Egor Ogorodnikov has become our fourth different winner of The Academy Cup season, as he makes huge gains in the drivers’ standings. Whilst he inches ahead of his highly-competitive compatriots, the battle for the championship crown is set to go down to the very final race next week at Monza after Spa proves to be a tough race for many.
Why Spa was so crucial
As the drivers prepared for a grueling forty-five minutes of racing at Spa, they knew that this race had the potential to make, or break, their championship chances. With multiple drivers having strong or uncharacteristically poor performances in the tricky conditions at Barcelona, this race would prove if their performance was reflective of where they are now. As so much rode on this race, there was no better track than Spa to decide one of the most crucial sets of results this season.
The Podium finishers
Taking the checkered flag first this week was Egor Ogorodnikov, who led for the entirety of the race. But, before the race even started he made a big impact on the top-class field, as he took pole position by an impressive two and a half tenths of a second, showing us once more that he is rapid over a single high-adrenaline lap.
As the lights turned green, he led the pack away for the first tour of the seven kilometre circuit, and after that saw nobody come alongside him, despite the perfect passing opportunity down the Kemmel Straight. Although he had Samir Ibraimi on his tail for the majority of the race, Ogorodnikov managed to keep just out of striking distance.
Taking second and third place respectively were Samir Ibraimi and Joe McAuley, who provided us with one of the tightest battles yet in The Academy Cup, as they battled for second place and that $20 cash prize right down to the last lap of the race.
Samir Ibraimi, who maintained his position throughout, started well and was looking to threaten our eventual race winner, Ogoronikov, for the first half of the race, but after McAuley was released from the rear wing of Chris Hoeke, his position looked to be under threat.
With McAuley setting personal best lap times like they were going out of fashion, Ibraimi saw himself looking in his mirrors more than he was ahead. Going into the last ten minutes of the race, McAuley was right on his tail. Despite multiple attempts of a pass, Ibraimi stood strong and ‘gave my everything’ to hold off our championship leader even as they battled on their final lap of such a tough race track.
With McAuley already in a position to extend his lead at the top of the standings, he said in a post-race interview that he ‘didn’t really want to risk passing Ibraimi, because the main competition was Hosseini who was behind me’, which may well have been a wise choice.
Championship implications
At the top of the standings, Spa saw the Academy Cup lose one of its main title players, in the form of Niels van de Koekelt. Although his pace has been up there with the best of the best at various points throughout the season, like at Zandvoort, since then his season has gone downhill. After a poor result at Barcelona, his title winning chances rode on his performance this time around, but his race didn’t go to plan, as he retired with a suspected technical issue, putting him out of title contention.
This leaves the battle for the victory of the first ever season of The Academy Cup realistically between Joe McAuley and Amir Hosseini. However, this week’s winner, Egor Ogorodnikov, is still mathematically in with a chance of victory, and with The Academy Cup becoming notorious for its shock results, he is one not to count out of the fight.
Despite the possibility of any one of these three giants of the cup taking the crown, Joe McAuley is the one in the hot seat, as he leads the championship by eight points, meaning that McAuley has to place no lower than second in order to guarantee championship victory.
The eye catching performances
Chris Hoeke was one of our stand out drivers this week at the infamous Spa. He has had a strong showing this season, but after a poor finish at Barcelona, he was keen to turn things around, and he did exactly that. After qualifying in fourth position, a season best for Hoeke, he started strongly, passing McAuley for third. As the race wore on, he retained a strong level of pace, only losing out to Amir Hosseini. He came home in fifth position, just half a second behind Hosseini, giving him a decent handful of points and propelling him to seventh in the overall standings.
Another of our star drivers from Spa was from Luca Tevernari. After a twenty-third place finish at Silverstone, his season has gone from strength to strength as he continued to improve his final positions. He was once again very strong this week, qualifying in fifth and finishing sixth. Not only was his final result his finest, he also had a pretty action packed evening, as he spent the vast majority of the race fighting with Jan-Luca Ganz, another of our resurgent drivers.
What to look out for from the final round
Monza is set to host the final race of The Academy Cup season next Monday on The Sim Grid YouTube channel, but is also going to be the stage for the championship decider, so is a race you certainly wouldn’t want to miss. As the drivers prepare for their final on-track showing of the season, it is a given fact that no time will be left on the table.
With Coach Dave Academy being one of The Academy Cup’s title sponsors, they are holding a 20% discount on the Porsche Cup setups, but make sure you pick them up quickly as the discount is only on for The Academy Cup season.
Our title sponsor, Trackwerks, is also currently holding a discount. The discount applies to their high-quality brake mods that are designed for the Thrustmaster T3PA Pro and T-LCM pedals, so they are certainly the way to go if you want to enhance your sim racing experience.
