The iRacing V8 Supercars championship will go down to the final race with Mitchell McLeod taking a win at Mid Ohio, the penultimate race to 2011 Season 4.
Although not feeling overly confident heading into the event, McLeod held the advantage throughout by firstly setting the fastest time in qualifying to grab pole position.
“Qualifying was getting the better of me all night, right up until my last lap when I just nailed the last corner and got a sweet time out of it to start pole.”
Championship rival Madison Down had been just slightly off the pace and with a couple of fast Europeans joining the event Down started in 5th.
McLeod put previous bad starts behind him and reached turn one without being challenged, Englishman Laszlo Kotrocz also on the front row didn’t get a great start which was only made worse by running wide on the exit of turn one. This gave the race’s top spots to the top 3 championship contenders, Ren Broekman jumping up from 3rd followed by Down.
As the race moved towards the halfway point Stuart Wood had a moment through the off camber turn 8, sliding the back of the car slightly too wide onto the grass, spinning instantly, bumping the concrete wall and coming to a rest on the race line. Justin Ruggier was the first car to come over the creast but managed to do nothing more then scrape across the front of Wood’s front bumper.
Richard Hamstead got past Joshua Muggleton for 4th and 5th respectively, McLeod’s Tatts.com team mate Scott U’Ren was clashing with Development Series driver Scott McLaughlin.
U’Ren saying “Well, it’s disappointing that I struggle to have a clean race with Scott… it seems our driving styles clash with his late braking, dive to the apex and straighten up for the exit, while I take a more traditional and smooth aproach.”
McLaughlin replying, playing on the shared first names by mockingly repeating everything U’Ren had said but simply replacing his positions with U’Ren’s. Although some might see it as slightly juvenile, it was rather entertaining.
McLeod: “I had made a couple changes to the set up from race 1 and made the balance of the car so much easier to drive, so I had better pace as well as being more consistent as well. Ended up helping me slowly pull a gab over Rens and Madison, even once I had a 4 second gab I still got shivers down my spine when Madison got up in to second!”
Broekman was doing all he could to keep 2nd place but with the championship as close as it is, Down was never going to stop fighting for every point. It wasn’t until the back third of the race that Down was able to get a slightly better exit out of the turn 2 hairpin and get alongside Broekman down the back straight, completing the pass into turn 3 for 2nd.
Down saying “(I) knew I had to be committed and get the move done on Rens as soon as possible. But Rens was driving faultlessly and was not making a mistake anywhere.”
The closing laps were not enough for Down to make up the gap and McLeod went on to win the race with a comfortable gap to 2nd, Broekman finishing in 3rd.
Split two was won by Brad Ryan and the third split by Dylan Carroll.
Post race Madison Down was looking to next week’s final race saying “Crucial for me to get 2nd tonight and get a few more points on the board. Every point is going to count in this championship, awesome competition that’s for sure. The final round will be interesting to say the least, it’s all going to depend on who wins the round.”
McLeod not seeing it as close added “Overall, awesome night for myself and Tatts.com Racing! Just may be a round too late, from what I’ve worked out I need to score 257 points in the next race to equal Madison. Not looking good, but it aint over yet!”
The final race heads to Road Atlanta, where last season Broekman took the win but both Down and McLeod have also shared wins there. Current points lead for Down is 1911, 42 points ahead of McLeod.
Source: www.v8supercars.com.au