The iRacing V8 Supercars were back at their home circuit Phillip Island for race 4 of the final 2011 season jumping into endurance mode.
Madison Down started from pole, a number of places ahead of the previous qualifying result with a 1:30.571, Mitchell McLeod beside him on the front row with a 30.671 and Shane van Gisbergen right behind on 30.686, Simon Madden and Rens Broekman completing the top 5 qualifiers.
Down led the field into turn one and immediately was looking to make a gap on his fellow race contenders knowing that his tyre wear wasn’t up to par with van Gisbergen’s and being an enduro, pit stop would come into play during the race.
The opening laps Down started to edge ever so slightly ahead of McLeod, van Gisbergen right behind in 3rd, Joshua Muggleton jumping up from 6th to 4th, getting passed Simon Madden and Rens Broekman in the opening lap.
Lap 5 and much to the surprise of Down who heard the ‘bang’ behind him, McLeod detonated an engine, seemingly grabbing a few too many gears on the downshift and he was out of the race. Down knew that this meant the inevitable pressure from van Gisbergen was not far away and continued to push to try and maintain the lead gap.
McLeod; “The plan was minimise the gap early on, which I think I was starting to hold the gap at about 1.5 seconds then BAM! A few quick colourful words and the race was over.”
“Not too sure how it happened to be honest, I didn’t feel like I did anything differently to any other lap, I always use first gear there so wasn’t like I went down too many, just must of always been on the limit, then went passed that limit during the race.”
van Gisbergen pitted early on lap 15 to try and get the edge on the leader but instead copped a penalty and dropped back through the pack, Down leaving it to lap 19 mid way through the race to repeat a previously proven strategy.
The remaining Tatts.com Racing driver Scott U’Ren was having an up and down race after wondering off the track at turn 9 but was then battling with van Gisbergen who got passed at lap 27 but then made a small mistake into Honda Hairpin which U’Ren was able to use to grab 4th back again.
Up front Down was unchallenged in the remaining part of the race and went on the take the win with a 15 second gap back to Rens Broekman and TTR team mate Joshua Muggleton, Scott U’Ren and Shane van Gisbergen finishing 4th and 5th respectively.
Down acknowledging the battle that could have been, “Great job by Rens to finish 2nd and bad luck to Mitchell McLeod and Shane van Gisbergen on their misfortunes. Would’ve made for an awesome battle for the lead if the issues didn’t occur.”
Down banking 265 points puts him at the top on 959 but McLeod taking only 6 points drops him the 6th place in the championship and will no doubt be looking for a big fight back in the next few races.
Next race is 25 laps around the famous Silverstone International circuit.
Source: BigPond Sport, V8 Supercars Official website (www.v8supercars.com.au/onlineseries
Vern Norrgard
Related posts:
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- Down The Champion!
- Down back to front
- Madison Down steals win from van Gisbergen
- Down Downs The Giz
