The Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup Contender Series has captivated us over the past five weeks with exciting, sometimes dramatic races. We celebrated when talents delivered action-packed fights. We were there with them as drivers pitilessly overestimated themselves. And saw great victories and ignominious defeats. The ideal preparation for what happened in the sixth, and thus last, last round at the Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit. This run is the last chance for many drivers in the midfield to secure a starting place in the PESC 2022. There is so much riding on the game.
11/5/2021
This is just the beginning.
The starting field: a question mark.
In the beginning, there was the question: who will even take part in the race? Although a few top drivers were already qualified purely according to calculations, they do not actually have to participate. The first surprise was Ayhancan Güven. The Porsche works driver heads to the starting line despite a busy schedule. Under enormous pressure: he is only 19th in the standings – so he has to collect a lot of points to make it into the top 15 and thus into the PESC 2022. This looks feasible according to the qualifying: Güven sets the second-fastest time after Peter Berryman and in front of Julien Soenen.
Drama, baby.
But already over the first metres of the following sprint race, his chances seemed to fizzle out. He touches Berryman and finds himself in 20th place, 7 seconds behind in the race. You can see the tension in the drivers' faces. There are many changes of position and frequent driving mistakes. The major exceptions among the not yet qualified: Jordan Caruso and Bobby Zalenski. The Australian fights – and is rewarded with third place. While his American competitor even ends up winning the race. And is thus already as good as assured a place in the PESC.
What is up with Williams!?
In the main race, the dam finally breaks and things go haywire. Directly after the start, three Williams Esports drivers chase each other into the first corner. Resulting in them shooting down their own driver, Josh Thompson. Others seem to take this as a good example. Spins and metal-on-metal contacts occur constantly lap after lap. To the delight of the spectators, a live table standing is shown in the stream. And it's permanently in motion. Especially around 15th place. The battle between Caruso (16th, no longer in the PESC) and Biksrud (15th, just about there) still remains in our minds. And Güven and Sirica don't miss a beat either – until Sirica finally spins out after some heavy contacts and gets passed through. The result: Caruso didn't make it. Biksrud moves to the 15th placement in the PESC. And David Williams won the main race – as the only driver with two victories in the Contender Series.
We will see how this story unfolds from 5 February 2022, when the next PESC season begins. We can hardly wait.