At the weekend, the V8 SCOPS Premier Series found its way to the VIRginia International Raceway for Round 8 of the championship. In the main split would be six drivers with Cooper and Simon returning to the championship.

Leading the points standings is James Scott, who has been very solid all season but was looking to return to the top step after winning the season opener in Montreal. The team would have a solid if not spectacular qualifying session. James & Sam would start inside the Top 10, Cooper, Brady and Simon in the Top 20 and Zac inside the Top 30 ahead of the 250km race.

The race got off to a strong start with five of our cars inside the Top 14 including 2 in the top 4, however the wheels started to fall off (the road literally) when Simon and Brady had issues that would drop them down the end of the order. However for James, Sam and Cooper the race was running very well indeed, getting through the first phase of pit stops in excellent shape with James eventually taking the effective race lead before the safety car was called.

This would prove to be a pivotal phase of the race, with all drivers with the exception of Brady Meyers, deciding it was too early pit for the second CPS (except for Simon who did attempt to pit, but advised by race control that the pit lane was closed just before entering, which would prove to be an instruction given in error). The decision to stay out would end up being the wrong call, and all of our cars and those others that didn’t pit suffering as a result.

It was a valiant drive by everyone to press on in what was ultimately a losing battle, however in the end a strong finish was gone and we will take the result as a learning exercise into the all important Enduro Cup starting next round.

The final classification for all of our drivers were:

7th – James Scott

9th – Cooper Webster

18th – Brady Meyers

22nd – Zachary Hanlin

25th – Simon Feigl

35th – Sam Blacklock (DNF)

The championship now moves to Phillip Island for the first round of the Enduros on 9th August – we’re excited to go back to the Island, and give this Endurance season a great run!

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! 🎉

We’re excited to reveal that Florian Denard from France has joined Altus Esports as of earlier this week. We as a team first met Florian at the Sim Racing Expo at Nurburgring last year, however Flo has been a teammate of Yan’s in the past and is a driver with a great deal of potential, and already with a Top 5 finish at Le Mans 24 Hour to his name from 2019.

To kick of his account we head to Silverstone, coincidentally simultaneously as the PPR ACC race is being run, for another 12 Hour race. This time it is Round 2 of the iRacing Endurance Series, and joining Florian is Yannick Lapchin, and Australia’s Cooper Webster. The race kicks off at 13:00 GMT (11PM AEST).

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Simone Maria Marcenò has taken a fantastic double victory in round 4 of the ACI Sport sanctioned Formula 3 series held at Spa. Simone had a race long battle in Race 1 with Fabrizio Donoso to take victory by just 0.120sec at the chequered flag.

With a partial reverse grid race in race 2 it was all to play for, and having steadily moved to P5, we don’t think anybody expected this. Take a look!

Mamma Mia Simone!

Credit to Simracingleague.it for the broadcast vision, and absolutely fantastic commentators!

Say hello to our new Bavarian boi, fresh in a new lick of paint from ILiveries! 😍

Sim Racing Oz caught up with Altus Esports Owner Simon Feigl to discuss a lot about the world of Racing Esports both domestically and overseas. Be sure to have a read and let us know if you have any questions you may like to ask as well in the comments below. 👇

FULL STORY: https://simracingoz.com/in-the-spotlight-simon-feigl-altus-esports/