Luke McKeown, Sebastian Job split wins in opening Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup round at Daytona

It was nearly a perfect opening round of the 2024 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup season for Sebastian Job at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday. The 2020 series champion, back again with the recently rebranded Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing team, scored the TAG Heuer Pole Award, finished second in the Sprint to series newcomer Luke McKeown of Apex Racing Team, and won the Feature by inches over the 2022 series champion, Team Redline’s Diogo Pinto.

Scoring 82 out of a possible 85 points, Job commands the standings through the first round in a season that features only seven events. Daytona marks Job’s 14th career Feature win, 26th career overall win including the Sprints, and his 10th career TAG Heuer Pole Award. Job leads the standings by 24 points over Chris Lulham, followed by Pinto, McKeown, and Gustavo Ariel in the top five.

Defending series champion Jordan Caruso of Altus Esports had a rough start to the year, finishing 13th and 19th in the respective Sprint and Feature races. He’ll have a large mountain to climb over the next six events to fight for another title.

SPRINT RACE: In the first rolling start in PESC history, owing to Daytona’s banked start-finish line, Job led the field to the green flag. He led the first time around, but in typical Daytona fashion, especially on the oval section, teammates working together became the theme that defined the result. Stormforce Racing’s Alejandro Sánchez started in second, but McKeown, an ART teammate, moved into the spot on the start. Coming through the backstretch on the second lap, Sánchez pushed McKeown around Job before the line.

As Job attempted to fend off Sánchez, Coanda Esports’ Zac Campbell, and Team Redline teammates Ariel and Lulham, McKeown was pulling away. By the time the battle for second sorted itself out, McKeown was gone, and the pack behind was tasked with working together to catch back up. Sánchez wound up out of contention a few laps later, so it was up to the trio of Job, Ariel and Lulham to catch back up.

McKeown, however, would not be denied and went on to win in his first ever Supercup attempt, scoring 25 points for winning on top of the six he earned in qualifying. In the battle for eighth, Coanda Esports’ Oscar Py, another series rookie, managed to hold off Pinto to capture the transfer to the pole following the eight-car invert.

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup Sprint results from Daytona International Speedway were as follows:

1. Luke McKeown
2. Sebastian Job
3. Gustavo Ariel
4. Chris Lulham
5. Zac Campbell

FEATURE RACE: Py and Mathias Stokbæk of FYRA SimSport transferred up to the front row for the Feature event, set for double the distance of the prior eight-lap Sprint. The field barreled into Turn 1 at high speeds as the front runners from the Sprint jockeyed for spots immediately. In the first run through the International Horseshoe, Stokbæk got a bit sideways and it stacked up both Job and McKeown, with the latter making some contact and collecting some damages.

Job continued through, and with Pinto and Lulham, the trio were able to find their way to the front. Meanwhile, Apex Racing Team’s Yohann Harth managed to take control from Py on Lap 3, but his closest teammate was McKeown, running around eighth. Harth was no match for the Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing – Team Redline – Verstappen.com mega team that had formed behind him.

Just after halfway, Job made the move around Harth for the lead. Pinto and Lulham were both able to follow through into the podium positions as Harth was relegated to fourth. The trio worked together flawlessly until the final moments on the final lap. Pinto pulled low coming to the checkers, but Lulham decided to stick behind Job, and that was the difference in the margin of victory. Harth wound up fourth while another Team Redline driver, Sam Kuitert, rounded out the top five.

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup Feature results from Daytona International Speedway were as follows:

*Points penalties applied post-race

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup points through the opening round are as follows:

1. Sebastian Job, 82
2. Chris Lulham, 58
3. Diogo C. Pinto, 57
4. Luke McKeown, 57
5. Gustavo Ariel, 53
6. Yohann Harth, 52
7. Zac Campbell, 48
8. Sam Kuitert, 43
9. Oscar Py, 35
10. Salva Talens, 31

ALL-STARS: The PESC All Stars kicked off the show with some of the top content creators in the iRacing scene, with some familiar faces as well as some new and competitive ones utilizing the new Porsche 963 GTP around the Daytona road course. Defending All-Stars champion Casey Kirwan, a champion from the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series and part of the winning team during the IMSA Esports Global Championship race at Daytona, won the pole position and dominated the opening Sprint Race over former Porsche Esports Sprint Challenge Canada champion Suellio Almeida, with Pablo “The Pulpo” Lopez, rounding out the podium.

In the full-field invert for the Feature, former PESC All-Stars champion Emily “Emree” Jones took the pole position and started alongside real-world racing champion and Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan. On the first lap, Kanaan overdrove the Western Horseshoe, allowing for Emree to pull away to a nearly insurmountable lead. Kirwan, however, kept his head down as he picked off car after car from the last spot on the grid. It came down to the final lap, where Kirwan was able to get alongside Emree entering the Le Mans Chicane for the final time. Emree powered back through and took the checkered flag.

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports All-Stars Sprint results from Daytona International Speedway were as follows:

1. Casey Kirwan
2. Suellio Almeida
3. The Pulpo Lopez
4. Sampsoid
5. Basic Ollie

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports All-Stars Feature results from Daytona International Speedway were as follows:

1. Emree
2. Casey Kirwan
3. Grizzle
4. Suellio Almeida
5. Dan Suzuki

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports All-Stars points through the opening round are as follows:

1. Casey Kirwan, 47
2. Suellio Almeida, 34
3. The Pulpo Lopez, 27
4. Emree, 25
5. Grizzle, 23

Next week, the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup returns to Hockenheim for the second race of the 2024 season. Coverage for the event will kick off on Saturday, February 10th at 18:00 GMT (1PM ET) with the Porsche All-Stars back in the Porsche 963 GTP up first. After the All-Stars, the Supercup begins their second round at 19:00 GMT (2PM ET). In last season’s opening round at Hockenheim, Diogo Pinto and Zac Campbell took wins in the Sprint and Feature races.

For more information on the 2024 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup season, visit www.iracing.com/pesc. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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