CAS-iRacing Community

Setting

Okayama International Circuit — the tight, technical 3.703 km, 13-turn former Pacific Grand Prix venue in Japan, an early-morning sim slot under warm, dry skies (track temperature around 22–23 °C). With regular host Thomas Herbrig away on business, Andreas from cas_sim_tv (Casting TV) called the action. Eleven Porsche Cup drivers signed in for the Season 4 finale — and the title was still live: Andre Rajkovic led on raw points but carried a drop result, leaving Silvio Foth ahead in the net standings, with Willi Brand a near-certain third.

Qualifying

A ten-minute Lone Qualifying session produced the tightest of margins at the front: Silvio Foth took pole at 1:27.566, just 0.18 s clear of Andre Rajkovic (1:27.749), with Benjamin Schlosser (1:27.794) and Willi Brand (1:27.895) completing a top four covered by a third of a second. Thomas Felix, Klaus Oberlaender, Jan Tobias Schrader, Andy Weber, Don Utz, Riccardo Cavoto and Jürgen Michael Kraft filled the grid.

Race 1 — 17 laps, standing start

Foth converted pole cleanly and built a small but steady cushion on a circuit where overtaking is hard and mistakes are punished by the low-grip kerbs. Brand settled into second and Schlosser into third, the lead trio quickly easing clear of the midfield in identical Cup cars.

The defining moment of the season came behind them: Andre Rajkovic, running in the leading group and having set a 1:27.730, lost the car and then dropped out of the event entirely after just four laps — a no-score for the championship’s form driver. From the front, Foth simply controlled it, setting the race’s fastest lap (1:27.532) and crossing the line with a faultless zero-incident sheet.

Race 1 result: Foth, Brand, B. Schlosser, Schrader, Utz, Felix, Oberlaender, Weber, Cavoto, Kraft; Rajkovic DNF. Fastest lap: Silvio Foth, 1:27.532.

Race 2 — 17 laps, reverse-grid top 8

The reverse grid put Andy Weber on pole and Klaus Oberlaender alongside, with the Race 1 frontrunners buried in the pack — Schlosser sixth, Brand seventh, Foth eighth. It never settled: a first-lap brush sent Oberlaender backwards, and a rolling five-car train formed for the minor places. Benjamin Schlosser, reversed only to sixth, sliced through it inside a handful of laps and disappeared up the road, reeling off fastest lap after fastest lap.

Behind him came the race of the night: Thomas Felix, Andy Weber, Jan Tobias Schrader, Foth and Don Utz ran nose-to-tail for the second half, just 2.7 s covering P2 to P6 at the flag. The flashpoint was a Foth–Brand–Utz tangle — Brand ran wide, forced contact and had to give the place back, the karma leaving him seventh. Foth salvaged P5, which was all he needed. Felix took a fine P2 and Weber recovered to P3.

Race 2 result: B. Schlosser, Felix, Weber, Schrader, Foth, Utz, Brand, Oberlaender, Cavoto, Kraft; Rajkovic DNS. Fastest lap: Benjamin Schlosser, 1:28.267.

Championship picture

The finale settled the title decisively. With Andre Rajkovic scoring nothing in either race, Silvio Foth — pole, a Race 1 win and P5 in Race 2 — sealed the Season 4 Porsche Community Cup championship. Rajkovic holds on to second on the strength of his earlier-season wins, with Willi Brand third. Benjamin Schlosser’s P3/P1 weekend was the form drive of the finale. Official final points are confirmed once CLS publishes the Round 8 classification.

Notes from the booth

• Okayama is a notoriously tricky overtaking track, and it showed — Race 1 spread out into a procession at the front, while Race 2’s reverse grid delivered the close, side-by-side racing the format is built for.
• Silvio Foth gave the booth his onboard camera for the first time — a calm, concentrated drive to the win and the title.
• Post-race interviews: audio gremlins kept Jan Tobias Schrader off the line, but race winner Benjamin Schlosser (“five places gained — up front I only had myself to beat”) and Don Utz joined to recap the Foth–Brand contact and a smooth first season under the new CLS scoring system.
• Sign-up season is open: Porsche Cup Season 5 starts 16 July at Jerez — no entry fee this time, and prize money for the first time (50/30/20 iRacing $ for the top three, minimum 7 races). The GT3 WCT, SFL Cup and NASCAR CAS Cup are all rolling out on the new CLS platform too.

Summary of the full Casting TV / sim_racing_broadcast finale stream. Results, lap times and grid order taken from the iRacing event result (subsession 86541543) and cross-checked against the official CAS League Scoring (CLS) roster & standings for CAS PCCD Season 4.

Setting

The Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello, in the Tuscan hills, is a fast, flowing Grand Prix circuit that rewards commitment through its sweeping esses. 13 drivers took the grid in identical SF Lights 324 single-seaters for Round 2 of the CAS Super Formula Lights Cup, on a dry track that climbed from 25 to 31 °C. Format: lone qualifying, then two 13-lap sprints — Race 1 from the grid, Race 2 on a top-10 reverse grid. Broadcast live on cas_sim_tv.

Qualifying

Pascal Marx took pole at 1:37.065, edging Lucian Grabowski (1:37.216) and David Hoffmann (1:37.328) — the top three covered by barely a quarter of a second.

