As the Trueforce Endurance Cup roars to life at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, better known as Interlagos, excitement builds for a thrilling season opener. The first round, a 500km race over 117 laps, features two drivers per car, setting the stage for intense endurance racing.

As driver pairings continue to be announced, the grid already sees a blend of returning co-drivers and fresh faces. Notably, some drivers are on loan from other teams, adding unpredictability. Rumours of a wildcard entry are circulating, but details remain unconfirmed.

Among the standout teams, Lobs Esports fields a formidable lineup for the 94 car with Jarrad Filsell and defending Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki. This duo's combined prowess is highly anticipated.

Lobs Esports also fields James Scott and Ryan Wood. Wood, who competes in the real-life Supercars series, joins Scott, the defending Bathurst 1000 winner and 2023 season runner-up, forming a powerhouse team.

Lobs Esports enter the enduro cup with good momentum

Trans Tasman Racing pairs reigning champion Madison Down with young talent Rehan Liyanage. Down’s track record and Liyanage’s emerging skill create an intriguing dynamic with huge amounts of pressure on the rising star who holds the fate of the defending champ in his hands.

Also notably for TTR Jake Moloney will line up alongside Corey Shepherd who has an impeccable track record in the series while young gun Ethan Warren will be alongside Brady Meyers.

Synergy Sim Racing’s 097 entry features Fawzan El-Nabi and Harley Haber. Despite recent clashes that have affected Fawzan’s true potential on the track, El-Nabi’s partnership with Haber, last year’s Sandown 500 co-winner, promises a strong performance.

Another Synergy Sim Racing pair, Tom Freer and Jamie Stovold, have raced together in every series enduro race since 2022. Their consistent and good results make them a dark horse in the overall for the Trueforce Enduro Cup.

Freer and Stovold will pair up for the third straight year

Other teams in the field will also have some noteworthy combinations. 9INE5IVE Simsports will see Bradley Rattew pairing up with Ric Kuznetsov who currently sits 3rd in the championship standings. 

Evolution Racing Team will also have high expectations. They have Ethan Grigg-Gault paired up with veteran Brad Ryan while Rayner Costello will bring his pace and experience to drive with Matthew Bowler.

Vermillion Esports will also be hoping that their first enduro campaign will be strong for young stars Zach Rattray-White and Jacob O'Reilly with Seth Brown and Ben Faulkner alongside them respectively.

Strategy will be crucial, particularly in deciding whether to start with the co-driver or the main driver. This choice can impact the race outcome, especially when racing against main game drivers. Timing of driver changes, pit stops, and managing tire wear and fuel consumption will be critical.

Safety car strategies will also play a pivotal role. Teams must be prepared to capitalize on safety car interventions to secure a safer run to the finish, especially concerning fuel management.

The Trueforce Endurance Cup promises a season full of high-octane action and dramatic twists. Interlagos is just the beginning, with many thrilling chapters yet to unfold.

Thune in this Friday Night when all the action kicks off at Interlagos where qualifying is set to take place from 7:00pm AEST.

Trueforce Endurance Cup Schedule:

• Interlagos 500: Friday, August 9
• Sandown 500: Friday, August 30
• Bathurst 1000: Sunday, September 22

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Round 7 of the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series took place at Monza on Wednesday night. It was a critical night for the championship contenders to consolidate their position in the title fight heading into the upcoming endurance cup.

Round 7 of the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series took place at Monza on Wednesday night. It was a critical night for the championship contenders to consolidate their position in the title fight heading into the upcoming endurance cup.

As predicted, the high-speed layout with a large draft dependency played a pivotal role in qualifying, where drivers had to position themselves with the right gap to the car in front to maximise straight-line speed whilst also not impeding their lap at the final couple of corners. Dylan Rudd stood up at the end of qualifying, showing everyone he will fight for this championship by taking pole position, ahead of his Lobs eSports teammates, Scott and Filsell. 

