Maximilian Guenther followed up his win in the trial running of Formula E’s Race at Home Challenge with a heat victory in the The Race All-Star Cup – Fully Charged by ROKiT Phones.
Championship leader Erhan Jajovski and sometime British Touring Car racer Mike Epps took victories in the other heats at US track Lime Rock, using LMP3 cars on rFactor 2.
Epps dominated the opening heat ahead of Renault protege Yifei Ye, while Harry Ticknell held off Tristan Vautier for third.
Williams Formula 1 reserve driver Jack Aitken completed the top five drivers going straight through to this week’s final.
Guenther then controlled the second pro driver heat, keeping Dennis Lind at arm’s length throughout.
World Rallycross star Kevin Hansen completed the podium, with Ed Jones and James Calado the others making it straight into the final.
In the simracers’ heat, last week’s grand final winner Jajovski edged away from Kevin Siggy to secure the win.
Nikodem Wisniewski and Bono Huis – podium finishers in the final in the opening championship round – were third and fourth.
But there was a shock behind as inaugural World’s Fastest Gamer winner Rudy van Buren was unable to make it into the final.
He spent the race pressuring Kuba Brzezinski for the crucial fifth place and could not make it through.
With his Sebring race last week having been wrecked by a clash with Lind in the final, van Buren’s hopes of winning the Cup title are now extremely remote unless this week’s final has a shock outcome.
Gabby Chaves leads the pro drivers in the championship after last week but had a very fraught run to a place in the final at Lime Rock.
He was caught up in a first-lap incident in his heat, then had a bizarre clash with leader Bradley Smith in the Jones Soda Last Chance Qualifying race.
That crash elevated Devlin DeFrancesco into the lead, where he stayed under heavy pressure from Michael Benyahia.
James Pull and Esteban Gutierrez – who had also been delayed on the first lap in the opening heat – were close behind in third and fourth.
Chaves was still able to finish fifth, but Smith was sixth and won’t make the final.
