After this one, three endurance rounds lay ahead in Phillip Island, Sandown and Bathurst. And with a TBC track lined up for the finale on 3 December, we really have saved the best for last this time around.

Wednesday night was busy for everyone. With the Super Sprint format delivering two races, including split qualifying sessions for each, there was absolutely no shortage of on-track action in the peaks and troughs of Braselton, Georgia.

Here is your race review from Round 8 at Road Atlanta!

Madison Down Returns to the Top in Race 1 Qualifying

Few venues are as ill-suited to hosting an open qualifying session as this one. The layout is narrow and endlessly twisting, with just over four kilometres of asphalt to work with. Now imagine trying to funnel more than 40 cars onto that ribbon of tarmac all hunting for clear air . . . it would be gridlock before anyone even got a lap in.

Each of the two 25-minute qualifying sessions would hence be split down the middle; the bottom half of the championship standings goes out first, followed by the top half. This way, there is plenty of room for drivers to complete laps, and importantly take some workload off the Race Control team.

Ian Ford would get the ball rolling for Evolution Racing Team, putting his Ford Mustang on the provisional top step at the conclusion of the first half of Qualifying 1. His teammate, Lachlan Caple, would be pipped by Michael Talijancich for 2nd. Just 0.093 s separated the Top 5, with less than three tenths across the Top 10.

You think that’s close? Think again. When the top half of the championship order was handed the keys to the circuit, 0.032 s instantly separated the top four. Andrew Gilliam led the way for Lobs eSports with a 1:20.927, followed by Madison Down, Jarrad Filsell and Zach Rattray-White. 

In every sense of the word, drivers were hurling their cars across the line on the last run of laps, with bumpers sent astray and sand kicked up in front of trackside cameras as precious grid places were gained and lost. 

Madison Down was able to pip Andrew Gilliam for the Playseat Pole Position by less than three hundredths of a second, with championship leader Jarrad Filsell sharing the second row with Eclipse Simsports’ Zach Rattray-White. Emily Jones put her TTR Camaro in 5th to secure her best qualifying result of the 2025 season. Griffin Gardiner, Josh Anderson, Jake Moloney, Wayne Bourke and Ric Kuznetsov rounded out the Top 10.

Dream Start for Lobs as Midfield Ignites

It would be a difficult start for some with the front stretch at Road Atlanta not offering enough space for everyone to grid in a straight line. But it would still be challenging for those that did have it easy – including polesitter Madison Down.

It was a rare mistake from the seasoned champion, but his TTR Camaro seemed to go nowhere with a mix of a slightly late reaction and sub-par clutch drop. That allowed both Lobs eSports cars to slip into the race lead, with Andrew Gilliam heading the charge over Jarrad Filsell.

Emily Jones was able to sweep in front of Zach Rattray-White on the run through Turn 3 to claim 4th place behind Madison Down, who would now try desperately to pick up the pieces.

Further back at the double right hander, an almighty incident would unfold starting with a three-wide run through Turn 7 between Brady Meyers, Dylan Rudd and Ryan Jones.

When that caused multiple cars to check up, Andre Heimgartner would attempt to shoot the middle between Dylan Rudd and Brady Baldwin to no avail, spun at high speed into the concrete barrier on the right side. 

Several cars would trip over one another as far as halfway down the straight, collecting severe damage in the process. Tao Soerono would be the only one to receive a mechanical black flag, and all involved managed to either continue on or make it to the pitlane to avoid safety car intervention.

Josh Anderson had a strong start but would have his work undone when he was forced to serve a slow-down penalty on Lap 4. Anderson would manage to serve it while only losing one position to his teammate, Jake Moloney. 

Filsell Long-Game Pays Dividends 

With a 21-lap race distance, the bulk of the field looked to split the strategy right down the middle. Andrew Gilliam pitted from the lead at the end of Lap 10, with the majority of the field following suit in the next few laps. Madison Down would hold out to Lap 13 before his stop, with Jarrad Filsell going a lap further than that.

Filsell is renowned for managing the long run better than anyone, especially under the new tyre model, but few expected it to pay off at a venue where track position is king.

With five to go, Filsell had caught the back of Gilliam as they roared down the back straight toward the last chicane. Opting for the outside line, Filsell would kick up dirt as he shuffled his teammate aside before jumping on the brakes. By the time the pair reached the first apex, Filsell had the upper hand. Gilliam thought the better of an aggressive switchback, allowing Filsell to take the effective race lead until Brady Meyers pitted. 

With two laps remaining, an inter-team scrap between Ethan Grigg-Gault and Ian Ford would leave Grigg-Gault with severe front damage. That car was able to limp back to the pit lane to keep the race under green flag running.

Filsell ran home to claim yet another race victory – a faultless drive from the man to beat since Gen 3 was released. It was also the third straight 1-2 finish for Lobs eSports, and their fourth of the 2025 campaign. Behind him, Madison Down, Emily Jones, Zach Rattray-White, Griffin Gardiner, Jake Moloney, Josh Anderson, Luke Rosella and Wayne Bourke completed the Top 10.

