The season is ticking by quicker than you can imagine; When the Detroit Super Sprint saw the chequered flag on Wednesday night, it meant the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series had officially eclipsed the 1/3 mark of the season.

With the series continuing its pseudo double header in the north-eastern corner of the US, drivers returned to the infamously challenging Belle-Isle Grand Prix street circuit for the first of two ‘Super Sprint’ rounds in the exhilarating 12-round calendar.

Here’s the rundown of all the action from the streets of Detroit in Round 4 of the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series!

A quick freshen-up on the format

The Super Sprint race format for this season provides a unique challenge for the drivers, rewarding consistent driving across multiple sessions where rhythm can be hard to establish.

For each of the two races in this format, the grid is set by its own qualifying session prior to each race; that means no reverse grid, and importantly a second chance for drivers that may have had poor fortune in the first half of the afternoon.

To ensure there is enough space on track – particularly here in Detroit where open track is quite the precious commodity – each qualifying session is split into two groups that are selected by splitting the championship order in half, with the bottom half going first. Each group gets 10 minutes to set the fastest laps they can.

Race 1 is a 16-lap sprint with effectively no chance of a pitstop despite a 40% fuel cap; the race winner will score 67 points. Race 2 is a slightly longer 24 laps with a pitstop more than likely, regardless of a mandatory stop not being enforced; the race winner here will score 133 points.

Belle Isle provides some of the toughest track surfaces on the Calendar

Pit Lane Opens – Qualifying for Race 1 Begins!

The bottom half of the championship order took to the track for the first time of the afternoon, and in usual V8Pro fashion, hairwidths separated the running order.

It was Wayne Bourke and Jobe Stewart who tussled for provisional pole, with Bourke prevailing for Vermillion eSports over the proven real-world racer by just 0.046s.

Behind Bourke would lie four consecutive Evolution Racing Team cars in Jobe Stewart, Matthew Bowler, Ian Ford and Lachlan Caple. Caple would bring his session to an early halt when his engine went bang on the run down to Turn 3.

Just 0.635s would separate the 20-car Group 1 at the conclusion of their session.

Group 2 was defined by delivering when it mattered, a trait held only by the very best in the business. There are layers of mental games going on when times are already on the board at a place where track position is so crucial.

It appeared to be the usual script in the first half of the session, with championship leader Jarrad Filsell launching his LOBS Camaro onto the top step with his first lap of the night. Josh Anderson followed closely, trailing by less than half a tenth.

Brady Meyers made hearts drop when he jumped to the top over Filsell by three hundredths – but it was short lived when Filsell put the nail in the coffin to claim provisional pole by a tenth just moments later. James Scott also made a late appearance when he jumped to second place, chipping the gap to Filsell down by fractions.

With Andrew Gilliam also improving on his last lap to put him in fourth, Josh Anderson – who currently sits second in the championship – found himself dropping to the third row of the grid.

Caple's session comes to an abrupt end with a blown motor in Qualifying 1

Green Flag Drops for Race 1!

It was a very clean start for the top half of the field; most notably within the top 10 where the running order remained steadfast from qualifying.

There was a stark contrast down the back though, with a number of cars involved in an incident that began with heavy contact between Brian Borg and Sebastian Varndell on the run down to Turn 3. Brian Borg was also involved in a separate incident with Glen Postlethwaite that saw the Racekraft Simulations driver pointing the wrong way on the exit of the same corner.

Lap 1 collisions didn’t stop in the first sector, with a number of cars also picking up damage on the entry of the technical middle sector. That all started when Jack Widdas lost control at the entry of Turn 7, causing trailing cars to check-up at very short notice.

Dylan Perera tempted the idea of a safety car when he made monstrous contact with the barrier before Turn 6. The collision left the car with significant damage that somehow avoided the threshold required for a mechanical black flag. Had his engine blown, it almost certainly would have drawn out a Safety Car for the first time this season … no foreshadowing there …

Tension Builds as Race 1 Draws to a Close

The race appeared to be settling at the front with six laps to go, but Kody Deith had other plans — kicking off his late push into the top ten with a launch down the inside of Jobe Stewart at Turn 11. With Stewart left on the marbles for the remainder of the last sector, Zach Rattray-White took the opportunity to follow his Eclipse Simsport teammate through.

That was the catalyst for the most exhilarating battle of the race that wouldn’t finish for another three quarters of a lap. Jobe Stewart would find his way up the road, but Ethan Grigg-Gault and Jake Maloney would trade paint all the way to the back straight. That gave 9INE5IVE Simsports’ Ric Kuznetsov enough time to not only catch the squabbling pair, but pass them at Turn 7 as well!

