Taking to the infamously drama-inducing Hockenheimring, drivers and teams would be all hands on deck to tackle 4.6km of curb hopping, sharp changes of direction, and excruciating traction zones. For these reasons, this circuit can feel perfectly engineered to all of the Gen3’s weaknesses. Who could possibly rise to the challenge of “The Hock”?

Let’s dive into the action from Round 3 of the Logitech G Pro Invitational Qualifying Series to find out.

Round 3 delivered another spectacular Qualifying Session.

It was championship leader Brenton Hobson leading the pack out of the lane for the first time. Hobson would run deep at Turn 8, invalidating his first flying lap, but he was far from alone. Less than half the field managed to set a valid lap time on their initial run.

Out of the 16 cars to set a lap at that point in the session, Birse would hold provisional pole with a 1:40.944. The Eclipse driver was closely followed by teammate Woods, just 0.197s away. The two would trade the top spot multiple times as the session progressed.

The hairpin was an absolute mosh pit as drivers looked to secure their own patch of track. The first of many incidents began with Jack Widdas, who crawled through the hairpin on the inside as Lachlan Caple, Michael Talijancich and Brad Rattew hurled into the corner on flyers. Caple would be forced to check up first, which caused Talijancich to make contact with him on the rear bumper. Rattew would avoid contact with all parties, but was severely impeded by the drama ahead.

The resulting impedance on Rattew at the hairpin would result in Widdas being handed his first 10 second penalty of the afternoon. He would receive another penalty for impeding a separate group of drivers in the stadium section later on in the session. 

The naughty list continued to expand as the session progressed, with Dylan O’Shea receiving a 10 second penalty for turning Dylan Perera at the Hairpin.

Andrew Dyson’s name would come up in the race control screen multiple times, culminating in a pit lane start for the DPR driver, while fan favourite Kurt Stenberg would find himself in the top 5 after finally returning to the comfort of his own setup.

With all of the chaos coming to a close in qualifying, the front row would be locked out by Eclipse with Birse and Woods. The top 10 behind them would line up from Brenton Hobson, Matthew Bowler, Kurt Stenberg, Wayne Bourke, Ryan Jones, Jacob O’Reilly, Hayden Veld and Brian Borg.

The action starts immediately as the Green Flag drops.

As the revs rose like a pack of hornets and the lights went out in Hockenheim, there was a plume of tyre smoke arising from pole position. Dylan Birse dropped the clutch too quick, and was pounced on, ultimately two-wide with the Evolution Racing Team Mustang of Matthew Bowler on the run through Turn 1.

Adding to the Eclipse nightmare, Kobi Williams and Tyce Hodge came together at the exit of the first corner, with Williams spinning over the nose of one Vermillion car, and into the door of another in Andre Yousiff.

Chaos ensued further down the pack at Turn 2 with Brian Borg being put sideways by the Tyrepower Camaro of Glen Postlelthwaite. Thankfully for Borg, Sebastian Varndell was alongside him at just the right time to point the RaceKraft Mustang straight before things got nasty.

Spectators and drivers prepared for imminent drama as the Qualifying Series hauled toward the hairpin for the first time of the night. 

Birse was the first of the send-ers as he scrambled to regain positions after his treacherous run off the line. While he had the move done on Bowler with relative ease, he only narrowly escaped serious contact with the Synergy Sim Racing Camaro of Brenton Hobson at the apex.

Not so lucky was his SSR teammate of Brady Baldwin, who would end up pointing the wrong way in the middle of the track. He was turned by Corey Preston, who had all four tyres locked before the contact occurred. Just a few moments later, Preston would also spin the Xcelerate Sim Racing Camaro of Greg Favelle as he tried to drive all the way around the drama on the outside. Preston received a drive through penalty for the incidents.

Safety car, boards and flags. Safety car, boards and flags.

Things looked to have calmed down as the drivers formed into a single file line by lap 3. That was until the 9ine5ive Simsport car of Daniel Benefield found himself parked up on the side of the road with a very sad looking Mustang - bringing out a safety car.

At the hairpin, Benefield would dive down the inside of Favelle, hitting him on the right side. Both drivers would find themselves on the slippery exit curb, which allowed Rattew to get a convincing run on the way out of the corner. However, as Rattew and Favelle inched closer together with slightly different lines, they would eventually meet at the same bit of track.

Rattew tripped over the front of Favelle’s Camaro, jolting the Orbit Drop Bear Mustang to the left. Benefield was the bystander in that tangle, pit maneuvered into the barrier at high speed just before the right hand kink of Turn 7.

The early Safety Car opened the door for drivers to take to the pit lane and clear the first of two Compulsory Pit Stops.

Eclipse’s Damon Woods would drop right down the order to 37th, spending 50 seconds in the lane due to a pit lane speed infringement.

Matthew Bowler took the race lead over Brenton Hobson, while Vermillion’s Wayne Bourke sat just in front of a bloodthirsty Dylan Birse for the restart.

