GB take first win of Porsche Club Battle

The two iconic Porsche Clubs from the USA & UK went head to head in what was another fantastic esports event. There has certainly been a huge awareness drawn to sim racing since most countries are currently in a lockdown situation, with Porsche drivers and simracers competing on the virtual track. Porsche Clubs around the world are well known and respected for their events held throughout the year, whilst race meetings, cars & coffee and Porsche festivals might be currently out of the picture, members for the PCA & PCGB are set to take on the virtual challenge.

Matthew Dorrington dominated today's race, the first of two in the E-Sport International Sim Racing Challenge at Silverstone Drivers from the Porsche Club GB and the Porsche Club North America which includes drivers from Canada will go head-to-head in two races, Silverstone and Road America the following week. 

Dorrington started from pole position and was joined on the front row by Jeff Lewis and Jason Lisner, but during the first lap Lisner collided with Lewis resulting in a stop-go penalty for Lisner, this promoted Michael Polasek into third. 

The early phase of the race saw a number of incidents with big-name drivers all falling out of contention during the opening laps. The contest settled down thereafter with Dorrington consistently edging away to win by a comfortable 5 seconds from Lewis. Lewis was comfortable in second place and was closing on the leader until a collision put him back into fourth with only 5 minutes to go. 

Dorrington was not out of danger as traffic came into play on the final few laps with Polasek and Paiz looking to close the gap. He held on to the lead and took the win with Polasek in second and Paiz in third. Jeff Lewis came home in fourth. William Chadwick taking fifth after an impressive fight back through the field and Mark Phillips took sixth. The next race in this two-part mini series will take place next Saturday (23 May) at Road America.  

Matthew Dorrington: “I'm chuffed to bits to be honest. I was pushed hard towards the end there, I gained some time during the pit-stop and that gave me a little bit of breathing room. Unfortunately, there was the incident behind me that put an end to the challenge. I was looking after fuel and tyres in the first stint, I’d done a lot of testing and I knew I would be struggling with the tyres at the end so I knew I had to look after them. I like Road America so next week should be fun although I have not driven it before in an RSR.”

Michael Polasek:  “To be honest I felt like I had race winning pace today but unfortunately my PC and wheel said otherwise, every maybe 5 to 20 seconds or so my wheel would completely lose all steering including button control and gearing that's why I went off a few times and I had to drive slower due to that problem so I got screwed over with this. It was very scary knowing that this could happen at any time, so I had to do my best with it. Road America is a completely different racetrack, I will get my PC problem sorted out and take the top step there but it's not going to be an easy race.”