Meanwhile up the road, Jarrad Filsell stormed to his fourth consecutive victory of the season, crossing the line three seconds ahead of his former teammate James Scott – who now races for

Chiefs ESC. Brady Meyers rounded out the podium in third for Trans Tasman Racing, securing both his personal best result of the season and the team’s first podium of the year.

Filsell's perfect season stayed in tact after Race 1

Qualifying Phase 2 Offers Second Chance

Identical to the first qualifying session, Group 1 peeled out onto the track once again in a fresh server to settle their place on the grid – this time for Race 2.

Hayden Veld took provisional pole over Ryan Jones by 0.072s in Group 1, with the remainder of the top 10 separated by less than four tenths.

In Group 2, Luke Rosella would launch to the top of the board over Jarrad Filsell by about half a tenth. He would hold that place until the session’s dying stages, where a number of improvements saw the entire field shaken up.

Andrew Gilliam would steal the show with a monstrous lap that secured him his first pole position of the season. He would be accompanied by his championship-leading teammate Jarrad Filsell on the front row, with the LOBS takeover also supported by Luke Rosella on the second row in fourth. Griffin Gardiner would be attempting to hold down the fort for Chiefs ESC in third.

Chaos? Try Pandemonium – Green Flag in Race 2!

The beginning of Race 2 was much the same as Race 1. The leaders got away unharmed, but the train of cars behind was ridden with entropy. That started with Ric Kunzetsov being squished against the pit entry fence by Wayne Bourke on the run through Turn 1, leaving the 9INE5IVE driver with significant damage and a drop all the way down the order.

At Turn 3, the ERT Mustang of Ethan Grigg-Gault took to the escape road. Shortly after, nine cars entered the same corner within the same 20-odd meters. That resulted in Vermillion’s Andre Yousiff being guided into the barrier, and others escaping with battered panel work. Dylan O’Shea and Bryan Borg were sprawled across the track at the exit of Turn 6, with Yousiff narrowly managing to avoid the two cars after arriving at the scene late.

The remains of the Jordan Ross SSR Mustang after a huge lap 2 incident

Buckle up ladies and gentlemen; because when an incident in the last sector on Lap 2 saw Jordan Ross, Tyson Broad and Brady Baldwin unable to continue on, it brought out ….

The First Safety Car of 2025!

At this stage, teams were split on the idea of pitting. There was no mandatory stop to be served, but you had to get some fuel in the car at some point to make it home. Given how early it was, stopping this early had only minor gains. You could make it on paper, but it would require heavy fuel saving all the way to the chequered flag.

TTR had faith in the idea with a handful of their entries opting for the fuel splash, but the leaders prioritised track position and stayed out.

Things were civilised on the restart with the field settling into a train. With just half the race remaining, the LOBS pairing of Andrew Gilliam and Jarrad Filsell were slowly building a gap to the rest of the field… but there was one more chapter left in this story.

The Logitech G Safety Car makes it's first laps for 2025

Battles Heat up on Run Home!

On lap 16, the lead pair tore into the lane. With four other front running cars following suit, Brady Meyers took the race lead. At this stage, Meyers would need to continue saving as he was to make it to the end, while his adversaries could push all the way to the end.

In a normal situation with the gap that stood from Meyers to Gilliam, the fuel saver doesn’t win. But this was not a normal situation.

Between Gilliam and Meyers stood none other than Madison Down. In a Sergio Perez Abu Dhabi 2021-style affair, Madison placed his car surgically to slow down the LOBS duo for as long as he could. At every major braking zone for all of lap 17, Gilliam attempted a pass on Meyers that simultaneously opened the door for Filsell – but the championship leader waited.

By the penultimate corner, Gilliam’s tyre temperatures were searing. That allowed Filsell to slide down the inside and take what was realistically P2 on the road, and it would be his turn to try and pass the fuel-saving Madison Down.

The Crescendo of Round 4

This is it. This is Supercars action in all of its glory. Fuel savers versus pushers, championship contenders fending off places, anyone trying to knock the championship leader off their perch as the solitary race winner of every race thus far.

At this stage, Madison Down was going as far to fuel save as pulling in the clutch whenever he could. With Filsell and Gilliam already losing three seconds in this two-lap affair with Down, something had to give.

