Virtual Touring Car Cup Season 4 Round 5 — Okayama

The VTCC returned to SimSport Racing International for the penultimate round of Season 4, held at the twisty and technical Okayama circuit. Previously, this series had it’s Pro and Pro-Am races held on separate streams, however sadly they have had some people withdraw from both divisions, however, this gave the VTCC a chance to show how the Pro-Am best stack up against the top of the Pro side by combining both divisions into a single race (points still being counted towards their respective championships). The top of the tree for Pro has been closely fought all season long by Englands Matt Dorrington and Hungary’s Adam Dobozy, separated by a single point with just 2 rounds to go, however, both were absent for round 5, giving 3rd place Roy Grassie a prime opportunity to claw back some points. Grassie has been fending off the advances of Jonny Seville and Reegan Mitchell (both regulars in the SSRI ACC GT3 league), but Mitchell was also missing from the nights racing, however, Grassie did not have an easy run at the top step of the podium. As for the Pro-Am side, they too had their top spots separated by a single point, Americas Trev Hummer fending off Slovakias Martin Durgala, with Englands Mark Holmes in a close 3rd, just 6 points adrift.

So the stage was set for some new names to take top honours for both the Pro and Pro-Am divisions, and qualifying for race 1 turned up some unexpected results, with the front row belonging to Pulse Simsports Myles Dixon and Jonny Seville, with Hummer and Durgala, Holmes and Grassie occupying 6th to 9th, in that order. Angus Martin started 3rd to make an Audi 1,2,3, but the fast-starting Tom O’Farrell in the BMW was always going to be a threat into turn 1 for the first lap, however, the Pulse boys closed the door and denied O’Farrell a run into the lead, but in doing so, Dixon lost the lead to teammate Seville, with Martin in the dayglo yellow Audi in the mixture. An amazing start from Holmes saw him climb to 5th early on, with Pro-Am leader Hummer having a game crash on the line. He was able to rejoin the race but stayed a lap behind the field for the rest of the race. The fighting was fierce throughout not just the first race, but the entire race saw plenty of door banging and elbows out racing, just as we love to see in touring car racing. The end of lap 1 saw Seville building a lead over Martin, who had usurped Dixon for 2nd, and Holmes up to 4th ahead of O’Farrell, and Grassie had fallen to 11th.

VTCC Okayama Start of Race 1 — Credits: Sim Racing International
As the field settled into their rhythm, Dixon was constantly nailed to Martin for 2nd, which allowed Seville to continue to build his lead. The fast-starting O’Farrell badly out-braked himself whilst chasing Holmes for 4th coming into Attwood curve, which ended up with the BMW bouncing off the door of the Audi and facing the wrong way, dropping him to 11th. The “Milka boy” as Durgala was nick-named for having the distinctive purple colour on his Alfa managed to claim 4th from Holmes at the beginning of lap 5, and this fight now included Aran Large in his Audi, however, Durgala and Holmes came together at the Attwood curve, which allowed Holmes to regain 4th, and plenty of light flashing from Durgala showed what he thought of the incident. 2nd went the way of Dixon before the lap was complete, and Large managed to wrestle 4th from Holmes at the start of the following lap. Durgala was clearly aggrieved by the contact with Holmes, and the light flashing continued.

As Large, Holmes & Durgala continued their fight, David Wressle brought his Honda into the fight, along with Grassie and Mark Pimlott, making the conga line for 4th now 6 cars long. Large capitalised on the change to run away from the battle, as Dixon did over Maritin for 2nd. O’Farrells difficulties continued, as on lap 10, the BMW bounced off the Honda of Wressell and ended up facing the wrong way again. Durgala had the chance to challenge Holmes for 5th position going into the 1st turn, but alas the lake braking move he tried on the inside line didn’t work as planned, and saw the Alfa in the gravel trap and dropped him to 10th. With 2 laps to go, Dixon had managed to catch Seville and clearly had the pace over his race leading teammate, but he opted to stay in the rear gunner position to allow Seville to maximise his championship points gain. Seville, Dixon and Martin took the podium spots, Grassie managed to recover to 5th in the end following his qualifying difficulties.

VTCC Okayama End of Race 1 — Credits: Sim Racing International
The grid for race 2 is made from the results of race 1, so again the Pulse pair on the front row looking to pick up where they left off, and that’s precisely what they did. Each car has a success ballast added depending on their finishing position from race 1, the winner gaining 60KG, 2nd gaining 55KG and so on.

- Chris Buxton

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