Virtual racing

In 2020 the Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup had barely started when it all came to a grinding halt during the eleventh hour at the Australian Grand Prix meeting in Melbourne. Since then, like a car with a faulty battery, it has almost sprung back to life – only to be shut down again by another rush of COVID-19 cases.

Porsche Cars Australia recognised the need to keep the drivers up to speed in every sense of the word, so created the Porsche PAYCE & Michelin Virtual Cup. These fun online races were held on the iRacing platform in a six-round championship split into two classes: Mobil Pro and Pro-Am.

Young Australian Mobil Pro driver Cooper Murray, sponsored by Porsche Centre Brighton, convincingly won the Porsche PAYCE & Michelin Virtual Cup. His final winning margin was around 160 points, a highly creditable result for the 19-year-old.

“This virtual championship gave us the opportunity to keep racing,” Cooper says. “We had Australian drivers and some invited Porsche factory drivers from Germany, so you get to race people you don’t get to race against in real life. I won the virtual cup against Porsche factory drivers.” Cooper’s favourite race was Daytona, which was a “There was a battle between me, Matt Campbell (a Porsche factory driver), and Matt Payne. We all crossed the finish line together in both races all side by side, and I managed to get the win. It was probably one of the best races in the simulator that I’ve done.”

While most of us have played the odd racing game on an X-box or PlayStation, these extremely realistic iRacing simulators are on quite another level.

“I already had a simulator,” Cooper explains. “Most race drivers have a simulator as a necessity to practice, since we don’t get much testing in real life.”

There are some downsides, though.

“You don’t get the field of view that you get in a real race car, where you can turn your head and see where you are. You only have the three screens in the simulator, so you have a limited view,” Cooper says.

As for the real racing, it is still on hold. The pause button was pressed again on the Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Championship, which was forced to stop

“Overall, it was a good experience. It was good to win Cooper made a clean sweep of the first race meeting it, but it was all about having some fun. It also got my in Adelaide, then competed at the AGP where he name out there a bit more to people overseas, seeing as finished third. once Victoria entered Stage 4 lockdown. “Having such a good first two rounds and coming out Racetracks were not just Australian – the event as the Championship leader by a good margin, then virtually travelled the world starting at Philip Island to have it put on hold, was a bit of a bummer,” Cooper (Australia), then moving on to Barcelona (Spain), acknowledges. “Hopefully we can get back racing Daytona (USA), Monza (Italy), Le Mans (France) and again sometime this year – at the earliest, maybe a Silverstone (UK). race in late September. If all goes well, we’ll be racing at Bathurst in October.” night race. “It would have to be Daytona, the two races there were really good,” he reflects. C L I C K H E R E T O L E A R N M O R E C L I C K H E R E T O Here’s hoping Cooper gets the chance to hit the track again soon. • C L I C K H E R E T O L E A R N M O R E L E A R N M O R E C L I C K H E R E T O L E A R N M O R E

855 Nepean Highway Brighton VIC 3186 P: 03 9536 1911 W: www.porschebrighton.com.au

TURBO Magazine is published by Jill Johnson Media

Contributors Mandy PARRY-JONES Tim ROBERTS Jill JOHNSON

Design Brigid FRASER

Photography Lisa SAAD Courtesy of Porsche AG Cooper Murray Photos by Mark HORSBURGH (Edge Photography)

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