Despite the race distance being fairly sizeable, this round was the last of the Sprint format until December’s finale. A Super Sprint round and three Enduro rounds sit between this event and the season’s conclusion.

If you couldn’t make it on Wednesday night … make it next time. But as a bandaid fix, here is your race review from Round 7 of the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series to get you caught up!

Hairwidths Separate Front Row Once Again in Spectacle Qualifying

We’ve seen close qualifying sessions at every venue so far this season regardless of track distance. Jerez sits nicely in the middle of the selection of tracks we’ve visited thus far in terms of lap time, so the intensity was on right from the start.

Less than a tenth of a second covered the top three in the first run of laps, with the inseparable LOBS pairing of Andrew Gilliam and Jarrad Filsell leading the way on the provisional front row, followed closely by TTR’s Madison Down.

The beginning of Eclipse Simsports’ session was quieter than normal, with Damon Woods and Zach Rattray-White sitting in 9th and 16th respectively.

Dylan Rudd would find himself in 10th, with his Chiefs ESC teammates Griffin Gardiner and James Scott sitting in 7th and 8th for the time being.

Importantly for the championship story, Josh Anderson looked to be having a difficult afternoon in his search for a strong lap. The TTR driver’s 1:44.535 was only good enough for 27th with less than ten minutes remaining in the session. He would only improve enough for 12th come the chequered flag.

Gilliam and Filsell traded blows up the front, with Gilliam emerging victorious to claim the Playseat Pole Position by just half a tenth. It was Gilliam’s second pole of the season since the Feature Race in Detroit three rounds ago.

Madison Down spoiled the LOBS party up the front to separate Luke Rosella from Gilliam and Filsell, putting his TTR Camaro in third just 0.069s away from pole. Rattray-White and Moloney both improved their laps later in the session to claim third row starts, with Gardiner, Scott, Kuznetsov and Woods rounding out the top 10.

Difficult Night Turns to Absolute Nightmare for Anderson

When the lights dropped, the front runners looked to get away cleanly. But it wasn’t long until the cameras panned back toward the grid slots with a monstrous incident unfolding before the start finish line.

Josh Anderson and Jacob O’Reilly would both have mediocre launches, with opportunity tempting Brady Meyers to split the middle. When that gap inevitably closed, Meyers would effectively pit maneuver Anderson and O’Reilly into one another. While O’Reilly was able to straighten up in the contact, Anderson was left horizontal in the middle of the circuit – that’s a formula that never ends very well.

In a calm before the storm, the field looked to be dodging the stranded TTR Camaro. But in the span of a few seconds, Anderson would be collected at tremendous speeds by three cars, including a final blow from his teammate Kurt Stenberg. Both Anderson and Stenberg were forced to retire with the damage, and the Safety Car was brought out immediately.

The race would resume on Lap 4 with Gilliam, Filsell and Rosella flying the LOBS flag up the front. The train of cars would settle into position with little angst or disruption for now.

Damon Woods would apply pressure to Jake Moloney a few laps after the restart, breaking a gap that allowed the Top 7 to break away ever so slightly.

An unforced error from Gilliam at the downhill hairpin on Lap 9 handed the race lead to Filsell for the first time of the afternoon. A neat recovery from Gilliam meant the switch of places didn’t cause enough disruption for any additional position losses for himself or his teammate Rosella behind.

Mind Games and Gritty Tyre Saving Strategy Commences

With no compulsory number of pit stops and a bulky tank of fuel, making the one-stop work was crucial for a strong result. But it wouldn’t be an easy task when facing the blistering conditions and numerous high-load corners.

While the textbooks would say to keep on-track battles to a minimum on a strategy like this, that did not deter the field from putting on a number of enthralling scraps in the run to that critical lap. At the end of lap 19, Brady Meyers would launch down the inside of Dylan Rudd to claim 11th, with Wayne Bourke jumping at the chance to claim a place too – cleverly forcing Rudd onto the marbles at Turn 2.

