Qualifying would provide the closest session of the season to date, seeing the top 4 drivers covered by a staggering seven hundredths of a second at the conclusion of the session. In the early stages Brian Borg would take control of provisional pole, with Damien Johnstone close behind in second before Ric Kuznetsov would jump to the top of the standings with twelve minutes remaining.

What ensued after was nothing short of entertaining, Rehan Liyanage coming to the party with an excellent 1:07.125 moving him to provisional pole with little under 5 minutes remaining. Race winner from Hockenheim, Rudd would slot his 9ine 5ive Commodore into second position one thousandth of a second shy of Rehan’s benchmark, with Kuznetsov now siting in a comfortable third position. Remarkably, none of the latter would claim pole position with DPR Racing’s Dylan O’Shea denying Liyanage in the last seconds to claim his first pole position of the series, beating out his competitors by the narrowest of margins.

Although entertaining towards the top of the standings, there were some startling performances. Adam Briggs continued his poor run of qualifying form, finding himself well out of position in 23rd. Although making up for it in the race gaining an impressive eleven positions, Briggs will surely be going back to the drawing board in an attempt to fix his qualifying woes.

As the lights went out ahead of 65 laps around the Springvale circuit, O’Shea would convert his pole position perfectly, leading the field of 36 cars into the first corner. Rattew would make a blinder from the third row of the grid, moving up three positions by the time the pack entered turn 1. Liyanage would be the biggest loser off the start, dropping down to fifth by the time the leaders reached turn 5. Big winner on lap one saw the likes of Bailey Fridd move forward, capitalising off the start gaining an important four positions by the completion of lap one.

It didn’t take long for the lead pack to skip away to a small lead, O’Shea still controlling the field from the 9ine 5ive SimSports trio consisting of Rudd, Kuznetzov & Rattew after the opening laps. Rehan Liyanage found trouble on lap six, making a mistake on the entry of Dandenong Road and subsequently finding himself being turned around by Hayden Veld. For Liyanage, this untimely incident put a damper on what was looking like a extremely positive night. It wouldn’t be all doom and gloom for the Pursuit Sim Racing driver, finding his way back to 11th by the end of the nights proceedings.

Further down the field drama brewed from the outset, Synergy Sim Racing Driver Cameron Veacock again finding himself amongst the incidents, involved in an accident with Craig Shultz on the front straight, resulting in a heavily damaged car and a drive through penalty to boot. This ultimately puts an end to Veacock’s promotion hopes, but with one round remaining provides a excellent opportunity for Cameron to turn the tide.

Andrew Dyson again was showing his ability to drive through the pack, moving up a solid 4 places in the opening ten laps highlighted with extremely committed pass on Trans Tasman Racing’s Josh Muggleton in the esses on lap 10 as he began to make a march for the front of the field.

O’Shea continued to control the race from the front until the first round of pitstops began, Dylan interestingly being the one to find the lane first at the beginning on lap 20. Injecting himself back into traffic, this decision would unfortunately take O’Shea from the effective race lead. The 9ine 5ive trio chose to follow suit at the conclusion of lap 22, Brad Rattew again seeming to be a big winner, impressively jumping his teammates to re join the race ahead of O’Shea and taking control of the lead of the race from lap 23 onwards. An impressive stop form Synergy Sim Racing’s Hayden Veld would see him fill the final place on the podium.

Veld’s fortune would take a drastic turn on lap 28 though, a technical malfunction sending the #053 into the inside barrier at the fastest point of the circuit before spearing back across the track coming to a stop on the outside of turn six. With Veld’s now stricken Synergy Commodore stuck on the circuit, we’d see the first appearance for the Logitech G safety car. With the critical lap number now surpassed the field pile into the smallest pit lane on the calendar to complete the second of their compulsory pit stops. Brad Rattew would retain his lead on the exit of the Pit lane, followed by O’Shea, Rudd, Dyson & Robert Gibbs rounding out the top 5.

Rattew controlled the restart well on lap 32, retaining his lead over O’Shea into turn one. Rudd would apply the pressure behind O’Shea, But the DPR driver was well up to the task of keeping him behind.

Green flag racing was short lived, the safety car again being called upon the beginning of lap 34 with Paul Young being the cause. Already with an ailing car, The #3 BAR commodore gave up the ghost for good on entry to Dandenong road, an unfortunate end resulting in a low points scoring day for the qualifying series hopeful.

After a handful of laps behind the safety car, racing would resume on lap 37, one of the best 28 lap sprints of the season was about to begin.

Brad Rattew would highlight the restart with a contender for one of best restarts of the season, choosing to go early after the Penrite Bridge building a healthy gap before they’d even reached the start finish line.

It didn’t take long for drama to kick off again towards the front of the field, Dandenong Road again being the feature point of another incident. Dyson’s DPR Mustang found itself off the road with a helping hand from Robert Gibbs only to be followed up by a big incident in the braking zone for turn eleven between Damien Johnstone and Josh Muggleton. Although the incident at turn eleven was deemed a racing incident, both Johnstone & Muggleton will be feeling hard done by, going on to have a difficult time in the remainder of the race.

Back at the front of the field, A three car battle was brewing. Rattew had held his nerve and continued to lead form Dylan O’Shea with Rudd behind continuing to make ground on the leader. 

These closing laps were excellent from the top three, Qualifying lap after qualifying lap they traded blows. Kuznetsov would eventually join this train, all fighting to take the lead away from Rattew in the closing stages. O’Shea would attempt a move on lap 59 at turn one but Rattew again would hold strong and retain the lead off the corner with only a handful of laps left to run. O’Shea would take one last crack at Rattew on the beginning of the penultimate lap attempting to get up the inside down the front straight, Rattew was aware to this and moved across leaving no room for O’Shea to sneak through. Rudd took full advantage of this, Making a brilliant move into the turn two chicane clearing O’Shea and taking command of second position with all but a lap and a half to go. Rudd would lock down second position and protect Rattew from an onslaught from the DPR machine.

Rattew would steer the ship home for his first win in the Logitech G Pro invitational Qualifying Series at Sandown, after a few years of difficulty it sure seems Rattew has found his feet in the Supercar again along with a place to call home at 9ine 5ive SimSports. A proud moment for this driver and team, it goes to show the right environment and a positive mindset can make anything possible. For Rattew, we’re seeing the beginnings of what we thought was possible for this talented driver. Rudd would follow his teammate home in second place, followed closely by Dylan O’Shea rounding out the round Sandown podium.

One round remains for the inaugural Logitech G Pro Invitational Qualifying Series, as we head to the home of Australian Motorsports, Bathurst!

This is it, who will take their rightful place on the 2023 Logitech G Pro Invitational Series grid! Game on! Stay up to date with all the latest at https://supercarsproinvitational.com.au