Back to green … for now

Other than Vermillion’s Ben Faulkner looping ERT’s Jake Blackhall, the restart was relatively smooth sailing as drivers tried to settle back to normality. Brenton Hobson was one of many drivers wanting to stay out of trouble. With his championship status firmly up the pointy end, squabbles for extra positions were something he knew would be wise to avoid. He would concede two positions in one corner, as Bourke and Birse dived to his inside at the hairpin two laps after the restart.

Kurt Stenberg had dropped to 8th from his season-best start of 5th at this stage, but a minor lapse of concentration struck Stenberg at the hairpin on lap 9. Under pressure from Sebastian Varndell, Stenberg locked all four tyres, resulting in side-on contact with the bright pink Vermillion Camaro. While Varndell would manage to escape the contact with only a minor loss in time, Stenberg would spin around into the path of Tyce Hodge who had little time to react.

On lap 10, Birse launched his Eclipse Camaro down the inside of Wayne Bourke at the hairpin to claim second place. Two laps later, he would pass ERT’s Matthew Bowler for the lead at the same corner.

As the stint progressed, Bowler looked to be struggling once again on long-run pace. In the meantime, Bourke followed in Birse’s footsteps to pass the ERT driver in similar fashion on lap 13.

On lap 21, there was an incident that lasted for such a period of time … that it was still occurring as the commentators looked at the replays of its commencement. Dylan Perera was spun around at the hairpin by Dylan O’Shea in a fairly common pit-maneuver type of contact, and while the cars in the immediate vicinity of the incident were able to flow around the stationary Camaro, late arrivers weren’t so lucky. 

Perera stomped on the throttle in an attempt to get back into action, but immediately made contact with Michael Talijancich and then Andrew Dyson who T-boned Perera at the apex. Dyson was then essentially forced to push the Synergy Camaro all the way out of the corner. In that time, he lost multiple positions and was left with severe damage to the front of his car.

The drama continued for both Dyson and Perera two corners later. They were both victims of a late lockup from OPR’s Ryan Bettess at Turn 8. Perera learnt from his first lesson, staying off the track until it was clear this time around; he would also receive a drive through penalty for the long-lasting ordeal.

The run home and more Safety Car chaos

With just over 15 laps to go, drivers began peeling into the lane for the last scheduled stops of the afternoon. Birse would be the first of the leaders to pit, while Vermillion aimed to go a tad longer with Bourke and O’Reilly.

Brenton Hobson had a heart-stopping moment when Hayden Veld made contact with his rear bumper, nudging him off balance in his travels to the pit lane. Hockenheim’s tricky pit entry had already caused similar incidents earlier in the race.

With the field cleansed and stops completed it seemed like a straightforward race to the finish until on lap 33, Corey Preston detonated an engine while working down the gears for the hairpin. Parking his all-white Mustang off the racing surface on exit, Preston would bring out the final safety car of the afternoon. It would also mark three consecutive rounds where an engine failure brings out a safety car in the Qualifying Series.

Dylan Birse, along with the vast majority of cars at the top end of the field, decided to stay out.

The lead pack would remain steadfast all the way to the line, and for good reason; most of them don’t require significant gains in the standings to secure a place in the pro series.

The hairpin’s curtain call.

Just when you thought it couldn’t be possible for another accident to happen at Turn 5; more paint was traded, and more panels were lost.

As Tao Soerono began to ease off the brake and turn into the corner, Glen Postlethwaite made a late defensive move on Tyce Hodge - resulting in a three-wide entry to the fabled collision zone. Soerono was just barely clipped by Postlethwaite’s Camaro, but it was more than enough to see the Vermillion car spun around on the exit in a pool of marbles.

Vysma found himself trying to power out of the corner on those same marbles just moments after Soerono’s accident. The Xelerate driver would cause an accident of his own when the inevitable loss of traction saw him stopped sideways on corner exit, before being collected by Dylan Perera.

Perera retired his car on the same lap.

The scrap for second place continued between Bowler and Bourke with just 4 laps to go; Bourke would find himself on top in that fight after Bowler got loose on the entry of the hairpin. Bowler’s focus was then diverted to holding off the blue Vermillion Mustang of O’Reilly.

Back-to-back Pro Series entries secured for Eclipse Simsport.

Dylan Birse ran to the line with a comfortable gap over Wayne Bourke to claim his golden ticket to the main game. Matthew Bowler would round out the podium in third, followed by O’Reilly,

Veld, Woods, Jones, Hobson, Borg, and Postlethwaite in the top 10 after penalties were applied.

While the battle at the front remained relatively stable, several drivers delivered standout performances by charging through the field.

McNamara was the biggest mover of the race, climbing an astonishing 24 places from 36th to 12th. Broad also impressed with a 19-place gain, finishing 15th after starting all the way down in 34th. Talijancich made up 14 places to secure 13th place.

As always, not everyone had a smooth run to the checkered flag.

Stenberg took the biggest drop of the day, tumbling 30 places from 5th to 35th after experiencing technical difficulties. Perera and Caple also suffered largely, losing 25 and 23 spots respectively. Preston’s race also fell apart on his tumble from 19th to 38th. These drivers will be looking to regroup and bounce back in the next round after a tough outing.