Rain, drama, team effort. In a race that had them all, Tracc.eu Racing Community claimed the overall win of the SRO Esports Community World Challenge. Representing the host were Laurids Lyhne Iversen and Kristers Znotiņš, driving the Ford Mustang GT3. The duo ended the race in P2 and P3 respectively, enough to beat the community of the race winner Sam Gaskell.
What Is The SRO Esports Community World Challenge?
The SRO Esports Community World Challenge is an exciting competition, bringing together 20 of the world’s top sim racing communities for an epic showdown. Every qualified community was represented by two drivers, who qualified through eligible qualification championships held by 20 of SimGrid’s best communities. The full list of the qualified hosts is available in the event info.
But what were these communities racing for? Aside from the usual, and always important, bragging rights, the winning community would secure an invitation to the SRO Motorsports Awards in London, where they are going to receive the official trophy on stage with the drivers that represented them. With 20 elite sim racing communities fighting each other the stakes were super high. Bathurst set the scene for this big event and, just to spice things up a little bit more, it rained a lot.
Tracc.eu Racing Community Secure The Win
Unity is strength. This motto perfectly describes how tracc.eu Racing Community cliched victory with a superb team performance. Their two racers, Laurids Lyhne Iversen and Kristers Znotiņš took the chequered flag in second and third, separated by three tenths of a second. Despite missing out on the race win, their result was just enough to claim the overall win for their community.
Iversen and Znotiņš basically went through the race hand-in-hand, maintaining a minimal gap throughout, beginning from the qualifying session. Both Ford Mustang GT3s started from the sixth and seventh on the grid. Starting a race in the mix is always difficult, and it was even more so considering the tough conditions of the race start. Torrential rain and the darkness of the minutes before the sunrise presented a big challenge for everyone on track.
But the two tracc.eu racers managed to keep their cool, staying away from troubles and gaining position after position making the most of others’ mistakes. Their team effort not only brought them both on the podium, but also secured the overall win for their community, proving the power of teamwork in such competitions. They only missed out on the race win, which was claimed by SPQRacing’s Sam Gaskell.
SPQRracing Left With Something To Regret
Gaskell delivered a flawless performance, but his efforts alone were not enough for SPQRacing. After a P2 in qualy, since the early stages of the race Gaskell’s superior pace compared to everyone else became immediately evident. His Aston Martin number 45 was becoming bigger and bigger in the poleman Dillan Tan’s rearview mirrors.
Just 15 minutes into the race, Tan made a costly mistake in the downhill section of the track and was forced to pit for repairs. Gaskell secured the lead of the race, but for his teammate things were not looking as good.
In fact, Justin Stubenrauch, driving the other SPQRacing Aston Martin, was involved in two incidents. Race control considered him responsible for both and handed him a total of 15 seconds in penalties. Ending the race in sixth, Stubenrauch needed at least a P4 finish to contest tracc.eu’s lead, but his early setbacks proved costly.
Those early penalties destroyed SPQRacing’s hopes, leaving them with something to be disappointed about
Stubenrauch ended the race in sixth. In order to strip the win from tracc.eu’s hands, he would have had to finish in P4. While the gap at the chequered flag was bigger than that, those penalties surely killed the community’s chances from the get go, leaving SPQRacing with something to be disappointed about and with only the consolation of Gaskell’s well-earned individual victory.
Celebrating The Heart of SimGrid: A Thank You To The Communities
A heartfelt thank you goes to everyone involved in this final event. First of all, to the twenty communities, which made this race possible by hosting the qualifying events leading up to this final showdown. And to the drivers, who earned the right to be at Bathurst by qualifying through their respective championships. This event ultimately proved the immense value that communities bring to SimGrid.
