Other ASRG Leagues

With the 2025 Logitech G V8PRO Invitational Series now in the record books, attention turns to the highly anticipated Qualifying Series, set to get underway later this month.

Following another standout season under the Australian Sim Racing Group (ASRG) banner, the Logitech G V8PRO Invitational Series continues to cement its reputation as the premier Supercars championship in sim racing. With Gen3 Supercars now firmly established, the 2026 season promises even closer racing as returning veterans, rising stars, and new challengers prepare to fight for a place on the grid.

Pre-Qualifying once again serves as the gateway for drivers aiming to earn their shot at the 2026 Logitech G V8PRO Invitational Series. Open to all competitors, this phase provides an opportunity to showcase outright pace and consistency across three nights of time trials at Oran Park and Winton from January 14th - 17th.

Drivers nominated for Pre-Qualifying will be chasing the fastest combined times across both circuits, with only the top 45 drivers advancing to the next stage of the qualification process.

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After a 2025 season that was all but perfection for Jarrad Filsell one final challenge remained. A new circuit to go alongside a car that was brand spanking new on the platform, this time last year.

Filsell would take one final pole position to round out the year, with a 1:21.106 pipping teammate Andrew Gilliam by 9 hundredths of a second.

Two drivers would be making their final Main Driver starts before moving off into retirement in Ian Ford and Shawn McNamara who would start out of 23rd and 27th respectively.

Lights out and the field would trade blows up and down the order during the opening stanza of the race as everyone attempted to find their rhythm. Aggression and Tire Saving would be the two biggest points of the night.

Early issues for Matthew Bowler at Turn 4 on Lap 1 would be followed by Lachlan Caple at the same corner next lap getting into Wayne Bourke as they both went tumbling down the field.

Trans Tasman Racing have some discussions amongst themselves scheduled for the offseason after Jake Moloney and Josh Anderson would trade blows down at Turn 9, blocking the road for Brady Meyers and James Scott and handing Tyson Broad 4 spots for free!

Brady Baldwin would become the first driver in the pro series history to trigger the Safety Car at Adelaide in the Biggest Crash of the season. Maybe there’s a Hall of Fame entry to come for that one! 

Pitstops all around for those yet to partake of a fresh set of tires as the Safety Car was right on the first pit window. Surprisingly, the field would stay green for the rest of the night.

The bottleneck post restart would center on Dylan Rudd who had elected to stop before the Safety Car searching for an undercut and would now pay the price for that decision.

The next 10 laps would see a big display of elbows out racing for spots around the top 10. Hopeful at the start of the year to see this track on the schedule, the patience would pay off as the racing kept stepping up again, and again… and again.

Jarrad Filsell has dominated the 2025 V8PRO Championship

The front group would set sail on the pack with Filsell, Rattray-White, Rosella, Gilliam and Woods with the next round of stops deciding track position for the run home.

Rattray-White would throw the undercut at Filsell with 24 laps to go, and a dive at the first turn on Filsell’s pitlane exit would get him the lead before being unable to pull the car up and forced to give the position back.

Rattray-white would then lose time to Rosella before ceding second spot on the run to the flag.

Jarrad Filsell would claim the final race win of the year to take 11 wins from the 14 races and put forward the most dominant season of the series to date. 

Qualifying for the 2026 season begins in mid January, with the Qualifying Series starting from the 21st of January. Will we see you on the grid next year?

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by Scott Rankin

2025 is drawing to a close, but there’s one more gift before the year is out. Adelaide has launched, and with it we’re launching ourselves across the kerbs and hopefully staying out of the fence.

For most this race is just an opportunity for glory. The championship is decided, but an opportunity to be the first ever race winner at Adelaide is a prospect none of them want to miss out on.

The big news at the end of the year, as usual, is that silly season is about to kick off in full. Rumours are always swirling, but at the moment they tend to be zeroing in on two teams in particular.

Evolution Racing Team will not look the same following the final round of the season. Lachlan Caple is definitely on the move, with a berth at the Orbit Drop Bear stable already prepared, but there is one other driver confirmed to be on their way out the door. Conversations with multiple drivers around the paddock sees a lot of speculation over the lineup for 2026 with numbers varying wildly depending on who you talk to.

