deJong Scores Long-Awaited Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup Feature Win at Montreal

Since the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup turned its first competitive laps two years ago, Mitchell deJong has been looked out one of the standout drivers in the series. However, the American veteran of multiple iRacing World Championships also spent quite a while carrying the moniker of the series’ best driver not to win a feature race.

That all changed on Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Just one week after a last-lap incident with Kevin Ellis Jr. at Road Atlanta that ended with neither of them taking the victory, deJong held off the Interlagos winner to take the checkered flag by just .165 seconds. The long-awaited victory came at a track where deJong had almost won two years ago, and allowed him to gain valuable points on championship leader Joshua Rogers—the same driver who defeated him here in the closing laps of 2019—in the process.

Rogers kicked off the proceedings by winning the feature, taking the lead early from top qualifier and promising rookie Zac Campbell and holding off fellow former series champion Sebastian Job by just over a second. deJong, who had qualified ninth, benefitted from the eight-car invert between the 10-lap sprint race and 20-lap feature by taking the pivotal eighth place result. From there, he led all 20 laps

Tuomas Tahtela scored a breakthrough podium in third place as the podium was separated by just under half a second, while Campbell and series veteran Graham Carroll completed the top five. The first two series champions faced off for sixth, with Job nipping Rogers at the line for the spot.

Prior to the world’s top sim racers taking to the track, the weekly All-Star race between pro drivers, celebrities, and major Twitch streamers featured some thrilling battles of its own. Top qualifier Dan Suzuki and Emily “Emree” Jones fought hard in the sprint race for the win, with Emree taking the top spot, but it was real-world pro Laurens Vanthoor who beat both to the checkered flag in the main event.

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup feature results from Circuit Gilles Villeneuve were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Driver

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts.

1124Mitchell deJong20201:37.31263
2330Kevin Ellis Jr20-0.15901:37.33260
32107Tuomas Tähtelä20-0.46501:37.15654
4615Zac Campbell20-3.89501:37.36467
5128Graham Carroll20-9.90101:37.62543
671Sebastian Job20-12.49001:37.63357
7892Joshua K Rogers20-12.54201:36.98061
8547Alejandro Sánchez20-13.00701:37.46144
91999Mikkel Gade20-16.95201:37.72626
102404Salva Talens20-17.26801:37.55922
113269Moreno Sirica20-18.30201:37.41020
122849Jamie Fluke20-19.12401:37.70124
132131David Williams20-19.17401:37.45016
1422729Maxim Ramsteijn20-20.28001:37.79114
152643Brian Lockwood20-20.35101:37.47812
1614121Diogo C. Pinto20-20.55201:37.47617
172051Josh Thompson20-21.40701:37.53810
1823911Ayhancan Guven20-21.91001:37.8108
19958Tommy Østgaard20-22.20201:37.46719
20157Jeff Giassi20-23.91901:37.68712
213493Charlie Collins20-24.76101:37.4315
223590Yohann Harth20-29.86101:37.7844
233613Alexander Wolters20-30.14701:37.7863
24255Martin Krönke20-30.48501:37.7292
251377Jeremy Bouteloup20-30.99701:37.5449
263050Ricardo  Rico20-39.01401:37.7010
272928Carlos  Fenollosa13-7 L01:38.1520
2818312Daniel Lafuente10-10 L01:37.5753
2916211Thibault Cazaubon8-12 L01:37.8255
303310Jack Sedgwick5-15 L01:37.8250
313112Alexander Thiebe4-16 L01:38.0710
32457Dayne Warren4-16 L018
331011Maximilian Benecke2-18 L011
341118Sindre Setsaas1-19 L010
3517119Pekka Tuomainen0-20 L04
362733Ricardo Castro Ledo0-20 L00

 

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup points after six rounds are as follows:

  1. Joshua Rogers, 409
  2. Mitchell deJong, 322
  3. Kevin Ellis Jr., 281
  4. Sebastian Job, 257
  5. Charlie Collins, 227
  6. Dayne Warren, 219
  7. Maximilian Benecke, 207
  8. Graham Carroll, 204
  9. Alejandro Sanchez, 189
  10. Zac Campbell, 186

The Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup season is off until March 13, when the championship will make its return to the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Job is the defending winner from the Belgian circuit. As always, coverage kicks off at 1PM ET with the All-Star action, and continues with the sim racing pros at 2PM ET. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

All-Star Race image via Justin Prince