The ARC’s digital club ‘MotorsportARC’ has completed its first of four events, with more than 120 individuals taking part in the ARC’s opening digital round.
Hosted on the DiRT Rally 2.0 platform, the ARC’s online club’s first event was the 12-stage fictional Monaro rally based in Australia, which was available for five days and saw every competitor run on R5 machinery.
At the end of the five day period, there were two standout drivers with Evolution Racing Team’s Jarod Pesch (ERT_JAROD) claiming a seven second victory over teammate Luca Giacomin (ERT_LUCA GIACOMIN).
Pesch had the better start out of the two with the opening four stage wins before Giacomin got his first stage win on the fifth. Giacomin eventually took the outright lead after the sixth stage when Pesch had a rollover and lost a vital 12 seconds.
However, the West Australian showed why he will be the one to beat in the virtual series, winning five of the remaining six stages and comfortably taking out the first round and topping the Hoosier Tire Australia Standings.
“It was a nice feeling to win the first round. I was pretty confident heading into it because I play the game quite a lot and I know the Australian stages well,” Pesch said.
“I didn’t have to practice too much in the lead up because I have been playing DiRT Rally 2.0 since it came out last year, so I have about 1000 hours under my belt already.
“My pace was really good throughout every stage, but I made some stupid mistakes and struggle with consistency sometimes, but overall it was a good round.
“As for the next round, I am not the best at the New Zealand stages so I will put some time into that one."
With Pesch’s biggest challenger being his Giacomin, both drivers were more than three and half minutes faster than the third placed Scott Fletcher (SCOTTYF90), while FIA Asian Pacific Rally Championship driver Mike Young (YOUNGYMIKEZ) and Adam Brewster (ADAMBREWSTER1802) rounded out the top five.
Other notable results on the Hoosier Tire Australia Standings saw Tasmanian youngster Taylor Gill (DGMSPORT) place 13th, ARC photographer Jack Martin (MARTYJACK97) a further two places below, Victorian ARC competitor Troy Dowel (TOASTED) in 19th and current Motorsport Australia Till Hino Victorian Rally Champion Arron Windus (ARRONWINDUS11) placed 27th.
While Fletcher may not have come away with the ARC victory, he ended the week with some glory after taking out the series’ ARC2 event at Hawkes Bay, beating SCOTTWELDS and DTRS by seven and 15 seconds respectively.
The series’ second event at Hawkes Bay in New Zealand is now underway with competitors having until 5:15pm on Sunday, 5 April AEST to post their run.