It was Brady Meyers who claimed the maiden Logitech G Pro Invitational race win, but on the exit of the final corner of the race, Josh Anderson had snuck his nose in front of Brady and was in position to take the win himself.

As Jake Burton was left ruing his fuel miscalculation within sight of the finish line as his spluttering Commodore relinquished the lead, TTR teammates were neck and neck behind. Only a bump in the track stumped Andersons run to the line, with him eventually finishing just 0.187 seconds behind Brady.

Josh will be the first to admit he got a bit lucky with the result, but you have to be in a position to capitalise and Anderson was in the lead group from the very start. Qualifying fourth and settling into a solid third place off the start, Anderson ran a basic split strategy which saw him assume the lead on lap 23, passing Brodie Kosteki on the back straight. By lap 30 Anderson had fallen to third but was firming as a contender in the race.

Making his final pit stop on lap 33 Anderson exited the pits with strong track position but quickly realised he had short filled almost a lap worth of fuel. Josh stated “I had to save -100 for the entire final stint”.

Managing to save a massive amount of fuel in only 11 laps is a mighty effort. A Battle with TTR team mates Ethan Warren and Brady Meyers ensued, Anderson smartly utilising their draft to maintain lap speed and save enough fuel to put him in a position to win the race.

Next round lookout for the blue TTR/Cooldrive Mustang. Anderson was ruing his second place finish at Sebring and that means he will be ready to put things ‘right’ at Winton!

Published on

You didn’t see much of the Pursuit Racing Mustang of Andrew Gilliam all race at Sebring. As the race at the front stole the spotlight, he and Vendaval Sim Racings Griffin Gardiner were locked in a 44 lap high pressure, high quality and high speed battle.

For Gilliam, it wasn’t the start he was after when he was half turned on the opening lap by Ethan Grigg Gault. After setting off on the wrong foot he settled into his rhythm and and what ensued was a race long battle with Gardiner and the duo were inseparable all race from that point on.

Swapping places during the pit stop cycles, the two raced it out for the back of the top 10 all night. As the laps started to wind down, the Vendaval and Pursuit machines were lapping up to 0.5 seconds faster of the cars in front and were both in the ‘zone’.

With one lap to go, Wayne Bourke in front would have a lunge at Jake Moloney, causing Moloney to leave the track and Bourke to redress. It was a reward for Gilliam and Gardiner, as they crossed the line in seventh and eight respectively.

Most drivers draw more satisfaction from a race long pressure battle than a scrap, as purists know what this racing is all about. Being locked in an intense battle for laps on end where no one can blink.

If you’re the lead driver, the smallest mistake by way of a missed apex, brake lockup or corner exit wheel spin will see your rival slide past. Conversely, if you’re the trailing driver, any of these small errors will see your rival skip away.

Its why these battles are so high quality, and its why at the end of these races, the drivers involved are usually satisfied with their performance.

We can’t wait to see more of these battles at round 2 on June 1st when the series heads to Winton.

Published on

Wow! What a race! A massive heavyweight tussle at the front with only a few laps to go ascended into an EPIC finish, as SSR Boost Mobile Racings Jarrad Filsell and Vendaval Sim Racing’s Jake Burton traded blows in all out warfare for the win, ultimately allowing a chasing TTR pack led by Brady Meyers to close in and pounce with only meters to go in the race. Brady Meyers would prevail, stamping his claim to the championship and planting himself right at the very pinnacle amongst legends of iRacing Supercar drivers.

TTR stable mate, Josh Anderson also capitalised in the Cooldrive Mustang to make it a team 1-2, an awesome start to the Logitech G Pro Invitational series for TTR.

Filsell went on to scrape over the line in 3rd after looking the class of the field for much of the race, beating home Burton who coughed out of the final corner in the lead, dropping to 4th. A devastating moment as Burton had surely done enough to win the race to that point but the tight fuel strategy delivered a cruel blow as he just limped over the line ahead of Ethan Warren, another TTR machine making it 3 in the top 5.

The top 5 cars finished the race just 0.5 seconds apart after 44 laps of a sweltering Sebring circuit. With no safety cars to close the gaps, it’s an incredible margin for this many cars to finish within.

Further back in the top 10 a bit of door banging and spirited racing mixed some results up, but it was the usual class drivers of Hamstead, Gilliam who was the lead Pursuit driver, Vedaval Sim Racing’s Griffin Gardiner who continues his front running consistency, ERT’s Ethan Grigg Gault who crossed the line in 7th, but a post race penalty for contact that would spin Jordan Ross on the opening lap would lead to a 5 second penalty which classified him in 9th place. Jake Moloney would round out the top 10, making it 5 TTR cars in the top 10.

SSR covered from 11th to 15th on the results, with a mixed bag of what could have been. Filsell claimed a podium and Bourke looked most likely of the other SSR cars to feature deep inside the top 10 until late race redress dropped him to 11th.

Tom Freer produced a stunning Qualifying lap for 7th, as he begins to find consistent pace but the race wouldn’t be so kind. An early slow down and poor strategy call which put him in traffic ruined his chance of a top 10.

Further back in the field, mixed stories of woe, heartbreak and come back drives littered the results. Notably Jordan Ross who looked on track for a top 10 at the start of the race and Brodie Kosteki who set blistering laps in practice and ran an alternate setup. Brodie ran into equipment issues with a pedal malfunction.

