Julius Martin has lived up to his role as favourite: With a hard-fought victory in the Superfinal at Road America (USA), the automotive engineer from Leipzig secured the World eX Bizz championship title for the third time in a row. In the racing series, exciting personalities from motorsport, esports racing and the mobility industry compete with the 800 hp electric eX ZERO from the World eX Championship.
Before the Super inal, the fifth round of the World eX Bizz was first on the agenda with two races at Sebring (Florida). DTM Champion and Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller decided at short notice to make a guest start in the networking racing series and unsurprisingly secured pole position. The only one who was able to stand up to “Rocky” in Race 1 was Steffen Walter from Team tv racing, but in the end he had to settle for second place behind the professional racer. Julius Martin defended his lead in the standings with third place.
In Race 2 with reversed grid, there was a huge pile-up on the first lap in which almost the entire starting field was involved. Björn Skottke from the bspowersports team benefited, driving towards his first victory in the World eX Bizz before he was tapped on the rear by Markus Martin and forced into a spin. Fourth place and victory in the AM category was little consolation for “Skottie”.
Julius Martin, Steffen Walter and Mike Rockenfeller benefited from the collision and, despite damaged cars, fought for victory, which was eventually secured by Julius Martin.
In the subsequent Super Final at Road America, Julius Martin and Steffen Walter delivered a fascinating fight for the championship title. The duel spiced up on lap five. First Martin pushed his rival onto the grass. Shortly afterwards, Walter missed a braking point. From then on, Martin drove to victory and his third championship title in a row.
In the end, the Martin Racing Team even had double reason to celebrate, as Markus Martin secured the title in the AM category. This meant that both championship titles in the World eX Bizz went to two siblings for the first time.
Steffen Walter secured the runner-up championship in the PRO category ahead of the disabled Chris Overend, who was dogged by bad luck in Sebring: a disconnect in qualifying was followed by non-culpable collisions on the opening lap of both races. In the Super Final, Overend finished third on the podium.
Runner-up in the AM category was RCCO Slotcar record champion Thomas Voigt despite a disastrous evening with accidents in all three races. Jan Sellner finished third on equal points.
Sellner and Overend are working together on a further development of a steering wheel for disabled SimRacers who, like Overend, only use their hands. The two got to know each other in World eX Bizz.
Season 6 of World eX Bizz will begin in March – with many exciting additional participants and a total of ten double headers.