Author: altusesports

Simone Maria Marcenò would represent Italy in the VCO Cup of Nations powered by Acronis and Unicef, and he made an immediate impact, taking victory in Race 1 of the event in the Holden ZB Commodore. He would then back that up with a near victory in the Porsche Cayman GT4, heading former world champion Maximilian Benecke before a late pass saw him fall to 2nd in what ended up as a race of two.

Being a team event, across a variety of different cars and disciplines it was a fascinating affair, with the knockout day two causing a few surprises, and an amazing final race which would see Italy round out the podium behind eventual winners France, and pre-event favourites Germany. GG Italia!

The Porsche Esports Sprint Challenge was contested at the weekend at the Silverstone circuit with Cooper and Simone right in the thick of the running throughout the series, including a win each between the pair. Their season form would continue after qualifying, lining up 2nd and 3rd on the grid respectively.

The race would kick off well, both maintaining position off the start line and piling on the pressure. Cooper, running 2nd at the time was unable to make a clear move on Mikkel Gade, and on lap 3 Simone made a decisive move to get past Cooper, to take on the leader. Cooper was a bit vulnerable to an attack for 3rd, and frustratingly for the Australian a massive netcode contact would occur resulting in a spin to drop down the order outside of the top 10.

Simone, now in 2nd place would have Gade firmly in his sights, and mid way through the race put together another decisive move to position his car strongly the final corners of the lap, to take the lead.

With the race now just a three horse race with Moreno Sirica, Simone was defending well against Gade as they reached Stowe corner, with the draft down Hanger straight being very strong. Then with just two laps and a few corners to go, disaster would strike as Gade would poorly execute a dive, drilling Simone right in the back shortly after applying the brakes and sending the Italian off the circuit and into the wall hard.

The win was lost in what was a very upsetting moment in the race, however Simone was remarkably lucky to not receive irreparable damage and could return to the circuit. By the race end, Cooper would come home in 9th with a great recovery, and Simone back 11th.

We will lick our wounds and move forward to the next round at Road Atlanta, with Cooper sitting 3rd in the Championship despite Silverstone, and Simone also in the top 10.

UPDATE: The incident on the penultimate lap that cost Simone the victory was been protested/appealed and Gade was disqualified from the event as a result of multiple infractions across the season. Another penalty applied to another driver means that Cooper finished 7th, and Simone 9th in the end.

As a result, Cooper now leads the championship, with Simone sitting in 8th.

Having taken victory in the opening endurance round paired with Brady Meyers, James Scott picked up where he left off in what was a dominant performance on Friday taking victory in both races. The championship turned to solo running and Sam Blacklock also made his presence felt, piecing together a pair of 2nd place finishes behind James to complete a 1-2 for the team!

Now we head into this week’s V8 SCOPS race at VIR with some more runs on the board, and some returning faces to the SCOPS field as well with one last round to go until the Enduros.

The Australian Online Supercar Championship roared back into action with an opening round enduro at Silverstone. Pairing up for this season was James Scott and Brady Meyers, and they would qualify in P2 on the grid, just behind the in form Andrew Gilliam from Pursuit Sim Racing.

Off the grid, Brady would get off to an excellent start and taking the lead into opening corner. and extended the gap early. That trend would continue through the opening half of the race, despite safety cars coming into play which would require a change of strategy amongst most teams.

The lead was held for the majority of the race however with a late safety car intervention the scene was set for a fascinating encounter between those that would risk it on fuel vs the more conservative additional pit stop.

With the final pitstop being made, it was James who would have the task of chasing down the fuel saver, which was the Premier Racing Team car. As each lap went by, he was reeling them in like a fisherman, piling on the pressure to keep pushing. Being a time certain race, it was always going to be tight and on the final lap of the race he had reeled him in and would cross the line victorious.

It was a great race by all, very entertaining and one that could have gone either way. The series now looks to Oulton Park for a 50/80 round before moving to VIR for the next V8 SCOPS round.

Having finished in 2nd place in the TCR class in Round 1, the team opted to go for the GTE class in Round 2 with an entirely new lineup. Yannick Lapchin was joined by newcomers Florian Denard and Cooper Webster in the Porsche RSR, and Cooper did an excellent job of qualifying 2nd on the grid, narrowly behind Triple A Esports.

The race got underway smoothly, with Florian taking his first laps for the team in competition. He’d put together a strong opening stint before handing off to Yannick – the pair swapping the driving duties in the early-mid phase of the race in the EU friendly timezone. From about mid race distance Cooper would join the fray to provide some relief, in what was an excellent scrap between Williams Esports, Triple A and ourselves.

We had managed to build an advantage over the course of the race with slightly better fuel mileage, allowing us to go one lap longer on fuel regularly than our competitors. This would pay dividends later in the race, with a shortened final stop allowing us to finally pull clear, and ultimately finish with 1 minute win after 12 hours of racing.

A perfect start for Florian, and an excellent result for the team as well. Congratulations guys! 🎉