Race 1 — standing start

Marx converted pole into his first win of the season, managing his tyres carefully in the heat while Grabowski (P2, +0.76 s) and Hoffmann (P3, fastest lap 1:36.816) shadowed him but never got into striking range. The best fights were further back, where Bernhard Wlach recovered from a weak start with long, fair duels. It was a cleaner, lower-overtake race than Fuji. Friedrich Luhn spun and Thomas Felix retired.

Race 2 — reverse grid

The reverse grid was decided at the first corner: a five-wide crash at Turn 1 collected four cars, with Marx an innocent victim after being rear-ended. From P9, Grabowski charged through to win and controlled it from the front. Kevin Chmielewski took P2, and Eike Werner passed Wlach around the outside for P3, leaving Bernhard Wlach P4 and Thomas Herbrig a fine P5. Marx recovered to P7 with the fastest lap (1:37.053). David Hoffmann crashed out and dropped from second to sixth in the championship.

Round podium & championship

Combined round podium (per CLS): P1 Lucian Grabowski, P2 Kevin Chmielewski, P3 Pascal Marx. Grabowski banked 58 points on the day.

Championship after Round 2 (CLS): P1 Lucian Grabowski 119 · P2 Kevin Chmielewski 96 · P3 Pascal Marx 85 · P4 Eike Werner 81 · P5 Thomas Herbrig 79 · P6 David Hoffmann 77 · P7 Bernhard Wlach 73. Full per-race tables and the 2D replays are in the SFL Race Center.

Next round

Round 3 heads to the Algarve International Circuit on 22 July 2026.

Narrative based on the cas_sim_tv broadcast. Classification and lap data are from the official iRacing result; championship points are from CAS League Scoring (CLS).

Setting

Fuji Speedway, Grand Prix layout — Japan’s fast, sweeping circuit with one of the longest straights in the calendar feeding a tight first-sector hairpin and a technical infield. The real Season 8 opener of the CAS Super Formula Lights Cup after the Watkins Glen pre-season test. 15 drivers in identical SF Lights 324 single-seaters. Format: lone qualifying, then two 13-lap sprints — Race 1 from the grid, Race 2 on a top-10 reverse grid.

Qualifying

Lone qualifying — no slipstream games this time. Lucian Grabowski took pole at 1:32.226, two hundredths clear of Pascal Marx (1:32.258). David Hoffmann (1:32.567), Kevin Chmielewski and Peter Pistorius completed the top five; broadcaster Andreas Wuschnakowski lined up P6.

Race 1 — standing start

Grabowski converted pole cleanly and was never headed across the 13 laps, setting the fastest lap (1:32.522) and pulling 3.5 s clear of Marx, with Hoffmann a close third. Matthias Eggert climbed P8→P4 and Thomas Felix produced the drive of the race from grid P15 to P7. At the back, quali-P7 Marcus Rothe failed to complete a lap and Peter Pistorius slid from P5 to P14.

Race 2 — reverse grid

The top ten reversed, putting Bernhard Wlach on pole and Grabowski back in P10. It barely mattered: Grabowski sliced through to win the double, again fastest lap (1:32.542) and just 0.52 s ahead of Hoffmann at the flag. Chmielewski took P3, while Marcus Rothe charged from P15 to P5 to redeem his Race 1 retirement. Reverse-pole Wlach slipped to P7.

Notable incidents & stewarding

• Marcus Rothe — out at the start of Race 1 (0 laps), then P5 in Race 2: the comeback of the round.
• Four Race 2 retirements — Dominic Waack, Peter Pistorius, Thomas Felix and Florian Brechmann all retired; Brechmann was still classified P12 (9 pts).
• Cleanest in Race 1 — David Hoffmann and Andreas Wuschnakowski both finished with zero incident points.

Championship after Round 1

P1 Lucian Grabowski 61 pts (25+30+6) · P2 David Hoffmann 52 · P3 Kevin Chmielewski 46 · P4 Thomas Herbrig 40 · P5 Pascal Marx 40 · P6 Eike Werner 37 · P7 Andreas Wuschnakowski 35 · P8 Bernhard Wlach 33 · P9 Matthias Eggert 33 · P10 Marcus Rothe 26. Full per-race tables and the 2D replays are in the SFL Race Center.

Narrative based on the cas_sim_tv broadcast. Classification and championship points are from the official CAS League Scoring (CLS) round page; lap times and gaps are from the in-sim telemetry recording.

Setting

Mount Panorama at Bathurst, New South Wales — opened in 1938, the oldest and most renowned circuit in Australia, run over closed public roads. 6.213 km, 23 corners, a 174 m elevation change and gradients to 16 %. The 1.11 km Mountain Straight climbs from Hell Corner; the 1.916 km Conrod Straight plunges back down to the safety chicane, The Chase. Round 3 of Season 13, the third Australian opener. Rain was rumoured but never came — dry, overcast, ~18°C track. Format: ~62-minute timed race, ran to 30 laps with one mandatory stop. Reigning champion Yannick Wonnenberg sat the round out.

