PESC: Midseason battle at Red Bull Ring gives Jordan Caruso, Gustavo Ariel first career wins

We’re officially halfway in the 2023 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup season after the 30 top road racing drivers on the iRacing service took to the Red Bull Ring on Saturday (1st April).

No fooling around, the racing throughout the fifth event on the season was sublime, with many unknowns through each race all the way down to the final laps. In the All-Stars, Casey Kirwan once again stole the show in the Sprint race, but in the Feature, it was Christian “Keny500” Ortega claiming his first career win.

Over in the Supercup, Altus Esports’ Jordan Caruso came into the race as the points leader despite his inability to find victory lane so far. That all changed in the Sprint when Caruso passed Alejandro Sánchez and held on for the win. Then, in the feature, the Brazilian rookie driver Gustavo Ariel turned heads after winning from 10th place.

KENY500 SCORES FIRST CAREER FEATURE VICTORY; KIRWAN COLLECTS ANOTHER SPRINT WIN

Everything kicked off with the All-Stars event, once again with 14 well-known sim racers from all different platforms taking on the twists and turns in Austria. The season has been dominated by eNASCAR Champion Casey Kirwan, but two weeks ago, perhaps one of his biggest challenges arrived in the form of The Pulpo López.

Kirwan snagged the pole but López managed to snag the lead on the early start of the race. In third, the defending champion Tyson “Quirkitized” Meier stayed attached to the Top 2, ready to pounce at any given notice.

In fact, Quirk did pounce and kicked Kirwan all the way back to third on a few occasions. López was unable to capitalize on it, however, and eventually, Kirwan was back in second and ready to make his move for the lead and win.

In the final laps, Kirwan made the move and López just couldn’t hold on. It wasn’t a photo finish, but it was yet another close call between the two for the top spot as Quirk managed to round out the podium in third.

ALL-STARS: RED BULL RING SPRINT RACE TOP 10 RESULTS

FIN	STA	CAR #	DRIVER	INTERVAL	SPRINT PTS	AGG PTS
1	1	95	Casey Kirwan	10 LAPS	25	28
2	2	504	The Pulpo López	-0.246 sec	20	20
3	3	1	Quirkitized	-0.848 sec	18	18
4	4	51	Emree	-1.264 sec	14	14
5	5	786	Dave Cam	-1.700 sec	12	12
6	7	35	Dan Suzuki	-3.678 sec	10	10
7	6	81	Stradi	-4.437 sec	9	9
8	9	39	Jardier	-4.572 sec	8	8
9	8	23	Heikki360ES	-7.907 sec	7	7
10	11	83	Matt Malone	-13.205 sec	6	6

Chaos was the name of the game in the Feature race, always a toss up when the fast drivers go to the back and some unluckier ones make it to the front. Taking advantage of the invert was “LoveFortySix” who started on the pole position, but taking further advantage was Christian “Keny500” Ortega alongside.

Keny500 managed to take the lead just before LoveFortySix went around just before the carousel. That was just the start of the calamity. Moments later, three of the Top 4 finishers from the Sprint – Quirk, Kirwan and Emily “Emree” Jones – all managed to synchronize spin and lose valuable time.

This allowed for López to take full advantage with no Quirks or Kirwans to slow him down. Keny500 was a sitting duck, and sure enough, López caught him with a few laps to go. López was able to make the move, but heading down the straightaway, the two made contact!

This handed the lead briefly to Jaroslav “Jardier” Honzik, a winner at the Hockenheimring at the start of the season in a similar fashion. While López was out of it, Keny500 was still within distance. On the final lap, Keny500 managed to get by Jardier and take his first career victory.

ALL-STARS: RED BULL RING FEATURE RACE TOP 10 RESULTS

FIN	STA	CAR #	DRIVER	INTERVAL	FT. PTS	TOTAL PTS
1	2	182	Keny500	16 LAPS	25	28
2	7	39	Jardier	-0.192 sec	20	28
3	4	56	Borja Zazo	-1.586 sec	17	22
4	9	35	Dan Suzuki	-8.711 sec	14	24
5	14	95	Casey Kirwan	-9.420 sec	12	40
6	6	23	Heikki360ES	-9.446 sec	10	17
7	12	1	Quirkitized	-9.560 sec	9	27
8	1	46	LoveFortySix	-10.445 sec	8	10
9	3	37	Basic Ollie	-11.402 sec	7	11
10	11	51	Emree	-16.382 sec	6	20

Even with the troubles, Kirwan managed to extend his points lead over 100 points over second place Jardier. Emree and Quirk are tied for third, only one point back of second, with Xabier “Heikki360ES” Sanchez rounding out the Top 5 at current.

