Canadian karter Patrick Woods-Toth won the first ever Rotax SIM Racing Challenge overnight.

The 16-year old beat pole-sitter and Pre-Final B winner Diago Francisco with brilliant around-the-outside last-lap move in the 25-minute final.

Earlier, he had taken P2 in the opening Pre-Final, matching the pace of fastest qualifier and race winner Johnny Guindi.

The only Australian to qualify in the top 72 drivers was WA’s Colin Suttie. Unfortunately he was wiped out in the opening lap of pre-final B.

Woods-Toth has been racing karts for eight years, (3 years longer than his Sim) and made his Rotax Grand Finals debut in Micro MAX in New Orleans (USA) where he finished 3rd in just his second season racing.

He has qualified twice since to represent Team Canada, and last year winning won the Canadian Open.

“I had a great time racing in the Rotax Sim Racing Challenge. Racing with and against so many incredible racers and sim racers was an amazing experience” he said.

“In qualifying, each position was separated by less than 1-tenth which is super close; because in real races it’s very hard to have such a tight field. I think the match up was pretty fair. Diogo [Francisco], Johnny [Guindi], … all of these guys were super fast and are accomplished sim racers across many different games, yet I managed to hold my own and stay right up there with them to race for the win.

“This was definitely one of the most competitive [eSports events] I’ve ever raced in, even compared to in ‘real life’ races. I really enjoyed the event and I am so happy to be on the top step of the virtual podium! Big thanks to PrimePowerTeam and Rotax!”

Patrick’s race mechanic Kenneth O’Keefe was also competing and finished third, after qualifying P5.

The win now gives the Senior MAX driver the chance to race at the Rotax Grand Finals 2020 in Bahrain in the Project E20 eKart.  Cash prizes are awarded to the other drivers finishing up to 5th.

Rotax Sim Challenge Final

Pos	Cust ID	Name	Interval	Time	Club
1	216929	Patrick Woods-Toth	-00.000	1:42.509	Canada
2	255667	Diogo Francisco	-00.219	1:42.611	Iberia
3	24386	Kenneth OKeefe	-01.678	1:42.581	Canada
4	220496	László Sövér	-03.773	1:42.674	Central-Eastern Europe
5	20086	Curtis Fung	-15.085	1:42.689	Canada
6	443811	Robert De Haan	-18.589	1:43.261	Benelux
7	301529	Nino Riepl	-18.757	1:42.887	DE-AT-CH
8	245195	Martin Rennhofer	-19.024	1:42.789	DE-AT-CH
9	305485	David Lackner	-23.110	1:43.229	DE-AT-CH
10	378289	Louie Stockfleth	-23.050	1:43.065	Scandinavia
11	65531	Jan Schwitter	-25.186	1:43.007	DE-AT-CH
12	173877	Martin Brouwers	-27.536	1:42.974	Benelux
13	24176	Adrian Czuchaj	-33.960	1:43.770	Central-Eastern Europe
14	471684	Marcell Darvasi	-37.096	1:43.855	Central-Eastern Europe
15	442720	Guilherme De Oliveira	-40.657	1:43.389	Iberia
16	19917	Richard Basford	-43.319	1:43.112	Canada
17	216254	Daniel Daum	-47.738	1:43.321	DE-AT-CH
18	395327	Max Palme	-51.448	1:44.226	DE-AT-CH
19	304079	Dragos Avasilcutei	-55.162	1:43.956	DE-AT-CH
20	409915	Jerzy Glac	-1:06.972	1:43.414	Central-Eastern Europe
21	79495	Gerardo Babio Ramos	-1:13.609	1:42.596	Iberia
22	234914	Flavio Dantas	-1:19.214	1:42.596	Brazil
23	382116	Philipp Hammer2	-1:22.487	1:42.950	DE-AT-CH
24	59753	Justin Allison	-1 L	1:42.917	Africa/South Africa
25	471884	Gabriel Salomon	-2 L	1:43.270	Scandinavia
26	59865	Mikko Nässi	-5 L	1:42.574	Finland
27	55618	Benny Simonsen	-5 L	1:42.567	UK and I
28	474833	Florian Garcia4	-7 L	1:43.721	France
29	489800	Dmitry Kofanov II	-12 L	2:02.603	Central-Eastern Europe
30	308986	Matt Higgins	-14 L		UK and I
31	362071	Teddy Sin	-14 L		Texas
32	132444	Johnny Guindi	-15 L		Mexico
33	209287	Alberto Palencia	-15 L		Iberia
34	295288	José I. Soria	-15 L		Iberia
35	44063	Dennis Wehdeking	-15 L		DE-AT-CH
36	414058	Adilson Junior	-15 L		Brazil
	DQ	Nathan Brito
	DQ	Nathan Maia Brito
	DQ	Anthony Millo