Shane van Gisbergan leading the iRacing field at Okayama
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9:56 AM Tue 7 February, 2012
Source: BigPond Sport
Madison Down, now carrying the #1 after winning the last championship, found himself starting back in fourth with Mitchell McLeod beside him. Rens Broekman showed he was still hungry to claim a championship sitting on the front row along side van Gisbergen, on pole position with a 1:30.248 for the first race of the new season and new year.
The lights turned green and it seemed everyone got a great start where almost the entire front half of the field heavily defended into turn one as they all instantly fell to the inside of the track.
Broekman having to give room, switching to the outside as van Gisbergen dived for the inside of turn one, McLeod following van Gisbergen across the track, forcing Down to fall in behind.
Through turn 2 and 3 Broekman reclaimed his second spot while putting heavy pressure on the leader, Down sat in behind McLeod as Richard Hamstead searched for an opening hanging on the outside of Down.
Scott McLaughlin had an altercation into turn one and dropped to the rear of the field while Richard Lock miss judged turn 4 and slammed into the back of Dylan Gulson.
On the long back straight Broekman jumped to the right to get along side van Gisbergen but the race leader also went right and pushed Broekman towards the grass. Undeterred Broekman continued to put the pressure on the championship series driver while McLeod was at the same time looking for a pass on Broekman.
Down still fighting it out with Hamstead as the two swapped positions in the opening laps until Down eventually got passed and starting to close the gap on the leaders.
McLeod got alongside Broekman braking into turn 5 after the long back straight, hanging on the outside of the tight hairpin to have the inside on turn 6, managing to get passed and take 2nd. Broekman now unsettled through 6 was then open for Down to also take advantage and grab a podium spot, pushing Broekman down to 4th.
The field settled in and as the race headed towards the later stages McLeod was still hanging close to van Gisbergen but Down was now putting the same stress on McLeod.
Lap 22 of 25 and Down got a reasonable run out of turn 4 onto the back straight and into turn 5 made a huge lunge into the hair pin to get on the inside of McLeod. The two hitting wheels unsettled both cars but Down getting passed to grab 2nd.
Down saying after the race "Sorry to Mitch for the contact and capitalising on it but I didn't realise how dodgy it was until after the race."
From there van Gisbergen, undistracted by anyone around him was able to push ahead and build a big gap to take the win by just over seven seconds. Down finishing 2nd, McLeod 3rd while Rens Broekman and Richard Hamstead completed the top 5.
In the other splits Tony Autridge took the win in split 2, Paul Gallen in split 3 and Brad Smith taking a win in split 4.
[Full Results]
After the opening race of the season van Gisbergen leads the championship on 245 points, Down just behind on 232, McLeod 220 and Richard Hamstead on 207 while McLeod’s Tatts.com Racing team mate Scott U'Ren sits in the top 5.
Next race heads to Silverstone around the Grand Prix version of the circuit.
You can also join in the ‘iRacing V8 Supercars series presented by BigPond’ by simply joining iRacing, more details here.
