iRacing Porsche Supercup: Double for Job in incident packed races

The cream of the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup continued to rise to the top on Saturday at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, as Sebastian Job scored another double victory in the sprint and feature races ahead of Apex Racing Team drivers Kevin Ellis Jr. and Yohann Harth.

But the real story may have been heavy aggression among the rest of the field, as multiple incidents for both Joshua Rogers and Alejandro Sanchez put the Red Bull Racing Esports driver in complete control of the championship with just three races remaining.

“Wow, what a result!” said Job. “I really didn’t expect this today, we prepared a lot but in the practice sessions I had my doubts about the pace. Luckily I got a really solid lap in qualifying to get p1 and the 10 points alongside it, knowing that the race pace was also likely a bit better than qualifying pace anyway. For the main race

“I managed to lead the whole race, trying my best to break the slipstream but unfortunately didn’t have quite enough. Luckily there was a crash behind that allowed me to have some breathing room, and get the double win!”

At first, Saturday looked like it might finally be the day for Mitchell deJong, one of last year’s top title contenders, to snap his streak of bad luck thus far in 2020. After qualifying eighth, he’d start first in the sprint race, and hang onto the lead for much of it.

But pressure from Kevin Ellis Jr. eventually opened the door for Job, Maximilian Benecke, and Rogers to get through as well, and contact from behind from Sanchez in the first corner late in the race dropped him well outside of the top 10.

What had looked to be one of the decisive moments of the championship battle may have come nine minutes into the feature, as Rogers pressured Sanchez for third. Going into the final chicane, the cars touched slightly, with Sanchez spinning off track as a result. The Spanish driver would recover and remain in the top 10, but his podium hopes for the feature were finished.

But as Rogers and Benecke, last year’s top two drivers in the series, battled for second in the final third of the race, their aggression got the best of them. After trading the spot multiple times in the previous corners, the drivers made contact in Les Combes, sending both off track and into the wall, and down to seventh and eighth.

Sanchez, seeing an opportunity, tried to get past Tommy Ostgaard for fourth, but suffered another spin as a result. He’d regain fifth across the line after spinning Martin Kronke in the final corner, with Benecke sixth and Rogers seventh pending a review of the race.

Full results from the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup feature from Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Driver	Laps	Interval	Led	Best	Pts.
1	1	22	Sebastian Job	13		13	2:19.400	85
2	2	98	Kevin Ellis Jr	13	-2.845	0	2:19.470	67
3	6	90	Yohann Harth	13	-3.365	0	2:19.377	57
4	7	58	Tommy Østgaard	13	-4.162	0	2:19.733	51
5	5	47	Alejandro Sánchez	13	-9.534	0	2:19.247	56
6	3	11	Maximilian Benecke	13	-9.738	0	2:19.354	55
7	4	92	Joshua K Rogers	13	-11.214	0	2:19.301	54
8	11	49	Jamie Fluke	13	-11.306	0	2:19.649	36
9	9	21	Graham Carroll	13	-11.597	0	2:19.706	36
10	15	31	David Williams	13	-12.552	0	2:20.245	28
11	8	5	Martin Krönke	13	-13.025	0	2:19.633	33
12	13	16	Mack Bakkum	13	-13.457	0	2:20.159	26
13	18	83	Bobby Zalenski	13	-13.921	0	2:20.191	19
14	16	7	Jeff Giassi	13	-14.134	0	2:20.213	19
15	14	110	Christopher Dambietz	13	-14.437	0	2:20.030	19
16	12	94	Jarrad Filsell	13	-14.633	0	2:19.832	19
17	17	27	Patrik Holzmann	13	-15.172	0	2:20.125	13
18	25	24	Mitchell deJong	13	-15.418	0	2:19.813	8
19	19	43	Brian Lockwood	13	-16.223	0	2:19.903	9
20	24	23	Aleksi Uusi-Jaakkola	13	-18.149	0	2:20.141	6
21	31	14	Marc Perez	13	-20.115	0	2:20.327	5
22	28	29	Carl E Jansson	13	-24.402	0	2:20.206	4
23	23	77	Valtteri Alander	13	-24.728	0	2:20.292	3
24	29	211	Thibault Cazaubon	13	-24.801	0	2:20.131	2
25	26	36	Joshua W Anderson	13	-34.563	0	2:20.190	1
26	27	42	Matti Kaidesoja	13	-35.368	0	2:20.314	0
27	20	10	Jack Sedgwick	13	-44.450	0	2:21.639	1
28	30	4	Marin S Colak	3	-10 L	0		0
29	10	2	Jeremy Bouteloup	3	-10 L	0		11
30	22	107	Tuomas Tähtelä	2	-11 L	0		0
31	21	33	Ricardo Castro Ledo	2	-11 L	0		0
32	32	28	Alexander Thiebe	0	-13 L	0		0
33	33	57	Dayne Warren	0	-13 L	0		0