Filsell nudged Down off his line at the exit of Turn 7, and when the TTR veteran attempted to hold his ground through the narrow right hander of Turn 8, the two stars made contact. When Filsell began to lose traction, he kept the throttle on to try and use Down as a way to straighten back up. But with Gilliam claiming the left-most side of the track to force a three-wide situation, all of that force was sent straight back through to Filsell.

Down and Filsell would guide each other into the fence on the right side, tumbling down the order in dramatic fashion as several cars took the opportunity for free places. This was now Brady Meyers’ race to lose. And while Gilliam would claim those two spots instantly, he no longer had the slipstream required to get to the end on his strategy – Gilliam short-fueled to retain his lead over his teammate.

Former Champions collide causing a defining moment in the race

Cinematic Victory for Meyers as Tank Runs Dry

The spotlight now fell on TTR’s Brady Meyers with 2 laps to go. After the calamity of a race that Gilliam and Filsell had, Luke Rosella was now the leading LOBS car tasked with passing Meyers for the race lead.

The gap was closing sector by sector, corner by corner. With the white flag waving, Meyers was still profusely lifting and coasting. Rounding the last corner, the TTR wheeler had done it.

His car may have been out of fuel, but he had just made history in the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series; he became the first driver other than Jarrad Filsell to win a race in 2025.

There were a number of penalties that shook up the order, including one for Rosella that knocked him from second all the way down to eighth. With that, Josh Anderson was next in line on the road to claim second – a crucial swing in the championship story for Anderson, with the gap now just 78 points to Filsell. Griffin Gardiner rounded out the podium for Chiefs ESC in third.

The remainder of the top 10 flowed as James Scott, Andrew Gilliam, Zach Rattray-White, Matthew Bowler, Luke Rosella, Hayden Veld and Kody Deith.

Published on

by Harrison Lillas

Here we are! The Logitech G Pro Invitational Series is finally underway. Sebring returned once again as the opening venue for the most competitive online racing series in Australia, having earned its place in the series as the home of drama, excitement and controversy.

It was a long off season since a sensational Qualifying Series - champions switching teams, others taking a step back entirely, and some unexpected names making their way through the back door with wild card entries.

If you were unlucky enough to miss out on Wednesday nights action, not to worry!

Here’s the story from Round 1 of the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series from Sebring.

Eye-wateringly close qualifying sets the mood early

There’s not many racing series in the world where you find yourself in 20th while only being half a second off provisional pole. Somehow, that was the story after just five minutes of open qualifying.

Madison Down was caught by the broadcast with a shake of the head following his first lap. He would find himself in fourth place just 0.088s off the fastest opening time, which was set by James Scott.

Jarrad Filsell found himself tangled in the wall on the entry to turn one, and with no time to react Dylan Rudd speared into the side of Filsell’s LOBS Camaro shortly after.

Both drivers made it back to the lane in time to go again.

James Scott claims statement pole position for Chiefs ESC

With five minutes remaining, James Scott was sitting pretty at the top of the board having set a 2:03.994. That time was enough to put Scott 0.156s clear of Eclipse Simsports’ Dylan Birse in second place.

The scrap for a good starting grid spot was comically tight as drivers babied their tyres before one last run of laps. There was now less than three tenths separating the top 10, and just over four tenths in the top 20.

Kody Deith, Matthew Bowler, Dylan O’Shea, Brian Borg, Hayden Veld and Sebastian Varndell all entered the final stages of qualifying having not completed a timed lap. While a number of these were due to rear of grid start penalties, Varndell and Deith were the only two from that bunch to eventually set a time. They would only go fast enough for 40th and 41st respectively.

James Scott would officially put Chiefs ESC on the Logitech G Pro map, claiming an impressive pole position with the only 2:03 seen throughout the night.

Dylan Birse would line up alongside on the front row, followed by Jobe Stewart, Ethan Grigg-Gault, Robbie Gibbs, Griffin Gardiner, Jarrad Filsell, Zach Rattray-White, Madison Down and Andrew Gilliam rounding out the top 10.

James Scott leads from the front early after claiming Pole Position

Lights out and away we … go ?

The roar of 45 Gen 3 Supercars ignited the Florida air; the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series was prepped and ready for the first light drop of the 2025 season!

James Scott was off to the races, launching his Chiefs ESC Camaro flawlessly to make some space between himself and imminent calamity.

Contrastingly, Eclipse Simsports’ Dylan Birse went nowhere with a notably slow reaction and drawn-out clutch drop. He would lose three places before the run to the hairpin with Ethan Grigg-Gault, Jarrad Filsell and Robbie Gibbs all pouncing at the opportunity.

