Ultimate Sim Racer: Five of Eight Qualification Places Change Hands
Updated: 6 days ago
It’s been a huge weekend in the Ultimate Sim Racer competition, with five of the eight qualification places changing hands as drivers battled for their place in the final.
With so much movement across the leaderboards, it’s been tough to keep track of who is in and who is out! Thankfully, we have Sim Racing Limited’s VMS telemetry system alongside our offline spreadsheet to keep everything under control.
A quick reminder of the rules
Drivers can enter as many of the competitions as they like, but they can only qualify once.
If a driver holds more than one qualification place, we use their laps in the order they were set. Their backup laps only come into play if they are beaten in the competition they entered first.
With that in mind, here’s what happened this weekend.
Friday: Chris and Kye get the weekend started
Friday evening saw Chris and Kye claim qualification places with strong performances in the Oreca during our endurance competition.
Chris was a finalist in last year’s competition, so expectations were high — and he delivered with a strong qualifying performance.
Both drivers looked safely placed heading into Saturday, but as we were about to find out, there was plenty more drama to come.
Saturday: The leaderboard gets shaken up
Saturday evening was where things really started to change.
Alex, Scott and Shaun attacked three of the four competitions and showed some seriously impressive pace. These boys were quick!
Scott takes the GT top spot
Scott made the biggest impact in the GT competition, setting the first 2:17 lap of the competition and taking the top spot.
That result pushed Ethan out of the qualification places on the GT leaderboard.
Fortunately for Ethan, he had another card to play. His lap in the historic competition was still good enough to secure him a qualification place — meaning Josh was the driver who ultimately dropped out of the qualifying positions.
That’s a perfect example of why having a strong backup lap can be so important in this competition.
Shaun conquers Donington
Shaun then produced a fantastic performance in the Clio around Donington Park GP, taking the top spot with a 1:46.5.
Having watched Shaun put the lap together, it was clear just how much concentration was required to find that time. The Clio is a lower-powered car, and around a circuit with plenty of elevation changes, carrying momentum is absolutely everything.
It was a seriously impressive lap — and another qualification place changed hands.
Alex puts himself back in the final
Alex, a finalist last year, continued his strong weekend with competitive performances across all of the competitions.
His qualification place ultimately came from a 1:52 in the Oreca, which put him ahead of both Chris and Kye.
That meant Kye was knocked out of a qualification position.
There is still time for Kye to fight his way back in, but the pressure is now firmly on.
Sunday: Michael jumps to the top
There was just one entry from our Sunday customers, but he made a big impact on the leaderboards!
Michael, another 2025 finalist, initially focused his attention on the GT competition. After putting in a number of laps, he finally broke into the 2:16s, taking the top spot and pushing Joseph out of the top eight.
But Michael wasn't finished there.
He then went fastest in the endurance competition before going second fastest in the Clubsport competition.
That is a seriously strong all-round performance and should put Michael in an excellent position heading into the final week of qualifying.
Midweek update - two more qualification places change hands.
Wednesday 28th James and Joseph return!
After being eliminated from the qualification slots over the weekend James and Joseph returned with their sights set on finding those tenths of a second to get back into the final eight. Joseph focussed on the GT competition and found the pace to get his best lap time into the 2 minute seventeens and took second place on the leaderboard, just 3 tenths behind Michael. This pushed Scott down to third and leaving him needing his backup lap in the Endurance competition to qualify, Chris is therefore the driver that we lose from the top eight.
James was quick in multiple competitions, but following some good, focussed laps of Donington Park GP he found the pace required to get a 1:46.913 that puts him into the second qualification place in the Clubsport competition. Unfortunately, this change puts Matt out of qualification.
Well done to both James and Joseph! We are now at a point in the competition that means finding the necessary lap times is getting more difficult.
So, who is in and who is out?
After all of the changes this week, the qualification picture has been completely reshaped.
Many of the qualification places have changed hands, with drivers having to rely not just on outright pace, but also on their performances across multiple competitions.
And with just few days qualifying remaining, there is still plenty of time for the leaderboard to change again.
Who thought North Devon had so many talented sim racers?
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