Qualifying

Markus Groß and Zilvio Korenjak (both Ferrari 296) traded fast laps before Groß took pole at 2:01.003, just 0.175 s clear. Mike Zocher (BMW) P3, Marius Becker P4, Dennis Ulli Richter P5, Aaron Hatcher P6, Tim Eilzer P7. Best AM runner: Alvin Frauenknecht (McLaren) P8. The top eleven were covered by seven tenths.

Race — the duel

Groß led lap 1 from pole, but Korenjak passed him on lap 2 and led every lap to the pit stops (2–17). The race turned in the pit lane: coming in on lap 18, Korenjak was baulked by a slower car ahead of him and lost about a second — exactly enough to drop him out behind Groß, who then led the second stint (18–29). Korenjak fought back and retook the lead on the final lap — but Groß countered one last time, defended The Chase and took the flag by 0.13 s. Three lead changes; Mike Zocher ran a clean, lonely P3, +6.7 s back with zero incidents. Groß also set the fastest lap (2:01.134, lap 15).

Pit phase & strategy

The single mandatory stop again ran under the tyres-after-refuel rule, and again it caught drivers out: Dominique Meyers, Michael Gessner and Dirk Bolte took black flags and retired; Djavit Segashi, Maurice Becker and Fritz Morawetz picked up forced-repair penalties. The leaders cycled through cleanly, so the pit window never disturbed the fight at the front.

Battles of the day

• Groß vs. Korenjak for the win — the race, start to finish; 0.13 s apart after 30 laps of slipstreaming.
• Eilzer vs. Dennis Ulli Richter for P5 — Tim Eilzer’s Porsche hounded the Ferrari to the line, 0.12 s the gap (P5 +24.40 s, P6 +24.52 s).
• Recovery charges — Mike Girenz, Danny Platzer and Christoph Kiesel carved forward from the back.

Notable incidents & attrition

• Christian Hartl out on lap 3 (from P11); Maurice Becker (P9 start) gone by lap 13.
• Four disqualifications in the CLS result — Maurice Becker, Michael Gessner, Djavit Segashi and Christian Hartl — plus three DNFs (Gradwohl, Meyers, Kaschta).
• No safety car and no full-course yellow all race, only local waved yellows.

Final classification — top 10 (overall)

P1 Markus Groß (Pro, pole, FL 2:01.134, 0 inc, 35 pts) · P2 Zilvio Korenjak (Pro, +0.13 s, 33) · P3 Mike Zocher (Pro, +6.67 s, 31) · P4 Alvin Frauenknecht (AM winner, +21.87 s, 29) · P5 Dennis Richter (Pro, +24.40 s, 27) · P6 Tim Eilzer (Pro, +24.52 s, 25) · P7 Lukas Zörlaut (Pro, +29.25 s, 23) · P8 Marius Becker (Pro, +36.97 s, 21) · P9 Elias Schleich (AM, +45.92 s, 19) · P10 Andre Rajkovic (Pro, +47.89 s, 17). AM podium: Frauenknecht (P4) · Schleich (P9) · Warnow (P12). Full 44-car classification in the Race Center.

Off-track notes

• Driver of the Day — Mike Girenz (#33, FRAMIDI Racing, Porsche): grid P33 to P18, +15 places, 21 overtakes, zero incidents, merit 0.867 — the cleanest charge of the night, with sponsored coaching from LE Academy.
• Host watch — Thomas Herbrig (#968, McLaren, AM) home P29 with a spotless zero-incident run in a GT3 field that isn’t his favourite discipline.
• Next round — Spa-Francorchamps, Tuesday 14 July 2026. The tour leaves Australia for Belgium (calendar swap to clear the real Spa 24h weekend).

Narrative based on the cas_sim_tv (Andreas) broadcast with co-host Dennis. Classification, the Pro/AM split, points, the Driver of the Day and the DSQs are from the official CAS League Scoring (CLS) round page; grid, gaps, best laps and incident points come from the iRacing event result, and the charts, 2D replay and Driver of the Day from the in-sim iRaceControl telemetry log. The Mount Panorama map in the Race Center is the real circuit layout.

Setting

Thruxton Circuit, Hampshire — 3.79 km, the fastest circuit in the UK, with theoretical GT-car top speeds north of 300 km/h. A flowing layout dominated by Goodwood, Church and the high-speed sweep into Brooklands; overtaking concentrated at the Allard chicane and out of the Club complex onto the start/finish straight.

Dry throughout, cool evening. 25 drivers on the grid — up on Magny-Cours, a healthy turnout for a non-classic round. Format: 1-hour race with one mandatory pit stop, ran to 54 laps.

Qualifying

Split 15-minute sessions, AM then Pro. In AM, Klaus Oberländer (Dan Küchen Motorsport, BMW M4 GT3 EVO) took pole at 1:06.351 — fast enough for grid P3 overall — ahead of Max Coldron (NEON Sim Sports Red, Mustang, 1:06.602) and Fritz Morawetz (1:06.629). In Pro, Yannick Wonnenberg snatched pole at 1:06.071 with Lukas Zörlaut alongside at 1:06.290 — just 0.219 s back. Benjamin Schlosser P3 in class (1:06.369, grid P4), then Dennis Richter, Mike Zocher.

Notable: Dennis Ulli Richter looked far more comfortable in the Aston Martin than at Magny-Cours, qualifying P5. Maurice Becker right behind him in P7 (1:06.508) — a strong qualifying that would unravel inside the opening lap.

