Nick Tandy scores victory for Porsche at the virtual Road America

Nick Tandy
Nick Tandy

Porsche works driver Nick Tandy has won round four of the IMSA iRacing Pro Series in Elkhart Lake (USA).

The experienced British racing driver put in an inspired performance at the wheel of his virtual No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR to cross the finish line at Road America with a lead of 2.845 seconds. During the 90-minute race on the iRacing online racing simulation platform, Tandy kept out of trouble in the tight and at times turbulent race to notch up the maiden victory for Porsche in the digital IMSA racing series. In the lead-up to the race, Tandy had garnered valuable tips from Joshua Rogers (Australia), the reigning champion of the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup.

Porsche Junior Ayhancan Güven, however, was struck by major misfortune. After putting in a strong drive, the young junior driver from Turkey was running second behind his Porsche colleague Tandy. With around 19 minutes on the clock, his No. 913 Porsche 911 RSR sustained significant damages after making contact with a backmarker. Guven, who underlined his great skill as a sim racer by turning the fastest race lap by a convincing margin, was unable to continue.

One of the most impressive performances came from the American Shinya Michimi. The seasoned online driver from Ohio concluded the race in the Porsche 911 RSR entered by Meyer Shank Racing in fourth place.

The reigning IMSA champions Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) and Earl Bamber (New Zealand) crossed the finish line in positions 21 and 24. Canada’s Robert Wickens celebrated a strong debut at the wheel of the virtual Porsche 911 RSR fielded by Pfaff Motorsports. The former DTM driver, who is fighting his way back into racing after a serious IndyCar accident, finished on 27th place.

QUOTES

Nick Tandy (Porsche 911 RSR #911): “That was great fun! If you’re competitive and win, that always puts you in a good mood, of course. I’ll go to bed tonight feeling very happy. I got a bit nervous during the last laps because I had a few glitches with my computer. The screen kept going blank, but it all turned out ok in the end. A huge thank you to Joshua Rogers. Our reigning champion of the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup gave me a lot of very helpful tips over the past few days. It paid off."

Results

Pos St Car Driver Team Vehicle Laps Gap Status
1 2 911 Nick Tandy Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR 42 -00.000 Running
2 10 7 Bruno Spengler BMW IMSA Team Red BMW M8 GTE 42 -02.845 Running
3 11 26 Philipp Eng Team Austria BMW M8 GTE 42 -13.658 Running
4 14 86 Shinya Michimi Meyer Shank Racing Porsche 911 RSR 42 -16.892 Running
5 12 23 John Edwards BMW IMSA Team Black BMW M8 GTE 42 -18.169 Running
6 4 80 Kenton Koch Kenton Koch Racing Ford GT – 2017 42 -21.942 Running
7 8 96 Robby Foley Turner Motorsport BMW M8 GTE 42 -22.188 Running
8 6 25 Connor De Phillippi BMW IMSA Team Red BMW M8 GTE 42 -23.067 Running
9 9 10 Nicky Catsburg BMW IMSA Team Black BMW M8 GTE 42 -23.427 Running
10 30 60 AJ Allmendinger Meyer Shank Racing Porsche 911 RSR 42 -24.456 Running
11 17 38 Kyle Masson Performance Tech BMW M8 GTE 42 -27.234 Running
12 27 97 Shane van Gisbergen AIM Vasser Sullivan BMW M8 GTE 42 -31.451 Running
13 16 55 Harry Tincknell Mazda Motorsports Ford GT – 2017 42 -34.701 Running
14 1 47 Rodrigo Pflucker Precision Performance Ford GT – 2017 42 -34.818 Running
15 13 67 Richard Westbrook Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT – 2017 42 -36.946 Running
16 26 85 Tristan Vautier JDC-Miller MotorSports BMW M8 GTE 42 -37.785 Running
17 25 70 Daniel Morad WRT Speedstar Ford GT – 2017 42 -38.827 Running
18 37 48 Corey Lewis Paul Miller Racing BMW M8 GTE 42 -45.019 Running
19 7 24 Jesse Krohn BMW IMSA Team Black BMW M8 GTE 42 -48.848 Running
20 5 11 Richard Heistand GRT Grasser Ford GT – 2017 42 -49.473 Running
21 21 912 Laurens Vanthoor Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR 42 -52.529 Running
22 41 79 Roman De Angelis Heart of Racing Team BMW M8 GTE 42 -59.162 Running
23 36 57 Misha Goikhberg Meyer Shank Racing Porsche 911 RSR 42 -1:09.491 Running
24 19 91 Earl Bamber Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR 42 -1:14.008 Running
25 45 82 Joel Miller Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE 42 -1:15.526 Running
26 48 12 Townsend Bell AIM Vasser Sullivan BMW M8 GTE 42 -1:19.216 Running
27 40 9 Robert Wickens PFAFF Motorsports Porsche 911 RSR 42 -1:22.785 Running
28 33 64 Jeffrey Segal Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE 42 -1:47.629 Running
29 15 66 Agustin Canapino Juncos Racing Ferrari 488 GTE 41 -1 L Running
30 43 19 Parker Chase Vertical Bridge Porsche 911 RSR 41 -1 L Running
31 38 62 Matt Griffin Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE 37 -5 L Running
32 39 53 Riley Dickinson Moorespeed Porsche 911 RSR 35 -7 L Running
33 24 71 Matt Bell Rebel Rock Racing BMW M8 GTE 34 -8 L Running
34 3 913 Ayhancan Güven Porsche Junior Porsche 911 RSR 33 -9 L Running
35 44 33 Ben Keating Riley Motorsports Porsche 911 RSR 33 -9 L Running
36 22 77 Tristan Nunez Mazda Motorsports Ford GT – 2017 28 -14 L Disconnected
37 20 111 Sebastian Priaulx Multimatic Ford Ford GT – 2017 28 -14 L Disconnected
38 32 14 Jack Hawksworth AIM Vasser Sullivan BMW M8 GTE 27 -15 L Running
39 34 54 Colin Braun Era Motorsports Ford GT – 2017 26 -16 L Disconnected
40 29 888 Mirko Bortolotti WRT Speedstar Ford GT – 2017 25 -17 L Disconnected
41 35 31 Felipe Nasr Action Express Racing BMW M8 GTE 25 -17 L Disconnected
42 23 3 Jonathan Bomarito Mazda Motorsports Ford GT – 2017 23 -19 L Disqualified
43 47 014 Michael De Quesada AIM Vasser Sullivan BMW M8 GTE 17 -25 L Disconnected
44 46 35 Dylan Murry Riley Motorsports Porsche 911 RSR 14 -28 L Disqualified
45 28 63 Alessandro Balzan Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE 13 -29 L Disconnected
46 18 22 Filipe Albuquerque Whelen Action Express Ford GT – 2017 11 -31 L Disconnected
47 31 140 Aaron Telitz AIM Vasser Sullivan BMW M8 GTE 2 -40 L Disconnected
48 42 41 Will Hardeman Will Hardeman Racing Ford GT – 2017 0 -42 L Disconnected