GT Rivals Set for Grand Finale Showdown in Kyalami

SRO America’s GT Rivals esports series is set to come to a close on Sunday, with a total of 30 racers set for the grand finale at virtual Kyalami Circuit in South Africa.

After seven rounds of Assetto Corsa Competizione action, a mix of real-life and virtual drivers will take the grid at Kyalami.

GT Rivals airs this Sunday at 3p.m. ET across SRO’s GT World YouTube channel, SRO Motorsports Twitch Channel, and GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Facebook page.

Heading into Kyalami, South African David Perel will look to utilize his real world racing knowledge of the circuit heading into the finale. Perel finished third in the Silver category in last year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli Kyalami 9 Hour driving a Ferrari 488 GT3.

He’s finished second in the last two GT Rivals events at Bathurst and Barcelona, having only joined the series mid-season. 

At Bathurst, Karl Wittmer put on a dominating display of speed in the Honda GT3 Academy Acura NSX GT3 Evo. Having never finished outside the top-10, Wittmer looks to finish the season strong with another victory.

CrowdStrike Racing’s Kevin Boehm continues to be a front runner in the Mercedes-AMG GT3.

With several podium and top-five performances, Boehm is a threat for the overall win. He’ll be joined by GT Academy winner Nick McMillan who’s shown speed but hasn’t had quite the finish he’s been expecting.

Scott Michaels will also be one to watch. The Walkenhorst BMW driver was due to start third at Bathurst, but existing the server between qualifying and the race forced him to start from the back. He worked his way up to fifth but fell victim to a drive-thru penalty after contact with another competitor.

Champion Motorsports will field eight sim racers in the Grand Finale. Led by Misano winner Josh Staffin, the CMS sim racing league drivers have earned multiple podiums and Top 5 finishes.

However, no one has been as dominant as Bryan Heitkotter. The Nissan driver has won five of the seven rounds and only finished outside the podium once. 

The only competitor to make his debut at Kyalami is Formula Drift Champion Chris Forsberg. The Nissan driver will make his first sports car start with GT Rivals, working with fellow Nismo pilots Heitkotter and McMillan to get up to speed in ACC.

The drifting ace will leverage his extreme car control skills to go against pro sports car drivers and sim racers in the 60-minute contest.