Vulcan Sim Racing Weekly: Edition #17 – CXR Finale!
Welcome to the penultimate edition of Vulcan Sim Racing Weekly! From all the action in the BMW Sim GT Cup to all the prep for the Daytona 24, I’ll be covering it all.
The final round of the CXR World GT3 Championship was at Silverstone, and Luke McKeown had the chance to snatch the title if misfortune fell upon championship leader Peter Smith and if Luke won. Starting from 2nd place, all he had to do was take 1st and hang on, hoping for a mistake from Smith. Though Luke won, the championship was taken by Smith, who finished just 9 points ahead of the Brit. For Mo Janko, his race promptly ended on lap 2 after being spun at turn 1 and retiring shortly after. It was an overall difficult race for the rest, with Callam Brant coming home 11th after a tough race, Dominik Forster coming home 16th, and Joel Evans 18th. A good time was had by all this season, and next season’s World GT3 looks to be the most competitive season yet, with entries from VSR’s Luke McKeown, Joel Evans, Leon Penn, and Steven Leahy.
It was also the BMW Sim GT Cup on Sunday, where our two teams hoped to go out rubbing elbows with the biggest and the best in top split. However, a higher than expected strength of field meant both teams missed out on split 1, so had it all to do in 2nd split. Unfortunately for VSR Black, a below-par qualifying left Mo Janko starting right in the mid pack and an unlucky clip of the grass on lap 1 meant it was game over early on. Joel Evans racing in the VSR main car stuck it on pole and jostled for 1st throughout his stint, but due to a crafty strategy plan from the 2nd placed car, a great deal of fuel saving was needed by Leon Penn when he jumped in for the final hour. However, saving over 10L of fuel in a single hour would not prove easy, so a splash and dash sending them out into the fray in 3rd was needed before the end. A great drive overall!
Finally, prep for Daytona is well underway and Vulcan Sim Racing will be fielding 2 teams: VSR in the Porsche 911 RSR with Luke McKeown, Mo Janko, Joel Evans, and Leon Penn and VSR Black in the Dallara P217 with Adam Gladden, Steven Leahy, Lucas Adam and myself taking to the track. With GT3s, GTEs, and LMP2s all battling it out on track, the Daytona 24 looks set to be a cracker of a race!