The day consisted of 3 different scenarios in which drivers would be trained by the “Driving Solutions” driver training team. A 360 degree circle, a gymkhana style course and a dry circuit set up on the subaru driving centre were all in place and ready for action. Drivers were given hints and tips on how to get the most from their cars on all 3 of these courses.

In the final Motorkhana “timed” event it was clear that the modern, nimble Mazda 3 of Josh Muggleton would be a definite favorite for the outright win. Josh drove the car very straight and very cleanly absolutely nailing every apex to get the outright win on the course. Dave Oliver in his Datsun was spectacular, however he spun on his timed runs putting the crowd favorite out of contention. Madison Down struggled all day for control in the Cobra and so took a conservative approach in the timed run, however it was relatively clean but also fairly off the pace.

Well done to Josh Muggleton on his win and what a great event. Was great to catch up with some other sim racers as well!

All photo credit goes to Benjamin Mikhaiel and some video credit as well (External videos).

Madison Down in the Cobra Replica

Josh Muggleton in the Mazda 3 SP25 (Red Rocket!)

How it’s supposed to be done in a Cobra!

It was a great start for Josh immediately jumping up to 5th but this all came undone on lap 2 of the race where an incident with Mick Claridge finished off any chance of a result for Josh. Despite the incident, Josh still fought back to finish 13th.

Round 11 Highlights from Mosport

“I thought it was about time that my luck changed in this series, so I’ve decided to give the other drivers a bit of a warning to help everybody out as to where my car is on track at all times. The car has been through extensive crash testing and this chassis has been made 50% stronger than previous TT-R chassis’.” Muggo Said

Watch out for Muggo in tomorrow night’s race!

Big thanks to KustomImage Concepts for the livery as well on such short notice. “Like” KustomImage here – https://www.facebook.com/pages/KustomImage-Concepts/291293424266818 for all your livery needs!

Joshua Muggleton: Of course! That’s what everyone else calls me.

EF: The season is off to a bit of a rough start for you: two races down and it’s pretty clear that your finishes aren’t level with your ability. How do you stay focused between races?

Muggo: I’m going through a bit of a rough patch these last few seasons with a bit of bad luck, and a few/lot of unforced errors on my part. It is really hard to stay focused at the moment and prepare for the next race. I am trying to do all the practice I can in between rounds to prepare the best I can. But as with any sport, when your confidence is down, it is really hard to pick yourself back up. That is where I am at the moment, and trying to figure out how to pick myself back up and get up the pointy end of the field.

EF: What about during a race, when things go wrong early—you had a tremendous run at Okayama (ending up last after spinning out of the lead 6), where you managed to come all the way back to 9th place against guys wheeling around in 1:32 (no small feat). How did you keep it together? Adrenaline? Red mist? Laughter? Zen?

Muggo: That was a really tough race for me. I made a silly mistake, which some might see as bad luck, but I call a lack of concentration. After I re-gathered the car, I put the in-game chat on mute, along with our Team Speak server (what TT-R [Trans-Tasman Racing: Muggo’s team] use for race updates and spotting), and the red mist well and truly came down. I was really angry at myself for the mistake and put my head down and drove the wheels off the car to try and get back in to a respectable position. I was driving so hard that I knew the tyres weren’t going to last, so the last few laps I was really trying to concentrate on keeping the car pointed the right way. There were a few eye-opening corners there, but all in all I was pretty pleased with the recovery I made. Now I just have to stop making those mistakes in the first place!

EF: What’s it like racing against a guy like (Shane) van Gisbergen, who races the physical V8SC Ford Falcon all over Australia? Is there some deference to a guy like that, or is he just another fast fella?

Muggo: It really is an honour. That might sound silly to some people, but from an early age the V8 Supercar drivers have been my idols all the way through until now [he’s 24 now]. To look up to these guys and watch them every other week driving real Supercars around the globe, and then to be able to chat to them, and bang virtual doors with them is a real blast. They are excellent people with great personalities. But when we are in a race, you are mindful of who they are and what they do, and they are every bit as fast virtually as they are in real life. Speaking for myself, I tend to make sure that I don’t make that desperate dive under brakes on them, or block too forcefully when they are coming up behind. It adds another level of realism to iRacing for me to race against these guys online.