Race — first stint chaos at the back

Rolling start went cleanly at the front. Wonnenberg led away with Zörlaut shadowing; Dennis Ulli Richter, Mike Zocher and Marius Becker forming a Speed Monkeys phalanx behind. But further back the opening lap was brutal: Maurice Becker lost the Porsche into the barriers off Campbell, Gregor Micewski stopped on track, Dirk Bolte spun, and Michael Krieger picked up damage. Justin Christiansen took a meatball flag after early contact with Benjamin Schlosser; Benjamin Schlosser himself retired on lap 5 with terminal damage.

Out front, Zörlaut piled the pressure on Wonnenberg, even nosing past briefly in the Allard chicane before the Lambo cut back. Lap times dropped into the 1:06.3s — a class above the rest of the field, with only Maurice Becker (now charging back through traffic) able to match.

Pit phase & second stint

Cool surface, low wear — the field cycled through the mandatory stop early, with the front-runners covering each other on roughly the same lap. The order stayed Wonnenberg, Zörlaut, Zocher, Richter through the pit cycle. Mid-stint Maurice Becker set the fastest lap of the race at 1:06.412 on his recovery from P20 — an extraordinary effort — before later losing the car again and ultimately retiring four laps down.

In the AM class the running was Klaus Oberländer leading Christoph Kiesel and Max Coldron, all three within a couple of seconds. The complexion changed when Oberländer ran wide across the grass at Cobb under pressure, dropping behind Kiesel; then Kiesel was passed by Coldron on a brave inside line into the Allard chicane in the closing stages.

The penultimate lap — how the win changed hands

Zörlaut had shaved the gap on Wonnenberg to under half a second by lap 50. With two to go he finally made it stick into the Allard chicane — the AMG had the better line out, and the Lambo was tucked behind. Then a small contact damaged Wonnenberg’s rear. Zörlaut sportingly let him back through; but the Huracán was crabbed, and Wonnenberg himself put it bluntly afterwards: “mein linkes Rad war schief, rechts ging fast gar nicht mehr.” Zörlaut re-passed without resistance and crossed the line 11.20 seconds clear. First WCT win of the season for the Mercedes — a measured drive built on pace, not perfection.

Battles of the day

• Zörlaut vs. Wonnenberg — the whole race in microcosm. Wonnenberg defended hard, Zörlaut waited; one mistake, one chicane, one tiny touch, and the win was decided.
• The AM three-way — Coldron, Kiesel and Oberländer split by 2.03 seconds at the flag, with the lead swapping twice in the final 10 minutes. Coldron’s second consecutive class win.
• Hendrik Stanzel’s recovery — quietly worked from P13 on the grid to P5, picking off Marius Becker and Max Coldron without contact — classic Stanzel.
• Speed Monkeys closing argument — Mike Zocher and Marius Becker traded P3 in the final third; Zocher took the place into the Club chicane with two laps left.

Notable incidents

• Benjamin Schlosser — collected in lap-1 contact with Christiansen, retired lap 5.
• Justin Christiansen — meatball flag after early contact; pitted for repairs, soldiered on for 51 laps before retiring three laps down.
• Maurice Becker — lap-1 barrier hit; recovered to set the fastest race lap, then lost the car again and retired four laps down (P24 classified).
• Thomas Kübler — lost the Ferrari over the Cobb kerb, hit the tyre barrier; pitted, repaired, finished one lap down.
• Mario Severn — off at Goodwood mid-race, later a black flag for repeated incidents.
• Cleanest drive — Mike Girenz (FRAMIDI Racing, Porsche) was the only driver in the entire field to finish with zero incident points, classified P10. Hendrik Stanzel next-best in the front with just 3 incidents en route to P5. No yellow-flag periods across the hour.

Final classification — top 10

P1 Lukas Zörlaut (1:06.305 FL, 6 inc, 35 pts) · P2 Yannick Wonnenberg (+11.20 s, 33 pts) · P3 Mike Zocher (+18.34 s, 31 pts) · P4 Dennis Richter (+21.39 s, 29 pts) · P5 Hendrik Stanzel (+32.05 s, 27 pts) · P6 Max Coldron (AM win, +40.67 s, 35 AM-pts) · P7 Christoph Kiesel (AM P2, +42.70 s, 33 pts) · P8 Klaus Oberländer (AM P3, +42.70 s, 31 pts) · P9 Gregor Micewski (+46.27 s) · P10 Mike Girenz (+57.42 s, 0 inc). DSQ: Benjamin Schlosser (5 laps, accident damage). Maurice Becker classified P24 four laps down after his lap-1 crash; Danny Platzer P23 and Justin Christiansen P22.