Chaos ensued as the rest of the field tussled their way through the first sector. Shawn McNamara would come out the worst after being spun backwards into the tyre barrier at the hands of Ben Faulkner. Kody Deith’s Eclipse Mustang picked up some front-end damage in his attempt to avoid the ordeal.

Glen Postlethwaite and Hayden Veld exchanged some paint early in another lap 1 tussle. Postlethwaite managed to hold on and defend his position into Turn 10 despite finding himself in a half spin going through the left hand kink of Turn 9.

Meyers, Hobson and Widdas all tour the grass in a lap 1 skirmish

Remember those rear-of-grid starters? They certainly didn’t waste time making up ground. By lap 3, Bowler had gained 13 places, while Kody Deith and Hayden Veld had each moved up 11, and Dylan O’Shea climbed 10.

Jarrad Filsell was keen to move his LOBS Camaro up the order in the lead pack, making the move on Ethan Grigg-Gault into the final corner on lap 3.

Nightmare continues for Birse in final corner error

Making positions back would have been at the top of Dylan Birse’s to-do list after his sluggish run off the lights. But things only got worse as his car veered wide toward the kink in the wall at the exit of Sunset Bend.

Somehow, Birse managed to keep his Camaro running - saving the race from being thrown into Safety Car conditions.

Birse would decide to stay out until the first scheduled stop in his battered Gen 3 machine, even putting on fights on the fringe of 30th place while he was at it.

Friendly fire in battle for third as first batch of stops begins

There doesn’t seem to be any ‘Papaya Rules’ in the Evolution Racing Team code of conduct, with Robbie Gibbs and Ethan Grigg-Gault making contact at Turn 10.

Gibbs looked to have some pace on Grigg-Gault who was sitting in third, but the pair would have to figure things out in time for their first pit stops. The tussle not only gave James Scott and Jarrad Filsell a bigger cushion as the lead two cars, but it also elevated threats from behind.

On the topic of the leaders - Filsell would find himself taking the race lead for the first time after James Scott received a slow-down penalty going through Le Mans.

Birse tags the wall on the exit of Sunset Bend and has a scary spin in front of the field

Laps 12-14 would be the rough pit window for the majority of the field, with a number of position changes occurring due to the immense strength of the undercut. The lead two would stay out until lap 16. The last of the stoppers, Kurt Stenberg and Brady Meyers, wouldn’t come in until lap 20!

Jake Blackhall got too eager on his run out of the lane, crossing the line of cones too early and receiving a stop and hold penalty. Kobi Williams received the same penalty for a near-identical infringement.

Filsell continues charge through shuffled top 10

With 17 laps to go, Filsell made use of the extra few laps of tyre advantage he had built up over the top 5.

While Filsell would slot past one ERT car in Grigg-Gault with relative ease, Robbie Gibbs put on a brilliant defence. Gibbs managed to hold off the LOBS Camaro for a few more laps than what the doctor ordered, with Filsell eventually sneaking by around the outside of Turn 10. With that, Jarrad Filsell took the race lead once again.

Meanwhile, James Scott in effective-second showed glimpses of weakness, running deep on the marbles of Turn 10 as he tried to navigate past Vermillion eSports’ Zach Rattray-White.

The run home to the first chequered flag of the season

Robbie Gibbs fired into the pits to become the first man on track to have completed two mandatory stops. While the fresh tyre advantage would pay dividends, a shorter first stop meant Gibbs was destined to lose valuable time in this particular venture through the lane.

Across the next few laps, the rest of the top 10 began peeling in for their last stops. Ethan Grigg-Gault tragically threw away his chances of a podium finish after not only overshooting his pit box, but stalling the car too.

After everyone had served their last CPS, Jarrad Filsell would find himself in the lead once more. There was no turning back now for the LOBS wheeler, who had put on a brilliant performance to climb all the way from 7th on the grid.

Cars file into the lane for their final round of pit stops

With 10 to go, Zach Rattray-White found himself with a strong possibility for a podium result, sitting in 2nd place. Previously, the Vermillion driver’s best result was a singular top 10 last season. But Rattray-White had a bit more to do if he wanted to seal this one away; he was being tailed by Madison Down and James Scott.

Things got heated quickly as the Vermillion driver desperately fended off an all-out attack from Madison Down. A bottleneck of the entire top 8 had formed up in a matter of minutes. The intensity in that pack only heightened when James Scott was forced to serve a slow down penalty for track limits at Le Mans, and again when he went deep at Turn 10 to drop behind two of his teammates

With four to go, the pot boiled over for Madison Down when he launched his Camaro down the inside of Rattray-White at Turn 16, causing a collision that left the Vermillion car out on the grass. Knowing he would almost certainly be penalised, Down pulled over on the back straight to redress the position.

