Lamborghini’s esports competetion “The Real Race” offers the winner the opportunity to become a driver of the official Lamborghini Esports Team and collect a prize of 15.000€. A promising competition which attracts the fastest SimRacers. The first race of the qualifying phase on the Circut de Barcelona-Catalunya offered not only hot asphalt, but also a good portion of racing action.
To get to the final of “The Real Race”, the participants need to get through the group stage. To get into this phase, they have to pass the quali phase as one of the top 20 drivers. This ranking is achieved over the four runs with points distributed from P1 to P20. The participants of the first heat looked similar to those of an SRO or VCO event: From Dáire McCormack to Luke Whitehead or Attila Diner, there was no shortage of strong drivers in the races.
The qualifying races are split into two heats, with the first one being 15 minutes long. The starting positions there will be decided the day before in the closed quali. The second race will be held using a reverse grid where the positions from one to eight will be switched, with a longer a race distance of 45 minutes. A very varied design for an exciting race day.
The winner of both races was Niklas Houben. The German driver from GTWR Academy started the first race from P1 by a successful qualification on Saturday and successfully defended his position against Luke Whitehead who finished behind him in second. The second race went very well for Houben from P8, too: Numerous drivers in front of him made mistakes in the first few laps and offered him the opportunity to catch up to position three. A mistake by McCormack which ended in a collision with Luka Berk gave Houben the chance to move up to second position. With an impressive race pace, he also fought his way past Whitehead for P1 and after 45 minutes, took he was the first to take the checkered flag again.
A very successful race day for Houben. Thanks to the double victory and the associated regulation, he moves directly into the group stage. On July 9th, his championship quest continues in the first races at Kyalami and Spa. For the other participants, the next qualifcation round is scheduled for May 29th at Paul Ricard.
According to Houben, the Hucracan ST ” is definitely a race car with its own quirks.” These need to be mastered in order to be competitive – which the question of who advances to the qualification phase stays exciting for the remaining participants. You can find all the info regard “The Real Race” on the competition´s official website.