He's virtually King of the Hill

KNYSNA NEWS – History was made on 8 and 9 May when Lorenzo Gualtieri won three races to claim the inaugural Virtual Knysna Simola Hillclimb race and King of the Hill title.

According to a press release issued by the Knysna Speed Festival, Gualtieri, who finished in top spot in the pre-qualifying rounds, showed his intent from the first race by taking victory in a Nissan GT-R Nismo.

He followed this up with further wins in races three and four behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS and a BMW M3 GT2 respectively, and placed fourth in race two (Audi TT Cup) and third in race five (Pagani Zonda R) to finish on 51 points for the five-race final.

"It is quite a surprise to win the event and there was a lot of suspense," said the relieved winner afterwards. "It's been long and hard, and taken a lot of effort as it was so competitive. Because all the cars are identical with the same set-ups, anyone could win. It's not to say that the fastest guy will win - if you make one mistake it's finished."

Victory saw Gualtieri secure an entry into the Motorsport South Africa Showdown event of the Mercedes-Benz ProSeries final. He also won a two-night stay at the Simola Hotel in Knysna, hospitality tickets to the Simola Hillclimb in September, VIP tickets to the Kyalami 9 hour and a gift pack from Knysna Speed Festival and Visit Knysna.

Lorenzo Gualttieri's winning avatar.

Ruan Gouws, who has no real racing experience and only took up esports five months ago, finished as runner-up with 47 points to his name, having won race two, scoring two second-place finishes (races 4 and 5), a third in race three, and fourth place in race one. Willem van Rensburg took the final podium place with 35 points.

He proved to be very consistent, taking two second places (races 2 and 3), a fifth (race 1), sixth (race 5) and a seventh-place finish (race 4).

One of the tournament surprises was 13-year-old Emile de Villiers who finished tied fifth on 28 points. Young De Villiers was impressive and scored a podium with third place in race one, followed by two fourths (races 4 and 5), and two eighth-place finishes (races 2 and 3). All who finished from fourth to tenth won entry tickets to the Kyalami 9 hour including access to the SIM Arena, pit lane access tickets to the Simola Hillclimb in September and a gift pack from Knysna Speed Festival and Visit Knysna.

The format of the event saw the top 10 competitors from the four qualifying rounds going through to the final of the Virtual Knysna Simola Hillclimb. The finalists then had from Monday 26 April to practise in all five of the cars selected by the organisers for the finals.

In total, 15 512 online runs up the hill were recorded in the four qualifying rounds – equalling a combined race distance of 29 472km.

During the 10 days of seeding, the 10 competitors posted 3 772 runs up the hill, equalling 7 167km. Monarch Events, that developed the game in conjunction with Knysna Speed Festival, recorded a total of 36 639km being driven up the hill during the event.