“There was a small rear-end contact from Lukas, who then let me back past — but I had no chance any more, my left wheel was crooked and right barely worked at all. I’m already through — the title was secured mathematically last race.” — Yannick Wonnenberg, post-race interview on cas_sim_tv

Off-track notes

• Championship decided — Wonnenberg confirmed in the post-race interview that the Pro title is mathematically secure regardless of the Phillip Island result. Phillip Island becomes a free-fire finale.
• Season 13 registration open — sign up via Discord through the new CLS-keyed system. Several teams already entered for WCT and IEC.
• IEC Season 4 confirmed — opens 5 September, 3-hour endurance, three classes: GT3, LMP2, and a new Branche Cup single-make class replacing GTV. Solo entries permitted but must use an official iRacing team.
• Formula Light pre-race — one-hour open quali plus 20-minute race at Watkins Glen Classic Boot on Wednesday 24 June, as a get-to-know-you session ahead of CAS Super Formula Light Season 8 (which carries a prize fund for top three with a 7-race minimum to qualify).
• Next round — Phillip Island, Monday 8 June 2026 (note: Monday, not Tuesday — the iRacing build update lands on Tuesday). Season 12 finale of the GT3 WCT.

Narrative based on the cas_sim_tv broadcast by Andreas. Lap times, finishing positions, fastest race lap and incident counts cross-checked against the in-sim telemetry export and the CAS League Scoring (CLS) classification.

The start — the concertina effect through the chicane

The replay made it obvious: by the time the leaders took the green flag, the back of the field had not even cleared the Allard chicane. Gaps of three or more car lengths ran through the whole rear half — partly the chicane’s fault, partly self-protection, because everyone behind feared sudden braking ahead. Two practical findings: from the cockpit the distances feel far closer than they are — most overlays show a gap readout, and around 3 m bumper-to-bumper is a safe formation distance worth calibrating against. And a structural fix was proposed for next season: race control announces a grid-formation point (e.g. mid-way down the preceding straight, or simply via a chat call “grid formation now”), from which everyone holds a fixed reduced pace — around 70–75 km/h was suggested — and tyre-weaving stops, since the weaving is what tears the gaps open. Two-wide through the chicane at that speed is no problem, and the back of the field finally gets a chance to close up before green. Many other leagues run exactly this; it goes into the improvement-proposals channel.

Lap 1 — a pit-entry mix-up and an optimistic dive

The first flashpoint came before Turn 1: one car ran far right along the pit wall — the driver later explained he believed he was heading into the pits — and contact followed. The replay’s onboard raised a second question: after the initial touch the steering stayed turned towards the other car instead of opening up. The room explicitly declined to assume intent — iRacing’s netcode can briefly “glue” two cars together in close contact — but the follow-up steering input was flagged as the avoidable part. Context mattered too: it was the first racing lap on a green, cold track that everyone agreed was more than slippery.

The second flashpoint was the chicane: a dive from very far back, braking at the 50-metre board with a lot of optimism. The subtlety from the replay: the diving car appeared to time its braking off a Porsche making the same move ahead — a move that worked for the Porsche — rather than off its own braking references, and the car behind it expected a two-wide entry, not a late lunge. Full braking from that depth also means understeer; the result was contact and scattered debris. The takeaway was less about blame than about lap-1 calibration: brake on your own marks, and don’t copy the braking point of a different car on different tyres.

The outside-line 50/50

Mid-race, a car on six-lap-fresher tyres went around the outside of a rival who had just left the pits on a cold set — the outside line being, at that corner, essentially the racing line. The inside car had little room left to give under the rules; the outside car carried the speed advantage but also all the classic outside-line risk: the inside car’s understeer was always going to come, and it did. The room’s verdict was a clean 50/50 racing incident — both could have backed out, neither did. The strategic point for an hour-long race: with a big tyre delta, shorting the corner and re-passing with the slipstream into the chicane is often the cheaper move than committing around the outside against a car on cold rubber.

Full speed into the pit-entry queue

A separate incident at the pit entry: a car slowed early through the final chicane to position its pit-in — staying as far right as it could — and the car behind held full speed onto it. The room’s read: everyone knows where the pit entry is and that cars will be slowing there; running flat into that zone is your own risk, and in this case the offending car effectively penalised itself with the damage it took.

Paper cars — damage after the latest patch

One driver finished the race with a bent steering column and a missing splitter after a contact that looked harmless — “the cars are made of paper since the last patch” was the room’s shorthand. The instructive part: the other driver involved never realised the car was wounded. He saw the missing splitter but read the slow pace as a fuel-saving problem — and iRacing’s own contact report claimed no damage at all. The lesson cuts both ways: after any contact, assume the other car may be crippled even if it looks intact, and don’t trust the “0x” in the contact log.

Lapping etiquette — both sides of the blue flag

The most constructive thread of the night. A driver from the slower end of the field described the stress of being hustled mid-corner while already fighting a difficult car on dead tyres: “I’m happy to lift on the straight and let anyone by — but once I’m committed to a corner, I can’t dissolve into thin air.” The faster drivers’ answer was unanimous and practical: the easiest car to lap is one that stays on the racing line and simply lifts where it’s safe — because the line is the one place the approaching car can predict. Well-meant moves off the line to make room are exactly what faster drivers cannot anticipate; one driver recalled nearly wrecking someone years ago doing precisely that. A counter-example from a previous round was raised — a backmarker inserting himself into a 0.3-second fight he had no stake in, nearly collecting a third car — against a positive one from this race: a clearly faster car arriving on a three-way scrap and simply waiting it out. Context decides: early in a race a re-pass attempt is fair game; deep in the field with nothing to gain, patience costs nothing and protects someone else’s race.

