Luke McKeown claims FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship Series title after Fuji runner-up, Watkins Glen victory

The 2024 FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship Series came down to the final lap of the season on Saturday afternoon. Following a championship-setting race at Fuji Speedway earlier, there were just three left in the running—Two contenders from Spain, Alejandro Sánchez and Aaron Vazquezz, and one from the United Kingdom, Luke McKeown.

All three drivers, racing for the European region, all three drivers teammates, but only one could claim it after four rounds and eight races. When the dust settled at Watkins Glen, it was McKeown who was crowned as champion. On the final lap, McKeown and Vazquezz made contact, forcing the Spaniard off track, allowing for McKeown to take the crown. “It didn’t feel great winning it that way, but looking at the replay, I don’t think there’s anything I could have done,” McKeown explained post-race. 

There were no further penalties following the contact towards McKeown, so the results were deemed official as they were. McKeown collects $10,000 as the champion, while Sánchez and Vazquezz take home $4,000 and $2,000 of the $25,000 prize purse, respectively. The top-10 all earn a piece of that prize, with podium finishers from each race also receiving a chunk of the cash as well.

Coming into the final doubleheader round, Vazquezz led the way by only a couple of points, despite not having a win yet on the season. Sánchez and McKeown were right within striking distance, but technically, there were eight drivers still eligible for the title mathematically entering Fuji. The top-three competitors wound up in the top-four by the end of qualifying, with Sánchez on the pole, McKeown in second, and Vazquezz in fourth.

Incredibly, that’s exactly where they would finish, despite the race taking on similar qualities as the Spa race did in the prior event. The first corner was hotly contested, as was the 10th corner through the event. There was a ton of contact throughout the field, even among teammates up front.

While Sánchez and McKeown set themselves up for a drag race to the checkers, Vazquezz was mired back in sixth coming to the final corner. Ahead, Gordie Mutch (United Kingdom) and Elliott Vayron (France) came together battling for fourth. Vazquezz split the difference and finished fourth, while Sánchez was able to fend off McKeown and Czech Republic’s Martin Kadlečík.

FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship Series – Race #7 results from Fuji Speedway were as follows:

The result flipped the script entering the Watkins Glen finale. Vazquezz dropped to third, two points behind McKeown, but eight points behind the new leader, Sánchez. With a second place finish, Sánchez could take the title no matter what. Unfortunately, a 10th place qualifying effort put him on offense while Vazquezz and McKeown were able to take off from the front row. If Sánchez couldn’t get up to challenge, it would be a straight up brawl between Vazquezz and McKeown for the title.

After a few laps, Vazquezz and McKeown had established themselves in the top-two, with teammate Mutch playing defense in third to the rest of the field. Sánchez, meanwhile, originally lost the draft train after a rigorous battle with Scotland’s Graham Carroll. Sánchez continued to push, and by the end of the fifth lap, he was back in the draft, looking to make quick moves up to fight at the front.

Unfortunately, his chances ultimately came to an abrupt end when he got together with Kadlečík out of the inner loop, incurring a meatball flag’s amount of damage. He could mathematically have still won the title if the other two had their races end prematurely, but that was never fully realized in the final battle to the end.

Coming to two laps to go, Vazquezz took the lead, putting McKeown in the catbird seat as the time began to expire. On the final lap, McKeown took a look into Turn 1, and backed out. His moment would have to come entering the inner loop. Up the esses, McKeown got the run, but Vazquezz defended the preferred right lane. McKeown got his nose ahead, and the two went into a game of chicken entering the chicane.

Vazquezz got out of sorts, and the two made contact. Only the Vazquezz machine went around, however, as McKeown continued going straight. That was it. Through the boot, the reentry, and the final corner, McKeown came around to take the checkered and win the race, as well as the title, to claim the Global Championship as his own, representing the immensely competitive European region. Vazquezz recovered to finish in 12th, but that was enough for Sánchez to hang on for second overall following the result and an additional 10 point penalty to Vazquezz post-race.

“I thought P2 could be better than P1 because of the long run to the bus stop,” McKeown explained about waiting to make the move on the final lap. “I was pretty happy with that. I just wanted to try and stay in the lead as much as possible in the race, and then in the last two laps, I went behind Aaron, so on the last lap, I could get the slingshot into the bus stop, which worked. Unfortunately we made contact, which is a shame. It would have been nice to have raced until the last corner… but yeah, it was a good race.”

FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship Series – Race #8 results from Watkins Glen were as follows:

Final FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship Series points are as follows:

1. Luke McKeown, 131
2. Alejandro Sánchez, 112
3. Aaron Vazquezz, 98
4. Graham Carroll, 83
5. Hugh Barter, 74
6. Martin Kadlečík, 67
7. Gordon Mutch, 51
8. Nicolás Rubilar, 43
9. Alejandro Sendra, 41
10. Elvis Rankin, 38

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.

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