Musical chairs for a podium erupts with three to go

Robbie Gibbs and Dylan Rudd took over 2nd and 3rd position after Madison Down’s redress, but that would not last long.

Dylan Rudd was leading a three-car lineup of Chiefs ESC Camaro’s from third to fifth. For most, settling for a team result would be the likely game plan. However, that conservative mindset is typically not how reigning champions operate - Rudd didn’t want bronze tonight, he wanted silver!

Out came the white flag. Six kilometers of race track, seven cars with a podium chance. It doesn’t get much better than this!

Rudd struck Gibbs early with a late lunge down the inside of Turn 5, which left Rudd on the outside as they ran down to the hairpin. He would try again at Turn 10 to no avail. When Gibbs lost traction out of Le Mans, all three Chiefs cars drew closer on the final run down to sunset.

Rudd would make significant contact with the rear of Gibbs at the final corner, pushing the ERT driver wide. That made room for all three Chiefs cars to pass before the line, with Griffin Gardiner making his way past Rudd to take second. Rudd would finish third on the road but was immediately handed a 5-second penalty for the contact, dropping him to tenth.

Robbie Gibbs would miss out on the podium, finishing fifth.

Rudd gets into the back of Gibbs on the final corner

With Jarrad Filsell, Griffin Gardiner and James Scott on the podium, the remainder of the top 10 with penalties applied was: Joshua Anderson, Robert Gibbs, Madison Down, Ethan Grigg-Gault, Zach Rattray-White, Andrew Gilliam and Dylan Rudd.

Honourable mentions!

Dylan O’Shea was the biggest mover of the night, clawing up 20 positions to finish 22nd after his back-of-grid start.

Kody Deith had a similar night, battling through early damage to finish 24th overall for a gain of 16 spots.

Dylan Birse will be out for blood next round; his colossal incident at the last corner dropped him from a strong result all the way to 29th. Unfortunately, that rendered Birse the biggest loser of the night with a net drop of 27 positions from his front row start.

Kobi Williams and Jack Widdas also had difficult afternoons, dropping 13 and 16 places respectively to finish at the bottom of the order.

Published on

by Harrison Lillas

From the bone-rattling runways of Sebring to the sweeping elevation changes of the Red Bull Ring, Round 2 of the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series traded brute force endurance for a high-speed chess match in the hills of Austria. With fast corners and a mix of uphill and downhill braking zones, Austria presented a whole new challenge.

In typical Red Bull Ring fashion, spectators were treated to 52 laps of NASCAR-style drafting, plenty of door-bumping, and race-deciding chaos as the night drew to a close.

With the championship race well and truly on, Drivers looked to solidify their status as genuine contenders with the icebreaker of Round 1 now in the rear view mirror.

Here’s what went down in Austria on Wednesday night!

Deith returns to spotlight in Qualifying

Evolution Racing Team’s Beau Albert led the train on the first run of laps, a role no driver wants to take when setting a banker at this venue. He would be tailed by Eclipse SimSports’ Damon Woods and Vermillion eSports’ Zach Rattray-White. The workload was high enough already for Albert, who was adjusting to a foreign rig with very little practice.

Championship leader Jarrad Filsell made his mark early for LOBS eSports, reminding the field once again of his calibre. He posted a 1:30.728 as his banker, enough to hold the top spot over Eclipse’s Kody Deith by just 0.071s.

Qualifying was intense with some of the tightest margins in series history

As the session progressed, cloud cover began to roll over the Styrian hills to evolve track conditions ever so slightly. Major improvements trickled in with some drivers completing their first valid laps of the night.

Deith was able to wheel his Eclipse Mustang to the top of the timing board with a 1:30.663, while his teammate Woods etched himself into the top 5 on the same run of laps. Dylan Rudd and Brady Meyers also found their way into the top 10 by the halfway point of the session.

In the closing stages of qualifying, just one second covered 44 cars; If you were in 15th, three tenths of improvement would have you starting on the front row. James Scott was painstakingly close to Deith’s top time, getting the gap down to just 0.007s. That is just 42cm of difference – or about a sheet of A3 paper – separating the front row at the line.

