The Sim Grid Sprint Cup Season 3 all came down to this – the season finale at Suzuka. The stage was set, with championship contenders up and down the grid, a historic circuit to take to and points to be won and lost. G2 Esports started second, Excel Racing by RennWelten down in 16th and H3 Racing going solo in 17th. After a thrilling 90 minutes of racing, let’s see where they ended up. 

G2 Esports become champions of the Sprint Cup

Nils Naujoks and Arthur Kammerer from G2 Esports came home second at Suzuka, trailing just Griphax Engineering, to secure a hard-fought championship victory by fifty-one points. Right from lights out, Naujoks and Kammerer were in the championship driving seat, as rivals Excel Racing by RennWelten and H3 racing lining up sixteenth and seventeenth respectively, with the latter driving solo. 

The pairing knew they didn’t need to take risks, as they left round five at Zolder with an eighteen point gap to Excel Racing by RennWelten, so all they had to do was outscore Felix Ruppert and Tom Reiher. With Excel Racing down in twenty-fourth after lap one due to being involved in a Degner 1 pile-up, the pendulum had firmly swung in favour of G2. From then on, both Naujoks and Kammerer didn’t push to catch leaders Griphax Engineering. Whether this was because they couldn’t due to the added 30KGs of ballast they were carrying or out of safety doesn’t matter, as they held off Sim Racing Masterclass driver Zahir Essa to the line, taking their fourth podium of the season, and with it the championship crown. 

Position	Team	Points
P1	G2 Esports	277
P2	Griphax Engineering	226
P3	Excel Racing by RennWelten	225
P4	Black Hawk Racing	220
P5	H3 Racing	217

Griphax Engineering take their first Sprint Cup win

Although G2 Esports has stolen the show with their championship victory, let’s not forget Joonas Savolainen and Jesse Kaupinnen from Griphax Engineering, who took their first win of the Sprint Cup season. The pairing has had a season of ups and downs, claiming a standout third place at Hungary, but fluctuating through the pack – possibly a result of the success ballast. However, that doesn’t take the shine off of this result, in fact, makes it even better to end on a high.

After Joonas Savolainen stuck their ominous Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo on pole in the early morning qualifying session, they led the way off the line. Despite a challenge from Nils Naujoks, Savolainen held strong and shot into the distance. By the end of stint one, he had extended a 13-second lead over Naujoks who had been battling away with Carbon Simsport driver, Michal Nowakowski. As Kauppinen swapped in, he kept that advantage stable, and drove home to their first series win, and crucially, second place in the championship by just one point. 

H3 Racing and Excel Racing race through the field

Although the front of the pack was much calmer, further down, championship contenders H3 Racing and Excel Racing by RennWelten had the pressure piled high on their shoulders as they needed to make up ground. 

After a poor qualifying for both teams, they had work to do. Coupled with their poor result at Zolder and being a solo team for this race, Luke Whitehead especially, had to deliver. For Whitehead, the first few laps went swimmingly, picking up a few places and moving up through the pack, but for Ruppert in the Excel Racing Ferrari, it wasn’t going so well. In a race where he and teammate Tom Reiher had to deliver, getting involved in a lap one crash wasn’t what they were looking for. An already mammoth task had become even bigger, so attention suddenly turned to gathering together all the points they could to retain a top-five championship position.

As Whitehead continued to make important progress, Reiher and Ruppert also scythed their way up the field, having to keep their nose clean as they negotiated cars much slower than them. Keep their nose clean is exactly what they did, as they snatched thirteenth place after some last gasp battling, giving them third in the championship by five points. From a race that started in the worst way possible, getting thirteenth was an incredible achievement. 

As for Whitehead, he continued to make his trademark clinical overtakes, just as he had done so in previous rounds. Impressively, he made his way to eighth, despite the 10-second time penalty granted for being a solo driver. This too was crucial, as it hands H3 Racing fifth in the championship.

Simracing Masterclass end the season perfectly with a podium

Suzuka was a very entertaining race, as we saw big teams making big moves to try and get the best out of a less than ideal situation. However, one team that drove a far from sub-optimal race was Simraccing Masterclass, from Zahir Essa and Ryan Mooney. 

Mooney qualified in a team-best of sixth, and did a great job throughout his first stint, passing Like and Subscribe Team driver, Vasily Anufriev, for fifth, and keeping close to the rest of the top five. This would be vital, as Sidemax Motorworks driver, Harry Spiers, would get a drive-through penalty and Michal Nowakowski a ten-second time penalty for being a solo driver. Keeping these gaps down allowed teammate Zahir Essa to emerge from the pits third, and with strong pace. 

Stint two was just as smooth for Simracing Masterclass – you may say it was in fact a masterclass – as Essa closed in on G2 Esports driver, Arthur Kammerer. However, the clock was against him, as he couldn’t quite get past. Despite this, third place was a great result for the duo and their best of the season. 

Closing off in style

The third season of The Sim Grid Sprint Cup has been better than ever, with teams and drivers making great strives in both pace and racecraft. The championship couldn’t have ended better, with the title going right down to the wire and second to fifth being separated by just nine points. And with that, the season draws to a close. Be sure to keep an eye on The Sim Grid website for the latest news and information about future events, and The Sim Grid YouTube channel to watch all of our races live, and uninterrupted.