Emerson is King of the Mountain

Emerson capitalized on Muggleton’s mistake to become iRacing’s first King of the Mountain.

Round six of the iRacing.com V8 Supercar Series came back to Australia to visit a 6.213km circuit which is famously known as Mount Panorama (Bathurst).  The question was left open to see who would be King of the Mountain for the very first time in the series history!

Qualifying went the way of TTL with another front row lock-out with Richard Hamstead topping the time sheets at 2:05.213 and John Emerson joining him on the front row with a 2:05.323.  Josh Muggleton and Rens Broekman would start from the second row while Michael Fabian and Dean O’Brien claimed the third row ahead of Madison Down and Shaun Kelly with Beau Cattell and Wayne C Bourke rounding out the top 10 starters.

Hamstead and Emerson combined to make it a TTL front row.

Hamstead jumped to the early lead while Muggleton and Emerson went side by side into Turn Two.  Being on the outside, Emerson got left hung out to dry and fell back behind Broekman into fourth. Tony Autridge would be the first driver to DNF from the race when he lost control coming out of The Chase and spun into the wall before the Armour All bridge.

Hamstead led all the way to the first pit stop, where he lost the lead and fell back to fourth place.  On contrast, Muggleton came out in first place after the pit stops with Broekman in second and of Emerson and Hamstead, while Fabian got the jump back on Down and moved into the top five.
However, it wouldn’t take long for Down to move back ahead of Fabian and see what he could muster up to try and close the gap to the lead sim-racers.

At the front, Broekman made a move on Muggleton but went too deep under brakes into The Chase and over shot the corner.  Not only did Muggleton retake the lead, Emerson seized the opportunity to demote Broekman to third.  The following lap saw Muggleton grab too much kerb at The Cutting, sending him sideways and into the wall with Emerson only too happy to assume the lead.

After dominating the opening laps, Hamstead had to mount some last lap heroics to take second spot.

Broekman and Hamstead moved into second and third with Muggleton resuming in fourth place. Nor was that the only change in order.  Back in the pack there were some big movers with Leigh Day moving up seven positions from 18th to 11th while Ian Ford and Guy Leach each advancing five places during the race as well.

Once in the lead, Emerson dominated the rest of the race and brought home what became a  TTL 1-2, thanks to Hamstead’s last lap heroics.  Hamstead  made a move on Broekman into The Chase and, even though contact resulted, Hamstead was able to save it.   For his part, Broekman showed good sportsmanship and allowed Hamstead to continue on and take second as he settled for third.  Muggleton brought his bent Tatts.com Falcon home in fourth place ahead of team mate Down, while Fabian finished sixth ahead of O’Brien. O’Briens multi 21 team mate Cattell finished in eighth place just ahead of Scott U’Ren and Ian Ford who had great battles between themselves throughout the race.

Other Split Winners
Split 2 – Jarrad Filsell
Split 3 – Tim Harris
Split 4 – Jeremiah Morton
Split 5 – Joshua Sawtell
Split 6 – Jason Cossey

Championship Standings
1 – John Emerson – 1516
2 – Rens Broekman – 1413
3 – Josh Muggleton – 1409
4 – Richard Hamstead – 1338
5 – Madison Down – 1325

Broadcast by the crew at www.v8sonline.com.au

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