Esports News | Williams Claims ADAC SimRacing Expo Professional Trophy | GRR

Over the course of the regular online season, it was the sibling Williams Chillblast team that had come out on top. It had taken one win and two podium finishes in the three races, with the Razer squad winning at the Nurburgring but scoring a DNF in the Monza round – where McLaren Veloce scored the victory. However with two final rounds – both at Silverstone – taking place in person and the worst round score dropped, it was effectively winner takes-all, and the Razer team came out firing.

Despite coming into the race with the maximum, 15kg success ballast from that Nurburgring win, Dutch racer Tinko van der Velde placed the team on pole position with a lap almost a quarter of a second ahead of its nearest rival. That was, perhaps unexpectedly, the Team Racing Point McLaren, driven by Amadeo Castorino, just one-hundredth of a second ahead of the McLaren Veloce car of George Boothby. The Williams Chillblast car could only place in fifth through Max Wojtyna.

Wojtyna slipped backwards off the start, losing a spot to Kevin Leaune in the SDL eSports McLaren, which allowed the front four to build a gap at the front – with van der Velde leading the way. With the slightly shorter, 45-minute sprint race format, drivers couldn’t afford to get held up, but Castorino was clearly a cork in the bottle in second as Boothby and Mikhail Statsenko (ITB Racing) couldn’t find a way past. That was music to van der Velde’s ears, as the Audi quickly escaped at the front.

Meanwhile, Wojtyna was going in the opposite direction, losing out a spot to Jeffrey Richie (Tomas Enge Sim Racing), before having to defend from Luciano Witwoet (Rocket Simsport). However, it did begin to come back the Williams’ driver’s way as the clock ticked down, as he re-took sixth from Richie. On the final lap though, while aiming to take back fifth, Wojtyna was adjudged to have caused a collision with Leaune through Chapel and had his race time garnished with a 15-second penalty after the race.

ADAC SimRacing Expo Professional Trophy R4 Results:

1 – Tinko van der Velde (Williams Razer) - Audi R8 GT3 - 24 laps
2 – Amedeo Castorino (Team Racing Point) - McLaren 720S GT3 - +9.101s
3 – George Boothby (McLaren Veloce)  - McLaren 720S GT3 - +9.365s

The result would see Williams Razer now leading on both the aggregate points total and the net score taking into account the dropped round regulation, just ahead of Williams Chillblast. While McLaren Veloce and ITB Racing were still in the title picture, they’d need both Williams teams to suffer a calamity.

As luck would have it, the top four would line up in championship order, with GT World Challenge Americas champion Igor Rodrigues now at the wheel of the Williams Esports Razer Audi, ahead of Vojtech Fiala in the sister team’s McLaren. Aidan Walsingham started third in the Veloce McLaren, with Mathias Kuhn in the ITB Lamborghini.

A relatively low-key start saw the top three pull away from the chasing pack – now led by Tommy Razeyre of SDL eSports – but remain in starting order. It didn’t take long though for Rodrigues to do what he did so often in the GTWC this year and pull away, as Fiala and Walsingham scrapped behind.

Just like his team-mate earlier in the day, Rodrigues would claim the grand slam with a perfect race – actually beating van der Velde’s race time by four seconds – and with it the title for Williams Esports Razer by 17 points. Second for Fiala, who didn’t put a foot wrong, was enough for second in the championship for the sibling Williams Esports Chillblast team. Newcomer Walsingham – who’d only joined the team in June – would finish just behind Fiala, giving Veloce third overall just 13 points further back.

ADAC SimRacing Expo Professional Trophy R5 Results:

1 – Igor Rodrigues (Williams Razer) - Audi R8 GT3 - 24 laps
2 – Vojtech Fiala (Williams Chillblast) - McLaren 720S GT3 - +5.690s
3 – Aidan Walsingham (McLaren Veloce)  - McLaren 720S GT3 - +6.129s

The multi-class Porsche Esports Sprint Challenge GB headed to Donington Park for its second round, and once again the event proved to be a Will Eatwell masterclass as he stretched his unbeaten record to four races. Eatwell was again the fastest in qualifying, setting a pole position time over half a second clear of the next best, but didn’t have things all his own way in the first race. 

Jack Southfield briefly took the lead with a bold move at the Old Hairpin, before Eatwell snatched it back at Redgate on the next lap. That would be just about the last anyone would see of the championship leader, as he quickly streaked clear to win by almost ten seconds.

A better start from Eatwell in race two saw him keep the lead off the line, with Southfield in close attendance in the early race. However Southfield’s challenge evaporated in the final two minutes as he tripped over the Am class cars while trying to lap them at Goddards.

With Sophia Ridpath moving up into the Pro class there was a vacuum at the top of Am. New championship leader Adam Holloway made the best of it in race one by claiming victory, but he’d have to settle for third in race two after a poor start. Gianluca Elia would take his first win of the campaign.

Porsche Esports Sprint Challenge GB Round 2 Feature Race Results:

1 – Will Eatwell - Porsche 992 GT3 Cup - 21 laps

2 – Samuel Jordan - Porsche 992 GT3 Cup - +4.992s

3 – Jack Southfield - Porsche 992 GT3 Cup - +11.575s

1 – Gianluca Elia - Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 - 21 laps

2 – Oliver Ettridge - Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 - +2.769s

3 – Adam Holloway - Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 - +6.251s