With Deith returning to the top spot for the first time since his clean sweep in the Qualifying Series, the rest of the top 10 would flow as James Scott, Damon Woods, Jarrad Filsell, Zach Rattray-White, Ric Kuznetsov, Dylan Birse, Andrew Gilliam, Dylan Rudd and Robbie Gibbs.

Gloves-off race start boils over

Turn 1 at the Red Bull Ring is normally a hub for cars to be on their lid by the exit. To the surprise of many, things actually looked civilised for the 45-car field as they roared up the hill for the first time of the afternoon.

Establishing ground early was on the mind of Jarrad Filsell as he started his LOBS Camaro from fourth on the grid. He was down alongside Chiefs ESC’s James Scott by Turn 3, eventually getting past on the brakes at Turn 4.

Chaos erupted just behind, with 9INE5IVE’s Ric Kuznetsov tagging Damon Woods to send him tumbling down the running order. While a number of drivers had to take avoiding action, miraculously, no other cars were involved.

ERT’s Ethan Grigg-Gault stuck the nose of his Mustang alongside Dylan Rudd through Turn 9, forcing Rudd to drift down the hill before straightening out on the exit. Making it a two-for-one move, Grigg-Gault also snuck past Kuznetsov at the same corner … but Kuznetsov would soon return the favor.

Going into Turn 1 on the following lap, Kuznetsov tagged Grigg-Gault on the rear quarter, causing the ERT Mustang to powerslide all the way out to the painted asphalt on the exit. Two more ERT cars would find themselves in trouble there, with Hayden Veld and Lachlan Caple making contact to spin themselves across either side of the track on the exit.

Turn 1 was not done just yet, with one of the most significant incidents of the afternoon occurring a lap later. While it began with a collision between Christopher Ireland and Glen Postlethwaite, multiple bystanders found themselves tangled in the incident, including Wayne Bourke and Kobi Williams who both obtained significant damage.

Heated scrap for the lead

On the pre-race grid walk, Kody Deith said he didn’t want to be leading early with fuel save being such an important factor. The Eclipse driver’s motives seemed to have shifted when Jarrad Filsell began to fill his mirrors on lap 5, putting on a fight that could have left his Mustang with wheel damage.

When they met at Turn 4, the move looked to be done for Filsell on the drive out of the corner. But at the downhill of Turn 6, Deith launched to the inside to retake the lead. Filsell rode along the bumper of Deith’s Mustang until they were side-by-side once again at Turn 3 on the following lap.

At the same place he got past a lap prior, Filsell took the lead for real. When Deith attempted to turn into the corner, he made heavy enough contact with Filsell’s door to raise his own car into the air for a brief moment. In doing so, Deith allowed James Scott to slip by into 2nd.

Pit lane opens for business

By the time the first scheduled stops of the night began, the lead pack had thinned out to just five cars. At the end of lap 22, Zach Rattray-White would peel off as the first in that battle pack to pit. A lap later, the rest of the leaders followed suit. Robbie Gibbs stayed out an extra lap to take the lead.

While Jarrad Filsell would emerge from the lane with a comfortable margin over James Scott, a crucial pinching of the front on the run into Turn 3 saw the LOBS Camaro go straight on. With that, Scott was the new effective race leader on lap 25.

Cars file into one of the trickiest pit lanes on the calendar

The order was hard to read at the halfway point of the race, with a number of different strategies tumbling the order. What was known, however, was that Scott and Filsell had significantly shorter stops than the cars around them beforehand.

Leaders jump the gun on Safety Car call

When Luke Rosella’s LOBS Mustang coughed to a halt with 19 laps to go, strategy minds began to tick. Before anything was called, Scott and Filsell peeled into the lane in anticipation of the field being drawn together under Safety Car conditions.

However, Rosella was able to peel off into an escape road far enough away from the racing surface to successfully request a tow. This race would continue under green flag running.

A number of the runners in high effective positions followed the leaders into the lane on the following lap, throwing a massive spanner in the works of track position. Dylan Birse emerged from the lane alongside Filsell, who was on warmer tyres. They remained side-by-side until the exit of Turn 4, where side-on contact unsettled the championship leader.

Filsell was now under threat from Kody Deith, who launched it from multiple car lengths behind into Turn 3. They traded paint all the way across the top of the hill before Filsell was forced to concede the position.

Luke Rosella limps to a Marshal Post to prevent a safety car

Scene is set with 10 to go

With everything straightened out, the run home was set to be a thriller. At the front, James Scott and Dylan Birse were separated by fractions; there was a small gap behind, where Kody Deith and Jarrad Filsell were also separated by next to nothing. One slip up from the leaders would quickly turn into a four-way fight for the race win.