Car talk — the Ferrari is a pair of pliers

Two drivers are testing the Ferrari 296 ahead of a possible switch next season, and the verdict so far is affectionate but wary: “a real Giftzange” — sharp, direct, and merciless. It wants calm inputs and one very specific skill: hitting the brake at exactly the right spot and trailing exactly the right percentage into the corner. Get it right and the front end loads up beautifully; let it start sliding and “everything turns to mush” over all four tyres at once. The counter-intuitive trick of the week: where a lift makes it slide wide, holding part-throttle — just over half — pulls it back into line, because lifting drags the rear tyres through engine braking. The Mustang, by contrast, was praised as thoroughly good-natured; and for the smooth-input drivers in the field, the room reckoned the Ferrari might be the faster home.

Summary of the community post-race briefing following CAS GT3 WCT Season 12, Round 11 at Thruxton. Race facts cross-checked against the CAS League Scoring (CLS) classification; some incidents may still be under review.

Setting

Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg — the 4.574 km, 16-turn GP layout, with the long Parabolika into the hairpin and the stadium-section Motodrom giving exactly what Silverstone refused to: real overtaking spots. Twelve drivers signed in — up from eight at Silverstone and the best grid in weeks, a welcome break in the usual late-season drift. Cooler conditions than recent rounds, and a public holiday in Germany may have helped the turnout. Andre Rajkovic arrived leading the championship from Silvio Foth, with Willi Brand third — and with only Hockenheim and the Okayama finale left, every point now counts double in the head.

Qualifying

Rajkovic set the early benchmark at 1:38.922 and looked safe for pole — until Willi Brand produced a 1:38.721 right at the end of the session to snatch it, a run the booth had already written off. Benjamin Schlosser qualified a strong third (1:39.007) ahead of Foth, Klaus Oberlaender and Sean Pfennig. The field was tight: the top seven covered by just over a second. Grid: Brand, Rajkovic, B. Schlosser, Foth, Oberlaender, Pfennig, Felix, Weber, C. Schlosser, Schrader, Utz, Cavoto.

Race 1 — 16 laps, standing start

A standing start into the Nordkurve, and Brand defended the lead from Rajkovic straight away, with Benjamin Schlosser and Foth in close attendance — a four-car lead train with every gap in the yellow. One car spun on the opening lap further back, but the front stayed clean and ferociously close.

The race turned at the hairpin: a late-braking move in the lead group went wrong, and Rajkovic profited to take a lead he would not give back. Brand slotted into P2, Schlosser briefly third, Foth fourth. Schlosser’s race then unravelled with a solo spin — no contact, the booth checked — that dropped the third-fastest qualifier down the order; he eventually came home P10.

From there the podium trio ran within a second of each other for lap after lap — Brand probing at Rajkovic, Foth pressuring Brand, nobody blinking. Foth’s pace was real: his 1:38.458 fastest lap was over half a second quicker than anything he had managed in qualifying. But Hockenheim’s kerbs — the booth’s beloved “Wurstkörbe” — punished every inch of over-commitment, and the order held.

Race 1 result: Rajkovic, Brand, Foth, Oberlaender, Pfennig, Felix, Weber, Schrader, Utz, B. Schlosser, C. Schlosser, Cavoto. Fastest lap: Silvio Foth, 1:38.458.

Race 2 — 16 laps, reverse-grid top 8

The reverse grid put Jan Tobias Schrader on pole with Andy Weber alongside, and the big three lining up seventh, sixth and eighth. Schrader made the most of it, leading cleanly and confidently while chaos sorted itself out behind: Weber spun early on lap 2 — the Porsche’s trademark snap — and dropped to the back, while Foth and Rajkovic began slicing forward together.

Foth cleared Thomas Felix, hunted down Schrader and took the lead with a slipstream run on the Parabolika; Rajkovic followed him through soon after. Brand’s recovery was slower — stuck behind Sean Pfennig in the opening laps, who had no reason to make it easy — but he worked his way to P3 and then closed onto Rajkovic’s gearbox for a last-lap attack that fell just short: the two crossed the line almost side by side.

Behind them, Benjamin Schlosser drove the recovery of the night, from tenth on the grid to P4, including a clean stab down the inside of the Sachskurve. Klaus Oberlaender pulled off the pass of the race around the outside into the Motodrom on Schrader — who left exactly the room a fair fight needs — but lost the car with a few minutes left and dropped back to P6. Schrader brought his pole start home P5 and was “completely satisfied” in the post-race interview.

Race 2 result: Foth, Rajkovic, Brand, B. Schlosser, Schrader, Oberlaender, Felix, C. Schlosser, Pfennig, Utz, Cavoto, Weber. Fastest lap: Willi Brand, 1:38.394.

Championship picture

Rajkovic’s 76-point round (41 + 35) beats Foth’s 71 (30 + 41) and Brand’s 65 (35 + 30) — the three split by just 11 points across two races. In the combined championship view Rajkovic now leads Foth 559 to 528, with Brand third on 430. The maths are simple: Foth needs to out-score Rajkovic by 32 at Okayama on 18 June. Possible — he won Race 2 tonight — but Rajkovic has won a race at every one of the last three rounds.

