This weekly preview will cover the much anticipated final of Porsche Esports Carrera Cup and the thrid round of the DSRC.
Photo Credit: Newsroom Porsche
After thrilling qualification rounds, the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup field is finally decided. A select number of racers have battled their way through the tough competition and reached the final stage. Next week will feature the 14 best Simracers and six best real-world drivers. They competed in separate divisions to qualify for the final. On September 5, they will all drive against each other for a total of €15,000 and the honor of calling themselves the Porsche Esports Carrera champion. Let’s take a look at the grid.
| Racer | Simracer/Professional driver |
| Moritz Löhner | Simracer |
|---|---|
| Nikodem Wisniewski | Simracer |
| Leon Rüdiger | Simracer |
| Simone Prete | Simracer |
| Jakub Brzezinski | Simracer |
| Marko Pejic | Simracer |
| Luca Rettenbacher | Professional driver |
| Lucas Müller | Simracer |
| Max Duhr | Simracer |
| Alexander Dornieden | Simracer |
| Thorsten Ulrich | Simracer |
| Néstor Garcia | Simracer |
| Julian Hanses | Professional driver |
| Florian Hasse | Simracer |
| Gianmarco Fiduci | Simracer |
| Carlo Luciano Bedin | Simracer |
| Laurin Heinrich | Professional driver |
| Donar Mundin | Professional driver |
| Michael Essmann | Professional driver |
| Lukas Ertl | Simracer |
Sim racing prodigies
The top spot will belong to Moritz Löhner, who has shown a vast amount of talent. He has dominated the semi-final. Löhner therefore comes into the final as one of the favorites on the side of the sim racers.
Néstor Garcia is also an up-and-coming competitor as the Red Bull driver showed his grit in the semi-final. He took the fight to Löhner and was leading race one for most of the time. After Löhner overtook him, Garcia eventually fell behind and didn’t get to claw back.
Race two saw another sim racing competitor arise as Jakub Brzezinski offered a brilliant performance. The Polish sim ace fought Garcia on track for most of the race and overtook him towards the halfway point to claim second place.
Real-world racing masters
The line-up of racers from the real-life series is no less exciting. A particularly intriguing participant will be the multiple Porsche Sports Cup winner Michael Essmann. The German racer has competed in various real-life Porsche series with great success.
Last year’s Porsche Super Cup champion Laurin Heinrich will also be part of the field. The young German has a large amount of experience for his 19 years of age. He will undoubtedly be a dangerous competitor for the other racers, as he has shown maturity and killer instinct on the track.
Joining them will be Julian Hanses. The German is a former ADAC Formula 3 driver and currently participates in the Porsche Carrera Cup’s real-life iteration. Hanses is a good all-round driver with many different tools to be a top competitor in the final of the Esports Carrera Cup.
The final will be held at a track which will be released only a few hours before the event to ensure fairness. If you want to see who prevails in the Porsche Carrera Cup final, you can tune in to the offical YouTube channel of Porsche Carrera Cup on September 5.
DSRC is keeping pace
The Deutsche Sim Racing Championship (DSRC) is entering its third round at the Nürburgring. The first round has shown us the potential this series has to be something special, so the coming week’s event will surely be no different.
Round 1 in Imola made for great racing in both splits. The format of the DSRC divides the racers into two different splits before every event is based on qualifying results. Split one includes the faster drivers while split two the not so lucky ones. This system eliminates a crucial factor of boredom. In theory, slightly slower drivers can now still be competitive and drive to win, while stronger racers are not compromised by a full grid.
In reality, this didn’t ultimately show as the four races still had clear winners. But that could be partly due the nature of the Imola circuit. The Nürburgring will feature a more diverse racetrack. The little brother of the prestigious Nordschleife has been home to many races, including 40 years of European Grand Prix of Formula 1.
If you want to see the DSRC action, you can tune into the SimRacing Deutschland YouTube channel on September 5.