Four competitions, four back-to-back champions: in all four big competitions we saw champions defending their title last weekend. While some did so in a rather dominating fashion, others won only by the skin of their teeth.
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Mitchell deJong dominates at Daytona International Speedway
Mitchell deJong managed to win the Subaru iRX All-Star Inviational on Saturday. The sim racing star finished the race more than 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Christian Brooks – an absolutely dominating performance. Parker Kligerman earned an impressive third place after starting seventh. Scott Speed placed fourth in his Subaru, while Kevin Hansen fifth in his VW Beetle.
deJong is currently leading the scoreboard. The $10,000 prize money will be given to a charity organization on behalf of the champion. By May 15, there are still four more races to come.
Simon Pagenaud takes checkered flag at Firestone 175
Although Simon Pagenaud performance round 4 of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge was – in comparison – as dominant as deJong’s, his victory wasn’t anything short of miraculous. He bested his most relentless competitor Scott Dixon by only .342 seconds, securing his second consecutive victory.
After the race Pagenaud said: “Today was a lot about tire saving, the right strategy once again. At the end it got a bit crazy. Yeah, what’s fun to me, it’s actually that you’re racing the exact same guys as usual, exact same moves as you would in real life. You keep turning your wheels in your head.”
The famous 2014 NTT IndyCar Series champion Will Power finished third. With the achievements of Pagenaud and Power, two spots on the podium went to Team Penske.
Back-to-Back victory for NASCAR star William Byron
William Byron was once again successful emerging victorious from the fourth round of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational. At the virtual Richmund Raceway, Byron displayed a formidable performance, leading in 94 out of 154 laps. He is now at the top of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational rankings. Timmy Hill, winner of the second race, was right behind him. However, Byron wouldn’t let Hill overtake and won by just a small margin. Parker Kligerman earned his third place deservedly, besting first race winner Denny Hamlin and team-mate Kyle Busch.
Virtual China GP draws large audience
Ever since Formula 1 has postponed and canceled all its real-world races, the Virtual Grand Prix series has done well to fill the gap it left behind. The Chinese Grand Prix had an average of 190,000 viewers on YouTube and Twitch. The VOD of the race already climbed up to over 700,000 views only on YouTube. Fans witnessed Charles Leclerc’s second virtual Grand Prix championship. The Ferrari pilot came out on top after an exciting neck-and-neck race with Red Bull driver Alex Albon.
While many of the problems of the first virtual Grand Prix had been resolved by developer Codemasters and tournament host Gfinity Esports, Lando Norris experienced connection problems once again and was unable to participate. McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne placed third after a disappointing qualifying session. The next GP of the series is going to be held on May 3. As Zandvoort is not part of the F1 2019 game, fans can currently vote on which map the competitors are going to play.
Screenshot: IndCar iRacing Challenge
