Action Ad Infinitum

by Patrick Atherton on May 23rd, 2011

The iRacing V8 Supercar Series moved to Sonoma for Week Three of Season Two, at Infineon Raceway Cup.

Week One sensation Peter Read made a welcome return by joining polesitter Madison Down on the front row, less than one-tenth behind the Trans Tasman racer. Behind them was Mitchell McLeod, then Shane Van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin making the field top heavy with real-world racers. Next came Vail Riches, impressing in qualifying for the third week running. The ever-improving Simon Madden was seventh, with a time which “would have put me on pole last season!”

Then came Cal Whatmore, another highly impressive newcomer from previous weeks. Cracking the top ten in this field with any level of experience is a big deal. Corey Slade made a welcome return to the high split for XSG Motorsport, and Stuart Wood was tenth.

The field of sim racers was packed to capacity at 25.

Pandemoneum reigned at the treacherous Turn Two right-hander atop the hill, while Down, Read and Van Gisbergen kept it reasonably clean. Further back, there was a Nethercote-Fullerton-Harris concertina, while alongside them Black and Leach did likewise. This sent Fullerton, Black, Leach and Jeremy Washington trackside, most with damage. Fullerton: “I reckon we all could have done that a little better…”.

Even more sensationally though, was Scott McLaughlin and Week Two winner Mitchell McLeod making contact exiting Turn 3A, putting McLeod out for the evening and giving McLaughlin an uphill battle to get back through the field with front right damage.

Moment of truth for McLeod and McLaughlin (both left)

“I reckon we all could have done that a little better…!” – George Fullerton

So at the end of Lap One it was Down, Read, Van Gisbergen. Madden was rapt to be in fourth place, having survived the carnage. Riches was right behind, followed by the XSG pair of Slade and Terry Nightingale. Dylan Sharman had likewise jumped up to eighth, ahead of Cal Whatmore, who had given the position away at the hairpin and was now fending off Stuart Wood. Next was Matthew Nethercote, Simone Gelli, Wayne Harris, Darrin Vouch and Dylan Gulson. They were all being hunted by the recovering McLaughlin.

Disaster struck for Madden on Lap Three as he spun, after taking too much kerb on Turn 8A, the fast right-left-right sweeping complex on the back section. Poor Vail Riches could go nowhere and hit him hard, while Slade took to the dirt and couldn’t avoid the wall. This put all three of them out. “Small error, big consequences…” said an apologetic Madden. Motorsport is like that.

The cream is rising to the top, and there's more to come.

Moments later Simone Gelli binned it up the road at Turn 10, while Nightingale snuck through Wood at the hairpin. Action aplenty.

This put Sharman in fourth, heading the depleted but still potent pack of Whatmore, Nightingale, Wood, Nethercote, Harris, Vouch, and Gulson who was now under attack from McLaughlin.

McLaughlin passed Gulson on Lap Five, Vouch on Lap Eight, Harris on Lap Nine, and Wood on Lap 15, to be in seventh. Up front, Down-Read-Van Giz slugged it out with fastest laps but the gaps were spread. Down had checked out, while Read had Van Gisbergen within a shout. Sharman was barely safe in fourth with the XSG Falcon of Nightingale filling his mirrors. Nightingale finally slipped through into fourth on Lap 17 with a clean move into the hairpin.

Nightingale pipped Sharman for fourth, earning George Fullerton's "man of the match" award

Whatmore was holding off a resurgent McLaughlin for sixth in the closing laps, and it wasn’t easy. Up front, Down was unfazed, and made no repeat of his Watkins Glen final corner fail, taking the win. Van Gisbergen had closed on Read but ran out of time. “One more lap and he would have had me” said Read.

Dylan Sharman tried to reclaim his fourth place from Nightingale with a lunge at the hairpin of the final lap, looping it within sight of the flag and allowing the angry train of Whatmore, McLaughlin and Harris close behind in sixth and seventh. Sharman limped home eighth. Next came Vouch, Wood, Gulson, Gelli, Black, Nethercote and debutante Jeremy Washington fifteenth and the last on the lead lap.

To make the field a little happier, winner Madison Down mentioned he’d be away for Week Four. The only thing left to worry about, is that the break might do him some good.