The big win for Keny 500 catapults him to eighth on the season so far, 11 points behind Heikki for the fifth position. In between the two sits Borja Zazo in sixth and Basic Ollie in seventh. Dave Cam and Dan Suzuki round out the Top 10 so far.

ALL-STARS: POINTS AFTER EVENT #5 – RED BULL RING

POS	CAR #	DRIVER	SP. WINS	FT. WINS	TOTAL PTS	BEHIND
1	95	Casey Kirwan	3	1	216	LEADER
2	39	Jardier	0	1	114	-102
3	51	Emree	0	0	113	-103
4	1	Quirkitized	0	0	113	-103
5	23	Heikki360ES	0	0	95	-121
6	56	Borja Zazo	0	0	90	-126
7	37	Basic Ollie	0	0	86	-130
8	182	Keny500	0	1	84	-132
9	786	Dave Cam	0	1	83	-133
10	35	Dan Suzuki	0	0	78	-138

MARQUEE RACING AT THE RED BULL RING

While the All-Stars included some uncontrolled chaos in their Feature, both races in the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup at the Red Bull Ring were controlled, yet intense. A longer-form race in terms of laps lent itself to more possibilities of penalties from incidents as well.

For the second week in a row, Alejandro Sánchez managed to score the pole position over the rest of the contenders. Jordan Caruso, Zac Campbell, Diogo Pinto and Julien Soenen rounded out the Top 5 and all took points home before the racing began.

THE SPRINT RACE

Sánchez led the field off the starting line in a fairly clean start. Only one driver managed to go spinning on the opening lap, and the leaders were able to show room as well as give it.

Campbell was the first to fall off the podium, losing the spot to Pinto early on. Caruso, in second, reacted by taking the lead away from Sánchez a few laps later as Pinto closed in for the spot.

Sánchez tried his best to hold off Pinto as well, but the defending PESC champion was too strong, moving around the bright yellow Stormforce Racing ART machine, bringing the likes of Sebastian Job and Campbell around eventually as well.

Pinto kept Caruso honest, but it wasn’t meant to be for the 2022 champion.

The 2023 leader was able to hang on for the remainder of the race and take his first career victory.

Meanwhile, for the transfer, things got physical when Bryn Collins was moved out of the groove by Jamie Fluke. This allowed Fluke to finish seventh while Moreno Sirica held off his Williams Esports teammate Alessandro Bico.

PESC: RED BULL RING SPRINT RACE TOP 10 RESULTS

FIN	STA	CAR #	DRIVER	TEAM	INTERVAL	PTS	AGG PTS
1	2	12	Jordan Caruso	Altus Esports	10 LAPS	25	33
2	4	1	Diogo C. Pinto	Team Redline	+1.152 sec	22	26
3	6	22	Sebastian Job	Oracle Red Bull Racing Esports	+2.037 sec	20	20
4	3	15	Zac Campbell	VRS Coanda Esports	+2.548 sec	18	24
5	1	47	Alejandro Sánchez	Stormforce Racing ART	+3.424 sec	16	26
6	5	40	Julien Soenen	R8G Esports	+3.880 sec	15	17
7	7	49	Jamie Fluke	Apex Racing Team	+5.223 sec	14	14
8	10	69	Moreno Sirica	Williams Esports	+5.520 sec	13	13
9	11	77	Alessandro Bico	Williams Esports	+5.659 sec	12	12
10	13	21	Gustavo Ariel	TXC Racing by TK	+6.171 sec	11	11

THE FEATURE RACE

Sirica started on the pole position, but it didn’t long for Fluke to take the point. Fluke built a decent lead early on, however, his Apex teammate Sánchez was formidable, cutting through the field quick and painlessly with help from Pinto.

Before halfway, Fluke was moved aside by Sánchez and Pinto as the pair began to pull away from the field. For a good number of laps, the two had a sizeable lead, but then Pinto decided it was time for him to go.

The ensuing battle between Sánchez and Pinto allowed the field of Soenen, Gustavo Ariel and Campbell to close back in for a shot at the lead.

Heading out of the final corner, up the straight and into Turn 1 with only a few laps to go, Pinto, Sánchez and Soenen all managed to compromise their lines. One driver, Ariel, continued to hit his marks, and out of Turn 1, the Brazilian rookie contender had taken the lead.

