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The past 12 months have been one of consolidation for the competitive sim racing industry – F1 Sim Racing hung in the balance momentarily, and the Le Mans Virtual Series remains MIA.
Still, there was plenty to enjoy, here are five key moments from 2024 as we look forward to a busy 2025.
5. Tim Jarschel wins DTM Esports Pro Championship 2024 (Raceroom)
With 45 points over Nikodem Wisniewski going into the final round, Tim Jarschel had already done the hard work before visiting the Hockenheimring in the final round of the DTM Esports season.
However, after Leon Rudinger hit the back of the German in Turn 12 of the first race, the championship was thrown wide open. Jarschel finished 15th, reducing the margin to 28 points with one race to go, and putting the pressure back on the Falken Simracing driver.
He got off to a good start, consolidating fourth and pitted early to avoid traffic, which brought him out in fifth. Despite this secure position, he insisted on defending from Marcell Csincsik, even though he didn’t need to, but he was further helped when Gianmarco Fiduci and Wisniewski made contact at the hairpin.
This allowed Jarschel to relax for a few minutes towards the end, as he comfortably made it home to win the 2024 DTM Esports Pro Championship.
4. Brazil sweep Motorsport Games golds in Valencia (iRacing and ACC)
Coming into 2024, Brazil had never won a FIA Motorsport Games gold medal, and for the first time ever, Esports had doubled its offering, with an F4 competition held on iRacing, alongside the GT counterpart on Assetto Corsa Competizione entering its third edition.
In fact, it was the younger brother, the F4s on iRacing, that produced the best racing from the Spa circuit.
In a dramatic final race that was uncertain of its winner right to the final chicane, Luis Felipe de Sa Tavares took a slightly surprise victory ahead of bigger names like Martin Kadlecik and Moritz Lohner, who were also in the competition.
Just a day earlier, Igor Rodrigues had dominated the GT Final, a race in which he never let up his grip on the gold medal. This gave Brazil a historic double, and their first-ever gold medals in any category at the event.
3. Team Redline’s astonishing dominance at the Esports World Cup (Rennsport)
If you’re looking for a team dominant in sim racing, you don’t often look further than Team Redline. Just three days after Kevin Siggy had won the Drivers’ Championship at the Esports World Cup, they also swept the Teams’ title in a way never seen before in ESL R1.
Day Two of action in Riyadh gave the team a 28-point advantage ahead of Finals Day, where they stepped on the gas even harder.
By Race Four they were the only team in Finalist Mode, and by the end of Sunday held 150 more points than second-placed Team Vitality. It was dominance unparalleled, and a display of a team working in full harmony.
2. Frederik Rasmussen finally tastes F1 Esports glory (F1 23)
After finishing runner-up an incredible four times, Frederik Rasmussen was able to win the 2023/24 F1 Esports World Championship. His consistency certainly helped defeat the young hotshot Thomas Ronhaar.
Coming into the last race at Abu Dhabi, he was 13 points up on Ronhaar, and 16 points ahead of Ferrari’s Bari Broumaund, after finishing in the top seven all season long.
Ronhaar converted his pole position into a lead on Lap 1, with Broumand and Rasmussen staying in second and seventh, respectively. After making their early pitstops, Broumand and Ronhaar found themselves stuck behind Rasmussen’s teammate Josh Idowu, bringing them closer to the championship leader who went longer on hard tyres.
The teamwork allowed Rasmussen to get into fourth without much challenge, effectively taking Broumand out of contention, and forcing Ronhaar into a must-win situation.
Despite passing both Ferraris on Lap 22, the battle got too fierce on the penultimate lap, resulting in a small half-spin for Ronhaar, and Haas’ Alfie Butcher running away with the all-important win. Rasmussen’s fourth place was enough in a dramatic championship finale, despite Ronhaar’s resilience and aggression earning him second on the day.
1. The Best Overtime Finish ever (iRacing)
The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Finale from Homestead in October may have produced the best two laps of sim racing you’ll ever see.
In the traditional modern NASCAR format, four drivers had the chance to win $100,000 in a race that produced the most astonishing finish in the series’ history, and after four cautions, we were into Overtime.
2023 champion Steven Wilson had just slipped ahead of Bobby Zalenski before the final caution of the season, with Parker White and Graham Bowlin just behind. Starting from third, Zalenski got the jump on Wilson as the green flag flew as Tucker Minter took off from first in the final restart of the season.
Zalenski got into the side of Minter trying to pass for the lead, allowing Wilson to make it three-wide off of four, and White to eventually make it four-wide at the white flag, creating the most remarkable sim racing pictures of the year. Perhaps ever.
Wilson went far too deep into Turn 1, allowing White and Zalenski to slip below him into first and second. The #18 gave it all he had into three and four, but White survived the shoving, and a graze with the wall, to win
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