Porsche TAG Heuer eSports Supercup returns Saturday – 2022 roster, schedule announced

The Porsche TAG Heuer eSports Supercup (PESC) returns on the iRacing platform this weekend (5th February) with 35 of the best GT road racers on the service competing for their share of this season’s $200,000 prize purse.

Last season, Josh Rogers took the top prize for a second time in the series’ three-year history. Rogers was dominant, winning five Sprint races and five Main races over the 10 race events. He held off Mitchell deJong by nearly 200 points when it was settled.

This season, Rogers, along with Coanda teammates deJong, Tommy Østgaard, Mack Bakkum and Martin Krönke, will not return to the series. That leaves Sebastian Job from Red Bull Racing Esports as the only defending champion in the field for 2022. He’ll go up against the likes of VRS driver Charlie Collins, third overall in 2021, as well as Apex Racing Team’s Kevin Ellis Jr, who also outran Job in the standings by finishing fourth.

A ton of other talented names are taking part in this season’s festivities. Drivers like Maximilian Benecke, who’s been on fire with everything he’s touched in the sim racing world as of late, as well as Ayhancan Güven, a real-world Porsche Supercup competitor. Names familiar from the Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix, like Peter Berryman and Yohann Harth, will compete. Per a social media posting, Jeremy Bouteloup will be competing for the last time.

The series will span 10 weekends from February to June and will feature a Sprint and Main race in each. The series will also have celebrity events prior to the professional races. Those races may include popular sim racers such as Jimmy Broadbent, Matt Malone, Emily Jones and Borja Zazo. Real-world racers will also take part, names such as Laurin Heinrich and Tony Kanaan.

PESC CONTENDER ENDS UP TAKING 20

With the sudden announcement of the departure of five of the top drivers in the series from Coanda, that meant more spots would be filled from the 2021 PESC Contender Series. Originally slated to take the Top 15 with the shrinkage of the field from 40 to 35, it still wound up as 20 overall.

PESC Contender Series champion David Williams, who will be racing for VRS this upcoming season, was stout throughout the Contender after finding himself relegated. Seven of those relegated drivers from the 2021 season were able to get themselves back in. In total, there will be 10 rookie contenders.

Another three drivers, including the 2021 Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix champion Peter Berryman, PESC Qualifying Series winner Gianni Vecchio and eNASCAR Championship 4 contender Bobby Zalenski, were able to qualify back into the series after not competing in the 2021 edition, but competing in prior seasons.

2022 PORSCHE TAG HEUER ESPORTS SUPERCUP ENTRY LIST

TWO, MAYBE THREE NEW TRACKS ON 2022 SCHEDULE

A 10 race schedule, each event with a sprint race and a main race and qualifying points on top of that, is in store for the 2022 season. The season kicks off at a new-to-PESC circuit that released last season, but should be no surprise to anyone – the Hockenheimring. A month and a half later, the Red Bull Ring, another new track on the schedule, will host the fifth race of the season.

There will be a fan vote for the track that will be used for the third race of the season. The tracks up for vote include Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Interlagos, and the Hungaroring. Both Interlagos and Watkins Glen have been on a schedule in the past. Watkins Glen however is brand new for 2022 with an updated scan. Long Beach and the Hungaroring would be completely new to the schedule.

Road Atlanta, Imola, and if it doesn’t win the fan vote, Interlagos, will not be on the 2022 schedule after having a place on the 2021 edition.

2022 PORSCHE TAG HEUER ESPORTS SUPERCUP SCHEDULE

WHERE TO WATCH

PESC will return on the Porsche Twitch account as well as iRacing social media accounts at 12:30 p.m. ET or 17:30 p.m GMT on the Saturdays listed above. We’ll have post-race reports all season long on Traxion.GG every following Monday. Keep it pinned.