Soenen fell out of the equation, but Sánchez was still right on the rookie. Ariel didn’t flinch, and the rookie sensation managed to score his first career victory with Sánchez and Pinto rounding out the podium steps.

PESC: RED BULL RING FEATURE RACE TOP 10 RESULTS

FIN	STA	CAR #	DRIVER	TEAM	INTERVAL	PTS	TOTAL PTS
1	10	21	Gustavo Ariel	TXC Racing by TK	20 LAPS	50	61
2	4	47	Alejandro Sánchez	Stormforce Racing ART	+0.916 sec	45	71
3	7	1	Diogo C. Pinto	Team Redline	+1.505 sec	40	66
4	5	15	Zac Campbell	VRS Coanda Esports	+1.968 sec	37	61
5	2	49	Jamie Fluke	Apex Racing Team	+2.723 sec	34	48
6	3	40	Julien Soenen	R8G Esports	+2.895 sec	31	48
7	25	93	Charlie Collins	VRS Coanda Esports	+3.041 sec	28	28
8	15	4	Salva Talens	Stormforce Racing ART	+3.734 sec	26	32
9	21	90	Yohann Harth	Stormforce Racing ART	+4.174 sec	24	24
10	1	69	Moreno Sirica	Williams Esports	+4.905 sec	22	35

POINTS STANDINGS LEAVING AUSTRIA

Lost in the battle for the Feature win was the lack of pace from the points leader Caruso. Mired back in the eighth starting spot for the Feature, eventually his luck ran out and he was collected in a Cooper Webster spin.

Caruso’s main rival entering the night was Charlie Collins, and despite a strong seventh place finish in the Feature, his night was tough from the get go. Collins crossed the line in 10th in the Sprint, but he was relegated to 25th after a penalty of time was applied.

With both title leaders having issues and Pinto picking up a pair of podiums, the race for the championship is now again a three horse race with Caruso still leading.

Back in fourth is now Sánchez, leap frogging the two Red Bulls to go from sixth to fourth. Job falls to fifth after an incident penalty served in the Feature and Webster’s spin sent him down to sixth.

Campbell picks up one spot, moving to seventh with Yohann Harth now trailing further in eighth. Fluke and Soenen round out the Top 10.

PESC: POINTS AFTER EVENT #5 – RED BULL RING

POS	CAR #	DRIVER	TEAM	SP. WINS	FT. WINS	T5s	TOTAL PTS
1	12	Jordan Caruso	Altus Esports	1	0	8	302*
2	93	Charlie Collins	VRS Coanda Esports	0	1	6	271
3	1	Diogo C. Pinto	Team Redline	1	1	7	270*
4	47	Alejandro Sánchez	Stormforce Racing ART	1	0	6	224*
5	22	Sebastian Job	Oracle Red Bull Racing Esports	0	1	6	213*
6	37	Cooper Webster	Oracle Red Bull Racing Esports	0	0	3	185
7	15	Zac Campbell	VRS Coanda Esports	1	1	4	184
8	90	Yohann Harth	Stormforce Racing ART	0	0	2	169*
9	49	Jamie Fluke	Apex Racing Team	0	0	2	136*
10	40	Julien Soenen	R8G Esports	0	0	0	107*

UP NEXT: EMPIRE STATE OF MIND, WATKINS GLEN EDITION

There’s only a single week of break in-between the Red Bull Ring and our next course on the schedule, Watkins Glen International. The race is scheduled to take place on 8th April.

The broadcast will be primarily advertised for the Porsche Motorsports social channels, although like eNASCAR, it will also find itself on the iRacing social channels. The broadcast kicks off around 2:00 pm ET / 6:00 pm GMT / 7:00 pm BST for the All-Stars while the World Championship goes off an hour later.

2023 PORSCHE TAG HEUER ESPORTS SUPERCUP SCHEDULE

EVENT	DATE	VENUE	Sprint Laps	Feature Laps
1	4-Feb	Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg	9	18
2	18-Feb	Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours	10	20
3	4-Mar	Long Beach – FAN VOTE WINNER	13	26
4	18-Mar	Circuit of the Americas	8	16
5	1-Apr	Red Bull Ring	10	20
6	8-Apr	Watkins Glen International	11	22
7	22-Apr	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	6	12
8	6-May	Nürburgring Combined	3	4
9	20-May	Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans	3	6
10	3-Jun	Autodromo Nazionale Monza	7	14