MOTORSPORT: Aussies star at first four-wheel ‘Olympics’

A gold medal and a bronze made Australia the equal second-most successful of 49 countries at the first Motorsport Games in Italy.

West Australian teenager Cody Nikola Latkovski won gold in the Digital Cup for eSports competitors while Victorian father and son Stephen and Brenton Grove finished third in a rain-soaked GT Cup final behind Japanese and Polish entries.

Only Russia, with a gold and two bronze in the six categories, finished ahead of joint runners-up Australia and Italy in the competitions – dubbed the Olympics of car racing – held at the Vallelunga circuit near Rome.

Latkovski beat more than 30 rivals in the Digital Cup, including 11 in the grand final where competitors steered identical Red Bull X2019 prototypes in a 19-lap race on the Gran Turismo platform.

The most awarded sim driver in the Asia-Oceania region, Latkovski – who usually races under the username ‘Nik_Makozi’ – employed a bold four-stop strategy after qualifying second.

His victory came despite a spin on the simulated Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

“Wow – I'm happy I could get gold for Australia,” Latkovski said.

“This is just amazing. I couldn't have hoped to go better.”

The Groves drove a Porsche 911 GT3 R and were beaten only by two Lamborghini Huracans in the wet hour-long GT Cup final on the 4.085km circuit.

They finished little more than five seconds away from victory after starting eighth in a field of 21 cars.

Stephen Grove drove the first stint, climbing to fifth before handing over to son Brenton at the compulsory stop.

The younger Grove initially slipped back to seventh before recovering to fourth and a penalty on a Belgian entry promoted the Aussies to third.

“To come over here and represent your country, do it with your son and more importantly do it in a Porsche is just fantastic,” Stephen Grove said.

“We’ve had a hard weekend. We’ve come here and had crazy conditions and we’ve been able to pull it together for third … just outstanding.”

Brenton Grove said it took him a while to find his rhythm, but “we were on” after a  safety-car period.

“I made a couple of good passes and others slipped up, so for us this result is awesome,” he said.

“It shows just how strong Australian motorsport is and what the future holds for us going forward as a country.”

Melbourne student Luis Leeds, Australia’s last Formula 4 champion with the category now scrapped, almost made it three medals for Australia, narrowly missing the podium at Vallelunga in the F4 final after starting eighth in a field of 19.

"That race was interesting – starting off in wet conditions and ending up really, really dry, so we had to manage tyres and look for wet patches," Leeds said.

“I pulled off a few courageous moves down into a few hairpins, but you’ve just got to ‘send it’ sometimes and it paid off.

“It’s been an awesome week working with some amazing people.”

The other three categories – in which Australia was not represented – were touring cars, drifting and karting.