It seems, lately, that a weekend doesn’t go by without a sim race happening somewhere around the world. BMW is betting big on the phenomenon apparently and has even set up a big event for it under the BMW SIM 120 Cup. This weekend, another stage took place, on the virtual Nurburgring and featured an interesting mix of drivers at the start line, fighting for a chance to enter the BMW SIM Live Event to be hosted towards the end of the year.
Laurin Heinrich and Alexander Voß celebrated victory in the #089 BMW M8 GTE, claiming prize money of 1,200 US dollars each. After two hours of racing, second place went to Kay Kaschube and Nils Koch, who completed the one-two result for the BS+COMPETITION team and won 600 US dollars each. In a repeat of events at the fourth race in the Digital Nürburgring Endurance Series powered by VCO a few weeks ago, the order in which the team-mates would finish only became clear on the final lap.
Maximilian Benecke and Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen from Team Redline finished in third place. BMW works drivers Bruno Spengler and Philipp Eng claimed 16th place for ZF BMW Team. The BMW SIM 120 Cup on the Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit featured 46 teams competing just in the top split. This saw the drivers with the best overall ratings battling for victory on the iRacing platform in a competition that featured Romain Grosjean as the second Formula 1 driver alongside Verstappen.
Heinrich and Voß were able to secure pole position after a close-fought qualifying session in the top split. They were able to defend that position until just a few minutes from the end. However, Voß then had to let Koch pass in the #7 BMW M8 GTE after sliding out. Koch then received a ‘slow down’ penalty after putting all four wheels off the track when driving through the NGK chicane for the penultimate time. That allowed Voß to pull level with his team-mate once again and regain the lead on the first turn of the final lap of the race.
The result means that Voß and Heinrich are the third duo to confirm their participation in the BMW SIM Live 2020 event. Benecke, Maximilian Wenig, Josh Rogers and Mitchell deJong had already booked their BMW SIM 120 Cups tickets at Daytona and Sebring. As the year progresses, three further BMW SIM 120 Cup races will give drivers the opportunity to secure their places on the grid for BMW SIM Live 2020. They will take place at the circuits of Spa-Francorchamps (BEL, 5th July), Road Atlanta (USA, 20th September) and Interlagos (BRA, 8th November).
