Also of note is the critical juncture in the season; Road America marks the 6th round of the championship and the halfway mark in terms of race counts. With the True Force Endurance Cup covering Rounds 9 to 11, there is still plenty more action ahead when considering the remaining race distance too.

Road America marked the conclusion of the first half of last year's championship, but the headline on that occasion was a new lineup for Lobs Esports. Griffin Gardiner stood up on debut for the team and landed the car on pole position, but struggled to get the car rolling off the line before heavy contact with Marcello Rivera massively hampered both cars.

This year is going to be massively different, so let's get into the format and I can show you why.

Once again, Filsell dominates the stat charts here, and I wouldn’t doubt that to continue with the current mechanical prowess the Lobs Esports team continues to display. But – and this one’s a doozy – there’s a strong chance we see the wet tire at some point this time around.

This is the rain forecast for the afternoon of the race. Practice and qualifying don’t offer anything in the way of precipitation, but as the race commences in the afternoon, the chance of rain builds to a peak of 65% about two and a half hours into the race.

Importantly, this rain chance builds aggressively 15 minutes prior to the start of the race and maintains from there. Testing sessions appear to be showing moderate to heavy rain intensity.

After the extreme fuel limitations failed to generate a convincing split strategy at Spa, we return to the previous tank size of 93 Litres for this round. The tricky thing about the fuel is going to be the changeable conditions; reduced throttle percentage and progressive application as drivers deal with the puddles is going to swing that fuel number wildly! 

Speaking to some drivers, we’re seeing differences of up to 0.4 Litres per lap. That could mean stints are extended up to two laps longer in heavy wet conditions.

There’s also a chance some of the drivers may opt to leave a wet tire on and not go for a tyre change. This will be based on three factors:

1. Rain Intensity – Fresh tread blocks clear more water and bite harder into the track surface. With light rain, the outright challenge is reduced lap to lap, and there’s less of a concern for things like standing water and ridiculous amounts of spray. 
2. Upcoming strategy – Could we see a short stint before rain clears and see a transition to a dry tyre? If so, there might be a window to maximise the warmer tyre.
3. Cold tyre warmup phase – During initial testing on the iRacing Gen3 wet tyre, the car felt horrid before getting into its temperature window. If there is enough of a time loss in reaching that window, and it matches a hole in the weather and fuel, you might just take a quicker launch in a stint.

Primarily though, this all boils down to what the clouds have in store for us. Fuel range on full burn is looking like 16-17 laps, just shy of the halfway mark; with two compulsory pit stops in effect, drivers can’t just pit from here and get to the end. 

My thoughts are that drivers will opt to go light-on with fuel in the first pit stop to not only try and gain track position, but also have an easier-to-stop car. Alternatively, weight over the rear of the car can also help in generating traction, so it will be interesting to see if this is a consideration for race strategy.

Visibility is going to be a huge issue as well. Good thing we’ve got a lot more vision than the drivers to call it through in the commentary box!

Get set for the Logitech V8 Pro Invitational from the rain soaked Elkhart Lake this Wednesday night from 7.45pm AEST - see you there!