Qualifying came down to the last few moments as Ethan Grigg-Gault would nab pole on his final lap of the session, 1.08.083 being the lap he needed. This would be three quarters of a second slower than last years pole time and that would speak the loudest about the changes to the track conditions.

However, when it came time to fire the beasts down into turn one for the first time, Grigg-Gault would not find the traction at the rear axle he was looking for out of the #7 Evolution Racing Team machine.

Jake Burton would take the lead on lap one and settle into a comfortable rhythm out front, but in behind places would swap regularly inside the top 10.

When you go racing at a track that has the feeling of a high speed street circuit, something is always going to go wrong. Unfortunately for Synergy Sim Racing it was Jordan Ross getting into the barriers, and arriving back on track directly in front of Michael Talijancich. This would double down on the misery for Synergy Sim Racing with “Tally” and Jobe Stewart beginning a new mechanical relationship with SSR prior to this round. Talijancich would retire from the session at the conclusion of lap 1, Ross would attempt to get the car repaired and continue for points.

Lap 5 would make it a trio of SSR worked on cars with issues as Tom Freer would make contact with Brian Borg and find himself in the barriers and with a missing front end, and front wheels.

The next phase of the race on the restart would kick off an immense amount of “Go slow” battles as fuel games would be the critical part of the midpoint of the race. The entire field had checked off one of the two required compulsory pit stops and this was about shortening the final stop for track position.

Unfortunately for SSR the troubles would continue, but not until lap 24 and 25 when Brenton Hobson would lose all vision from in the server and be parked on the inside of the loop, followed by the #07 of Brady Baldwin in the fence. This would bring out Safety Car number two of the night and the fuel games would kick into overdrive.

Jarrad Filsell would underfill his car slightly to gain the track position, and Jobe Stewart would also opt for a touch less fuel than the bulk of the field to jump to 2nd. James Scott would also elect to add less fuel than those around him and jump from 9th to 6th place in the lane.

The quiet achiever to this point of the race would be Luke Rosella, starting from pit lane all the way to 22nd at the Safety Car restart. Thomas Freeman would also make big gains, from 40th on the grid to 24th at the restart.

Another tame run would commence, some looking to burn the extra fuel and make track position, others being a lot more tame. If you thought this race would settle down, no way, you haven’t been watching the same Logitech Pro Invitational Series I have for 2024 and the race took a huge turn with another SSR car being eliminated through the biggest incident of the night on Lap 48.

Fawzan El-Nabi would try and get to the inside of Scott Gamble at the esses, after a hole was opened by a move from Thomas Freeman at turn one, but El-Nabi would miss the apex of turn 2, tag Gamble and put himself in the fence, ripping a front left off his car in the process. From here he would be a passenger across the grass and back across the track in front of Tao Soerono, tripping up Robert Gibbs and leaving Jacob O’Reilly nowhere to go when he arrived at the crest at speed.

Before the Safety Car could be called Madison Down and Ethan Grigg-Gault would also make contact that would lose both of them a few spots. The spot would be redressed, but the loss of spots would net Down a 5 second penalty that would end up applied to his post-race time.

Jarrad Filsell would be unleashed with 14 laps left to run and from here the fuel games would stop for the first time. The pace and aggression would both somehow find a way to ratchet up another notch with this final run being for all the marbles.

Kurt Stenberg opted for fresh rubber at the final Safety Car and would be the only one of 5 cars to do so and make significant ground. Stenberg left the train from 21st and would drive back to 15th.

The final drama of the night would happen to the Pole Sitter as Ethan Grigg-Gault would continue his lack of luck in the race. He would turn in fractionally too early at the chicane with 2 laps to run, breaking the left front off the car and making for his second retirement of the season, combined with his race finish with a damaged car at Sebring.

No one though would be able to hold a candle to Jarrad Filsell who would make it two race wins on the trot!

Right now the Speedcafe Lobs Esports cars are going from strength to strength, and the big question of the season is going to become “What will it take to stop these guys?”. Jarrad Filsell wants to redeem himself for 2023, and could the circuit where the biggest chunk of the drama from last year become the place where he becomes our championship leader?

Ethan Grigg-Gault has been quick, but unforced errors have been his biggest enemy. Damage in all that transpired at Sebring was not necessarily his fault. Too early on the downshift at Phillip Island certainly was, as was his contact with the barrier with the end in sight at Watkins Glen. Its the 1% ‘ers that are stopping Grigg-Gault from regularly being on the podium and right now see him sitting just inside the qualifying bubble at 19th.

Next time out is Road America and a more traditional Supercars circuit. This will be a place where everyone has a tonne of laps and could lead to a return to the status quo in terms of the pecking order.

As usual, the only way to find out about the action will be to tune in to the race from 7.45pm on July 3rd!