Emily Jones would find herself under pressure as tyre life faded, fending off Jobe Stewart in the closing stages of the opening stint for as long as she could until eventually getting doored at the final corner in a traditional supercars scrap.

What On Earth!!!

At the halfway mark, the critical lap was at the drivers’ doorstep for the one-stop strategy. Overcuts were immensely powerful for now with the tyres so far gone.

On Lap 28, the sheer magnitude of the tyre wear reared its ugly head. Dylan O’Shea’s rubber was so far gone that he received a mechanical black flag. While everyone’s tyre wear is slightly different, this would surely be a gargantuan red flag in the minds of spotters at this stage of the race.

At the end of that same lap, Filsell would also receive a mechanical black flag; his tyres had officially thrown in the towel.

Filsell stayed out for an extra lap despite the black flag.

Scott and Rattray-White pulled the trigger on the pit stop, but Filsell, Gilliam and Down opted to stay out. With Filsell the only of the three with a mechanical black flag, he would limp his way around the lap, costing all three drivers chunks of time they were already haemorrhaging by staying out.

While Filsell would now be forced to pit, Gilliam and Down would continue on for one more lap. When everything had straightened out after the stops, Filsell would regain the lead of the race with Madison rejoining in 2nd. Gilliam, however, would lose a good chunk of track position and rejoin in 6th ahead of James Scott.

The Unstoppable Force Versus the Immovable Object

As the second phase of the race was well and truly underway, there were a few missions up and down the order beginning to materialise.

For Meyers, Woods, Bourke, Gardiner and Stewart, it was to scrap it out for a Top 10 finish.

For Rattray-White, it was to put the cap on a strong result as the lone Eclipse car in the Top 5.

For Down and Filsell, it was to win.

Down began chipping away at Filsell’s lead margin as the stint progressed. Gaining a tenth every few laps. By lap 35, there were two tenths in it; by lap 36, they were nose to tail in every sense of the word. At the exit of Turn 1, Down got his nose under the rear bumper of Filsell, spinning the championship leader off toward the barrier on the right side. Filsell would drop to 8th, recovering to 7th by the end of the race.

Down was handed a 15-second post-race penalty for the incident.

The Final Act

Excitement continued throughout the field with the battle intensifying again on the fringe of the Top 10. When Wayne Bourke had a shot around the outside of Dylan Rudd in the middle of Lap 42, the two drivers gradually moved themselves off the racing line and onto the marbles. That opened the door for Damon Woods to slot through into 11th with relative ease.

Dylan Rudd’s afternoon would only get worse after this battle, with a costly mistake on lap 45 that dropped him to 16th place after a trip through the marbles and eventually a gravel trap.

With one lap remaining, Luke Rosella launched down the inside of LOBS teammate Andrew Gilliam at the final corner to take the effective race lead. And there was no turning back!

Luke Rosella is a Logitech G Pro Invitational Series Winner in 2025!

With the penalty dropping Madison Down to 6th – notably, still just ahead of Filsell – Rosella and Gilliam would secure a LOBS 1-2 result. Rattray-White would come home third to secure his best result of the season, with Scott, Moloney, Down, Filsell, Meyers, Gardiner and Albert in the Top 10 with all penalties applied.

Honourable Mentions

Brenton Hobson and Andre Yousiff were the biggest movers on Wednesday night, both moving up a whopping 17 spots from their qualifying positions come the chequered flag.

It was a promising night for ERT despite a lack of standout performances. Hayden Veld could only go up from 39th on the grid, and so he did, gaining 14 spots to move up into 25th. Beau Albert and Matthew Bowler also moved up 10 places each, with Lachlan Caple gaining 7 as well.

Brady Baldwin also enjoyed the best result of his V8PRO Series career with a rock-solid 16th place run.

Outside of Josh Anderson’s abysmal afternoon that I will avoid rubbing salt into, Ethan Grigg-Gault and Jobe Stewart were the biggest losers of the afternoon, dropping 15 places each.