CoRe Survives It To The Finish At Road Atlanta
– Round five of the Tag Heuer Esports Supercup took its first venture outside of Europe, with Road Atlanta hosting the forty quickest Porsche drivers on iRacing. The opening race of the day from the Porsche Esports Sprint Challenger saw two CoRe cars qualify within the top ten. Matti Sipila continued his strong form from Nürburgring, qualifying in 5th position, while Thomas Gibson could only settle for 10th place, unable to set a optimal lap time in the time provided. Gibson was denied a clean race in the opening lap after a collision with Apex Racings Rey Llerena into the final chicane. With the damage costing him a lot of straight-line speed, Gibson was severely hampered for the remainder of the race, eventually retiring two laps from the finish. Sipila made a strong start, maintaining 5th position ahead of SimRCs Charlie Collins. Matti stayed in the leading group from 2nd to 7th, chasing race leader Moreno Sirica for the duration of the 20 minutes. As the battle for second heated up, Sipila saw a gap around the outside of Marcenos car for 4th and was shoved aside into the wall on the last turn. This collision cost Matti two positions, eventually finishing in 7th position, where it could be argued he deserved much more.
In the Esports Supercup, Setsaas was able to deliver a solid qualifying in 20th position, despite racing this round in an unfamiliar rig whilst competing in the VLN in the real world in Germany. Jansson would qualify in 34th position, claiming it was the “worst lap I’ve ever done.” For the sprint race, Setsaas would unfortunately get involved in contact with Christopher Dambietz, dropping the Norwegian to 24th position. Carl would have contrasting fortunes, making a strong start up a few positions. Sindre’s terrible luck would continue, being involved in an innocent with Yohann Harth at the first corner of lap 2, suffering race ending damage. Carl would come home in 24th position. For the feature race, both drivers had eyes set forward, and made strong starts. However Jansson would unfortunately yet again this season be an innocent victim in another multi-car pile up, receiving heavy damage from hitting Harths spinning car on the opening lap. Carl would have to drive the remaining 29 minutes with a significant loss of top speed down the straights. Setsaas would come home in a solid 21st position, after a race long battle with Brian Lockwood and Antoine Higelin. Jansson would finish in 24th. The duo would look ahead to Brands Hatch, in just two weeks’ time on Saturday the 15th August. The broadcast of this PESPC and PESC race can be found here.