EF: What are your goals for the season? Have you revised these from your goals before the run of hard luck or are you “staying the course.”

Muggo: My goals now are different from the beginning of the season. I am really focusing hard now on consolidating results and making sure that I get rid of these driver errors that are costing me each race. With the way the drop weeks work (taking your best 8 results out of 12), I have to make sure that I have more good results than bad for the rest of the season. This means a bit of extra practice every week, and extra concentration during races. Qualifying I am pretty happy with, and I seem to have good pace each week and getting closer to the times at the top. I just need to work on piecing a full race together, and hopefully then I will be able to claw my way back up that championship ladder somewhere in the top five. That is my goal.

EF: What’s the deal with the Watts Linkage? I can’t keep the Falcon straight unless I drop that thing all the way down. How do you set yours up?

Muggo: The Watts Linkage is a vital part of how you set up the V8 in iRacing, and in real life. In the real world, you constantly see the teams making adjustments mid-race to add a bit more turn (increasing the Watts Linkage height), or to add a bit more drive out of the corners (lowering it). We don’t have that luxury in iRacing to make adjustments on the move, so we need to predict how the car will be mid-race and towards the end, and compensate for that at the beginning. If this means starting with a tail-happy car to ensure we have enough turn, and not understeer at the end, then so be it. These cars require a lot of patience on the throttle also. If you look at real life pedal cameras on the drivers, they wait so long before applying full throttle coming out of a corner. This translates directly into iRacing, which is great! Again, it adds another level of realism to the game.

EF: Does it bug you to get bumped? Do you think iRacing should modify Safety Rating in top-class events, like V8SC, where a little rubbing is just part of the racing?

Muggo: It doesn’t bug me when I get hit by other drivers—if it’s just a harmless bit of contact here and there. If I get spun, or forced off the track, that’s another story! What does bug me is the way we get penalised for those minor contacts, which affects our Safety Rating. I think it does need to be reviewed to reflect the V8’s real life counterparts, where contact and rubbing panels is par for the course.

EF: I’m all about Rugby, mate, and I even enjoy Aussie Rules (and I know enough to know that they are not similar in any way), but Cricket, mate, really? I’ve seen you ANZAC types drooling over it, and I try to understand, really I do, but man . . .

Muggo: Haha, me too mate: if you search my last name in Google you’ll find out where I am coming from!! Yeah cricket is one of those take it or leave it sports. I have played it at a representative level but had to give it up due to time restraints. It’s just too long!

Trans Tasman Racing – 2012 V8 Supercars Online Series Launch

Trans Tasman Racing launched their cars today from Round 1’s venue, Okayama. The driver line up will remain the same within the team. Madison Down, Troy Cox and Josh Muggleton will once again head the V8 Supercars Online Series line up with Wayne Cullen, Wayne Tolley, Tony Autridge and Beau Cubis also racing but not as regularly.

The Trans Tasman Racing Falcons have been completely revamped after 1 year of running the famous TT-R livery that took Down to 3 championship wins in 2011. However, unlike previous seasons, not all the drivers will be driving the same livery. Like many other teams have done, TT-R has also inverted the colour schemes on the liveries meaning that in top split Down, Cox and Muggleton will all feature a different looking TT-R livery.

“The cars look fantastic, all the drivers i’ve talked to love the look of them. KustomImage Workshop (Andrew Osier) has done a great job, especially considering the very short time frame we gave him. They are definitely one of, if not the best, looking liveries in the field!” Said Down

The team has taken on a new sponsor in the form of Hyper Stimulator. The car features the Hyper Stimulator logos on the front bonnet and the rear boot. The deal was made in a last minute effort, although there still may be more to see from this….

Trans Tasman Racing once again will be affiliated with Speedhunters Racing (Benjamin Mikhaiel and Russell Pepperell) and also Coles Racing (Ben Rothberg). Both of these teams will be sporting a TT-R logo on the rear quarter panel of the car. Although they are not a part of the official Trans Tasman Racing Team, they will be running Trans Tasman Racing chassis in the V8 Supercar Online Series Events.