Notes from the booth

• Hockenheim delivered exactly what Silverstone couldn’t: slipstream passes on the Parabolika, late-braking moves into the hairpin, and an outside pass in the Motodrom. Both races stayed close from lights to flag.
• First on-stream post-race interviews: Jan Tobias Schrader and Sean Pfennig joined the Discord interview channel, with Andreas from cas_sim_tv adding the booth view — verdict: “one of the most exciting rounds yet”, and drivers visibly sweating through two flat-out sprints.
• Twelve drivers — and the booth’s case that a 12-car field with two- and three-way battles all down the order beats a half-empty 30-car grid was hard to argue with. A “hot iron” style sub-standings for the midfield was floated for bigger grids.
• Sign-up season is open across the community: the SFL Cup restarts 24 June in Fuji — with prize money for the top three for the first time (minimum 7 of 8 rounds raced) — the TSS GT4 registration runs through CLS, the IEC team-race entries are filling fast, and a brand-new NASCAR CAS Cup on ovals starts in July.
• Season finale: Okayama, 18 June — title showdown between Rajkovic and Foth.

Summary of the full sim_racing_broadcast stream by Thomas Herbrig. Results, lap times and grid order cross-checked against the official CAS League Scoring (CLS) classification for R7 Hockenheim.

Setting

Silverstone GP — the Home of British Motor Racing, a wartime RAF bomber airfield that began hosting races in the late 1940s and is steeped in Formula 1 history (Lewis Hamilton’s famous 68-second wet win at the 2008 British Grand Prix even got a mention in the booth). Fast, flowing and committed — the long sweeps through Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel reward trust in the car. Dry all evening, air around 20 °C and track temperature about 21 °C, steady across both races. Eight drivers signed in — the familiar slow drift down from 13 at the season opener and 9 at Barcelona. André Rajkovic came into the night leading the championship on 340 points, 30 clear of Silvio Foth on 310, with Willi Brand third on 240 and still within range.

Qualifying

Practice had shown a 1:59 was on the table, but qualifying — only a handful of timed laps, tyres still coming up to temperature — settled into the low 2:00s. Silvio Foth topped the early order with a 2:01, Willi Brand just fourteen hundredths back, before André Rajkovic strung together a clean 2:00 on his final run to snatch pole. Starting grid: Rajkovic, Brand, Foth, Oberländer, Pfennig, Utz, Cavoto, Felix. Thomas Felix set no representative lap and lined up P8 — but was still on the grid, keeping the field at a healthy eight.

Race 1 — 25 minutes, standard grid

All eight cars made it cleanly through the opening corners. Silvio Foth quickly muscled past Willi Brand for P2, and the two settled into a long, close duel — exactly the kind of fight that bleeds lap time. With Brand and Foth trading the line behind him, André Rajkovic simply drove away at the front and was never seriously threatened.

Klaus Oberländer ran a lonely P4, Sean Pfennig a couple of seconds adrift in P5. The real entertainment was the midfield: Thomas Felix, Ricardo Cavoto and a recovering Don Utz swapped places repeatedly. Felix was the quicker of the trio, but — as the broadcaster kept stressing — Silverstone’s fast corners and short straights make a clean pass desperately hard. Cavoto eventually strung together a run of small mistakes and both Felix and Utz came through.

The night’s only retirement was Thomas Felix, who crashed out while running P6 and finished many laps down. The top five never changed once the first lap had shaken out.

Race 1 result: Rajkovic, Brand, Foth, Oberländer, Pfennig, Utz, Cavoto, Felix (DNF). Fastest lap: Silvio Foth, ~2:00.2. Incident tally: Rajkovic 4, Foth 5, Pfennig 5, Brand 13.

Race 2 — 25 minutes, reverse-grid top 8

The reverse grid would have put Thomas Felix on pole, but he did not take the restart — seven cars went green. Sean Pfennig swept into the lead early and produced the drive of the night: close to twenty minutes glued to the perfect line, never overdriving the car, turning Silverstone’s un-overtakeable layout into a fortress.

Behind him formed a four-car train — Pfennig, Brand, Rajkovic, Foth — nose to tail lap after lap, the timing screen lighting up with four cars inside touching distance. Brand probed hardest but ran wide into the grass, handing Rajkovic and Foth a way through. Then Rajkovic spun while battling and dropped to P5; the broadcaster saw no contact, just a car lost in a three-wide corner.

That gave Foth a clear run at P2, and shortly afterwards he became the only driver all race to pass Pfennig. Rajkovic recovered, picking off Oberländer again for P4. Out front Foth managed the gap home; Pfennig held a superb P2 and Brand took P3.

Race 2 result: Foth, Pfennig, Brand, Rajkovic, Oberländer, Utz — six finishers. Ricardo Cavoto parked the car late on; Thomas Felix did not start. Fastest lap: André Rajkovic, 2:00.6.