Ric Kuznetsov put his 9ine 5ive Simsports Commodore on the second row, ahead of Gardiner (Lobs eSports) and Ethan Grigg-Gault of ERT who earned a 10 second in-race penalty for impeding SSR’s Jobe Stewart at the end of qualifying. Dylan O’Shea, Andrew Gilliam, Luke Rosella and the first TTR car of Madison Down rounded out the top 10. Meyers (16th) and Burton (19th) confirmed TTR’s struggles in qualifying, a long way from where we expect to see TTR cars. Another notable qualifying result was P30 for Blake Worboys, the seventh placed man in the championship looked uncomfortable all night. 

A spin in Qualifying and a 10 second penalty for Ethan Grigg-Gault

As the race kicked off, it was shockingly clean at turn 1, no notable drama as everyone was able to navigate the first lap without major incident. At the front, Rudd took control, followed by teammates, Scott and Filsell who all looked to be ticking off the laps, with no driver at the pointy end in a mood to fight too early. Kuznetsov dropped to 5th, whilst ERT’s Ethan Grigg-Gault was in the mix just ahead. Further back, Meyers was making moves, as was Jobe Stewart, making their way to the back of the top 10. As the race settled into a rhythm, the top 20 cars all ran nose to tail, in a giant train for the entirety of the first stint. 

At around lap 15, Scott and Filsell took the lead in a coordinated change with Rudd to enable all team cars to benefit from a bit of fuel saving prior to the first round of stops. As the first stops played out, it was SSR duo of Wayne Bourke and Jobe Stewart who assumed the race lead from ERT’s Grigg-Gault. The front three drivers electing to short fill and attempt to split off into their own pack ahead of the main group. Filsell, the first of the Lobs cars ran down the front three cars as the front pack began to fight. As the race settled down at lap 30, the order in the front pack was Bourke, Stewart, Filsell,  Grigg-Gault, Scott, Kuznetsov, Ross, Meyers and then a gap back to Gilliam, Rudd, Down, O’Shea and Rosella. 

A remarkably clean start to the race

As the final round of pit stops took place, it was Scott who assumed the lead, ahead of Ethan Grigg-Gault and Filsell who had a small margin to Gardiner, Rudd, Down and Rosella. The action began to kick off with 10 to go, Grigg-Gault signalled his intent to win the race. The ERT driver still had a 10-second in-race penalty hanging over his head, which he did not take in either stop, and it is unclear whether James Scott was aware of this as Scott, who was tight on fuel fought hard to retain the lead. 

Further back in the top 10, Rivera tagged the back of Jobe Stewart at the second chicane, sending Jobe into the wall, whilst Bourke and Gilliam got together on the exit of the first chicane, sending Bourke into the wall, both incidents ruining SSR’s chances of a great result, whilst both Gilliam and Marcello Rivera copping penalties. Rivera now earning enough licence points to be suspended from the first endurance race at Interlagos on August 9th, a huge blow for ERT. 

Contact from the ERT #21 saw Jobe Stewart in the fence

Meanwhile, at the front the battle for line honours was heating up, Ethan fighting against two Lobs cars, and sometimes three as Gardiner joined the battle briefly. Ethan was able to get up the inside of Scott at Ascari, James had not left the inside open at all until now, but the two made side to side contact in the middle of Ascari, bringing Filsell back into the battle and able to push the #088 of Scott down the next straight back into the lead, Lobs were showing how much of an advantage it is to have two cars in the battle.  

Coming down to the Parabolica on the penultimate lap, Scott would make a small mistake by running slightly wide, enough to let Ethan Grigg-Gault get to the inside for the run down to the first chicane on the final lap. This is where it all went wrong, on the entry to the first chicane, neither driver was willing to give any space which resulted in Scott clipping the ERT car on the switchback in the chicane, spinning Grigg-Gault and taking him out of contention. 