Ric Kuznetsov and Hayden Veld tangled across the top, resulting in Veld hitting the right side wall at high speed. With that motor somehow holding itself together, Veld was able to continue and avoid bringing out a Safety Car.

Filsell was able to regain 3rd over Kody Deith with a strong run out of Turn 1, but there was a difficult gap ahead to catch the lead pair as they pushed themselves along in slipstream. With five to go, Filsell managed to get himself within touching distance of Birse, who was biding time himself to pull the trigger on James Scott for the lead.

With two laps to go, Birse needed to act before Filsell made his move. Shifting to the right before slamming on the brakes for Turn 3, he held his nerve and launched his Camaro down the inside of Scott … but he couldn’t pull it up in time.

With Birse going straight on, James Scott’s exit out of Turn 3 was compromised. Jarrad Filsell took the opportunity to buy a ticket for the inside of Turn 4, where he snatched the race lead from his former teammate.

Jarred Filsell makes the final pass for the lead

With a massive kick of throttle to powerslide out of the last corner, Filsell claimed victory once again in the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series; a two-for-two start for the esteemed star.

James Scott would run home second, followed by Dylan Birse, Kody Deith, Zach Rattray-White, Joshua Anderson, Damon Woods, Robbie Gibbs, Jake Moloney and Andrew Gilliam rounding out the top 10.

Honourable mentions!

Driver of the day is a tough one to hand out here, with a number of drivers putting on some incredible performances in their journeys up the order.

It’s tough to look past Jarrad Filsell; he looks inevitable when presented with adversity and he put that on show today. While only moving up three places, this was easily one of the best drives throughout the field.

Griffin Gardiner was the biggest mover of the day, moving from 44th to 19th after connection troubles saw him join the race session late. Josh Anderson and Brenton Hobson were also big movers, jumping up 13 and 11 places respectively.

Published on

by Harrison Lillas

For Round 3 of the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series, 43 drivers crammed themselves into the infamous ‘Cup’ layout of Watkins Glen International.

With fewer than four kilometres of asphalt to share, raw pace would not be a free pass to race victory. With fuel strategy and tyre life overlap throwing the field into entropy, even the most distant frontrunners in the field would be tested in their gruelling 57-lap run to the finish line.

Let’s dive into Wednesday night’s action from “The Glen”!

Eye-watering margins define important Qualifying

With only a handful of braking zones and less than 10 corners, this layout of Watkins Glen is notorious for delivering brutally close lap times. Here, a mistake can be as subtle as getting on the throttle a fraction too late, or applying a degree too much steering lock. These tiny lapses - that go easily unnoticed at other circuits - are inescapable when putting a lap on the board at this venue.

Evolution Racing Team’s Lachlan Caple made his mark early in the session, topping the board with a 1:10.164. With just eight minutes remaining, that was enough for provisional pole over 9INE5IVE Simsports’ Ric Kuznetsov by just 0.026s.

Lachlan Caple set the early pace in Qualifying

But with a number of drivers being impeded early with check-ups at the bus stop chicane, and others exceeding track limits, the order would tumble immensely as the session progressed. Most notable of the laps to come through late was that of championship leader Jarrad Filsell.

Filsell’s first valid lap was a 1:10.026, an ominous time that was enough to see him on provisional pole by over a tenth. While his LOBS teammate Andrew Gilliam brought that margin down to just 0.062s, Filsell would improve on his second lap to be the first and only driver to breach into the 1:09’s.

Trans Tasman Racing made a strong charge late, with Josh Anderson splitting the LOBS cars to put himself on the front row alongside Filsell. Jake Moloney and Emily Jones locked out the third row, with Madison Down starting down the order in an uncharacteristic 22nd place.

Dream turns to nightmare for Anderson

With qualifying said and done, a short break allowed for drivers to make final changes and discussions before duking it out for 57 laps of action. Familiar front-running names who found themselves down the order like Kody Deith, James Scott and Madison Down plotted for a very long afternoon, where others looked for a clean start to settle in early.

Perhaps too many thoughts circled the mind of Josh Anderson, who had a nasty bundle of wheelspin when the lights went out. That left the door wide open for Andrew Gilliam, who jumped at the opportunity to steal 2nd place. It was a LOBS 1-2 on the run up the hill for the first time of the night.

Griffin Gardiner had an issue on his run out of Turn 1, lighting up the rear tyres before coming to a short hold off to the right of the racing line. He resumed without issue once the field had passed, dropping from a promising grid position of 9th.

