Maximilian Benecke Wins Porsche Esports Supercup Feature at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

Patrik Holzmann scored his second sprint victory of the season, but it was Pure Racing Team’s Maximilian Benecke who took the checkered flag in the Porsche Esports Supercup round from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Saturday. After an intense main event, the German took the checkered flag by a margin of 0.364 seconds over VRS Coanda Simsport’s Mitchell deJong.

Enzo Bonito posted the top qualifying time, but Jamie Fluke and deJong started from the front row of the sprint race thanks to the eight-car inversion. Fluke took an early lead, but on Lap 3, deJong held the outside line in Turn 8 to set up a pass for the lead in Turn 9. The duo made contact and Fluke dropped to fourth, eventually falling to sixth at race’s end.

deJong held the lead for most of the sprint race, but with Fluke in fourth and holding up some of the field, Holzmann and Jarrad Filsell remained hot on his tail. Holzmann saw his opportunity coming into the final corner, muscling deJong out of the way as Filsell charged behind him. The Red Bull Racing Esports driver would hold onto the lead by the razor-thin margin of .058 seconds, with deJong holding on to third.

Holzmann, Filsell, and deJong would strike out to the top three spots early in the feature, but chaos broke loose in the middle stages. Holzmann ran wide in Moss Corner 11 minutes in to yield the lead to Filsell, and deJong followed into second. deJong made the pass for the lead two minutes later, only to be spun on the frontstretch; Holzmann and Benecke cleared them for the first two spots, but three corners later, Benecke spun Holzmann to claim the lead.

The race settled down the rest of the way from there, with Benecke holding on to the checkered flag. deJong would stay ahead of Filsell for second to help close the gap to the championship lead. Jeremy Bouteloup and Graham Carroll would complete the top five, but Holzmann would fall well outside of the top 10 with damage.

“The first races we were a bit unlucky, and it was a challenge to finish races,” Benecke said. “But today, we were a bit lucky—I’m sorry to Patrik, and I still have to look at what happened there, but after all, race two was a good race and a lot of fun. I’m sweating a lot, but I’m still glad to be here!”

Due to penalty accumulation, incoming points leader Josh Rogers wasn’t allowed to qualify for Saturday’s race, forcing him to start in 30th for the sprint race. The Australian completed a heroic charge up to 14th in the sprint, but he was caught up in an early incident between Kamil Franczak and Dawid Nowakowski in the feature that heavily damaged the right side of his car and relegated him to 32nd. With only 20 points coming out of the event, the first two-time winner of the 2019 season saw his four-race top 10 streak finally snapped.

Porsche Esports Supercup standings through five of 10 races are as follows:

1. Josh Rogers, 520
2. Mitchell deJong, 492
3. Maximilian Benecke, 452
4. Jamie Fluke, 388
5. Martin Kronke, 367
6. Tommy Ostgaard, 339
7. Patrik Holzmann, 338
8. Jeremy Bouteloup, 331
9. Graham Carroll, 326
10. Jarrad Filsell, 306

The Porsche Esports Supercup season continues in three weeks’ time from Watkins Glen International, where the series will run the track’s full layout to kick off the second half of the 10-race championship. As always, the event will stream on the iRacing eSports Network starting at 14:00 GMT (10:00AM ET) on Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube.

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