Madison’s Downer, McLeod’s Silver Lining.

by Patrick Atherton on May 17th, 2011

“Not the best way to have a win, but I’ll take it!” – Mitchell McLeod

After the thrills of Phillip Island, the iRacing V8 Supercar series moved to the Watkins Glen Cup configuration for Round Two of Season Two. The action from Round One might have seemed hard to top, but this is the iRacing V8 Supercar series, where anything can and usually does happen.

While the shape of some of The Glen’s curves may resemble those at The Island, those guardrails at The Glen are much closer.

Sadly, Round One sensation Peter Read was on “sick leave” for this top split of the feature race, but that reunited Season One rivals Mitchell McLeod and Madison Down on the front row, both qualifying well in the 1 min 11′s. The consolation for Read’s absence was V8 Superstar Shane Van Gisbergen, qualifying third. Vail Riches had impressed in his top split debut the previous week, and was back for more, sharing the second row with Van Gisbergen. Newcomer for this week was Cal Whatmore, alongside Simon Madden.

Dylan Gulson, Wayne Harris, Jason Spencer and George “Hitman” Fullerton filled out the hottest ten in a twenty car field.

The field plunges into Turn One, Wood already in trouble. McLeod lead at the first corner, one of only two places in which he held the lead!

McLeod got the jump, but his glory was short lived as Down muscled around the outside of the Nfinity Esports machine into the esses, leaving McLeod to fend off a keen looking Van Gisbergen. Stuart Wood spun to the inside of Turn One after suffering the sim racing equivalent of a mechanical issue (the force feedback failed), disconnecting and returning a lap down in frustration. Whatmore trumped Riches to slot into fourth, while Madden and Gulson crawled over Riches until he steadied and set off after Whatmore.

While Harris staked a claim on eighth, Jason Spencer held off Fullerton for ninth with some demon late braking into the Bus Stop.The duked it out for a few laps, with Fullerton trying him out under brakes into Turn One on Lap Six, only to have Spencer do the “over and under” on the run to the esses. Eventually Fullerton prevailed under brakes into the Bus Stop and took off up the road.

Down, predictably, began to pull a gap.

Riches nabbed fourth from Whatmore down the straight into the Bus Stop on Lap Seven. He set to work reeling in Van Gisbergen.

Up front, the gaps were uncharacteristically spread, but then, we were all a bit spoiled for action at Phillip Island. Still, in typical iRacing V8 style, the race was to come alive, big time, near the end. For now, Down lead McLeod by around four seconds.

Madden and Gulson have at it over sixth place. They were like this for the duration

On Lap  22 The Giz looped it into the Bus Stop, letting Riches past. Van Gisbergen did not go quietly, however, and harrassed Riches mercilessly for the next several laps, drawing up alongside in the final corner once or twice. Whatmore saw all this from a few seconds behind and set about joining in the fun.

On Lap 27, Van Giz “made a hole” around the Caroussel and got his third place back. Lap 28 Riches returned the favour into Turn One. Van Gisbergen repeated his Caroussel trick again that lap, by which time Whatmore had merged with the action and, down the final straight on Lap 28, the three had practically become one. Riches decided that conceding fifth to Whatmore around the penultimate corner was preferable to crashing. The trio continued their issues until the very end, showing deft control wheel to wheel and nose to tail.

George Fullerton's "man of the match" was Cal Whatmore, here giving V8 Supercar star Shane Van Gisbergen some curry over third place

Further back, Madden, Gulson and Harris were giving each other no rest in sixth, seventh and eighth, and had been hard at it like this since the start. Fullerton enforced his consistent top ten reputation in ninth “…but I expected better given I’m normally reasonably decent at Watkins Glen..”. Spencer was tenth.

Vern Norrgard was stuck in 12th behind Tibor Sandor, finding no way past until lap 23. It was 11th place-or-bust for Sandor who took to the grass as the Bigpond Falcon finally passed him into the right-left of the Bus Stop. This allowed Jeremy Washington and Matt Yeomans through also.

It all looked sealed for Down as he worked the final lap with five seconds on McLeod, who had all but conceded, dropping into the 18′s by the penultimate lap. At the final corner of the final lap, the unthinkable happened- Down spun into the outside guardrail, and McLeod, somewhat surprised, took the win. I’ll just type that again: Down made a crucial error on the final lap.

“Everyone should get a laugh out of that one… including myself..” -Madison Down

McLeod: "Now there's something you don't see every day..."

In real world scenarios the punters would, no doubt, pontificate over the merits of backing off and winning by the smallest practical margin. But Madison Down only knows one way- flat out. And that final corner at The Glen gets your confidence up, inviting you wider and wider every lap until drifting seems like the right thing to do. In this case, it caught out even the dynamic Down. “Not the best way to have a win, but I’ll take it” said McLeod. Who wouldn’t!

Down admitted later that he  “..went for my trademark powerslide to win the race. I did it nearly every race last season and last week, this week it didn’t go to plan. Everyone should get a laugh out of that one for quite some time….including myself.”

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? A scary thought for Down’s rivals. He sheepishly hobbled home in second, still six seconds ahead of third placed Van Gisbergen. Cal Whatmore was a satisfying fourth from Vail Riches. Gulson finally pipped Madden for sixth three laps from the finish. Harris, Fullerton and Spencer capped off their consistent runs inside the top ten.

The iRacing V8 Supercar Series continues to thrill, and will do so as it moves to Infineon Raceway for Week Three.