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.

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.

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.

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.

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.