Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup Race Preview: Montreal

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” according to an old saying, and it’s a fair adage to apply to the 2021 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup. For one, compressing the schedule by a few months has certainly accelerated the pace of the championship, as Saturday’s race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve already marks the start of the second half of the season; for two, if you’re 2019 series champion Joshua Rogers, the results so far have more than put the fun back into the series after an uneven 2020.

Rogers was the beneficiary of a last-lap battle gone wrong for Mitchell deJong and Kevin Ellis Jr. last week at Road Atlanta, as the American found himself spun from first to 14th in pursuit of his long-awaited first series victory. That opened the door for both Rogers and Tommy Ostgaard to slip by Ellis for the top two spots, as Ellis slid across the stripe and into the wall for the final podium placement. Therefore, a race that could have allowed deJong to make up significant ground on Rogers’ points lead ended up having the opposite effect.

deJong will have to hope against more of the same in this weekend’s race from Montreal, as the home of the Canadian Grand Prix returns to the schedule after a one-year absence. The 2019 win appeared to be firmly in deJong’s grasp after he dominated the sprint race, but Rogers tracked him down in the closing laps of the 30-minute feature to score the victory by under a second. It made the Australian the first repeat winner in series history, and helped set the trajectory for his eventual championship-winning campaign.

As always, Saturday’s Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup race will be preceded by an All-Star Race featuring major influencers and real-world drivers. This week’s guest driver will be real-world IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver Laurens Vanthoor. The All-Star Race action kicks off at 1PM ET, with the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup immediately following at 2PM ET.

Saturday’s Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup race from Circuit Gilles Villeneuve can be seen on Porsche and iRacing social media channels. The series heads back to Europe on March 13 for a visit to Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, where Ostgaard won in 2019 and defending series champion Sebastian Job took one of his four feature victories last year. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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