Chief’s Esports Club have already lost Griffin Gardiner, who moved back to Privateer branding on the #93 earlier in the year, but look set to currently be without any active drivers. Dylan Rudd and James Scott are likely to also be on the move.

Drivers will be racing for the inaugural Adelaide Street Circuit victory

The most critical battle to be keeping an eye on this week is the battle for automatic qualification for 2025. 20th in the championship is currently being held down by Adam Briggs. Inside the top 20 there’s potentially only two drivers who are punching slightly above their weight when looking at form from season’s past.

Matthew Bowler has shown more pace this season in the Gen 3 chassis which has leant itself more to his driving talents and finds himself sitting 56 points ahead of 20th placed Briggs, and 119 points clear of 21st placed Ian Ford. Andre Yousiff found speed in the latter half of the championship with his endurance campaign. Above average finishes at Phillip Island (19th) and Sandown (20th) started the climb towards the 20, before his best result to date at Bathurst catapulted him up the standings and into 18th, 46 points ahead of Briggs and 109 points ahead of falling outside the bubble to 21st placed Ford.

Drivers currently staring down the barrel of Qualifying Series in 2026 include one of the drivers who challenged for 2024’s title in Ric Kuznetsov, but also the multi-time national Excel Championship winner Ethan Grigg-Gault who showed early speed in the new car, but has trended off as the year has gone on. Grigg-Gault also found a couple of clashing commitments throughout the year which left him relying on a strong finish at Bathurst. Last lap contact put the #7 car in the fence at Griffin’s and failure to follow race direction rules for towing meant that Disqualification left an okay day with zero points.

Grigg-Gault is a mathematical contender, but the circumstances that would lead to requalifying means that he’ll be all but assured to come through the qualifying series.

With all of the implications covered heading into the race lets touch on the race itself.

Adam Briggs heads to Adelaide in the all important P20

Race Info

I must admit, at a lap length just 200m longer than Sandown and being a street circuit, I expected qualifying to be the group format.

With that in mind, setting a lap in Qualifying is going to be important and if I can’t get out at the head of the field, I am going to delay starting my lap to ensure I get a clean run. 

Treat this like a street circuit with a critical focus on track position, and clean air running to gain spots. Strategy and gaming the safety car is going to be highly important as well, and I do think a Safety car is a “when”, not an “if”.

You can go at most 33 Laps on hard, green flag running, with maybe an ability to save 1-2 laps of fuel. The big issue is the track temp and tire wear. Rears and balance are going to be a big issue, with some teams reporting an inability to make the tires last the fuel stint. Generally I won’t be given exact numbers but more of a ball park, so I’d say that's a trend which is likely to be true. 20-25 laps is the sweet spot on stint length.

From a racer’s perspective this one is tough on overtaking opportunities but also requires a large amount of discipline as well. The Turn 1-2 kerbing is problematic to be consistent over and being too far to the right on entry, or using too much kerb, nets drivers a slowdown penalty of about 1.1s. Consider this to be the way iRacing manages kerb strikes. There is a bonus to serving the penalty as soon as possible as the penalty will grow if you don’t serve it immediately.

I’m expecting that at some point someone is going to get the kerbing wrong and cause a massive pileup in the complex from 1-2-3. Turn 8 in the sim isn’t as scary with the lack of consequences early on, but as the tires start to wear there could be a big moment.

Safety car guesstimate from me is somewhere around 80-85%. It’s not guaranteed, but it’s pretty damn close!

That’s all in pre-race prep, but this is going to be a wild one. I’m kind of glad we’re going to Adelaide with a championship already decided, it means we get to treat this whole race as a learning experience. Who will get to finish the championship on a high and be the first driver to win in the Logitech V8 Pro Series from the streets of Adelaide? Join us Wednesday from 7.45pm AEDT to find out.

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by Scott Rankin

One thousand kilometres. One thousand opportunities to throw it all away. One thousand points of difference.

One winner. Or is that two?