Notes from the booth

• Silverstone’s flowing layout makes overtaking brutally hard — no long straight to slipstream down, and nobody wants to run side-by-side through the fast sweeps. Both races were decided more by mistakes than by passes.
• Drive of the night: Sean Pfennig, who turned a reverse-grid Race 2 lead into a defended P2 against three of the field’s quickest cars.
• The familiar Foth–Rajkovic–Brand trio remain a class apart on outright pace. With the grid thinning as the season runs on, the booth wondered aloud how to keep entries fuller all the way to the finale.
• The broadcaster gave the league’s new CAS League Scoring (CLS) system an on-air mention — GT3 WCT sign-ups for next season are now open through it, and the IEC will run on it too.
• Next round: Hockenheim GP — a long straight into the hairpin should finally give the chasers a real overtaking chance — then Okayama to close the season.

Summary of the full sim_racing_broadcast stream by Thomas Herbrig. Official results are published to CAS League Scoring (CLS) shortly after each round.

Setting

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya — 4.65 km, 16 corners, the GP variant with the tight final chicane. A long-time Formula 1 test venue, famously rewarding aero balance and tyre warm-up. Track temperature 21°C, fading daylight as the night went on — cars running with headlights for the closing stints. Nine drivers on the grid. Championship leader Silvio Foth absent, Olli also a late scratch.

Qualifying

6-minute session, 3 timed laps. Times tumbled across the session as tyres came up to temperature. Willi Brand stunned the booth with a 1:45.2 to take pole — the broadcaster called it “sensational.” Sean Pfennig matched a 1:45 to slot into P2; Rajkovic, normally the man to beat, found himself only P3 with a 1:45.4. Starting grid: Brand, Pfennig, Rajkovic, Oberländer, Schlosser, Felix, Cavoto, Mielke, Schrader.

Notable: Ralph Mielke joined the field as the third CAS Tech Performance car (Olli having cancelled), setting a 1:47.8 to qualify P8.

Race 1 — 25 minutes, standard grid

An exceptionally clean opening — nine cars through Turn 1 unscathed and not a single incident report flagged for the first ten minutes. Brand led from pole, Rajkovic glued himself to the gearbox for a couple of laps and then took the lead with a textbook slipstream pass on the start-finish straight after a perfect exit out of the final chicane.

Behind them Pfennig settled into a lonely P3, and the second pack — Mielke, Cavoto, Schrader, Felix, Schlosser — traded position over the long lap. Thomas Felix produced one of the moves of the race, a sweeping outside line on Schrader at the final chicane — only to give it back the next lap when Schrader returned the favour.

The night’s only real attrition came from Klaus Oberländer, who pulled into the pits and parked the car for reasons that never made it onto the broadcast — the booth’s incident overlay didn’t flag it either. Possibly a technical problem, possibly something else. Benjamin Schlosser also had a moment somewhere in the pack that the broadcast’s incident overlay missed; he dropped well off the back.

Race 1 result: Rajkovic, Brand, Pfennig, Mielke, Cavoto, Schrader, Felix, Schlosser, Oberländer (DNF). Fastest lap: Willi Brand 1:45.07.

Race 2 — 25 minutes, reverse-grid top 8

The reverse grid put Schlosser on pole and Rajkovic back in P8. Lights out and the script tore itself up at Turn 1 — Rajkovic was tagged into a half-spin and dropped to last. The booth’s read: “a touch, almost certainly unintentional.” A second small contact further back disrupted the chasing pack as well.

Schlosser used the chaos to build a 1.6-second cushion in clean air. The race’s defining storyline became Rajkovic’s charge: through the field, into the points, then onto the podium fight inside ten minutes — up to P2 by the halfway mark, with Brand keeping pace just behind. The broadcaster’s line: “unbelievable performance, no frustration, just heads down and back through them.”

Up front Schlosser kept his discipline. With Brand and Rajkovic engaged in a private duel over P2, Schlosser’s lap times stabilised at exactly the level he needed and the gap stretched back out to the two seconds he’d need to coast home. Behind, Klaus Oberländer spun on his own and dropped places he’d been recovering all race; Jan Tobias Schrader had a costly spin too. Felix and Cavoto traded positions repeatedly in the second-half scrap.

On the very last lap, Brand finally found a way through on Rajkovic for P2 — but the win was already gone. Benjamin Schlosser took his first PCCD race victory with the additional reward of fastest lap (1:45.45). Rajkovic, despite the spin, still walked away with P3.

Race 2 result: Schlosser, Brand, Rajkovic, Pfennig, Felix, Schrader, Oberländer, Cavoto. (Mielke did not take the restart.) Fastest lap: Benjamin Schlosser 1:45.45.

Notes from the booth

• Two CAS Tech Performance Porsches on track tonight: Willi Brand (P2/P2) and Ralph Mielke (P4 in R1, did not start R2). Olli cancelled.
• Without championship leader Silvio Foth, the night turned into a fight between Rajkovic, Brand and Schlosser — and the points table tightens slightly as a result, though the gap to Silvio remains substantial with three rounds to go.
• Klaus Oberländer retired from Race 1 with no public explanation — the broadcast’s incident overlay missed it and the cause never came up on stream. He returned for Race 2.
• The broadcast’s in-house Race Manager (built by Thomas Herbrig with Claude) missed a couple of flags tonight — sensitivity dial needs another pass.
• Next round: Silverstone GP, Wednesday 21 May 2026. Then Hockenheim GP and Okayama (Full Course) to close the season.

Summary of the full sim_racing_broadcast stream by Thomas Herbrig. Official results are published to CAS League Scoring (CLS) shortly after each round.