WK&P driver, Blake Worboys and 9ine5ive SimSport rising star, Shawn McNamara did an exceptional job finishing inside the top 20, an encouraging result for both teams heading to round 2.

Luke Mitchinson finished in 20th, something RaceOnOz will be happy with and can build on. Luke is one to watch and proved he can get the job done.

For round 2, we move on to Winton Raceway on the 1st of June for what will be another dramatic night of racing.

Missed all the action? Head over and catch the full broadcast replay at the link below:

Published on

For years now, Logitech G has been at the forefront of supporting sim racing in Australia and globally. The highest selling sim racing wheel is the G29, one that has been the cornerstone for thousands of those being introduced to sim racing for the first time.

Alongside the wheel and pedal combo, the hardware that they manufacture, and sell is highly regarded and used by millions who are at work, or at play, and not just on the sim.

Having started its sponsorship journey with the Evolution Racing Team in 2015, they expanded their support to the newly formed Altus eSports in 2018.
This year, in 2022 they are the official naming rights sponsor to what is anticipated to be the most important sim racing series in years, the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series.

They are a name that is linked with success and have been at the forefront in offering affordable products so that anyone can get themselves, or their loved ones on the virtual grid.

Recently we spoke to Australasia’s head of marketing for Logitech G, Dan Hall.

Dan, thanks for joining us, first of all thankyou for all that you, and Logitech G have done for Australian Sim Racing, why do you feel it is important to support sim racing here and overseas?

Motorsport is a huge passion for many Aussies and Kiwis and whilst most of us can only dream about driving a race car, sim racing provides an excellent opportunity to experience the thrill and excitement of driving in the comfort and convenience of your own home. I am super passionate about both real and virtual racing and sharing this experience brings me so much joy.

You yourself are a racer, often seen competing in the Thursday night Vets series. What does being an active participant bring to you?

Let’s not publicly acknowledge the fact it’s an over 40’s race, you’re as young as you feel! I honestly love these types of leagues, it is full of likeminded folk who all have a huge passion for motorsport and get together once a week to rub panels and build their race craft and skills. I feel like I am improving every week and just when I feel like I am on top of the world, someone comes along and sets a faster lap. It is very humbling and that drives me, I love a challenge, I love racing and I love talking to mates. What more could you want!?

We know that you have a loyal following of customers, what is it that keeps bringing people back to the Logitech G brand?

I consider myself extremely lucky to be in the position that I am with Logitech. Logitech is well known for their high quality products and innovation and Logitech G brings all that experience and passion to Gaming accessories. To be market leaders you need to live and breath your brand, products and most importantly, the community. That is the experience we bring to our consumers and it’s this level of loyalty that brings customers back.

The G29 is the highest selling wheel and pedal set in history, why do you think that is?

The G29 is the evolution of an amazing history of simulation products, specifically racing wheels. The Logitech Wingman Formula Force was the first product in Logitech’s history released over 20 years ago and it has evolved from there. Our proven reliability and affordability has served to become the market leader over this time. The G29 is often referred to as the best entry level steering wheel to get yourself into the world of simulation. In fact, there are many drivers out there performing better and beating those with setups ten times the price!

And looking to the future is there anything that Logitech G are planning in the short and long term?

TRUEFORCE is the next evolution in force feedback. TRUEFORCE provides higher fidelity feedback which allows you to feel everything you would in a real race car (engine vibrations, gear changes etc). It provides this much higher level of detail through a new algorithm that communicates directly to the games’ physics engine and utilising the games’ audio. It really is something that you need to experience for yourself, it’s difficult to go back to standard force feedback wheels after trying it!

Logitech G have been associated with teams in Sim Racing for a while, in particular the Evolution Racing Team which races in this series, how do you see that relationship?

Working with our esports teams is critical to our development of our products, not limited to racing wheels but our keyboards, mice and headsets also. We have very close relationships not only with the esports orgs but with the players also. As a pro player, our products are the tools of their trade and to perform the best they need the best. Having this close working relationship allows the players to have a direct line of communication with us and the development team to help us and the player to push the boundaries.

As the naming rights holder and main sponsor of the Logitech G Pro Invitational series, what benefits can you see for your company in having the naming rights, there are a lot of other series that are being run, so why the Logitech G Pro Invitational series in particular?

The obvious benefit is the brand being out on display and gaining visibility but that’s the formal response. The real answer is it’s Logitech G helping grow the community and eracing as a whole. Esports has been such a buzz word over the past few years and many endemic and non-endemic brands want to dabble in esports but very few actually stick around through the good times and the bad to continue to support the industry. The Pro Invitational series is the hard work of a fully committed community of motorsport and sim fans. I am so proud of what they have achieved and I cannot wait for the racing to start!

And finally, as a fan, what are you looking forward to most in the 2022 series?

I am looking forward to a series that follows the format and structure of traditional motorsports. From the pressure of qualifying to the build-up of the race with the commentators and the spectacle of the racing itself. At the end of the day, what matters most is the drivers, series admin and most importantly, the viewers all have a good time and enjoy the racing!

Thanks so much for your time, Dan. We are so grateful for your support of our new series and look forward to moving side by side into what should be a great series ahead.

Published on