Bradley Rattew says “I feel like I’ve proven to myself and others that I can perform under pressure”

For Bradley Rattew, Wednesday’s race win at Sandown is the result of hard work. Months in the making, Brad would go on to lead 38 laps of the 200 kilometre fixture making himself our third different winner in just three races.

But why is this race win so special? Not only does this mark an excellent achievement for Rattew, it marks a true turn around in form from the 9ine 5ive SimSports driver. It’s been a difficult few years for Brad, but a key move into a top team has allowed him to re discover what he’s truly capable of against the best drivers that virtual Supercars have to offer.

With one round remaining in the 2023 Logitech G Pro Invitational Qualifying Series, all is left to play for. Rattew currently finds himself 6th in the championship standings, His race win placing him well above the cutoff heading into that final round in Bathurst.

Speaking in the post race press conference, Bradley reiterated the pressure once he took control of the race, and his thought process in the final 28 lap burst we would witness after the final safety car intervention.

“Before the first restart, I thought to myself that if I can do this now, it’s going to be a great time to do it. I knew staying out in front for 25 laps was going to be difficult, but I needed to do it. In the moment I was confident that I could keep myself out the front but I knew that I had to be on my game to do it, no mistakes. But I also knew that I couldn’t go too hard knowing that doing 25 or so laps at full pace was not going to be good for me if I was to hold onto my spot in the final stages of the race”.

A win at this level for Bradley, Could spark a fresh boost of confidence for the 9ine 5ive SimSports driver, who stated taking a win was a massive weight off his shoulders.

“I feel like that I’ve proven to myself and others that I can perform under pressure from this win. Crossing the line was such a great feeling and in a way a massive weight off my shoulders because I had just finally proven to myself that I can do it and that I am competitive”

2023 marked the beginning of a new adventure for Bradley Rattew, His move across to 9ine 5ive SimSports already paying off. A fresh environment and an opportunity to race alongside some of the best in the business could be the key to more success in the near future.

“Joining 9ine 5ive SimSports I feel like has been the biggest move for me in my time Sim Racing. This has been my first opportunity to race with one of the top teams of the V8 Supercar community, and I’ve loved every minute.

It has been quite an adjustment as a driver and a team mate, but that’s not a bad thing. I believe that these where the changes I needed to improve myself on multiple fronts. Here I am able to focus more on what I need to improve, and the team helps me keep my mindset positive even in the low points” 

Heading into the final round, Rattew, Although wanting to have a crack at another win, has made it clear his intentions are to purely make sure he progresses into the 2023 Logitech G ProbInvitational Series.

“I’ll want to try and take another win, but I also know that I need to focus on making sure I score points to proceed to the main game in Pro Series. I just need to focus on making the most of the prep that I’ll have for the final round, if I feel confident enough to go for a win then I’ll give it a crack, but if not I’ll aim for valuable points”.

Published on

One round remains for the inaugural Logitech G Pro Invitational Qualifying Series and Harrison Dengate currently occupies a place on the bubble in 21st position in the standings.

A well crafted season to date presents Harrison with the opportunity to place inside the top 20 at seasons end giving the WK&P SimSports driver an opportunity to be a part of the 2023 Logitech G Pro Invitational series.

Results this season haven’t been spectacular for Dengate, but have been extremely consistent. An opening account of 29th at Phillip Island was followed up by finishes of 19th & 20th at both Hockenheim & Sandown.

We sat down with Harrison to discuss his season to date.

Thank you for taking the time to speak to us Harrison. Your season to date has been really consistent. Has your preparation played a major part in that?

“I believe that it certainly has, when racing in a series like this which has a mix of everything, preparation is absolutely key to anyone’s success. Changing track conditions, higher and lower temperatures and different track characteristics mean that seat time and experience are the main advantages for the series and is something I’ve been working on over the last month or so”

What do you think it is going to take for you to jump into the top 20 in the final round at Bathurst ?

“Bathurst has always been a headache for drivers all throughout Australian Sim Racing. Getting yourself to a fast pace will get you somewhere in the Qualifying, but having the setup behind you can and will take you further in a race. Bathurst can also be a very challenging track on concentration so avoiding any mistakes as well as the mistakes of others, will help me break the 20”

How do you find it at WK&P SimSports? Being one of the smaller teams in the field, do you feel like it has an effect on how each round plays out?

