The carsales ARG eSport Cup’s latest round has seen two new drivers share top honours with wildcard entries Cody Burcher and Luke King claiming a race win each.
With the field behind the wheel of Formula 3 cars at Silverstone in the United Kingdom, it was Burcher who won first with a dominant performance after starting behind polesitter Ash Sutton.
Sutton’s attempt to hold onto his position early in the race didn’t last long as Burcher only needed half a lap to claim the lead, before extending the gap to more than two seconds by the end of the first lap.
After being overtaken by the race one winner, the British star was then forced to defend second place against a chasing pack, which included Harley Haber and Nathan Herne.
The margin between the trio was so tight, it soon became too much as Sutton and Herne collided, ending the latter’s race and causing Haber to lose vital time as a result, while Sutton recovered to finish second.
Supercars regular Andre Heimgartner took advantage of the incident, sweeping past Haber to claim third place. The series leader himself limped home in fourth ahead of 2019 carsales TCR Australia series winner Will Brown.
In the round’s reverse grid race, former Supercars driver Michael Caruso started from the front and held onto the lead over King for two thirds of the race.
However with just five minutes remaining in the time-certain race, King was rewarded for his pressure on Caruso and edged past him to grab top spot and finish first.
After being passed by King, it got from bad to worse for Caruso as he was involved in an incident with Tim Brook, opening up the door for Ben Bargwanna and Dylan O’Keeffe to secure second and third respectively.
Race one winner Burcher did his best to climb up the field and ended up an impressive fourth place after starting the race on the 10th row.
Herne’s shunt in the first race saw him drop from third to sixth behind O’Keefe, Sutton and Jordan Cox on the overall standings, while Haber extended his gap at the summit over Jaden Ransley.
The penultimate round of the series will take place at the famous the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Italy on 28 May.