Both Scott and Filsell saved fuel heavily on the last lap to make it to the line for a form finish. However, shortly after the finish, the stewards handed down a penalty to Scott, handing the win to Filsell. After the 10 second penalty was also applied to Grigg-Gault who crossed the line in 4th, it was a Lobs eSports 1 (Filsell), 2 (Gardiner), 3 (Rudd), 4 (Scott) and 5 (Rosella). A huge result for the team and Filsell had taken the championship lead off Rudd, but Dylan continues to collect healthy points and is a favourite alongside Filsell, Scott and Kuznetsov to battle it out for championship glory.  

Filsell lead home a dominating 1-5 finish for Lobs Esports

Was it a race where Scott should have let Ethan Grigg-Gault lead him home, knowing he had a post-race penalty still to be applied, or did James not know? Either way, Scott will be ruing this result as one that got away as he looked to be the strongest on the night. Further back from the top five, Meyers (TTR), O’Shea (9ine 5ive), Anderson (TTR) and Burton (TTR) rounded out the top 10. 
 
Other notable results include a storming drive from Tom Freer, 29th to 13th in the race, Whilst Rattray-White started from the very back after a last round penalty and came home in 18th without incident, a mature drive from the vermillion star. Adam Briggs also did a great job to recover from a late race tangle with Gilliam, spinning the SSR driver and then brining it home in 12th. Madison Down also had a late race tangle and came home in 19th, a night he’d like to forget, whilst Worboys also struggled to make an impact all night, slipping from 7th to 10th in the points. 
 
As we look towards the endurance races now, where another 45 drivers will be introduced into the mix, anything can happen. Some big names such as Joshua Anderson, Luke Rosella and Jobe Stewart all sit on the outside of the top 20 in the championship and will be looking to the double point races to propel themselves back up the table. 
 
Tune in on August 9th for round 8 of the Logitech G Pro Invitational series for the first Endurance race of 2024. It will be action packed. 

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As teams and drivers prepare for this Wednesday night's Round 7 of the Logitech G Pro Invitational Series, the championship picture is starting to take shape. Attention turns to endurance racing at the commencement of the Monza round, so it is vital for the championship contenders to have a solid bag of points to keep them in the fight!

Lobs eSports driver Dylan Rudd continues to lead the way, still with his nose in front at the midway point of the season, however it is the charge from teammates Jarrad Filsell and James Scott where Dylan’s challenge is likely to come from. Only four points separates the two contenders, whilst returning 9ine 5ive star, Ric Kuznetsov has maintained a steady approach, always featuring towards the front and collecting points.

Trans Tasman Racing has had a tumultuous first half of the season, scoring a win at Phillip Island for Round 2, and showing race-winning pace at Watkins Glen and Road America, but also having lacklustre and inconsistent results scattered amongst the team as a whole. So whilst defending champion Madison Down still sits within striking distance of the championship lead, TTR will be wanting to show they are back to their best at Monza before we begin endurance season.

Can Dylan Rudd fight off the charge from his teammates Filsell and Scott

The last time we visited Monza in Italy, it was round four of the inaugural series in 2022, and it was Jarrad Filsell who dominated proceedings. At the time, Jarrad who was driving for SSR led a team 1-2 and Synergy was very strong, featuring heavily in the top 15. Back in 2022, it was also the start of the “low wing” era of the current supercar.

Prior to this round back in 2022, most teams were stuck with the traditional mindset amongst the paddock that full wing had too much of an edge at every track, but it was this round over two years ago that kicked off the development path for the entire field to experiment with low downforce setups.

It will be incredibly interesting to see which team has evolved their “low downforce car” into the class of the field this time around. Will SSR still have the edge? Will TTR get back to their lofty standards and show the way? Have 9ine 5ive or ERT nailed their preparation this time around? Or will Lobs eSport maintain their advantage on the field?

48 laps is a long way at Monza, with the dependency on draft and pack racing to play a large part in the outcome, many strategies will converge at the end of a compulsory two stop race to reveal who has played their cards right.

