The Champions are Coming

by Patrick Atherton on April 19th, 2011

To most Antipodeans and indeed Europeans, North America is a mecca for little more than high speed, high-banked left turn ovals, whose only variations are in size or location. They might think that, perhaps, road racing of the turn-left-and-right variety is a mere afterthought. And yet, North America is home to many of the world’s most picturesque, fast and challenging road circuits, whose corners, rises and falls are of the classic kind, well on par with Europe’s best.

Mosport International Raceway is one such place. It’s a simple yet exciting layout, and a favourite amongst many of the V8 regulars. For the feature race of Week 11 in the iRacing V8 Supercar Series, Trans Tasman Racing’s Madison Down was on pole in the 1 minute 19s. The two Macs, McLeod and McCabe were second and third respectively and the only other sim racers in the 19s. The three were covered by barely a tenth, indeed McLeod pipped XSG’s McCabe for the front row by only 6/1000ths of a second!

Behind them were Simon Madden and Guy Leach, both enjoying a decent spike in form. Then came Lewis Dodimead, Stuart Wood, Andrew Wauchope, Matthew Nethercote and Simon Black. Darrin Vouch was 11th from Justin Strickland, Richard Lock and George Fullerton. Such was the depth of this 20 car field that Bigpond’s Vern Norrgard was back in the game, but down in 18th. He may have been hoping that starting from the same grid slot as Mark Webber had, in the previous day’s Chinese GP, would result in a similar performance.

Lock, Hansen and Kastanaras meet unexpectedly in Turn Two.

Down got the jump at the start from McCabe and McLeod. The pair had seen some chinks in Down’s usually flawless armour the prior week at VIR, and hung on in hope. Down noticed: “McCabe and McLeod did not leave the back of my car,” he said later “I was trying not to scrub the front tyres…I knew I was going to have really bad wear on the fronts.”

Meanwhile, Wood pulled a blinder of a start and passed Dodimead to settle in behind Madden and Leach who battled for fourth for, more or less, the entire race. Some casualties on Lap One at the crest entering Turn Two: Richard Lock spinning to driver’s right and into some substantial damage, and Ross Hansen collecting Peter Kastanaras as Peter checked up in reaction to Lock. A lap later a frustrated Kastanaras unloaded Mark Rayner into Turn One.

Kastanaras and Rayner have an incident

Three laps in and Nethercote’s evening was over.  “I over-revved on the downshift through the downhill double right slow complex and boom…! Heaps of practice this week too, what a waste,” he lamented.

Tyre concerns aside, Madison Down only knows one way- flat out, and McCabe and McLeod were also driving like it was qualifying. What little gaps eventuated didn’t last long, or see-sawed enough to keep them all filling each other’s mirrors. It was on between the trio who have dominated this season’s championship.

“McCabe and McLeod did not leave the back of my car.” – Madison Down

Madden likewise had to deal with a menacing Leach, the pair enjoying a small gap on Wood, who was alone with a similar gap to Dodimead. Next came Wauchope, Black, Vouch and Strickland. George Fullerton was 12th and Vern Norrgard 13th.Vouch bowed out exiting the slippery Turn Six on Lap 10, hitting the inside wall and hobbling into retirement.

By Lap 11 Leach could have a look at Madden down the long back straight, but was wrong-footed into the long penultimate right-hander. Meanwhile, on Lap 13 George Fullerton closed up on the Black-Strickland battle for ninth, only to dizzyingly lose it on the ultrafast Turn Two, doing well (or being rather lucky) to keep it off the wall at the bottom of the hill. That wall invites many a victim who turns in a tad too late!

Leach lines up Madden in a race long batle

Leach was relentless on Madden, but still couldn’t make the pass. Likewise, further up the road, the top three of Down-McCabe-McLeod hunted eachother, not giving anything away, nor letting on when or how a move might take place. As the spectator saying goes, the anticipation of a pass is just as exciting as the pass itself, and this was the tension for the entire race. But the bubble had to burst, and burst it did, on Lap 16. Between Turns Nine and Ten, McCabe gave it a big enough squirt to fill the gap between Down and the Turn Ten apex, there was a brush of contact, and McCabe was through. Down later revealed the contact was harder than it looked. “I drove straight into the side of the XSG car. This bent the steering…a complete dog in the high speed corners…” No hard feelings between two hard racers.

McCabe pulls a gutsy move on Down

A lap later, at the end of the back straight, McLeod pushed through on the ailing Down. After that “I had no choice but to watch McCabe and McLeod …disappear into the distance,” said Down.

On Lap 17 Fullerton clouted the wall at Turn Three, ending his night. “Epic fail!” said George “I walked into the virtual transporter and did a virtual dummy spit…” We’ve all done that George!

Things were hotting up for fourth on Lap 20, as Stuart Wood had joined the Madden-Leach battle. Leach got into the marbles at Turn Three, allowing Wood through. Moments later Madden looped it between Turns Five and Six, rejoining sheepishly behind Wauchope, who he caught and passed three laps later. Now Leach had the Castrol Falcon of Wood to aim at, and again, he couldn’t make the pass.

Fourth place is finally decided- but the action ran all the way to the chequer.

McLeod hung with McCabe, but that is how it stayed. Down took it easy on his damaged steering to claim a dogged third. Stuart Wood was a slightly surprised fourth, although he had his mirrors full of Leach. Dodimead was next, from Madden and Wauchope and Black. The “Finish of The Year” award went to Justin Strickland who, after looping it on the final corner of the final lap, went across the line rear end first, just pipping a bemused Norrgard.

"We must stop meeting like this..." Strickland reverses into the top ten in a novel fashion

Race winner McCabe summed it up better than any race report: “…Monday night (is) awesome fun, a great bunch of blokes and some epic racing regardless of where you are in the field.” And, the championship is looming.