IMSA Michelin EGC Round 1 Race Recap
It was an eventful Sunday in virtual Braselton Georgia at Road Atlanta, 44 entries consisting of the world's biggest Esports team's were set to take the grid for the opening round of the Official IMSA Esports Michelin Global Championship on iRacing. The hand selected entry made for one of the most competitive grids you are going to find on the service. At the start of the race the SOF in the GTD category was 7.9K. DeltaSport was invited to participate representing Porsche which plays perfectly with our partnership with Hardpoint who races Porsche in the real IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship. Registration quickness by team manager Bryan Vorce ensured that the entry would be suited with the #99 as the team does in the real thing further making the entry into the series that much more cooler. (Apex Racing typically use's #99 and down)
Christophe Herbigneaux and Alessandro De Tullio were announced as primary drivers for the #99 with Carl Modoff being the only registered joker driver currently. De Tullio who recently made his return to the team after a years stint at R8G has been looking to get back in the action and has always shown great pace in the GTD category. Herbigneaux, the teams premier open wheel and prototype driver has recently made a transition to the GTD and has shown great progress and with all the time he has spent in the category it was an easy selection for Vorce to make. Modoff is a well known master in the GTD having finished in 2nd place of the Bathurst 12HR official event finishing ahead of the likes of Max Verstappen in 2020. He has been slowly getting back to the sim life after some changes in the world outside of simracing.
Alessandro had qualifying duties despite having limited time to prepare for the event, De Tullio was 7th fastest in practice but struggled with the car in qualifying submitting times that were .4xx slower then the times previously clocked. The #99 would take the grid in 24th and De Tullio would remain as the driver for the start. Chaos would be waste no time, with confusion in the front of the pack coming to the green the pack became bundled up, the 2nd and 3rd rows would check the entire field up after getting bumped from early jumps right before the leaders accelerated which the rear of the field was on top of so this caused the middle of the pack to be a cluster while the rear of the field would choose to fly by on the outside. This caused De Tullio to shoot up to 16th place before the braking zone for turn 1.
Within the first hour Race Control started handing out penalties for the start and our #99 was given a drive through penalty for "jump starting" along with others which was surrounded with a bit of controversy and confusion but none the less the team charged on, head down and focused on recovering what was possible. The car would pick up some racing damage which hindered pace for most of the race and survived being doored into the outer wall in turn 1 by a TCR. Christophe Herbigneaux who jumped in after De Tullio's opening stint would bring home the #99 in 21st place which isn't where we wanted to finish but its something we can take notes from and look to build off from heading to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca next Sunday.
Carl Modoff could be making his series debut along side Herbigneaux as De Tullio has been confirmed unavailable for the race by Vorce. This would be the first time the 2 would be paired together since Christophe's LMP2 days.
Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca (Full)
Weather: Dynamic
Broadcast Information
VCO YouTube: https://v-c-o.info/imsa-r1-live
VCO Twitch: https://twitch.tv/vcoesports
iRacing Twitch: https://twitch.tv/iracing
Standings
For high resolution photos and usage please Contact Us.