Trans Tasman Racing will be a force to be reckoned with in 2012. The team is confident that all drivers can be competitive in their respective splits and run towards the front and possibly pick up some wins.

Trans Tasman Racing drivers Madison Down and Josh Muggleton were spotted walking around the paddock today at Okayama, both were confident that the results in 2011 could be improved in 2012.

“The Trans Tasman Racing cars have felt strong as always in pre-season testing. The competition is continuing to rise within the series so to keep up we need to drive better than ever. It’s great to see the V8 Supercars Online Series getting so competitive, definitely makes each week exciting for the drivers and the spectators.” Said Down

“Very excited for the upcoming season. A fresh start with a new look car. Hoping for some better luck this season and have been working hard on ironing out some costly errors on track. Hoping to give the leaders a serious shake and take that next step and start fighting for race wins.” Said Muggleton

Pictures from the Launch

Madison Down

Troy Cox

Josh Muggleton

Speed Hunters

Coles Racing (WIP)

Launch Video (Thanks to Bigfish, Benjamin Mikhaiel)

Trans Tasman Racing would like to thank Hyper Stimulator for their support and KustomImage Workshop (Andrew Osier) for the new striking liveries (Also for the Coles Livery for Ben Rothberg).

If you need a new livery for your team, KustomImage Workshop is the place for you! Contact Andrew Osier via email at kustomimage@gmail.com or through iRacing here – http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/CareerStats.do?custid=63751

Down currently leads the championship on 1898 points, only 77 points ahead of McLeod as the two share race wins from one week to another. Broekman although behind by just under 100 points, the dropping worst round rule could easily make up that difference.

The previous few races saw the top three contenders all fighting for their fair share of points, Madison Down grabbing a few more than McLeod and Broekman.

Brands Hatch was McLeod’s turn to grab a win and sharing the front row with Broekman having the exact same qualifying time of 1:26.122, McLeod’s iRating gave him pole. Down started in 3rd but was able to get passed Broekman to finish 2nd.

McLeod said “So pumped to get another win for Tatts.com Racing! This is what I need to have any chance to win the Championship back again.”

Okayama was also Down’s chance to shine and although starting in 3rd, Down was able to take a win while Broekman finished 2nd.  McLeod not having great pace found himself getting knocked around by other competitors, fondly referred to as the ‘fast bulldozer’, McLeod taking 6th.

Down said “Probably the most surprising victory of the season. Considering I wasn’t going to race and I drove with my new CSP pedals, which I was pretty nervous about, I was amazed to win.”

“I did have some luck to do it, but I took a risk with the 0 stopper and thankfully it paid off!”

Virginia International Raceway was a championship reflection, Down taking the win over McLeod then Broekman. Broekman initially in 2nd place ahead of McLeod but a small mistake flat spotted a tyre and gave McLeod the opportunity to grab 2nd.

Down said “Great round of racing tonight, the fight in race 2 for the lead was close. Although there wasn’t much door to door battling, the pressure being applied and the concentration needed was top notch.”

“Championship definitely hotting up in the final rounds. I pretty much can’t gain anymore but Mitch and Rens certainly can if they win the races. The winners of the next few races will decide the championship. Pressure is on!”

Last night saw race 10 in the series at Sebring, which this season is a night race just to make the already tricky circuit slight more difficult to steer around. Down had pole taking two tenths off his personal best time in the final qualifying session minutes before race start. Rens Broekman sat beside him while McLeod was right behind Down on row 2 beside Richard Hamstead.

Down led the field into the dark through turn 1, Broekman not close enough to challenge, while McLeod put the pressure on Broekman early but it wasn’t until lap 4 that he was able to make a pass and get into position to chase Down.

Richard Hamstead made a pass on Broekman in the early stages of the race and although Rens tried to get the position back, his race went downhill from there. In the later stages of the race Broekman simply spun trying to catch Hamstead and then was passed by Scott U’Ren and Stuart Wood after his car refused to do what he asked of it. Broekman’s tyres now as slippery as a 3am kebab, Rens went wide through turn one defending another position from Cal Whatmore where the two touched as Whatmore used all the road on the exit, Broekman ending up in the fence and then although rejoining, retired the exhausted car after coming off again a few corners later.

