Under the lights in the South of France, Bryan Heitkotter drove to another dominating win in GT Rivals esports competition on Assetto Corsa Competizione. His second overall win, having won the opening round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in similar fashion.
Piloting his Nissan GT-R GT3, Heitkotter started on pole and only reliquished the lead for the first ten minutes of the race to Kenton Koch, after a strong start from the Aston Martin driver. But once he got past Koch, he built a comfortable gap and continued to pace the field until the checkerd flag.
Battles throughout the field showcased the close action at the French circuit featuring a diverse grid with ten manufacturers represented. As the skies darkened, the competition heated up. Drivers who didn't qualify well began their march towards the front, featuring wheel-to-wheel action during the 60-minute contest.
An eventful last lap led to the promotion of CrowdStrike Racing's Kevin Boehm, bringing home back-to-back second place finishes in his Mercedes-AMG GT3. With only a few corners left, Kenton Koch ran out of fuel in the BSPort Racing Aston Martin V8 Vantage after running a solid second the entire race. He crossed the line with a penalty for cutting the course and ended up with a Top 10 finish.
Dakota Dickerson took the final podium position finishing third in his Ferrari 488 GT3. A first lap scuffle, dropped him a few spots but he worked hard to fight his way back to the front. He's showed great speed in each round with a technical mishap at Misano that limited his results.
Keith Briscoe represented the first of our sim racers driving for Champion Motorsports. The Audi R8 LMS Evo driver battled throughout the race to capture the fourth position. With newcomer Kenny Murillo, racing his Mercedes-AMG GT3, proving he's a contender with a Top 5 finish and first race in ACC.
Racers Edge Motorsports driver Kyle Marcelli drove to his best finish of the season, coming in the 6th position after starting 19th in his Honda NSX GT3 Evo. Similar story for Kevin Anderson who started 22nd to come across the line in 7th driving an Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT3.
Honda GT3 Academy driver Karl Wittmer came back from early misfortune and penalities to drive back to a Top 10 finish in the Honda NSX GT3 Evo finishing in 8th. Kenton Koch, as previously mentioned, ends up 9th after his penalty. With sim racer Dominic Guerin completing the Top 10 driving his Champion Motorsports Porsche 991.2 GT3 R to a solid finish.
The GT Rivals Esports Invitational heads to virtual Belgium for Round 4 at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps next Sunday - May 3rd - to the site of SRO Motorsports Groups signature event - the Total 24 Hours of Spa. Join us at 3pm ET on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter to follow all the esports action.
>> RACE REPLAY
>> EVENT RESULTS
The SRO America GT Rivals Esports Invitational is in partnership with ASUS Republic of Gamers, ASUS TUF Gaming, Fanatec, Sim-Lab, Champion Motorsports, and SYM TV. Along with series partners AWS, CrowdStrike, Pirelli, Rebellion Timepieces, Total, Optima, Skip Barber, and 5.11.