The halfway point of the ADAC SimRacingExpo Professional Trophy by SimRacing.GP saw the teams and drivers head to the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, as another action-packed six hours of racing awaited all that were competing, along with this watching it all unfold.
And with it came our third different winner in as many races, as the #149 YAS Heat crew of George Boothby, Maciej Malinowski and Mikhail Statsenko would use the Honda NSX GT3 for the second round in a row to win by a commanding 1 minute and 11 seconds after 153 laps of the 7.004-km circuit, that had its fair share of changeable weather over the course of the race. They also scored an additional five points for securing pole position.
The Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo would also be a firm favourite with many of the teams, as the Italian brand rounded out the remainder of the top four, with GTWR GO Setups’ trio of Luke Whitehead, Amir Hosseini and Andrea Miatto taking the runner-up spot in the #21. They would finish ahead of Bathurst winners TRITON Racing in the #10, as it was another strong result for Dominik Blajer, Max Wojtyna and Mateusz Tyszkiewicz.
Williams Esports in the #124 Ferrari would not only keep themselves in the mix for the battle for top honours for most of the race, eventually placing fourth, with Tinko van der Velde picking up the RIG Fastest Lap award for the event for setting a 2:16.615, as he partnered with Dáire McCormack and Igor de Oliveira Rodrigues.
BMW G2 Esports’ line-up of Robbie Stapleford, Isaac Price and Charlie Crossland would round out the top five as the highest placed of a small handful of BMWs that took to the grid, finishing almost 20 seconds ahead of the #14 Unicorns of Love McLaren 720S GT3, who were hit with a late penalty, denying Tobias Pfeffer, Leon Otocki and Bastian Richter of a podium result.
The Wippermann Racing trio of Luis Roters, Jura Petritchenko and Jakob Ostermann would secure their best finish so far in seventh, and with it came a substantial number of points for the #11 McLaren, with KKrämer Racing eSports’ Marco Bischoff, Marc Balzer and Noah Eder securing eighth.
Virtualdrivers by TX3’s #72 Ferrari took ninth, driven by Valentin Barrier, Krzysztof Mączkowski and Corentin Wilga, as Lithuanian squad Beaver Grease Racing not only continued their good run of form by rounding out the top ten, but the trio of Grantas Kareckas, Mantas Povilaitis and Tadas Juknevicius also took the win for the Qualifier class in the process.
After three rounds, TRITON have a slender two-point lead ahead of Williams Esports, with Unicorns Of Love still in the top three. YAS Heat are equal on points with the German squad, but are fourth based out previous results, whilst Virtualdrivers by TX3 complete the top five in the overall standings.
With two wins in the Qualifier Class, Beaver Grease Racing extend their lead to six points in front of WPS Racing Team, whilst Team Racing Point, Simware.PRO by VDES and FTW Racing Team complete the top five.
The Gauteng region in South Africa will be the next destination for our teams and drivers, as Kyalami will host the penultimate round on October 16th, just under two months before the Nürburgring finale itself takes place live from the ADAC SimRacingExpo itself on December 3rd.