Up front McLeod was unable to catch Down who went on to take his third straight win.

Down said “Absolutely ecstatic with the win. My aim in these final rounds has obviously been to finish 1st as often as possible to try and clinch a 3rd championship.”

“Since we’re in to drop weeks and I don’t have any bad rounds anymore and Mitch still has some he could massively improve on I need to keep finishing as high up the order as possible. Going to be close at the finish though, that’s for sure!”

McLeod not happy with his setup said “I was hoping set up changes would help me keep up at the start, which I think worked, but after getting passed Rens my setup seemed to fall apart, understeer in, oversteer out, one small change had messed up the entire balance of the car, so I played with the anti roll bars for a few laps and got a feeling I was half happy with, but still wasn’t enough to close the gap. Madison was just too good.”

Split two was won by Richard Hunter and split 3 Jon Latham.

The final two rounds are at Mid-Ohio and the final at Road Atlanta.

The Teams Championship is also tight with Tatts.com Racing on 401 currently having the edge over Trans Tasman Racing on 393.

Along with the other 19 top finishers in Round 2 of the Intel GT Series, McLean now moves on to the Regional Finals, which has been rescheduled for Saturday, January 7, 2011 at 9pm AEST (11:00 GMT).   The 20 finalists will compete in a single 30 minute race at Spa in their HPD-AR01Cs, with the top eight finishers qualifying for the Intel GT Series World Finals.

20 iRacers qualified for the Intel GT Series Africa/Asia/Australia Regional Finals.

In addition to McLean, the regional finalists include Ben Cornett (Aus/NZ), Madison Down (Aus/NZ), Darren Marsh (Aus/NZ), Danny Davidson (Aus/NZ), Ian Travis (Auz/NZ), Yudai Narumi (International), Yuho Abe (International), Vail Riches (Aus/NZ), Christian Aylward (Aus/NZ), Dylan Sharman (Aus/NZ), Tatsuro Hashimoto (International), Zaahir A Essa (International), Minoru Kai (International),  Masafumi Aburame (International), Takeshi Shibuki (International), Dan Green (Aus/NZ), Kazutomo Yano (International), Toshinobu Shigemitsu (International) and Tim Guihot (Aus /NZ).

Rounds Three (Europe) and Four (South America) of the Intel GT series are set for January 17-23 and February 7-13, respectively. The top eight finishers in each of the Regional Finals will qualify for the Intel GT Series World Finals, to coincide with the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in March, 2012.

Madison Down when asked was ecstatic to be in the Regional Final. “It’s awesome to be racing against Australia and New Zealand’s best sim racers. I would’ve never dreamed I would’ve been racing toe to toe with guys like McLean and Cornett. Hopefully we can go one better and finish in the top 8 in about a week’s time in the finals.”

Qualifying was once again a close affair. Mitchell McLeods took pole by less than a thousandth of a second ahead of nfinity eSports teammate Rens Broekman who also qualified with a 1:26.122. Trans Tasman Racing’s Madison Down was a close 3rd with a 1:26.202. Troy Cox qualified 10th and Wayne Tolley 11th respectively just half a second behind the pole sitter.

Madison Down got a great start, but had no where to go with it heading into turn 2. The field was tightly packed with almost all of the drivers two wide until turn 4. Down and Broekman fighting to the death coming off turn 4 made contact putting Down out onto the grass. As he rejoined they were 3 wide with a hard charging Richard Hamstead taking an opportunistic move through the middle and up into 2nd!

Further back in the field Troy Cox made a great start and avoided contact in the opening lap much to his delight after a carnage packed lap 1 in the earlier race.

On lap 3 Down made the move on Hamstead into turn 2. Hamstead left space and the move was executed cleanly. Down now with the eyes on set chase after the Tatts.com Falcon of Mitchell McLeod.

Meanwhile, Troy Cox was having a fantastic battle with Paul Larkin that would eventually last the entire race due to the difficult nature of Brands Hatch. Passing is not an easy feat at the historic circuit.