“WK&P SimSports is such a great team to be at currently. Although we are one of, if not the smallest team entered in the Qualifying Series, I feel that we are constantly punching above our weight and making great strides to compete with the likes of Synergy Sim Racing and 9Five. Yes, we may not have the same setup knowledge as others and yes, it does have a slight impact on our performance in some rounds but Blake Worboys as our setup Guru and Jon Van Ree as our mentor have helped everyone overcome our weaknesses to other teams and improve our race performance”

Finally, what would it mean to you to make it into the 2023 Logitech G Pro Invitational Series?

“Honestly, it would mean the world to not just me, but everyone throughout the team to see not just 1 of our drivers in the Pro Series but 2 of us in there. You never realise how far you’ve truly come until you reach a point like this. I know that I have the backing of the team, my family and especially my Nan and Pop who have watched me for nearly 4 years. My motivation is high and my determination is even higher to make sure that I secure a top 20 spot, at all cost”

Well thanks for your time Harrison, we wish you all the best for the final round of the championship along with your quest to finish in a transfer position.

Published on

Synergy Sim Racing driver Kenneth Latter is starting to show his true potential in recent rounds of the Logitech G Pro Invitational Qualifying Series.

Currently sitting 12th in the standings heading into the final round at Bathurst, Sandown marked a new turn of speed we haven’t seen from Latter in recent times. Latter would go on to qualify in 17th for the 65 lap event around Sandown, putting together a clinical drive to finish inside the top ten in 8th position.

Post race, Kenneth reiterated the fact he was happy to place inside the top ten despite qualifying further down the order.

“I’m Very happy with a top 10 result. I Just wanted to keep my nose clean and put up a solid showing at Sandown and I think we did that”

The first couple of rounds were difficult for Kenneth, starting the season with a top 20, Hockenheim was one to forget, Contact with teammate Adam Briggs in qualifying making the night a difficult one. Some may think a knock of confidence may be an issue, but for Kenneth, that was no issue coming into Sandown.

“i felt confident coming into the round with the preparation I put into this race. I like to think it did show on the track. I was disappointed with my qualifications effort.... but I guess that's something I need to work on little bit more”

With the final round at Bathurst approaching, Latter will look to remain consistent as he fights to secure his place in the 2023 Logitech G Pro Invitational series.

“My hopes would be for a top 10 at Bathurst.... but the main thing is to keep it clean and run a good solid race with no mistakes”

Does Kenneth Latter have what it takes to secure promotion into the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series? Tune in on the 22nd of February to find out!

Published on

The Logitech G Pro Invitational Series would make its return to Sandown Raceway for the first time since October 2022 for round 3 of the qualifying series.

Qualifying would provide the closest session of the season to date, seeing the top 4 drivers covered by a staggering seven hundredths of a second at the conclusion of the session. In the early stages Brian Borg would take control of provisional pole, with Damien Johnstone close behind in second before Ric Kuznetsov would jump to the top of the standings with twelve minutes remaining.

What ensued after was nothing short of entertaining, Rehan Liyanage coming to the party with an excellent 1:07.125 moving him to provisional pole with little under 5 minutes remaining. Race winner from Hockenheim, Rudd would slot his 9ine 5ive Commodore into second position one thousandth of a second shy of Rehan’s benchmark, with Kuznetsov now siting in a comfortable third position. Remarkably, none of the latter would claim pole position with DPR Racing’s Dylan O’Shea denying Liyanage in the last seconds to claim his first pole position of the series, beating out his competitors by the narrowest of margins.

Although entertaining towards the top of the standings, there were some startling performances. Adam Briggs continued his poor run of qualifying form, finding himself well out of position in 23rd. Although making up for it in the race gaining an impressive eleven positions, Briggs will surely be going back to the drawing board in an attempt to fix his qualifying woes.

As the lights went out ahead of 65 laps around the Springvale circuit, O’Shea would convert his pole position perfectly, leading the field of 36 cars into the first corner. Rattew would make a blinder from the third row of the grid, moving up three positions by the time the pack entered turn 1. Liyanage would be the biggest loser off the start, dropping down to fifth by the time the leaders reached turn 5. Big winner on lap one saw the likes of Bailey Fridd move forward, capitalising off the start gaining an important four positions by the completion of lap one.

It didn’t take long for the lead pack to skip away to a small lead, O’Shea still controlling the field from the 9ine 5ive SimSports trio consisting of Rudd, Kuznetzov & Rattew after the opening laps. Rehan Liyanage found trouble on lap six, making a mistake on the entry of Dandenong Road and subsequently finding himself being turned around by Hayden Veld. For Liyanage, this untimely incident put a damper on what was looking like a extremely positive night. It wouldn’t be all doom and gloom for the Pursuit Sim Racing driver, finding his way back to 11th by the end of the nights proceedings.