We all know what happens when we get to Bathurst. All this puff and bravado about the spirituality of the place. This is about the only time I ever feel a sense of a higher power.

Before we get into the rest of the article I want to take an opportunity to take a look at all the series has achieved, but focus in on the last two years. Logitech V8 Pro Series have now made Bathurst week a celebration of sim racing.

We had Wednesday night’s Co-Driver Clash. We’ve had the Paddock Podcast including the first ever Hall of Fame. We’ve had the championship finale of the Gamesmen GTPro Series, and tonight we get into the real deal in Qualifying and the Shootout, with support from the Porsche Cup series from iRacing World Challenge.

Think back across your memory of the simulated 1000’s. I’ve not been a Supercars nuffy on the sim for long enough to have ever encountered this much of a celebration of what we love as much as this. And whilst I do write for the series, this isn’t me just beating the chest of all involved, this is a thank you for everything! Heck, one day I might even get to participate in one! Until then I’ll be rambling away from a commentary box whilst I enjoy delusions of grandeur.

Wenesday Night's Co-Driver Clash was an action packed start to "Bathurst Week"

That illusion of grandeur is what drives so many of us to strive for the highest of peaks. 174 metres of elevation from bottom to top, then falling away that same distance just so you can go and turn another 6.2 kilometre circle. 

Some would call us mad. “It’s just turning circles” they say. “It’s the same thing 161 times over, how boring”. We know better.

The Race

Last year we were treated to an epic. 5 cars crossed the line in less than 1.5 seconds as Madison Down chased Griffin Gardiner whilst he covered for Luke Rosella. All whilst Down was being hunted by Andrew Gilliam and James Scott. Rosella would hang on for his first 1000 win of the series, but in the process secured a legacy of success in the Enduro’s.

This year the form guide is Jarrad Filsell’s dominance. Combine that with the engineering nous and speed of Brodie Kostecki and the rest of the field is hoping there’s a catastrophic error. Then again, with a championship on the line and the ability to wrap it up at the mountain there is every opportunity they elect to just finish the race smoothly. All Jarrad needs to be crowned champion is 21st or better. I’ve never known Filsell to back down from a fight and a passive Filsell is a vulnerable one, so I expect them to try winning the race.

Out of the Co-Driver clash Ryan O’Sullivan and Thomas McMillan also showed impressive speed and are worthy of note. O’Sullivan partners with Ethan Grigg-Gault for Evolution Racing Team’s #7, and McMillan with Luke Rosella’s #55 Lobs Esports cars. Rosella and McMillan will have to come from the back as their penalty for indiscretions at Sandown. Given they also drove through at Phillip Island and Sandown from the rear, they’re kind of used to it at this point.

Thomas McMillan took victory on Wednesday Night

I expect Qualifying to be shuffled up a touch, the Shootout always tends to get a few drivers out of sequence on their overall race pace. To me the most likely candidate to either nail the lap or make a mistake is Josh Anderson. He’s been overcritical of himself at times and talked about his Qualifying being a point of weakness, but I do believe he is capable of the magic lap. Putting it together with only a singular lap is the critical point.

Strategy has us on for 7 stints to put the race together. 6 pit stops with no more than 80 consecutive laps before drivers must be swapped. This means a minimum of 2 driver changes must be done within the race. Strategy is likely to be the main driver start, get the co-driver to run a triple stint and then the main driver to the end. As usual though, the closer the delta between the drivers the better your flexibility.

This strategy puts a lot of load on drivers and challenges their abilities to be consistent across long periods of time. There are more restrictions placed on drivers during the actual Bathurst 1000 to manage this and prevent drivers being in the car for excessive periods of time. Fatigue management will be a big part of this strategy and may see some teams with high workloads opt down a shorter stint path to assist. The old advertising for driver fatigue reigns true here as well, beyond two hours your focus level drops off.

My pick for Sunday? Filsell and Kostecki. They’re in a purple patch and currently you cannot go past them on form. Long run, short run, overall car speed and tire deg, fuel management, skill level. Yeah the list is hefty of what they have over the others.

But….

One
Thousand
Kilometres

One thousand reasons for it to be someone else’s.

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by Scott Rankin