Did you miss the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup action last Saturday? Or maybe you want to find out who is leading the championship now. Here are the latest PESC standings after Round 9.
Image credit: Porsche
One more round to go, it has gone by so quickly hasn’t it? But there was enough drama to sustain us for a whole season in the round at Le Mans alone. The elbows were well and truly out and there were more than a few moments that resulted in all our hearts skipping a beat.
Here’s a recap of all the action from the penultimate round of the 2022 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup.
PESC Round 9 – The Sprint Race
After a less than ideal result in the previous round, 2020 series champion Sebastian Job was a man on a mission. He had by far the most wins this season with five, and if he took pole for the sprint, he would be unreachable in the TAG Heuer Pole Award.
Only championship rival Diogo Pinto and Coanda’s Dayne Warren would be able to trouble him, as they had two poles apiece to Job’s three. That total soon became four as Job put in a mighty lap which left him untouchable in the Pole Award. The Brit just pipped Kevin Ellis Jr. to the top by just over a tenth, with other title rivals Pinto and Zac Campbell in 6th and 7th respectively.
The Sprint Race start was pretty uneventful, Job held off the advances of Ellis. Entering the Mulsanne straight though, the drafting took effect and both Ellis and teammate Alejandro Sánchez overtook him. But then on the approach to Indianapolis, disaster was only just averted.
Bookended by Drama
Dayne Warren veered across as they navigated a slight bend in the track and tipped Job into a spin. He managed to save the car however, only losing one position in the process.
For most of the remainder of the race, it was rather tame. But as ever, it all kicked off on the last lap when Sánchez made a move for the lead on Ellis at the Michelin chicane. They then went nearly four wide towards Mulsanne corner with Warren and Jeremy Bouteloup. Warren was the one to emerge in front. However, on the run-up to Indianapolis Ellis repassed Warren whilst Job made a bid to re-join the lead battle.
But there was one more big surprise left, as Zac Campbell was able to put a move on his title rival and then pass teammate Warren out of Arnage. This left Job and Warren to scrap it out heading though the Porsche curves, which ended in tears as they touched and Warren was sent into the barrier.
All that left Kevin Ellis Jr. to claim the chequered flag for himself.
Sprint Race Result
| Driver | Position | Gap |
| Kevin Ellis, Jr. | 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Alejandro Sánchez | 2 | +0.476 |
| Jeremy Boutelop | 3 | +0.988 |
| Zac Campbell | 4 | +1.310 |
| Sebastian Job | 5 | +1.591 |
PESC Round 9 – The Main Race
For the main race, Cooper Webster started on pole on account of finishing 8th in the Sprint. The rookie had been dominant amongst all the first year drivers and will be untroubled on his way to that crown, but could he get an overall win?
At the start, there were some collisions further back but Webster held the lead ahead of Salva Talens. Webster’s teammate Job was once again looking to make up for lost time after trying to pass Pinto. He found himself in an extended battle with title rival Zac Campbell.
Ahead of Job, Pinto started battling Talens and the two were side-by-side heading into the Porsche curves. Then the 2020 series champion performed a simply masterful move coming out of the Corvette curves to pass both of them and was up to second! After that, he proceeded set off after his rookie teammate.
The Battle for First
The draft proved very helpful as Job closed the gap and moved ahead on Lap 3. He and Webster began swapping the lead around in an attempt to break away from Pinto and Campbell, but on Lap 4 in a move nearly identical to one that Warren pulled on Job in the Sprint Race, Webster moved across on Campbell on the run up to Indianapolis.
Just like Job, Campbell was able to recover with no loss of position. It wasn’t all rosy for Campbell though. The American had noticeable front end damage that compromised his performance.
Meanwhile, Webster was shoved out wide on the penultimate lap heading through Arnage and then again on the last lap at the end of Mulsanne, he was taken out the fight after a collision.
Heading towards Indianapolis, Pinto tried to make a move for the lead and remained alongside Job through to Arnage. Job held on and got the overlap, Campbell then pulled alongside Pinto and Job positioned his car in such a way to allow Campbell to have a go at Pinto, but to no avail.
