first race on Sunday 21^st March.

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