The official 2019 British GT eSports Championship sees the world’s fastest teams on Forza Motorsport compete in seven iconic racing circuits renowned for bringing the best of GT racing in motorsport. Split across 6 months, drivers in high specification GT3 and GT4 sportscars compete in one of the most balanced motorsports series worldwide.
With a new format for the third round of the British GT eSports Championship on Forza Motorsport 7, GT3 and GT4 entries competed in a single race at the UK’s Silverstone Circuit for an exhausting 30 laps of nose-to-tail action with thrills and upsets inbetween.
GT3 Category
Following last round’s defeat at Catalunya, Williams Esports took back charge of the GT3 field with pole position in qualifying by Michael ‘RR’ Coyne in the Aston Martin V12 Vantage, starting directly infront of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG driven by Jacob Bowkett of Aerox Motorsport. Privateer ‘Chxzmo’ surprised spectators starting 3rd on the grid after a blistering hotlap pace in a field split by only one second across the top ten players.
Lights went green and Michael Coyne (‘Williams RR’) made the perfect start by creating a gap from the pack, although positions 2-6 were under hot fire as fellow Williams driver Mitch picked off Chxzmo and Bowkett to climb into second place whilst third Williams muskateer ‘Seven’ struggled among other mid-pack drivers.
Despite a superb start on the grid in third, the rising star Chxzmo’s appeared under immense pressure from the experienced drivers of Williams and Solar Vision Racing, a team he had recently left. Whilst under fire from Round 2 winner Alexandre ‘Asix’ Arnou of France in the Lamborghini Huracán, Chaxmo suffered a demotion to 6th place. However, an early pit strategy brought him back into contention ahead of Asix whose Lamborghini lacked the same low-end acceleration that saw him dominate at Catalunya last month.
Amidst all of this battling, Solar Vision Racing’s ‘Solar’ capitalised on a consistent drive in his own Aston Martin GT3 and despite some compromised pace in the later stages whilst working through heavy GT4 traffic, the British driver crossed the line in 4th position, making yet another solid performance in the series amidst fierce competition.
Jacob Bowkett showed up with a pace to challenge the Williams gang, however an error early on cost him time. Bowkett opted for an early pit visit and set scorching laps to climb back up the order and pressed on to a respectable podium place in 3rd behind Mitch in 2nd and Williams privateer RR/RoadRunner running with a dominant win with stark distance ahead of the competition in what is unquestionably his strongest performance of 2019 so far. Following Round 3 at Silverstone, Williams eSports, who further cement their hold on the GT3 championship as one of the world’s new elite racing teams on the Forza franchise.
GT4 Category
Silverstone brought the most exciting and tightest GT4 racing so far as audiences saw a fight for first between Japspeed Racing in the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S and Aerox Motorsport’s Mercedes-AMG GT R going nose to tail all race long.
Aerox’s Vettel scored an impressive pole position in qualifying with the grippy Mercedes, however was soon under pressure from GT4 championship leader Daniel Southby (JSR South) whose punchy Aston Martin proved unstoppable on the Wellington and Hangar Straights, whilst Vettle made the ground up in sector 1 and the fast bends of Maggots & Beckets complex.
A 5-way fight occurred mid-pack from the opening laps between Alien Motorsport riders ‘Huracan’ and ‘MeaD 212’ against The Usual Suspect’s ‘TUS Barcode’, ‘AMR Blackout’ and Aerox Motorsport’s Bobby with positions changing between the group every few laps. Elbows were out with all drivers gritting through sketchy moments whilst under threat of each others’ lunges and cut-backs in sector 1’s Village complex. This continued for over 20 laps until the pack finally spread out into order, with ‘Barcode’ appearing to miss out the most as his fast pace appeared heavily compromised from fatigue as his consistency cost him a few valuable spots towards the closing laps.
Further up the field, team AMR were proudly represented with Lawrence’s Mercedes in 3rd position for the majority for the race whilst South’s team mate for Japspeed Racing Chris ‘Craviator’ Farkas chased down the Mercedes and then pulled ahead to take the position in what was to be a strong comeback after a lackluster qualifying. After 30 laps and just one more sector to go, ‘Craviator’ suffered a tragic death to his car following a server disconnect, making him lose all the fruits of his hard-fought labour and giving back AMR Lawrence the first podium finish of his 2019 campaign.
In the fight for first, the Japspeed Vantage and Aerox Mercedes went to and throw, lap after grueling lap, as the winning position remained unsecured for an hour. An undercut pitting move by Vettel proved unsuccessful after many laps stuck behind South’s inch-perfect defense. From hereon, South maintained a gap that although wasn’t vast, proved just enough for him to edge away and bring home his 5th consecutive race win and extend his perfect run of the GT4 championship.
RESULTS | Round 4: Silverstone of British GT 2019
GT3
1st Williams RR
**2nd Williams Mitch **
**3rd Aerox Bowkett **
**4th SVR Solar **
**5th Williams Seven **
6th Chxzmo
**7th Vitality ASIX **
8th Drunk n Lels
9th AMS Tiqoo
10th xMartijn2702
GT4
**1st JSR South **
**2nd Aerox Vettel **
**3rd AMR LAWRENCE **
**4th AMS Huracan **
**5th AMS MeaD 212 **
**6th TUS Barcode **
**7th AMR Blackout **
**8th Aerox Bobby **
**9th Liamt007 **
**10th Aerox Nismo **
To view the full broadcast playback of British GT’s Round 3 at Silverstone, watch exclusively on UpShift Media (previously YMTV Racing) 2019 British GT Esports Championship: Round 3 - Silverstone | Forza 7 - YouTube
British GT Round 3 Silverstone was commentated by Andrew ‘Flipmode’ Berg (Team Highlands Racing) and Tyler ‘Diablo’ Jones (Lazarus)
The official 2019 British GT eSports Championship sees the world’s fastest teams on Forza Motorsport compete in seven iconic racing circuits renowned for bringing the best of GT racing in motorsport. Split across 6 months, drivers in high specification GT3 and GT4 sportscars compete in one of the most balanced motorsports series in the world.
To enter the competition of 200+ entries and world class talent, register on The Real Online Association’s website: http://forums.theonlineracingassociation.com/f709-british-gt-esports-championship-2019
John
Upshift Media / YMTV Racing
YouTube: Upshift Media - YouTube
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