Niels van de Koekelt took the victory in the second round of The Sim Grid Academy Cup from Trackwerks after leading the pack from start to finish, as he fought off the likes of Joe McAuley for the entirety of the forty-five-minute race.

After such an action-packed race last week at Silverstone, Zandvoort certainly lived up to expectations, as drivers got creative with where to look for overtakes on what is a track that is notorious for being hard to make moves on. Not only that but with tyre wear being less of an issue, drivers pushed their cars to the limit for all forty-five minutes.

How the final results formed

Joe McAuley once again took pole position, pipping Kieran Prendergast by just over a tenth of a second, proving that he is a force to be reckoned with over one lap. However, as shown so many times throughout sim racing as a whole, qualifying doesn’t decide the results, even at a track like Zandvoort where overtaking is a premium. 

It was in fact our fourth place sitter, Niels van de Koekelt who had the ‘most amazing start’  out of the top starters as he rocketed up the order to take first. Unlike many of those around him, he kept the car in a straight line and kept calm as he was under constant pressure from Joe McAuley. McAuley was within a one-second window for the entire race, showing just how well Niels van de Koekelt can cope under immense pressure when it really matters. 

The top two remained in formation for the whole race, with McAuley coming home second. It’s important to point out how difficult it is to not get impatient when you have followed a car for so long, so McAuley certainly drove one a respectable race.

Taking the third and final place on the podium was our winner from Silverstone last time out, Amir Hosseini. He qualified third too, but after a relatively poor start compared to the fast starters around him, he had some work to do. But, his pace was mega as he picked up the fastest lap and showed that he could be quick lap in, lap out.

With Niels coming home first, McAuley second and Hosseini third, this puts them all on equal points heading into Barcelona next week, so the fight truly is still on as they battle it out to get a gap at the top of the standings.

The treachery of Zandvoort

Zandvoort is such a tough track to pass at that it was bound to produce a great race because the drivers had to sniff out their own places to make moves, without being handed a clear example of where to make it stick. It meant that the race was full of incidents and hard battling. However, unlike Silverstone, tyre wear wasn’t so much of an issue since it’s much easier on the cars in terms of load, meaning we didn’t see drivers experience a dramatic grip loss later in the race.

Kieran Prendergast, our second place sitter, was one of the ones who lost out the most, as he got a tap from Egor Ogorodnikov in the first third of the race, pitching him into a spin and putting him out of contention for a good result. Ogorodnikov didn’t have an ideal race either. He had great pace but his race was messy, as he repeated the mistake he made with Prendergast but this time with Ibraimi in turn 1 in the latter stages of the race.

However, David Michel was one of the drivers who fell foul to the track itself, as he spun out of seventh place in the last corner which is a challenge in a GT3 car, let alone one of the more challenging Porsche Cup cars. He slammed into the pit wall and could go no further, forcing him to retire.

Our standout drivers

Arguably the driver with the biggest improvement from last week’s race was Alexander Karsten. He started on the fringes of the top ten last time out and had a difficult time with incidents out of his control; but this week was a different story. He qualified ninth, just four tenths off of McAuley, our polesitter, and kept his nose clean to come home fourth, a great result after his DNF. Where the people around him made mistakes, he kept out of trouble and was on pace with our leaders at multiple points. With three races still to go, he’s one to watch as he tries to recover the lost points from Silverstone.

However, a driver who slipped under the radar was Tinko van der Velde. He followed much of the same pattern as Karsten, prioritising from others’ mistakes and keeping up a solid pace. He came home fifth once again, placing him fourth in the standings and meaning that he is in a great position to pick up the pieces if the top three make mistakes in the coming races.

Quite a few drivers have been just like Tinko in picking up consistent points so far – in particular Dominik Golz and Martin Lona, who currently sit sixth and seventh in the standings.

The midfield flare

Especially in the Academy Cup where races are short and the season compact, every lap matters and this means that there’s no better place than the midfield for action. Once again it more than delivered, giving us race-long fights from the upper end of the midfield to the back. There were incidents and battles throughout, making it quite the spectacle for spectators.

Due to the incidents, there were a few drivers trying to work their way back up the pack such as Prendergast, Hoeke, and Ogorodnikov after they had their fair share of bad luck. No matter the amount, every point matters, and the drivers certainly stayed true to that motto.

What to expect from Barcelona

Just like Zandvoort, Barcelona isn’t usually the easiest to overtake at, but with the Porsche Cup cars suffering much less from disturbed air from the car in front, it might just be a great circuit for our highly competitive grid to battle it out at. With Coach Dave Academy’s Porsche Cup setups being at a 20% price discount, the drivers will be keen to pick them in order to prepare best for next week.

Series Partner Trackwerks is also offering a discount to celebrate the success of this series, with 30% off their Thrustmaster TLCM & T3PA Pro brake mods, by using code “AcademyCup”.

Make sure you join us on our Youtube Channel for what’s set to be another thrilling round of the Academy Cup next week.