One final fight will decide this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports Powered by Mobileye title as a total of seven crews head into this weekend’s Indianapolis 8 Hours aiming for success across the two classes.
Three teams are still in the running the Pro class championship, with a four-way battle for Silver honours. Each is fighting for both the honour of being crowned IGTCE champions, but also to score the lion’s share of a combined €58,000 prize fund as the 47-car field heads for its Stateside finale on Saturday, September 16.
Williams Esports Mercedes-AMG Team is favourite to land the Pro class laurels, but will be facing a tough test with both the in-form Unicorns of Love crew and a resurgent Scuderia Ferrari Esports Team chasing it down.
In Silver, Team Racing Point’s winning run was halted last time out at Suzuka, and that’s closed-up the points table to allow RennWelten eSports – Red’s Ferrari crew back into the title picture, with YAS Heat Esports and West Competition Racing – BMW Romania Team still in with an outside shot.
All Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports Powered by Mobileye rounds take place on the Assetto Corsa Competizione platform and are staged in partnership with AK Esports.
Williams winless, but ahead in Pro…
In endurance racing, consistency is the key, and no team has shown that better than Williams Esports this season, which heads into the Indianapolis 8 Hours within touching distance of the title.
However, the #555 Mercedes-AMG shared by Dennis Schoniger, Dáire McCormack and Dominik Blajer hasn’t been the fastest entry of the year and has yet to win a round outright. But what the trio have done perfectly is rack up big scores without trouble. Three podium finishes from the four rounds so far – including second overall at the Spa 24 Hours – has earned them an 18-point lead going into the final round. But, with 36pts still on offer at Indianapolis, there’s still plenty of work to do.
And Williams will need to bring its A-game to head off main rivals Unicorns of Love and Scuderia Ferrari Esports Team, which have both come on strong as the year has progressed. A win at Spa and fourth last time out at Suzuka has brought UoL drivers Bastian Richter, Tobias Gronewald, Tobias Pfeffer and Michael Tauscher right back into contention, while Ferrari’s quartet of Jordan Sherratt, Chris Harteveld, Andrea Capoccia and Jonathan Riley were second at Suzuka, beating Williams Esports in the process. Ferrari has 30pts to make up on the leaders though, so will be relying on a dose of luck as well as its recent strong form.
Arguably one of the fastest crews all year has been Williams Esports’ sister Audi team, with its R8 LMS Ultra shared by Tinko van der Velde, Igor De Oliveira Rodrigues, Vojtech Fiala and Charlie Crossland. This team became the first two-time winner of the season after it followed up success at Kyalami with victory at Suzuka, but two tough rounds mean the Audi is out of title contention, but will still be one to watch on race day.
Unicorns of Love could also have a wingman team in the form of Team HRT by UOL, which runs fifth in the points. Drivers Niklas Houben, Leon Otocki, Lars Kisser and Nils Klinkmüller have shown flashes of pace this year but haven’t had the consistency to challenge at the top of the championship.
BMW M Team BS+Competition’s Nils Naujoks, Gregor Schill, Arthur Kammerer and Philippa Boquida will be hoping to end the year with a flourish to climb from sixth in the standings. Early season pace-setters Luke Whitehead, Grantas Kareckas, Maciej Malinowski and newly-crowned GTWC Esports European Sprint Series champion George Boothby will also be hungry to turn around a recent run of indifferent form in their Veloce McLaren.
