Six drivers qualified for this edition of the SimRacing Expo’s live tournament in Dortmund, three in each of the PRO and AM classes.
There was nothing unusual about the car/track selection, using the Mercedes GT3 at the Nurburgring GP layout, but Project Motor Racing as a choice for the sim was sure to shake things up.
The drivers had qualified using iRacing, and reportedly spent the early part of the week testing PMR on different displays at the event, as only one hour of testing was allowed on the Asetek rigs used for the event itself.
Events with little practice beforehand always have a little extra spice, and this one certainly didn’t disappoint.
Qualifying was very short, not even enough time to get tyres up to temperature, never mind getting acclimatised to the setup. It was a very late lap from Alessandro Porta, which took the pole, perhaps surprisingly, since in the online qualifying for the event, he’d picked up most of his points from solid reverse grid race finishes rather than pure pace.
His great start would immediately be undone, though, as Balazs Palla came firing down the inside at turn one on the opening lap. As Alessandro Porta had got such a good launch off the line, the Hungarian was coming from a long way back, and sent them both off the road.
This put Palla back to second, but Porta all the way down in fifth, with only Marcell Morocz, who seemed to have technical problems, behind him. AM driver Connor Franssen took the lead, but it only lasted a lap as Palla repeated his turn one dive, this time much more successfully, to take the lead.
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