A 16-race calendar came down to a two-point margin between Evolution Motorsports’ Jannick Bock, the reigning champion, and Adam Maguire of Edonis Engineering, who had made a comeback to sim racing after almost two years away.
Heading into the last round at Interlagos, the stage was set for a straight fight. Maguire started from pole, Bock from third. But within minutes, the season’s defining moment would arrive – and it wouldn’t be a clean one.
When Rivalry Turned Ugly
On lap four, Maguire’s teammate Liam de Waal dived down the inside of Bock at the tight Bico de Pato corner. The move was late and misjudged, sending Bock spinning. In the chaos that followed, Bock rejoined into another car, losing his front wing and, effectively, the championship.
The fact that the contact came from the teammate of Bock’s title rival made the situation even more explosive. Maguire, though, was adamant that there was no foul play involved.
“Of course it was a mistake,” Maguire told The Race. “I think Liam went for a gap probably knowing Jannick Bock was driving extra careful, but he closed it quite quickly.
“Liam did come from a long way back and was alongside but it’s really up to the race stewards – I doubt it’s much good for Liam though.
“It was a really poor moment in our call, I even questioned waiting for Jannick until I heard he had a bad rejoin and lost his wing.”
From there, the atmosphere inside both teams changed completely. What might have been a strategic fight for the title turned into a personal battle of pride and payback.
The Turning Point
As Maguire led the way, his path to a straightforward victory was soon blocked – literally – by Dennis Jordan, Bock’s Evolution Motorsports teammate. During the pit cycle, Jordan switched to soft tyres while others took harder compounds. The move allowed him to catch Maguire quickly, but instead of fighting for his own result, he began to deliberately slow him down.
Lap after lap, Jordan defended aggressively, cut chicanes, and refused to let Maguire through cleanly. He was driving several seconds per lap slower than what was possible, and his only goal seemed to be helping Bock close the gap. Other cars behind were waved through unchallenged, underlining where his priorities lay. Through went a car, Maguire would follow but Jordan would jump across the track to make sure he emerged ahead of the Irishman.
When the chequered flag fell, Maguire finished 11th and Bock 14th – just enough for Maguire to win the title by a single point. Yet for the new champion, the victory felt hollow.
“Honestly I am beyond embarrassed about the racing in Brazil, a possible Edonis 1-2 finish absolutely ruined by Dennis Jordan blocking me about two to three seconds a lap,” Maguire said.
“I have lost all respect for Dennis Jordan since this situation and it’’s a real shame he conducted himself like this.
“Me and Jannick Bock were both innocent in all this, which is the most frustrating part as we couldn’t truly fight for the championship on track.
“Dennis cutting chicanes to stay ahead of me, hitting me on re-entry, brake testing me on the straight – this is not racing and I couldn’t even enjoy winning the title as a result.”
Even de Waal later re-entered the fray, pitting a second time and sacrificing his own race to support Maguire’s recovery. The closing laps turned into a tense game of strategy and survival, with multiple cars involved in awkward exchanges.
The Question of Legality
While many in the sim racing community condemned Jordan’s actions, the driver himself maintained that he hadn’t broken any rules.
“No one knows how the race would have gone if it would not have been for the early incident, but it’s not a secret that Jannick would have had at least a slightly better chance to win it,” Jordan told The Race.
“Was it unfair? I think in most competitions it would have been easy to agree on that, but you do need to accept each competition’s way of dealing with these things.
“I think in this case, it was in line with that, so it’s hard to call it unfair based on that.”
The controversy reignited long-standing concerns about how GPVWC enforced its rules. At the time, as it does now, the series did not employ live stewards – instead relying on drivers to submit incidents after races for review. This meant that questionable on-track behaviour often went unpunished until long after the fact, if at all.
In the months that followed, GPVWC began tightening its regulations and reviewing how its disciplinary processes were handled. The organisation’s managing director, Will Ponissi, emphasised at the time that the league would take action to prevent such incidents from recurring.
“At GPVWC SimRacing, we take the quality and cleanliness of our racing very seriously and we do not tolerate any on- or off-track behaviour that affects it negatively,” he told The Race.
“As always, we will carefully review all the incidents from this race and apply any necessary penalties to those who broke the rules.
“Our regulations themselves are constantly under review: we not only have rules about on-track incidents but also about gamesmanship and we will not be afraid to strengthen them if necessary.”
Five Years Later
Looking back, the 2020 Superleague finale has become something of a cautionary tale within sim racing. It exposed weaknesses in how esports competitions were officiated and highlighted the blurred line between team tactics and outright unsporting conduct.
For Maguire, the championship remains a bittersweet memory – a hard-fought title overshadowed by controversy. For GPVWC, it became a watershed moment that ultimately pushed the league toward more robust, transparent governance in the seasons that followed.
It was a night that changed the way virtual motorsport viewed fairness, strategy, and the spirit of competition – and five years on, the echoes of that chaotic evening at Interlagos still linger.
Based on the original article by Nathan Quinn, the Race, Oct 29, 2020
