V8 iRacers farewell Dan

by Patrick Atherton on October 18th, 2011

Sim racers are just like any other motorsport enthusiast. When a real-world driver’s life is tragically cut short,  all enthusiasts feel as though they have lost a colleague.

The loss of IZOD Indycar driver and 2011 Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon was felt by all in the iRacing community. The V8 racers no less, as Wheldon was scheduled to drive at the Gold Coast V8 Supercar event.

The Las Vegas tragedy took the edge off a normally charged-up and dynamic iRacing V8 Supercar Series by Bigpond Sport, when they arrived at Mid-Ohio for Week 11. This report will be equally subdued.

The evening’s racing was as well-fought as usual, with plenty of spills. However the highlight of both timeslots was a silent tribute lap at the close of racing, organised by Sebring winner Josh Muggleton.

Split One was won by Rens Broekman. Broekman, Scott U’Ren and Richard Hamstead went hard at it until Broekman pulled out a small gap leaving U’Ren and Hamstead to fight it out for second, including some side-by-side action.

“Well done to all for the tribute lap. There was complete silence and it was very moving”. – Josh Muggleton

Cal Whatmore was fourth, followed by Gavin Barton, Stuart Wood, Simon Black, Richard Lock, Marty Atkins and Colin Boyd.

Split Two was won by Craig Miller from Brian Godsall and Dean Moor. Split Three: Kane Baxter-Smith from Maurizio Miconi and Spud Gibson.

The 9.45pm Split One saw the welcome return, fresh from Bathurst, of Shane Van Gisbergen, who ran out the winner 7 seconds ahead of Rens Broekman. U’Ren and Hamstead were once again joined at the hip, separated by barely tenths at the line for third and fourth respectively.

Next was James Kutia, Cal Whatmore, Lewis Dodimead, Richard Lock, Josh Muggleton and Beau Cubis. Dodimead: “I wasn’t going to run tonight, until I found out it was a tribute race”.

Split Two was won by Alex Jarman, Split Three by Stuart Timmins.