NVIDIA CHALLENGER SERIES ROUND 1 RESULTS

The weekend of April 22 saw the first round of the 2016 NVIDIA Challenger Series - the new 'fixed setup' series in Project CARS.

Round 1 took place at Monza in the Bentley Continental GT3, in sync with the Blancpain Endurance Series, which hosted the latest round of its real-world GT Series at the same circuit.

Our virtual racers in Project CARS set record laps of 1:44.990 on PC, and 1:45.217 on console, an incredibly close match for the times set at the real track in the Blancpain Series.

Round 1 of the NVIDIA Challenger Series threw up some remarkable results, with a huge number of drivers being eliminated for cutting the inside of either the first or the second chicane on their fastest laps. This opened the door for some of our more conservative drivers to put some good points on the board in the first event of the year. In some cases, such as with Virtual Drivers by TX3, entire teams were guilty of cutting the circuit, often all at the same corner.

Slightly Mad Studios intends to be strict in its enforcement of the track limits rules this year, so it is important that all of the teams and drivers bear this in mind for future events in both the NVIDIA and Logitech G Series.

CONSOLE DIVISION

​On console it was Team Shark Racing who took victory thanks to a superb lap of 1:45.217 by Yinato. He was followed home by two of his teammates for an all Team Shark Racing podium. JP02 came second, followed in third by last year’s Driver Network Championship runner-up, Atho, to give Team Shark Racing a dream start to the 2016 NCS Console Division.

Fourth place was taken by Darwin-Daume of the VP-Drivers team. VP has been a regular competitor in Project CARS Esports, particularly in the ESL Go4 Cups. It’s great to see them doing well here too, and this will surely give the team a lot of confidence for the season ahead. Fifth place went to last year’s Driver Network Champion, SoniK of SDL Motorsport.

Team Shark Racing’s one-two-three gives it the early lead in the NCS team standings on console, with its bitter rivals, last year’s Driver Network Champions, SDL Motorsport in second. Despite not having a driver on the podium in Round 1, SDL still managed to get four drivers into the points, giving them a solid start to the 2016 NCS team championship on Console.

Elsewhere, we saw extremely impressive debuts from Team TBA with kie25 and eol- both in the points, and from the VRroom squads which each had one driver in the points.

The majority of the major console teams, including all of the ones mentioned above, had drivers eliminated for running off track in this event, so the results could look very different in the next round if more of our fastest drivers are a little more careful around the track limits.

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PC DIVISION

​Over in the PC division, track limits were just as much of a factor. In fact, we didn’t have enough valid laps to complete a top 20 leaderboard for NCS Round 1 on PC. Only 16 drivers posted valid laps and scored points.

With that said, it was still an amazing win for SDL Motorsport’s Masa, who set the fastest time of the weekend in either Division, with a 1:44.990. He was the only driver on PC or Console to set a legitimate lap under 1:45. BAM Racing’s Khaki followed behind in second, in an SDL sandwich between Masa and third-placed, Mangator.

This win and double-podium gives SDL an awesome start to the NCS PC Division, and it sets the early pace in the team standings. BAM Racing is the second-placed PC team after Round 1, with British newcomers TSA Racing in third.

Before the season began, we tipped TSA Racing as potential rivals for the top teams thanks to its amazing performances at Project CARS live events in the UK. With Tomjakes 6th in Round 1, CarBoyCam 8th and Chuggy 16th, TSA has made a solid if not spectacular start. This gives them a good platform to battle with the likes of SDL throughout the season ahead.

It was also great to see YouTuber and Apex Online Racing commentator, Yorkie065 make it into the points in thirteenth place. Yorkie is not part of a team, so it will be interesting to see if he can keep up with the Project CARS elite as the year goes on.