Leonardo Passoni won both races in the final round of the ADAC SimRacing Expo Asetek Sim Sports Community Trophy, held at Daytona International Speedway after a community vote.
It still wasn’t enough to beat Leon Harhoff overall though, who would be the comfortable champion. Coming into the event, Harhoff had won four races and held a 137-point lead in the standings to Max Windhausen and Passoni, both of whom would be fighting for second.
Race 1
It was a good start for Passoni, taking pole position, and he fended off a challenge from Windhausen to keep the lead. However, rather bizarrely, Oskar Soprych was released from pit lane early after starting the race from there, putting him in the lead on Lap 1.
It only took around five minutes for Passoni to catch and pass Soprych though, a feat Windhausen and Harhoff also achieved relatively quickly. Windhausen also briefly challenged Passoni for the lead, but he made a mistake at the Bus Stop with three minutes to go and was beaten to second by Harhoff.
Race 2
Because there were only seven drivers in the field, the second race was an entire reverse grid race. That put Julius Wiese on pole, but it only took Max Windhausen four corners to take the lead off him. Soprych repeated his pit lane start trick, gaining the lead again, alongside Sachenring’s race two winner Joe Viglione.
Perhaps realising it was slightly immoral to do this, Viglione seemed to purposely drop out the top five on the opening lap. He also managed to make contact with Alex Forel into the west horseshoe on the third lap, spinning him around and sending them both further down the order.
At the front, the battle to catch Soprych was fierce between Passoni and Windhausen. It was Passoni who overtook Windhausen and got there first, leaving himself eight minutes to make the move.
In towards turn one, Passoni tried to go around the outside of Soprych, but contact was made as they both locked up, and Passoni went wide. Eventually, with three laps left, he’d complete the move.
That was enough for Passoni to win his fourth race of the season, tying him with Harhoff after previous successes at the Lausitzring, where he also took a double victory. Further back, Leon Harhoff seized a fifth-place finish, more than enough to seal the championship ahead of Passoni and Max Windhausen, in third.
In summary, it was a shame to see this series go out with a whimper. Back at the Norisring, albeit under a different format, more than 30 drivers took part in the event, but in the final race just eight.
Racing on Asetto Corsa is unlikely to ever be as popular as iRacing, as we will see for the GT500 competition later on at Sim Expo, but nevertheless, it wasn’t the spectacle some had hoped.
It led to a rather predictable season, with lots of the same race winners, but it’s worth highlighting the breathless second race at the Sachenring, won by Joe Viglione.
He passed Alex Forel on the last lap of a race that included multiple Passoni and Harhoff spins. But that doesn’t take anything away from Harhoff, who was very rarely outside the top two, and thoroughly deserves the Asetek Sim Sports Community Trophy honours.
Asetek SimSports Community Trophy 2024 schedule
Round 1 – 21-July – Norisring
Round 2 – 11-August – Nurburgring Sprint
Round 3 – 01-September – Lausitzring DTM
Round 4 – 15-September – Sachsenring 2022
Round 5 – 18-October – Daytona International Speedway Road Course
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