Dáire McCormack has done it again. After winning the first season of the Coach Dave Time Attack series, McComack missed out on back to back titles by a small margin in season 2, when Luke Whitehead came up with the win. McCormack regained the title at Watkins Glen in the third season Finale of the hotlap competition. .
Porsche drivers dominate early knockout sessions
Coach Dave Time Attack has a pretty simple format. Starting from the qualifying sessions, drivers have to leave it all on the track to gain access to the Finale. Racers who get through to the final stage have to overcome a series of knockout sessions that lead to the Super Pole. The track for the Finale is revealed only 24 hours before the start of the event
The Finale of the third edition was held at Watkins Glen. The breathtaking American circuit suits the Porsche pretty well, as shown by the first sessions. 7 out of the 9 Porsche 991 on track occupied the top 10. Audi was the second car in terms of preferences, as 8 drivers picked it.
McCormack is fastest in monobrand Super Pole session
And Porsche was the right choice for the Finale. McCormack topped the time sheet in Q1 and Q2 and then qualified for the Super Pole session by ending in P3 the third session of the evening. The first two spots were occupied by Tinko van der Velde and Chris Harteveld, while Grantas Kareckas and season 2 champion Luke Whitehead completed the top 5. And guess what? All of them were driving a Porsche.
The Super Pole is a different session compared to the others, as drivers get only two chances to deliver a lap. Whitehead was the first to leave the pitlane and set the pace with a 1.42.522. A time that brought him into the lead as the five finalists completed one lap each.
In the second round of laps, Whitehead extended the track a bit too much in turn 1 and got his time invalidated. McCormack took advantage of the rival’s mistake and massively improved his time, setting a 1.42.320. Good enough to claim the win, as van der Velde wasn’t able to improve enough in his last hotlap.
McCormack takes the lead in the duel with Whitehead
Watkins Glen is a track where it is difficult to get a clean fast lap in without committing mistakes. The newly crowned champion knows something about that. “I came through the Bus Stop and I made a small mistake and it turned out to be huge in the long run,” McCormack told The Sim Grid.
The Williams Esports driver was able to turn it around in his second attempt. “I just focussed on keeping it clean through the Bus Stop and bringing home the rest of the lap. 42.320 is definitely a proper lap for Super Pole, so I’m very happy with that”.
The score in the McCormack vs Whitehead is now 2-1, but the fight is far from being over. This time, though, Whitehead had to raise the white flag due to a mistake in turn 1. “I was just slow today to be honest. Turn 1 was where I was losing a lot of time and I went over literally by a pixel”. Despite the mistake, Whitehead admitted that he probably “wouldn’t have beaten Dáire anyway”.
