Josh Rogers became the first driver to win multiple championships in the Porsche Esports Supercup as he secured the 2021 title with one round to spare.
He wins the largest share of the $200,000 prize pool after completing a clean sweep of pole position, sprint and feature race wins at Le Mans.
In the qualifying session Rogers set the fastest time for the fifth time in the 10 race championship, with fellow Coanda Simsport driver Charlie Collins joining him on the front row for the sprint race.
Last year’s champion Sebastian Job was third in qualifying and scored six points whereas Mitchell deJong – second in the points going into the event – was only seventh fastest and scored no points from that session.
It wasn’t until the final lap of the first race that Job tried to make his way up the order as he slipstreamed past Collins on the Mulsanne straight for second place.
On the run towards the left turn of Indianapolis Job cleared Rogers to take the lead of the race before the Australian pulled alongside at back in front, aptly at Porsche Curve, to win his fifth sprint race of the season.
Diogo Pinto crossed the line in the all important eighth place that turned into pole position for the feature race. However he took that eighth place via contact with Alejandro Sanchez on the final lap that caused the MSi eSports driver to drop outside of the points scoring positions.
A good launch off the starting grid moved deJong from third to first as the feature race began and he led the train of cars for the opening phase.
#PESC – Green, green, green at #LeMans: Let’s review the start of the Porsche @TAGHeuer Esports Supercup main race at #CircuitdelaSarthe. We’ve just witnessed staggering @iracing action with some 40 #Porsche #911GT3Cup pic.twitter.com/HreIBW627c
— Porsche Motorsport (@PorscheRaces) April 10, 2021
The nature of the circuit and the slipstream effect meant drivers were unable to pull away from those behind them, resulting in the race lead changing multiple times.
Red Bull Esports’ Job crashed out of contention when he took to the hard shoulder on the flat out section from the Mulsanne hairpin to Indianapolis as he hit the back of Jeremy Bouteloup to spin the Coanda driver into the barrier.
Job retired from the race shortly afterwards, leaving both drivers who were ahead of him in the points to fight for the race win.
A spin for deJong while alongside Rogers on the final lap gave first place to the two-time champion and completed the Australian’s clean sweep at Le Mans.
Tommy Ostgaard ended the feature race in second with Zac Campbell benefiting from a spin and subsequent pile up involving Pinto to claim the bottom step of the podium.
While Rogers has claimed the drivers’ title, only 12 points separate deJong and Job in the fight to claim the runner-up spot.
