FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Regional Tour Week 9 report: McKeown leads tight Europe battle; Rubilar, Woods maintain lead
August 14th, 2024 by Justin Melillo
This September, the FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship Series arrives with 30 of the top-ranked regional competitors going against one another for a four-event, eight round season with a chance at winning a share of the $25,000 prize pool.
In Week 9, drop weeks are now beginning to be accounted for across all three regions. This week, the Americas took on the Boot at Watkins Glen, Asia Pacific went to the East Course at Motegi, and Europe battled at the International layout of Knockhill.
AMERICAS REGION
In the Americas, Nicolás Rubilar set the bar for the top spot last week at 2369 points following a top Strength of Field (SoF) split victory at Road Atlanta. His points total remains there after taking a week off. Michael Janney, meanwhile, added another top split SoF victory to his tally, scoring 302 points for the win at Watkins Glen. Elvis Rankin, Jackson Rezende, Jeff Giassi, and Felipe Pujol Dantas rounded out the week’s top-five.
Rankin jumps from fifth to second, while Janney moves up to fourth from sixth. There was a change in the top-10 as Jeffrey Decker falls behind Felipe Juliato by virtue of drops. Juliato is tied for ninth with Leo Ovtcharov, and both sit 146 points ahead of Decker with three weeks remaining. 2270 iRacers took on the Watkins Glen Boot edition. The Americas once again provided the highest SoF of the week among all three regions.
FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Regional Tour – Americas Top 10 after Week 9 at Watkins Glen International – Boot:
Pos | Driver | Club | Total Pts | W9 Wins | Total Wins |
1 | Nicolás Rubilar | Hispanoamérica | 2369 | 0 | 6 |
2 | Elvis Rankin | West | 2243 | 0 | 1 |
3 | Victor Miranda | Brazil | 2234 | 0 | 2 |
4 | Michael Janney | Atlantic | 2213 | 1 | 5 |
5 | Felipe Cabrera Loyola | Hispanoamérica | 2207 | 0 | 3 |
6 | Ralph Benitez | Brazil | 2161 | 0 | 1 |
7 | Felipe Pujol Dantas | Brazil | 2108 | 0 | 1 |
8 | Jackson Rezende | Brazil | 2006 | 0 | 2 |
9 | Leo Ovtcharov | California Club | 1881 | 1 | 6 |
10 | Felipe Juliato | Brazil | 1881 | 2 | 3 |
ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
While Damon Woods remained on top of the Asia Pacific region this week, he also increased his points lead by finishing 10th on the week. His lead now rests at 1807 points, 112 ahead of Calieb Hydes in second. Hydes scored more points than Woods, but had a larger amount of points that dropped from earlier in the season. The top-eight are pretty well set, increasing their points gap over 11th, but Kody Deith and Shota Nakaharu in ninth and tenth continue to be in the danger zone ahead of Shoma Shintani in 11th.
On the week at Motegi, Jaidyn J Ladic scored the top split SoF victory, raking in 197 championship points. That jumps Ladic up to fifth from sixth in the overall. Benjamin Roberts took the biggest tumble down the standings in the top-10, falling from fourth to seventh. A good reason for the lack of movement in the standings could attribute to only 60 iRacers taking part in the Motegi activities last week.
FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Regional Tour – Asia/Pacific Top 10 after Week 9 at Mobility Resort Motegi – East:
Pos | Driver | Club | Total Pts | W9 Wins | Total Wins |
1 | Damon Woods | Australia/NZ | 1807 | 0 | 5 |
2 | Calieb Hydes | Australia/NZ | 1695 | 0 | 0 |
3 | Marcello Rivera | Australia/NZ | 1644 | 1 | 3 |
4 | Hayata Asaga | Japan | 1633 | 0 | 0 |
5 | Jaidyn J Ladic | Australia/NZ | 1631 | 1 | 3 |
6 | Kazuki Fujita | Japan | 1542 | 0 | 3 |
7 | Benjamin Roberts | Australia/NZ | 1515 | 0 | 4 |
8 | Alejandro Sendra | Japan | 1509 | 0 | 6 |
9 | Kody Deith | Australia/NZ | 1216 | 0 | 1 |
10 | Shota Nakaharu | Japan | 1195 | 0 | 2 |
EUROPE REGION
The battle in Europe is getting hot as the weeks wind down. Now on top of everything is Luke McKeown, who scored 230 points in winning the SoF race on the week, bumping him up to the top spot overall in the standings. Hugh Barter falls down to third, behind Aaron Vazquezz, who also increased their point total this week up to 2391.
It gets spicy with Martin Kadlečík scoring the second-most points on the week, 219, which moves him into a tie for 10th with Gordon “Gordie” Mutch. Mutch did race twice, but his best attempt only netted him nine points in total, which does count since he had missed previous weeks. The good news for both drivers is that they will have more points to add and less points to drop if they play their cards right. 290 iRacers participated in the Knockhill events on the week.
FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Regional Tour – Europe Top 10 after Week 9 at Knockhill Racing Circuit – International:
Pos | Name | Club | Total Pts | W9 Wins | Total Wins |
1 | Luke McKeown | UK and I | 2429 | 1 | 3 |
2 | Aaron Vazquezz | Iberia | 2391 | 0 | 5 |
3 | Hugh Barter | Australia/NZ | 2387 | 0 | 0 |
4 | Elliott Vayron | France | 2202 | 0 | 4 |
5 | Moritz Löhner | DE-AT-CH | 2174 | 0 | 1 |
6 | Alex Dunne | UK and I | 2124 | 0 | 5 |
7 | Graham Carroll | UK and I | 2087 | 0 | 1 |
8 | Alejandro Sánchez | Iberia | 1983 | 2 | 8 |
9 | Dan Amor | UK and I | 1941 | 0 | 1 |
T-10 | Gordon Mutch | UK and I | 1914 | 0 | 6 |
T-10 | Martin Kadlečík | Central-Eastern Europe | 1914 | 0 | 3 |
Week 10 Schedule:
- Americas (Every ODD hour, :15 after): Sonoma Raceway – Open Wheel 2012-2018
- Asia-Pacific (Every EVEN hour, :45 after): Mount Panorama Circuit
- Europe (Every EVEN hour, :15 after): Motorsport Arena Oschersleben – Grand Prix
For more information on the FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship, visit www.iracing.com/fia-f4-esports/. For more information about iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com. To know more about the partnership and access an iRacing license via your local ASN, visit www.FIA.com/iracing.