From contender series to title contenders.

With the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup by iRacing Contender Series finished the grid for PESC season 7 in 2024 is complete. After six rounds of fierce battle for 15 of the remaining spots now is the time to look back at what happened until now and to look forward to all the racing ahead and all the excitement that goes along with it.

Comprised of the 15 best drivers from the preceding qualifying rounds, four wildcards, and places 16-30 of last season’s standings, the contender series’ grid promised some of the best sim racing to date. And it did.

 

Having started on the 23rd of September with a race on the Hockenheimring, the series spanned one and a half months and half the globe. From the aforementioned Hockenheimring to Laguna Seca to Red Bull Ring to Road Atlanta to Long Beach Street Circuit to Nürburgring the sim racers battled for spots in the main competition on some of the world’s most iconic racetracks of all time.

 

Even though many of the top racers were able to establish themselves early on the top of the standings, the series stayed exciting until the last moment. With all race days set up the same as during the upcoming main series, the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup, they comprised a qualifying, a sprint race and a main race, each promising valuable points to the contestants with the main race being the most important one with 50 out of a total 80 points to be won.

 

While in round 1 Quentiin Vialatte and his colleagues Luke McKeown and Parker White from Apex Racing Team shared the podium, Kevin Nielsen from FYRA SimSport finishing in p4 foreshadowed what was to come throughout the series.

 

Round 2 saw a continuation of Apex Racing Team’s success, with McKeown and White finishing first and second with team VRS Coanda trailing far behind on p3 and p4. However in the following rounds Kevin Nielsen managed to pay off on the promise that was his almost podium position at the beginning of the series: in round 3 he placed second in the main race, round 4 saw him finish third and then topped the table in round 5, where not only he raced to p1 in the main race, but also finished fifth in the preceding sprint race.

 

With such consistency even his meek p19 in the sprint race and p16 in the main race of the final round couldn’t get in the way of his victory of the contender series.

After six intense rounds followed live by sim racing fans around the globe, Kevin Nielsen emerged as the winner of the contender series and came out on top of the pack with only the slightest edge to number two in the standings Quentiin Vialatte. Together with 13 other talented drivers, they are now entering into the main series, which will commence with round 1 in February 2024. Find the whole field here.

 

An event to be highlighted in the racing calendar, along with all other rounds to follow. With a new race calendar, the PESC will offer motorsport on the highest professional level and be even more exciting than ever before. Since even if we now have an indication on who to look out for in the upcoming season, in the end everything may end up completely different than any expected. But that’s what’s beautiful about racing, isn’t it.