Reset and Go Again

With Race 1 in the books, the field reset for a fresh server. The track returned to its original state, giving drivers a chance either to reinforce a strong opening result or to make amends for a disappointing one.

Ian Ford returned to the top of the board at the end of Qualifying 2’s first half, this time with a wider 0.120s advantage over the next car in Jacob O’Reilly. 

When the big guns rolled out again, the names at the top looked all too familiar: Filsell, Gilliam, Rattray-White, Gardiner and Moloney. That was the Top 5 with six minutes to go, though plenty of drivers were still yet to post a representative lap.

A name you might notice missing from that running order is the polesitter from Race 1. Madison Down was late to set a valid lap in Qualifying 2, and when he did, it was only enough for 13th on the grid. Down’s TTR teammate Josh Anderson was also late to set a lap, but managed to jump up to fourth.

Jarrad Filsell would consistently improve on his runs to take the Playseat Pole Position over Andrew Gilliam for a Lobs eSports front row lockout. Griffin Gardiner would make a late jump from 9th to 3rd with his last lap to share the second row with Josh Anderson. Zach Rattray-White missed out on the second row start by six thousandths of a second. 

Ric Kuznetsov would put his 9INE5IVE Camaro in 6th for his best qualifying result of the 2025 season, followed by Jake Moloney, Luke Rosella, James Scott and Ethan Grigg-Gault in the Top 10.

One Last Super Sprint Dash

Here we are, the last Super Sprint race of the season before the Endurance Cup. Green Flag!

It was a comically perfect start for the Lobs eSports pairing of Filsell and Gilliam. While they managed to get off the line smoothly, the second row in particular went nowhere. That caused a bottleneck with multiple cars forced to get creative to find their piece of race track on the run up the hill.

The field managed to get to Turn 7 before a pileup in Race 1, but tensions would boil over before the end of the first sector in Race 2. Much the same as the first incident, however, was how it came about – three wide through a corner leads to one incident, which caused a chain reaction of avoidance that only led to more trouble. Several cars were left sprawled across the track and in the tyre barrier. 

Somehow, history repeated itself once more, with everyone able to limp away from the incident to avoid a safety car. 

Things remained fairly civilised from that moment up to the halfway mark, with the field settling into a train that promoted fuel saving and fair dealings for the time being. One pair that wasn’t interested in settling was Damon Woods and Luke Rosella. 

Rosella was handed a five-second time penalty for an incident with Woods on Lap 4. On Lap 8, Woods launched his Eclipse Camaro down the inside of Rosella and went door-to-door up the Turn 1 rise. Rosella fought tooth and nail with Woods to put the Eclipse driver over the grass and curbs at Turn 3, but ultimately lost the position. Woods tore into the pitlane at the end of the same lap.

Griffin Gardiner, Ric Kuznetsov and Madison Down would all pit at the end of Lap 10, while Filsell and Gilliam would stay out until the end of Lap 13. But when Andre Heimgartner found himself beached with a blown engine at the entry to Turn 6, a safety car would be called in the midst of the field still waiting to serve their first pit stop.

Anderson Leads the Field to Green

The safety car would peel away and hand over control to Josh Anderson for the race restart. With different pit stops shaking up the order, the Top 5 now ran as Anderson, Gardiner, Filsell, Gilliam and Rattray-White with just five laps remaining.

At the top of the hill, Anderson pulled the trigger to get the race underway. With Gardiner being caught out on getting his foot to the floor, Anderson’s first line of defence against the monstrous Jarrad Filsell was gone by the first corner

Anderson chose the left line on the run down to the chicane at the end of the lap. Filsell peaked at the outside line having completed a pass that way in Race 1, but chose to back out of it. This time though, he will be thankful that he did. Anderson had run too deep, completely missing the left hander and forcing himself to check up in the middle of the chicane.

Gardiner and Gilliam capitalised to take 2nd and 3rd, while Moloney was able to provide a safety net behind to prevent Anderson from losing any more places.

Michael Talijancich and Dylan O’Shea came together on the back straight with two laps to go, but the race continued under green flag running.

(Almost) Clean Sweep for Jarrad Filsell

He may have missed out on pole position for Race 1, but it was absolutely no looking back after that. Filsell wins back-to-back races in Road Atlanta to extend his championship lead ever further in 2025!

Griffin Gardiner ran home in 2nd to claim his equal best result of the season since the opening Round in Sebring, followed by Andrew Gilliam, Josh Anderson, Jake Moloney, Zach Rattray-White, Brady Meyers, Madison Down, James Scott and Emily Jones.

Emily Jones only just made it home for the Top 10 after running out of fuel in the last hundred metres to the finish line. 

We head to the infamous Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit next time out, finally getting our three-round Endurance Cup underway. Don’t miss the action, catch it live on SimSpeed on the night of October 3.