Rogers Returns to Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup Winner’s Circle in Le Mans
Joshua Rogers’ return to form in the 2021 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup had the Australian on the path to a second championship well before Saturday’s visit to Circuit de la Sarthe for the ninth round of the season. When the checkered flag fell, though, it removed just about any remaining doubt.
After qualifying on pole, Rogers swept both the sprint and feature races on the penultimate round of the campaign, with Tommy Ostgaard and Zac Campbell completing the podium in the main event behind him. As it stands, Rogers merely needs to wait it out until the finale from Autodromo Nazionale Monza in two weeks’ time to officially accept his second series championship.
But to wrap the story up there is to make it sound like Rogers had a walk in the park on Saturday. Defending series champion and past series winner at Le Mans, Sebastian Job, made sure that wasn’t the case in the sprint race, mounting an impressive challenge that enabled him to lead part of the final lap. Unfortunately for Job, however, Rogers would return the favor, and eke out a victory by the razor-thin margin of .093 seconds in the drag race to the finish line.
The top eight would take their normal invert for the feature race, and that made for great news for Mitchell deJong, whose sixth place sprint finish put him third on the grid and allowed him to make quick work of taking the lead. Still seeking his second victory of the season, the American would initially weather challenges from both Rogers and Ostgaard in the second half of the six-lap race. However, an unlucky spin in the Porsche Corners on the final lap after multiple cars made contact opened the door for Rogers to score the sweep, as deJong limped home to 22nd place.
In the All-Star race preceding the Supercup action, six different drivers took podium finishes across the two races. Emily “Emree” Jones took the win in the sprint race ahead of Borja Zazo and Heikki360, while Dan Suzuki held off Tony Kanaan and Matt Malone in the feature.
Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup feature results from Circuit de la Sarthe were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Driver |
Laps |
Interval |
Led |
Best |
Pts. |
| 1 | 8 | 92 | Joshua K Rogers | 6 | 1 | 4:01.709 | 85 | |
| 2 | 9 | 58 | Tommy Østgaard | 6 | -0.513 | 0 | 4:01.986 | 57 |
| 3 | 10 | 15 | Zac Campbell | 6 | -1.962 | 0 | 4:01.890 | 51 |
| 4 | 12 | 69 | Moreno Sirica | 6 | -3.148 | 0 | 4:02.248 | 46 |
| 5 | 11 | 30 | Kevin Ellis Jr | 6 | -3.516 | 0 | 4:02.164 | 44 |
| 6 | 13 | 5 | Martin Krönke | 6 | -4.783 | 0 | 4:01.933 | 39 |
| 7 | 15 | 31 | David Williams | 6 | -4.868 | 0 | 4:01.558 | 34 |
| 8 | 2 | 77 | Jeremy Bouteloup | 6 | -5.320 | 0 | 4:01.451 | 40 |
| 9 | 5 | 57 | Dayne Warren | 6 | -5.681 | 0 | 4:02.279 | 46 |
| 10 | 18 | 7 | Jeff Giassi | 6 | -5.733 | 0 | 4:01.507 | 25 |
| 11 | 19 | 312 | Daniel Lafuente | 6 | -5.857 | 0 | 4:01.489 | 22 |
| 12 | 16 | 99 | Mikkel Gade | 6 | -6.217 | 0 | 4:01.611 | 23 |
| 13 | 21 | 729 | Maxim Ramsteijn | 6 | -6.974 | 0 | 4:01.687 | 16 |
| 14 | 6 | 93 | Charlie Collins | 6 | -7.238 | 0 | 4:02.099 | 42 |
| 15 | 28 | 107 | Tuomas Tähtelä | 6 | -9.634 | 0 | 4:01.823 | 12 |
| 16 | 17 | 43 | Brian Lockwood | 6 | -10.384 | 0 | 4:02.762 | 14 |
| 17 | 31 | 18 | Sindre Setsaas | 6 | -10.643 | 0 | 4:01.446 | 9 |
| 18 | 32 | 51 | Josh Thompson | 6 | -10.970 | 0 | 4:01.795 | 8 |
| 19 | 30 | 4 | Salva Talens | 6 | -11.659 | 0 | 4:01.357 | 7 |
| 20 | 22 | 33 | Ricardo Castro Ledo | 6 | -11.842 | 0 | 4:02.442 | 6 |
| 21 | 4 | 49 | Jamie Fluke | 6 | -13.596 | 0 | 4:02.075 | 23 |
| 22 | 3 | 24 | Mitchell deJong | 6 | -14.684 | 5 | 4:02.182 | 19 |
| 23 | 14 | 911 | Ayhancan Guven | 6 | -15.831 | 0 | 4:03.302 | 10 |
| 24 | 20 | 11 | Maximilian Benecke | 6 | -16.734 | 0 | 4:01.677 | 3 |
| 25 | 26 | 119 | Pekka Tuomainen | 6 | -17.055 | 0 | 4:03.861 | 1 |
| 26 | 33 | 10 | Jack Sedgwick | 6 | -18.988 | 0 | 4:02.087 | 0 |
| 27 | 29 | 16 | Mack Bakkum | 6 | -25.233 | 0 | 4:01.827 | 0 |
| 28 | 1 | 121 | Diogo C. Pinto | 6 | -27.326 | 0 | 4:01.917 | 13 |
| 29 | 27 | 47 | Alejandro Sánchez | 5 | -1 L | 0 | 4:01.816 | 0 |
| 30 | 24 | 211 | Thibault Cazaubon | 5 | -1 L | 0 | 4:01.902 | 0 |
| 31 | 7 | 1 | Sebastian Job | 5 | -1 L | 0 | 4:01.938 | 28 |
| 32 | 23 | 13 | Alexander Wolters | 3 | -3 L | 0 | 4:02.188 | 0 |
| 33 | 25 | 8 | Graham Carroll | 2 | -4 L | 0 | 4:01.800 | 0 |
Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup points through nine rounds are as follows:
- Joshua Rogers, 600
- Mitchell deJong, 407
- Sebastian Job, 395
- Kevin Ellis Jr., 349
- Dayne Warren, 346
- Charlie Collins, 342
- Tommy Ostgaard, 313
- Zac Campbell, 311
- Maximilian Benecke, 271
- Graham Carroll, 257
The 2021 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup season will conclude in Monza on April 24. Coverage kicks off at 2PM ET with the All-Star action, and continues with the sim racing pros at 3PM ET. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.
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