Racekraft Simulations’ Jack Widdas was knocked off the road and into the barrier by ERT’s Jake Blackhall at the penultimate corner, with the remainder of the field staying relatively clean on the opening lap.

By lap 5, Kody Deith had moved up an impressive seven places, with Dylan Perera, Shawn McNamara and Brady Meyers also moving up the order in their respective battles.

Jack Widdas found trouble before the opening lap was completed

Abundance of strategies causes massive shuffle

While Josh Anderson may not have had the start he wanted, the TTR driver would pioneer an early first pitstop on lap 13. The benefits of clean air and fresh rubber - which immediately enabled Anderson to take the fastest lap - tempted a handful of other drivers into the pitlane in the following laps.

With the majority of the field having served their first pit stop by lap 17, the leaders had very different plans; they were going long. With the LOBS pairing slowly running up the road, Luke Rosella came into the lane on lap 22 in hopes of an undercut paying dividends. Filsell and Gilliam finally pitted on lap 24.

On their pit lane departure, Filsell would emerge just in front of Josh Anderson, with Gilliam following closely behind. Gilliam would pass Anderson at the penultimate corner on the same lap. The LOBS pairing would eventually find their way past Damon Woods, Brady Meyers, and Jake Moloney for the effective 1-2 within the stint.

Some clever number crunching from Madison Down enabled the TTR star to underfuel just enough to gain track position on his competitors, despite staying out notably longer than those around him.

9INE5IVE Simsports’ Dylan O’Shea would ruin his chances of a result when he carried too much speed into the pitlane, awarding himself a 40-second stop-and-hold penalty.

Tao Soerono would find himself buried in the wall on lap 26. The Vermillion driver, who has had a difficult batch of luck already this season, was tagged by Dylan Perera on the run up the esses.

Madison Down on the recovery drive after a lowly 22nd place Qualifying effort

20 to go - It’s all happening now!

Kody Deith and Jacob O’Reilly would not give in to a two-wide run through the entry to the bus stop chicane. While the two managed to survive that encounter with only a minor loss of time, Dylan Rudd was forced to check up. Hayden Veld would make heavy contact with Rudd, with a notable amount of damage being sustained by both cars. Chaos ensued in the following sectors, with cars darting to avoid the now limping Hayden Veld.

Brenton Hobson got his Synergy Simsports Camaro sideways on the run up the esses, making contact with Vermillion’s Wayne Bourke. Somehow, both cars in that moment were able to escape relatively unharmed.

With Filsell approaching lapped traffic at the end of his second stint, he would peel into the lane for the final time with 17 to go. Gilliam would follow suit a lap after.

With 6 laps remaining, battles erupted on the fringe of the top 10. While Luke Rosella and Ethan Grigg-Gault duked it out for ninth, Madison Down and Emily Jones lurked close behind.

Madison Down poked the nose at Grigg-Gault at the penultimate corner, enough to unsettle the Vermillion driver and compromise his run out of the final corner. While Down was able to capitalise at Turn 1, Emily Jones was also able to sneak up past Grigg-Gault on the run up the hill on the exit. A wicked two-in-one move for TTR.

Almost catastrophe for Hobson and Bourke in Turn 2

Filsell makes it three-for-three!

Once again, Jarrad Filsell proved unstoppable, storming home to take victory alongside his teammate Andrew Gilliam in commanding fashion. It was an impressive performance by both drivers, who managed to capitalise on a long-game strategy despite throwing themselves into traffic adversity. With the victory, Filsell extends his championship lead over Josh Anderson to 96 points.

Damage control for Anderson, after a race start he will certainly want to forget, meant the TTR driver came home in eighth. He now sits in a tied second place in the standings with ERT’s Robbie Gibbs.

James Scott only managed 18th after starting in a challenging grid spot, dropping to sixth in the overall standings despite podium finishes in the previous two rounds. Zach Rattray-White now finds himself fifth in the standings, driving for Eclipse Simsports after departing Vermillion.

Honourable mentions

Kody Deith was the biggest positive mover of the afternoon, moving his Eclipse Mustang up 14 places, from 28th to 14th. Ben Faulkner and Madison down also had strong races, moving up 13 and 12 places respectively.

Dylan O’Shea was unfortunately the biggest loser this time around, dropping 23 places following his costly pit lane speeding infringement. Dylan Rudd and Griffin Gardiner were also in the wars, dropping 21 and 20 positions in their difficult afternoons.

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by Harrison Lillas