With 5 laps to go Down had caught McLeod and was really starting to apply the blow torch. The sniff of victory was definitely there. On the penultimate lap, Down got a fantastic run off turn 1 down the hill into turn 2, the #1 TT-R Falcon dived for the move, the two made contact! However Mitch had kept the Tatts.com Falcon in the lead of the motor race despite the attack. It was going to be a gripping final lap. Down clearly hoping to do the same again next lap at turn 2 was not close enough, it was going to be a tough ask from here to win the race. But the two were no more than a metre apart for the rest of the lap as Down stuck to the back of McLeod’s car through the GP layout of the circuit. McLeod made a mistake into the penultimate corner giving Down a run into the final corner, but it was not to be.

Mitchell McLeod took the win which was absolutely critical in the championship standings. Madison Down still leads the series, but after the drop weeks come into effect Mitchell McLeod will certainly launch up the order.

Troy Cox finished a strong 8th after a race long battle with Paul Larkin. The gap at the line was miniscule.

Team admin Madison Down was elated with the teams performance at Brands Hatch “The team had some awesome pace this week, to have the results we did it was great. A 2nd and an 8th in top split is always great. Unfortunately for Wayne, he ran into some troubles in 2nd split but his pace was blindingly fast putting the car in 11th for the week in qualifying. Wayne is definitely punching above his weight at the moment, it would be great for him to be in top split where he belongs.”

The race can be watched at www.v8sonline.com.au

Round 8 is at Okayama but due to the round being on boxing day attendance may not be as high as usual.

Down took pole with a 2:03.511, Rens Broekman along side while Mitchell McLeod sat behind Down in 3rd.

Down got a great start and led the field easily into turn one followed by Broekman, while Richard Hamstead got a good start from 4th and looked on the inside of Broekman for turn one, Broekman defended heavily forcing Hamstead out of the move but was in a good position to at least grab third from McLeod.

Simon Madden and Joshua Muggleton were also close off the start and after almost hitting doors on the straight, Madden took the outside line into turn one but carried too much speed into the tightening turn 2. Tapping the rear quarter of Muggleton who then carried a spin into the back of McLeod, although McLeod was very lucky to keep the car from spinning after a huge full lock slide, Tatts.com team mate Scott U’Ren pulling in behind him putting them in 5th and 6th.

“Having so many cars behind me full lock on lap 1 wasn’t ideal, but worked out not too bad.” McLeod said.

McLeod was then on the attack to get some position back, Madden the first in line and lap 4 he took Madden on the inside of the hairpin to grab back 4th. By this stage the next car was almost the full length of the main straight off in the distance so McLeod had his work cut out for him.

Hamstead hung on the back of Broekman determined to get 2nd, while Down just kept pulling away lap after lap. McLeod made up the huge gap to catch-up to the Hamstead, Broekman battle and was able to get back into the podium position after Hamstead rang wide and spun through the high speed 5th gear turn 15. Hamstead recovered from the spin to stay in 5th but was straigh away under fire from Madden.

Four laps later and U’Ren had caught up to Madden who was still battling hard with Hamstead, Madden than attempt to pass into the hairpin resulting in Hamstead spinning and U’Ren capitalizing driving passed the two stationary cars to grab 4th after starting in 8th.

Up front McLeod was on a charge, Broekman finally buckling under the pressure running wide into turn 1, McLeod took 2nd and was now out to catch Down.

Behind Hamstead’s luck hadn’t changed and was now in a fearsome exchange of damage with Corey Slade, both drivers trading blows, Slade later admitting that some of the exchange was deliberate retaliation, the situation now possibly under review.

After passing Broekman, McLeod was unable to reduce the gap and Madison Down went on to take another convincing win finishing just over 8 seconds ahead, Broekman finishing 3rd followed by U’Ren and Madden.

McLeod: “Had some really close hard racing tonight with a few different guys, managed to work my way back up to 2nd again so was pretty happy with that!”

Down: “Great to pick up another win at suzuka, love the track, suits my driving style very well.”

Madison leads the championship on 1426 points, Broekman 85 points back while U’Ren now in 3rd and McLeod some 250 points behind the championship leader.

Next race heads to Brands Hatch as we head into the second half of the final 2011 season.

Watch the full race at http://www.v8sonline.com.au

12:56 AM Tue 13 December, 2011Source: BigPond Sport

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