- AMERICAS FINAL
- An Upset as Chile's Fabián Portilla (FT_Mcqueen91) Grabs a Dramatic Victory in Race 1!
- Nations Cup: Americas Final
- 05/11/2018
Brazil's Igor Fraga (IOF_RACING17) and Chile's Nicolás Rubilar (FT_NicoR), driving a C7 and a Ford GT respectively, started on the front row. Following an excellent piece of traction control, Rubilar (FT_NicoR) surged into the lead at the first corner.
Rubilar (FT_NicoR) is the top driver of the team known as "Flatout Threat" (FT), and is a dominant presence in the online series, but Fraga (IOF_RACING17) and the C7 of the USA's Andrew McCabe remained in close pursuit as the laps ticked away.
Then, out of nowhere, an unexpected driver started putting pressure on this leading group - Chile's Fabián Portilla (FT_Mcqueen91), who had advanced through the repechage and was driving a Cobra.
Portilla (FT_Mcqueen91) is Rubilar (FT_NicoR)'s teammate at Flatout Threat, but the latter is the higher ranked of the two drivers in the online rankings.
On the sixth lap, Portilla (FT_Mcqueen91) got on the inside of Rubilar (FT_NicoR), and pushed him out of the way to take the lead - an incident for which he would receive a one-second time penalty.
Fraga (IOF_RACING17) and Rubilar (FT_NicoR) had changed tyres on the fifth lap, but Portilla (FT_Mcqueen91) managed to stick it out until the ninth lap on soft tyres, then succeeded in retaining first place following his pit stop. The spectators were stunned into silence by this masterful piece of tyre management, and Fraga (IOF_RACING17) and Rubilar (FT_NicoR) simply had no response to it. Portilla (FT_Mcqueen91) crossed the line in first place to claim victory.