Jarrad Filsell lead the way for a SSR 1-2 at the last visit to Monza

What to look for:

• Look for smart operators sitting at the back of a large group of cars saving a lot of fuel to vault them up the field at the final pit stop
• Look for teammates trying to run “line a stern” to prevent other drivers racing them and breaking up the draft train
• Look for gaps in the train early in the race and if that pack can catch back up to the train in front
• Look for the over-cut strategy to work well, easy passing opportunities and the ability to save fuel and tyres will mean drivers want to be on better tyres at the end of the race
• Look for the corner cut penalties at three critical areas around the track - Look for carnage at turn 1

Formguide:

It’s hard to look past Lobs eSports at the moment, but our interest will be to see if Blake Worboys can continue his incredible start to the season, driving the single WK&P Mustang, Blake currently sits 7th on the points, showing up much larger and more fancied teams and drivers.

Brady Meyers has been quiet lately, but we are expecting Meyers and Burton to lead a TTR resurgence. TTR don’t stay quiet for long!

Griffin Gardiner scored pole position in his first outing for Lobs eSports, showing up his bigger name teammates, he will be eager to finish what he started at Road America.

Ethan Grigg-Gault is knocking on the door of his first victory, if he can get his pitstops right, he should be in the mix, whilst Marcello Rivera is pushing forward for ERT.

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Entering the 2024 pro series season, Vermillion looked to have made steps forward, bolstering their driver lineup to include Jacob O'Reilly and Zach Rattray-White, alongside long time Vermillion driver Connor Nixon.

Although they were fielding three competitive drivers, whispers were starting to be heard amongst the pro series paddock that Vermillion are about to make some big moves. Driver movement is unusual in the early part of a season, but with the collapse of Altus, Vermillion had secured almost the entire Altus lineup. It was a bombshell announcement at the time, with Vermillion immediately having one of the strongest driver lineups in the field.

It didn’t take long for Vermillion Motorsport to benefit from this strengthened lineup, securing a podium and featuring heavily at the pointy end of the early championship standings with Andrew Gilliam and Ric Kuznetsov. Rattray-White was also showing an improvement in pace and results with the arrival of some of the pro series biggest names at Vermillion. Jack Doohan’s brand became the new naming rights sponsors of the frontrunners, and the talk continued to come out of the team that they are on the fast track to success.

During this time, Vermillion Motorsports worked closely with Lobs eSports behind the scenes, in practice sessions and test sessions, forging an informal alliance of sorts, something team manager Ben Faulkner credits for their uptick in performance

“Regarding Lobs Esports, historically we have had a great relationship with them, they helped us massively with preparation for Pro Series races to date, which we were, and still are thankful for. We also got along with them well off the track outside of racing”

Seemingly out of the blue, and without any warning DoohanOK put a halt on their sponsorship deal with Vermillion Motorsports, Faulkner explains;

“At the beginning of June, DoohanOK contacted us and asked us to pause the sponsorship to reassess the relationship moving forward, which we were more than happy to comply with, given our positive relationship with Jack, and fast growth. It was a week or two later that we found out that Lobs had taken up DoohanOK as a sponsor. We can’t be certain regarding the circumstances of DoohanOK leaving us for Lobs, so we won’t make any accusations. Needless to say, we were pretty shocked, and feel like we were blindsided by the situation.”

The sponsorship shirt was only part of the story with some of their top stars leaving, Gilliam to Lobs eSport and Ric Kuznetsov back to 9ine 5ive.

Six months is a long time in Motorsport, and it has been a huge roller coaster ride for Vermillion Motorsports. Through it all, two stars are starting to emerge from the original squad, O'Reilly and Rattray-White are beginning to feature heavily at the pointy end, cementing Vermillion's long-term goal of being a championship contender. Rattray-white in particular is starting to lead this team back from a tumultuous time, back to the front with no shortcuts, a driver Vermillion Motorsports can build around.

Tune in to Round 7 at Monza on July 24th to see Vermillion in action, with their new “in your face” livery!
 

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