It was the fifth and final round of the Formula Sim Racing 2021 IndyPRO championship on 9th January, and a new champion was crowned in the highly rated esports racing series.
The previous round at Apple Valley saw Yuri Kasdorp take the win for Red Bull Racing Esports, but heading into the final race it was set to be a four-way title fight over 300 miles of the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Dennis Jordan held the top spot on 168 points, with Williams Esports’ Petar Brljak two points back and Noah Reuvers a further six adrift. Jan Woznica sat in fourth position on 151 points, so required a stellar race and some misfortune from the front three to stay in the hunt.
Grid positions were decided by the drivers’ fastest average time over four flying laps, and Dennis Jordan stole a march on his championship rivals by securing third. Brljak was next closest in eighth place, with Reuvers and Woznica eleventh and nineteenth respectively. But with slipstreaming, fuel mileage and teamwork to be factored in, the title was far from decided.
With a stellar driver line-up assembled in this rFactor 2-based series, Royal Blue Racing’s Adam Maguire started from pole position. Dennis Jordan’s Red Bull Racing Esports team-mate Yuri Kasdorp joined him on the second row in fourth, so it was advantage Jordan as the green flag waved for the final time this season.
With the race underway, the Red Bull drivers snatched an early advantage with Jordan leading from Kasdorp on lap one, while second place qualifier Daniel Stepkowski tumbled down to fourth. Kasdorp took the lead on lap 12 and immediately set about helping Jordan fuel save. This strategy allowed a recovering Brljak to get a run on Jordan, but with backmarkers in the way it was to prove a fruitless endeavour.
Meanwhile, Liam de Waal – who started the race in tenth position – had made steady progress through the field and saved enough fuel to the extent he was able to pit on the same lap as Jordan. Due to his time spent running in front of Jordan, Kasdorp boxed two or three laps sooner, so he required an extra pit stop over most of his frontrunning rivals. This took him out the lead battle in the closing stages, leaving Jordan to fight off the competition by himself.
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