As the inaugural GT Rivals esports invitational heads into the final rounds, the series shifts to Mount Panorama in virtual Australia this Sunday. Home to the opening round of Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli campaign - the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour - Mount Panorama will be the biggest challenge in the series.
Set against the hills in New South Wales, Mount Panorama is one of the most unique circuits in the world. With a 571 ft of vertical difference between its highest and lowest points, this high speed, narrow 3.835-mile circuit features many distinctive corners and straights.
35 real world pro drivers and sim racers will go to battle one last time before the Grand Finals in Assetto Corsa Competizione.
GT Rivals airs this Sunday, May 24th at 3pm ET across SRO’s GT World YouTube channel, SRO Motorsports Twitch Channel, and GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Facebook page.
Who Can Beat Heitkotter?
Winner of five of the six GT Rivals events, Bryan Heitkotter has done the unthinkable and topped the standings in all but one event this season. It wasn’t always easy, but his consistency and speed has set himself up to be the favorite once again going into Bathurst.
But not without increased competition. David Perel is back, fresh off a second-place finish at Barcelona and looks to be the contender who could dethrone the Nismo driver. Fellow GT Academy winner, Nick McMillan showed strong pace and a threat to Heitkotter as well.
CrowdStrike Racing's Kevin Boehm held off Heitkotter for half of the Barcelona contest, before getting clipped by a backmarker, taking him out of contention. He’ll look to bounce back and battle for the overall win.
Team Walkenhorst Motorsport sim racer Scott Michaels makes his debut in GT Rivals. With a recent second place finish at the virtual Nürburgring Nordschleife endurance race, he’ll look to bring that momentum for his first start in Assetto Corsa Competizione.
Bathurst 12hr Rewind
Looking back at this year’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, Bentley took the overall victory in style. Could we see K-PAX Racing’s Guy Cosmo fighting for the podium after his strong charge to sixth overall last weekend?
McLaren was a threat all race long which could play into the hands of Andretti Autosport driver Colin Mullan. Running in the Top 5 at Barcelona, the Pirelli GT4 America driver will have a great shot at a solid finish on the Mountain.
The Honda NSX GT3 Evo was also particularly strong at the 12 Hour this year before mechanical gremlins. Fielding the NSX will be Racer’s Edge Motorsports drivers Shelby Blackstock and Kyle Marcelli. Along with HPD GT3 Academy driver, Karl Wittmer and Tom O’Gorman in the ASUS ROG NSX.
Who can forget Matt Cambell’s 2019 race finish in remarkable style for Earl Bamber Motorsports. Barcelona third place finisher Jon Miller will look to recreate that moment driving the ST Racing Porsche 991.2 GT3 R. TC America racer Tomas Mejia will make his first GT Rivals start also driving Porsche machinery.
Grand Finale
Following Bathurst, we have one final race - a grand finale at the recently renovated Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa. A winner takes all race to crown the first GT Rivals Champion. The Top 5 finishers from each round this season will earn automatic invites with a qualifying race to be held prior to the feature race to fill out the rest of the grid.
GT Rivals Esports Invitational utilizes Assetto Corsa Competizione, developed by Kunos Simulazioni and published by 505 Games, featuring the real atmosphere of the GT World Challenge powered by AWS series. Designed for esports, Assetto Corsa Competizione is bringing sim racers into an immersive experience behind the wheels of today’s top GT3 racers.
Tune-in this Sunday at 3pm ET to catch all the action and enter to win exclusive giveaways. This week will feature an ASUS ROG and TUF Gaming bundle with a 27” triple-monitor setup and bezel free kit. Plus, a Skip Barber one-day racings school and Assetto Corsa Competizione PC games.
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→ facebook.com/gtworldchallengeamerica
→ twitter.com/gtworldcham