On a weekend where the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps took place, there was also virtual action with the Sports Car Open 24 Hours of Spa held on the iRacing Platform. The car-based pre-qualifying format, with up to 54 entries in total and 9 slots available for each manufacturer, it ensured a competitive and varied showcase of cars. Porsche had limited representation on the entry list but fans were looking to the well respected VRS Coanda Simsport sister cars and R8G Esports to provide the action at the front. There was also entries from PorscheSport eSports, who were participating in arguably their most competitive race to date. Moradness Satellite eStars and Race Clutch made up the final Porsche teams for the endurance event.

The #91 Coanda Simsport piloted by Mitchell deJong, Joshua Rogers, Paschalis Gkergkis and Jeremy Bouteloup lined up on the front row alongside their sister #92 LEGO® Technic Esports Porsche driven by Mack Bakkum, Charlie Collins, Tommy Østgaard and Dayne Warren. As the greens lights signalled the start of the 24 hours, it was clear the Coanda Simsport Porsche’s would be put under immense pressure from the Ferrari’s of MSI eSports, as they were immediately under attack. The balance of performance looked to be hindering the Porsche teams throughout the opening stages, although the R8G Esports driver by Julien Soenen, Quentin Vialatte, Thibault Cazaubon and Vlad Khimichev were holding their own in the top ten. Further down the field, the PorscheSport eSports team starting from 20th position were able to hold their position, with rising star Jacob Tofts at the wheel. An early retirement for the Race Clutch team left only 4 Porsche teams in the race, this would be the only retirement the manufacturer would see throughout the event.

It was a strong performance from all of the Porsche teams, the Coanda Simsport #91 & #92 hardly put a foot wrong but were unable to find the pace in the car and the strategy to fight for overall victory, which many fans may have expected to see heading into the event. Even with a clean race, a P5 and P6 were all the team who are based out of Germany could manage. Meanwhile the newcomers, PorscheSport eSports, had a fight on their hands for the majority of the race. In such a competitive field, the battles for a top 20 position were entertaining many of the fans on RaceSpot TV. Ryan Parkins, William Chadwick and Jacob Tofts had a near perfect race and came home in 18th position. The team who are backed by porschesport.com showcased that they could compete at this level at the first time of asking and provided some entertaining battles.

Joshua Rogers, Coanda Simsport 91: “P5 at the line after what was a gruelling 24 hours of racing! Overall our VRS Coanda Simsport Porsche 911 GT3R was strong but not strong enough to fight for the podium places. We didn’t put a foot wrong and pushed our absolute hardest so we can still be proud of our result! We’ll be back for the next one!”

Jacob Tofts, PorscheSport eSports #31: “We can all be happy with eighteenth, for our first time in a field this strong, finishing in the top half is a great result. It was great to have two Coanda Simsport Porsche’s in the race to use as a reference, there were points in the morning where we were able to stick with them, helping us save some extra fuel and move up the order. Unfortunately, we just missed out on seventeenth, the car ahead got lucky and came out of the pits behind one of the leaders at the final round of stops and were able to utilise them to pull away.”

Imagery: improvised design