Job came out on top once again in the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup, making it his sixth win of the year.
Main Race Result
| Driver | Position | Gap |
| Sebastian Job | 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Diogo Pinto | 2 | +0.566 |
| Zac Campbell | 3 | +0.797 |
| Jeremy Boutelop | 4 | +1.330 |
| Alejandro Sánchez | 5 | +1.500 |
Heading into the final round on 4 June at Monza, Pinto still has a comfortable but not unassailable lead at the top. Despite only winning one race, the Redline driver’s consistency has been remarkable. But it can still go the way of Ellis, Job or Campbell.
With a maximum of 85 points available (10 for pole. 25 for Sprint win and 50 for Feature win), Campbell only has an outside shot as he is 75 points back. Job is 48 behind Pinto, while Ellis is 37 in arrears of the leader.
Supercup standings
| Driver | Points |
| Diogo Pinto | 503 |
|---|---|
| Kevin Ellis, Jr. | 466 |
| Sebastian Job | 455 |
| Zac Campbell | 428 |
| Charlie Collins | 372 |
What Happened in All-Stars?
Before the Supercup races were the All-Stars and it seems certain that we have a champion all-but-crowned. Newcomer Tyson ‘Quirkitized’ Meier as always was on form as he took pole ahead of Dan Suzuki.
The rest of the grid was really mixed as many drivers didn’t set representative lap times due to incurring slowdown penalties and invalidations. eNASCAR driver and PESC All-Star regular Casey Kirwan was one of them, starting very out of position in tenth.
At the start, Dan Suzuki jumped Quirkitized, but the American soon regained the lead. Meanwhile, Kirwan had already climbed up to third and was hunting down Quirkitized. Eventually, Kirwan did pass Dan Suzuki but was unable to trouble Meier who took yet another win. His chances were certainly helped by the absence of last season’s All-Star champion Emily Jones.
Speaking of Veloce-affiliated drivers, a special mention must be made for Jardier.
Like a lot of sim drivers as of late, Honzik was juggling more than one event. Jones competed in the PESC round at the Nordschleife whilst also doing VCO Infinity, and Diogo Pinto did the Montreal PESC round as well as the iRacing Nürburgring 24 hours.
Jardier, however, was also competing not only in the Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports opening Bathurst 12 hours round, but also in the Apex Online Racing Endurance Championship Laguna Seca 8 hours. Both of these championships are run on a different sim to PESC.
All-Stars Race Two
Jardier was on pole for the second race and took full advantage, trying to stretch out an early lead from MaximeMXM and James ‘Gamer Muscle’ West, who were the cork in the bottle. Both of them had dodged an early pileup which collected the likes of Matt Malone and Idreau.
Dan Suzuki found his way up to second. Meanwhile, the apparently inevitable Casey Kirwan cut his way through the field and eventually claimed second for himself. He proceeded to start hunting Jardier down, taking chunks out of his lead.
After catching him, Kirwan began bump drafting Jardier, and soon he overtook him and set about extending the gap. Dan Suzuki followed suit and eventually Jardier was caught by Quirkitized looking to get another podium. But it wouldn’t be plain sailing as Jardier repassed Dan Suzuki and then Quirkitized took advantage of a slip by Suzuki to get into third but couldn’t get past Jardier.
That left Kirwan untroubled eight seconds up the road to take another win, and would be in firm title contention had he been doing the full season. However, the honour of champion-elect goes to Quirkitized, who now sits pretty much uncontested in the championship.
Catch Up on the Action!
To rewatch the action, Porsche’s YouTube channel has all the races available.
The next round is the last one of the season, 4 June on the Monza circuit. It’s all down between Diogo Pinto, Kevin Ellis, Jr., Sebastian Job and Zac Campbell. The action begins on Porsche’s YouTube and Twitch channels at 7:30pm CEST, with the All-Star finale taking place in the 992 GT3 Cup car used in the Supercup and in the first three All-Star rounds.
Who do you think will be 2022 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup champion? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