Further down the field drama brewed from the outset, Synergy Sim Racing Driver Cameron Veacock again finding himself amongst the incidents, involved in an accident with Craig Shultz on the front straight, resulting in a heavily damaged car and a drive through penalty to boot. This ultimately puts an end to Veacock’s promotion hopes, but with one round remaining provides a excellent opportunity for Cameron to turn the tide.

Andrew Dyson again was showing his ability to drive through the pack, moving up a solid 4 places in the opening ten laps highlighted with extremely committed pass on Trans Tasman Racing’s Josh Muggleton in the esses on lap 10 as he began to make a march for the front of the field.

O’Shea continued to control the race from the front until the first round of pitstops began, Dylan interestingly being the one to find the lane first at the beginning on lap 20. Injecting himself back into traffic, this decision would unfortunately take O’Shea from the effective race lead. The 9ine 5ive trio chose to follow suit at the conclusion of lap 22, Brad Rattew again seeming to be a big winner, impressively jumping his teammates to re join the race ahead of O’Shea and taking control of the lead of the race from lap 23 onwards. An impressive stop form Synergy Sim Racing’s Hayden Veld would see him fill the final place on the podium.

Veld’s fortune would take a drastic turn on lap 28 though, a technical malfunction sending the #053 into the inside barrier at the fastest point of the circuit before spearing back across the track coming to a stop on the outside of turn six. With Veld’s now stricken Synergy Commodore stuck on the circuit, we’d see the first appearance for the Logitech G safety car. With the critical lap number now surpassed the field pile into the smallest pit lane on the calendar to complete the second of their compulsory pit stops. Brad Rattew would retain his lead on the exit of the Pit lane, followed by O’Shea, Rudd, Dyson & Robert Gibbs rounding out the top 5.

Rattew controlled the restart well on lap 32, retaining his lead over O’Shea into turn one. Rudd would apply the pressure behind O’Shea, But the DPR driver was well up to the task of keeping him behind.

Green flag racing was short lived, the safety car again being called upon the beginning of lap 34 with Paul Young being the cause. Already with an ailing car, The #3 BAR commodore gave up the ghost for good on entry to Dandenong road, an unfortunate end resulting in a low points scoring day for the qualifying series hopeful.

After a handful of laps behind the safety car, racing would resume on lap 37, one of the best 28 lap sprints of the season was about to begin.

Brad Rattew would highlight the restart with a contender for one of best restarts of the season, choosing to go early after the Penrite Bridge building a healthy gap before they’d even reached the start finish line.

It didn’t take long for drama to kick off again towards the front of the field, Dandenong Road again being the feature point of another incident. Dyson’s DPR Mustang found itself off the road with a helping hand from Robert Gibbs only to be followed up by a big incident in the braking zone for turn eleven between Damien Johnstone and Josh Muggleton. Although the incident at turn eleven was deemed a racing incident, both Johnstone & Muggleton will be feeling hard done by, going on to have a difficult time in the remainder of the race.

Back at the front of the field, A three car battle was brewing. Rattew had held his nerve and continued to lead form Dylan O’Shea with Rudd behind continuing to make ground on the leader. 

These closing laps were excellent from the top three, Qualifying lap after qualifying lap they traded blows. Kuznetsov would eventually join this train, all fighting to take the lead away from Rattew in the closing stages. O’Shea would attempt a move on lap 59 at turn one but Rattew again would hold strong and retain the lead off the corner with only a handful of laps left to run. O’Shea would take one last crack at Rattew on the beginning of the penultimate lap attempting to get up the inside down the front straight, Rattew was aware to this and moved across leaving no room for O’Shea to sneak through. Rudd took full advantage of this, Making a brilliant move into the turn two chicane clearing O’Shea and taking command of second position with all but a lap and a half to go. Rudd would lock down second position and protect Rattew from an onslaught from the DPR machine.

Rattew would steer the ship home for his first win in the Logitech G Pro invitational Qualifying Series at Sandown, after a few years of difficulty it sure seems Rattew has found his feet in the Supercar again along with a place to call home at 9ine 5ive SimSports. A proud moment for this driver and team, it goes to show the right environment and a positive mindset can make anything possible. For Rattew, we’re seeing the beginnings of what we thought was possible for this talented driver. Rudd would follow his teammate home in second place, followed closely by Dylan O’Shea rounding out the round Sandown podium.

One round remains for the inaugural Logitech G Pro Invitational Qualifying Series, as we head to the home of Australian Motorsports, Bathurst!

This is it, who will take their rightful place on the 2023 Logitech G Pro Invitational Series grid! Game on! Stay up to date with all the latest at https://supercarsproinvitational.com.au

Published on