until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League

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What to expect from IndyPRO’s seven-way title decider

by Nathan Quinn
4 min read

until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League

With one race in The Race IndyPRO Championship by Formula SimRacing to go, Jernej Simoncic is on course to win his second FSR championship of the year.

The Slovenian won this year’s Formula SimRacing World Championship by 39 points over Petar Brljak. Now both drivers are fighting for the IndyPRO title.

A total of seven drivers are all still in with a chance of ending the season on top as a double points Indy 300 finale using the Indianapolis Motor Speedway prevents what would otherwise be a near certain championship win for Simoncic with one race left to run.

With 70 points on offer for a win Simoncic’s nearest challenger is Evolution Motorsports’ Alex Siebel, who’s 30 points behind, with Jiri Toman only another 6 points back.

Dennis Jordan sits 49 points down but hasn’t won a race this season, with his team-mate Siebel also unable to achieve a result better than second so far.

Williams Esports drivers Brljak and Martin Stefanko sit fifth and sixth in the standings with Alen Terzic the last driver with a mathematical shot at the championship as he’s 67 points down on Simoncic.

For Simoncic to lose the championship he would have to finish below 11th, and even then that would require Siebel to win his first race in the series.

Evolution Siebel Pic 1

If Toman ends as the champion he would have to overhaul a 36-point deficit, which would require Simoncic to end the Indy 300 in 15th at best.

For anyone else to be crowned champion Simoncic would need to cross the line outside of the top 20.

The two Evolution Motorsports drivers have established themselves as title contenders through consistent results as Siebel has never finished lower than 10th and ended six of the previous nine races inside the top five.

Evolution Indypro Pic

Jordan has a lowest result of 11th but has finished every other race inside the top 10 and been on the podium twice.

No driver matches Simoncic in terms of consistency as he completed the first two races of the season in fourth and since then he has never left the podium, even though the road course feature races had the top-placed drivers from the sprint race reversed for the starting grid of the second event.

Should a technical issue strike Simoncic or if he were to disconnect from the race, the championship fight would be thrown right open. Stefanko Indypro Pic 1

Stefanko has already been the victim of internet problems, disconnecting two laps from the end of the sprint race at the Virginia International Raceway when in fourth place.

In the most recent event he dropped out again due to technical issues.

The Williams Esports driver was a title frontrunner as he tied at the top of the table with Simoncic after the second round of races and then was only 15 points adrift before his first disconnection.

Even with his chances of scoring points in two races being abruptly ended, Stefanko is still in with a shot of ending the season on top should circumstances play out to his advantage.

The teams’ championship is much closer, with four teams all very much in contention as a race win from one of their drivers could put them on top.

In the previous round the gap between the top two teams shrank from 15 to 10 points, with Burst Simplexity Esport outsourcing Evolution Motorsports thanks in part to Simoncic’s podium finish.

With double points on offer for the final round it means the race winner will score 10 points more than the runner-up and 14 points more than the third placed driver.

Therefore it is entirely possible that the teams’ championship leader could change after the Indy 300 and any dramas or technical issues for the two two teams could bring Williams’ Esports and VargaSimRacing into play.

Williams Esports is currently third in the standings, 37 points away from the top and 17 ahead of fourth placed VargaSimRacing.

Stefanko’s internet troubles have not only harmed his chances of winning the drivers’ championship but also Williams Esports in the teams’ championship.

Brljak Indypro Pic 2

However in the previous round it scored 30 points solely through Brljak’s second-place finish, which was only eight less than VargaSimRacing – whose drivers both saw the chequered flag.

Assuming both Williams Esports drivers make it to the end, their results in the championship to date mean it is likely they could be the highest-scoring team at Indianapolis.

Both Simoncic and Brljak narrowly escaped being caught up in huge crashes in the previous oval race, so one unfortunate incident or technical problem for any driver in the top four teams could decide which team ends as the champion.

The final IndyPRO round will be livestreamed on The Race YouTube channel on Sunday.

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