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Last Wednesday we seen the GT3 cars hit the track for the1st time this year for round 1 of the Everything Simulated Championship, & it was a hit with the 34 drivers that came out for the 2 race sprint format. This format would see the 1st race run over 25 min & the 2nd race over 30 min with a full field inversion.
We would also see the field with some of the big hitters in Australian Sim Motor sport with the likes of Chris Ireland, Andrew Dyson, Chris Purnell, & Alex Cort running in the Pro class.
Pro-Am class was not to be out done with the likes of Josh Michelmore , Jason Martin, & Steven Williams.
Practice
The field would hit the Sandown track faced with light fog, & this made for some interesting practice with the track being cold & slippery. We would see a lot of drivers head into turn one & end up on the grass, Pirtek corner (T4) would see drivers into the outside fence & the big problem was turn 9 Hino corner as you came down the hill we would see the sand trap get a good work out with drivers out braking them self's. At the end of the 30min practice we would se the top 5 spots taken up by Pro drivers & they were Ireland, Jones, Dyson, Cort & Pernell. The top Pro-Am driver was down in 13th & that was Aiden Schultz.
Qualifying
Overcast skies would meet the drivers as they headed out for the 15 min qualifying session, how every that was no the only challenge for the drivers as it seamed that all 34 cars wish to set a time early & it was hard to find a clear run. We would see times start to tumble as some drivers can into pit lane to change tires & make some car adjustments with the track temp coming up a little. At the end of the session we would see a DPR Porsche lock on the front row with Dyson & Ireland, second row was shared between Quantum Motorsport Ferrari of Cort & Jones in the 3rd DPR Porsche. The 3rd row would see the 1st of the Pro-am drivers on the grid with Scott Lefeber starting in 5th for Valve E-sports & along side him would be Jackson Pringle.
Race 1
As the drivers came up to take the green flag it was Dyson & Ireland that got the jump & lead the field into turn one with all cars making it though the hard left hander. The 1st sport of trouble was not until turn 3 when Pringle & Lefeber came together & seen the both up against the ampco rail & the into the grass on turn 4. Unfortunately both cars received heavy damage how ever they were able to get back to pit lane were Lefeber was able to get his Porsche back out but was several laps down. Pringle was not so lucky & would see him remain it the pits for the duration of the race. As we start the 2 lap we seen Ireland take the lead from Dyson & he cleared out. There were some good hard battle right through out the field with some of the Pro-am driver even getting the better of the Pro drivers. At the end of the 25 min time limit we would see the top 5 for the Pro Drivers end like this 1st Chris Ireland, 2nd Andrew Dyson, 3rd Ryan Jones, 4th Xavier Cain & 5th home was Scott Bartijn. The top 5 for the Pro-Am class were 1st Peter Pavloic, 2nd Phil Bissett, 3rd Mark Smith, 4th Steven Williams & 5th Nigel Paton
Race 2
Race 2 would see the whole field inverted & you knew that this was going to be a fun race with all the Pro drivers from the back. This also would see the front row shared between a Pro & a Pro-Am driver. As the field came around to take the green it was Pringle that would get the jump & lead into turn one. At the back we seen Jones go for a hole that quickly closed on him & would see contact made & he would end up doing a 360. Luckily for him there was only a slight touch & he was able to get away with little damage. He was not the only one to have bad luck as on the 5 lap we would see contact made between several cars & this seen Scott Bartijn on the grass in Coopers Corner for a wild ride down the hill that seen him into the tire barrier at Coates hire corner. He was able to get the car back to the pits & get repairs but would end the race 3 laps down. There was hard fought battles right thought-out the field for the duration of the race. One of the was up front between Lefeber & Pringle, The whole race they were trading places. It was 3 laps out that Lefeber made the move to take the lead into turn one & made it stick. He would go on to lead the field home from there. At the end we would see Pro class drivers make it back up into the top10 in the race. Final class positions Pro Class 1/Jackson Pringle Pro-Am 1/ Scott Lefeber
2/ Steven Banks 2/ Jason Martin
3/ Blake Fitz 3/ Peter Pavloic 4/ Chris Ireland 4/ Josh Michelmore
5/ Alex Cort 5/ Luke Georgeson
Top 5 in each class can be found on the results page on the web page For the next round of the Everything Simulated Championship we head to Phillip Island for a 55min endurance race on Wednesday the 24/4/24
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