Final fight to settle the Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports Powered by Mobileye title at the Indianapolis 8 Hours· Williams Esports within touching distance of the title heading into the finale · Both Unicorns of Love and Scuderia Ferrari Esports Team still in the hunt · Team Racing Point heads four-way fight for Silver title · Total prize fund of €58,000 on the line · ENTRY LIST: Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports Powered by Mobileye, Indianapolis 8 Hours One final fight will decide this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports Powered by Mobileye title as a total of seven crews head into this weekend’s Indianapolis 8 Hours aiming for success across the two classes. Three teams are still in the running the Pro class championship, with a four-way battle for Silver honours. Each is fighting for both the honour of being crowned IGTCE champions, but also to score the lion’s share of a combined €58,000 prize fund as the 47-car field heads for its Stateside finale on Saturday, September 16. Williams Esports Mercedes-AMG Team is favourite to land the Pro class laurels, but will be facing a tough test with both the in-form Unicorns of Love crew and a resurgent Scuderia Ferrari Esports Team chasing it down. In Silver, Team Racing Point’s winning run was halted last time out at Suzuka, and that’s closed-up the points table to allow RennWelten eSports – Red’s Ferrari crew back into the title picture, with YAS Heat Esports and West Competition Racing – BMW Romania Team still in with an outside shot. All Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports Powered by Mobileye rounds take place on the Assetto Corsa Competizione platform and are staged in partnership with AK Esports. Williams winless, but ahead in Pro…In endurance racing, consistency is the key, and no team has shown that better than Williams Esports this season, which heads into the Indianapolis 8 Hours within touching distance of the title. However, the #555 Mercedes-AMG shared by Dennis Schoniger, Dáire McCormack and Dominik Blajer hasn’t been the fastest entry of the year and has yet to win a round outright. But what the trio have done perfectly is rack up big scores without trouble. Three podium finishes from the four rounds so far – including second overall at the Spa 24 Hours – has earned them an 18-point lead going into the final round. But, with 36pts still on offer at Indianapolis, there’s still plenty of work to do. And Williams will need to bring its A-game to head off main rivals Unicorns of Love and Scuderia Ferrari Esports Team, which have both come on strong as the year has progressed. A win at Spa and fourth last time out at Suzuka has brought UoL drivers Bastian Richter, Tobias Gronewald, Tobias Pfeffer and Michael Tauscher right back into contention, while Ferrari’s quartet of Jordan Sherratt, Chris Harteveld, Andrea Capoccia and Jonathan Riley were second at Suzuka, beating Williams Esports in the process. Ferrari has 30pts to make up on the leaders though, so will be relying on a dose of luck as well as its recent strong form. Arguably one of the fastest crews all year has been Williams Esports’ sister Audi team, with its R8 LMS Ultra shared by Tinko van der Velde, Igor De Oliveira Rodrigues, Vojtech Fiala and Charlie Crossland. This team became the first two-time winner of the season after it followed up success at Kyalami with victory at Suzuka, but two tough rounds mean the Audi is out of title contention, but will still be one to watch on race day. Unicorns of Love could also have a wingman team in the form of Team HRT by UOL, which runs fifth in the points. Drivers Niklas Houben, Leon Otocki, Lars Kisser and Nils Klinkmüller have shown flashes of pace this year but haven’t had the consistency to challenge at the top of the championship. BMW M Team BS+Competition’s Nils Naujoks, Gregor Schill, Arthur Kammerer and Philippa Boquida will be hoping to end the year with a flourish to climb from sixth in the standings. Early season pace-setters Luke Whitehead, Grantas Kareckas, Maciej Malinowski and newly-crowned GTWC Esports European Sprint Series champion George Boothby will also be hungry to turn around a recent run of indifferent form in their Veloce McLaren. Can RennWelten eSports – Red spring a Silver surprise?There have been two standout teams in this year’s Silver category – catering for the best non-professional teams and drivers from the Assetto Corsa Competizione community – with Team Racing Point and RennWelten eSports – Red playing a cat-and-mouse game between them. Heading to Indianapolis, Team Racing Point’s Aston Martin is on top thanks to superb back-to-back wins at Kyalami and Spa for drivers David Pertile, Amedeo Castorino, Lukas Mateja and Mattia Zampedri. That had given the team a healthy lead in the points, but RennWelten – Red surged back to form at Suzuka to claim its first win of the year, with the team of Samir Ibraimi, Leon Berndt, Tim Pietschmann and Joris Apel trimming the gap to just 12pts, meaning it’s game on at Indianapolis. Two other crews remain in with a long shot of snatching the title from the top two, with YAS Heat Esports and West Competition Racing – BMW Romania Team sitting third and fourth respectively. The YAS Ferrari boasts the team of Valentin Barrier, Jaroslav Honzik, Edgars Marhilevics and Aidan Walsingham, but they have 29pts to make up in the title chase. West Competition Racing – BMW Romania Team sticks with Sebastian Apostol, Marco Jonkers, Victor Nicolae and Andrei Miclea aboard its M4 GT3, but they have even more work to do, trailing by 32pts. Others to keep an eye on include GetCloserRacing’s Aston Martin driven by Felix Arndt, Manuel Popp, Sven Hettich and Tom Gorka, and West Competition Racing’s Ferrari shared by Geert Fischer, Tadas Juknevicius, Zaahir Essa and Mac Tol, which is the only other team to have celebrated a race win this year, albeit back in the opening round at Bathurst. Action for the season finale of the Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports Powered by Mobileye Indianapolis 8 Hours gets underway with practice and qualifying ahead of the race, which is scheduled to start at 13:00 CEST. The entire race will be streamed live via the GT World YouTube channel. |