Evolution Racing Team Clinch Opener in Daytona

With a grid stacked with talent from both Australia and New Zealand, high-stakes racing was guaranteed - and it certainly delivered.

If you couldn’t make it to watch all three hours of racing action, you’re in luck!

Here is the first race review of The Gamesmen GT Pro Invitational Series

Get a tow … or down you go!

All of the talk was around slipstream on the leadup to Daytona. Much like Daytona's legendary oval, the road course demands a slipstream partner to unlock peak lap times.

Qualifying was no exception to that concept, with a number of teams pairing together in an effort to - quite literally - push themselves up the order.

Hayden Veld was the first driver to break into the 1:42’s to put his ERT Corvette on provisional pole early on. That was until Jobe Stewart clocked a 1:42.926 to pip his ERT teammate by just 0.025s.

The field tossed and turned as drivers found fractions of improvement through the infield and more prolonged help on the straights. With three minutes to go, Corvettes took up the top three spots, followed by three Acuras and four McLarens to round out the top 10. Just half a second separated the top 18 at this stage.

Jobe Stewart reigned supreme in qualifying when he improved his time in the dying stages, extending the gap back to his teammate to a tenth of a second. Veld was able to hold on to his position to secure an ERT front row.

The remainder of the top 10, which was separated by just 0.233s, included Dylan Birse, Zach Rattray-White, Jon Piesnik, Byron Phillips, Joshua Anderson, Mathew Dench, Stuart Ellis and Lewis Greathead.

And so it begins!

When the safety car peeled into the lane, all eyes rested on Jobe Stewart as he gained control of the field. When his right foot hit the deck, the season would officially be underway.

44 cars funnelled their way into Turn 1 with relative ease, but patience was already being tested in the kinks of Turns 2 and 3. Two wide barely works when there is clear track on either side of the affair. When drivers come into the corner three wide on a race start, something has to give; once someone backs off to let another in, they start a checkup of monstrous proportions.

When the One Performance Racing Team #43 of Tom Seath checked up, Wayne Bourke looked to the inside for free space. That space disappeared in an instant, sending both cars spearing into the inside wall at Turn 2. Madison Down was also caught up in that accident, picking up nasty damage but managing to drive away without losing too much initial time.

Bourke’s night worsened when he received a drive-through penalty for going straight on at the kink of Turn 4, collecting Adam Jepson in the process.

Zach Rattray-White spoiled the ERT party when he moved up into the lead on lap 6, passing both of the leading Corvettes into Turn 1. Dylan Birse and Byron Phillips broke the ERT pairing up even further, launching their Eclipse Simsports machines down through the same section a lap after Rattray-White.

Top four break away as strategies begin to take shape

Squabbles on the fringe of the top 5 caused a clear separation from the leaders; that left Jon Piesnik, Matthew Bowler, Mathew Dench and Stuart Ellis in their own pack from fifth to eighth.

Similar battlepacks began to form on the now 45-minute run to the first pit stops of the afternoon.

The challenge now for spotters and drivers was deciding how to tackle the intake of fuel at the stop. They could split the stints and reduce the time of the stops, but that could leave you alone without anyone to push them along. Drivers in groups behind could under-fuel to catch a pack ahead, but what if that pack also under-fuels?

Rattray-White and Caple pitted first from the lead, which was promptly followed by most of the field. A group within the top 10 entered the lane four wide in their desperation to make ground. Driver changes and split fuel strategies threw a spanner in the mix, jumbling the order significantly with two hours to go.

Dean Mackay from Tri Star Racing got loose out of Turn 2, spearing across onto the grassy infield after overcorrecting a violent snap. Mackay couldn’t stop that McLaren in time, eventually spearing into Tyson Broad’s Acura head-on at Turn 3. It was a tough night from then onwards for both cars, who respectfully decided to continue despite significant damage.

Driver swaps cause shake-ups in the top 10

With the first stops done, a new chapter of the race began to unfold.

Dylan Birse trailed Jamie Christison’s Vermillion McLaren, which was previously piloted by Rattray-White. When the lead back began to drop back to the group behind, Birse decided to pass Christison into Turn 1 for yet another lead change.

Birse, Christison and Veld broke away from Jobe Stewart throughout the second hour of racing to chop the lead pack of cars from four to three.

Stewart, Anderson, Cowie and Piesnik formed the next battlepack, which slowly deteriorated with slow downs at the bus stop chicane shaking things up. Harrison Lillas fell off the back of that group early in the stint with a costly mistake at the chicane. Lillas would spend the remainder of the hour trying to hold on to 8th place as Jacob O’Reilly and Samuel Sproull reeled him in at speed.

Strategy rabbit hole deepens

With a bit over an hour to go, the pit lane roared into life once again. This wouldn’t be the last stop, but it would be the last of the big ones.

Much like the first pit stop, decisions would have to be made. Do you underfuel to catch groups ahead, split the remaining stops down the middle, or fill it up now and splash in nothing at the end?

Josh Anderson sped in pitlane, leaving him with a 40 second penalty that rendered him out of contention.

Hayden Veld biding his time behind the leaders paid dividends for the ERT #31, who found themselves in the lead of the race after the second batch of stops was complete. Birse and Stewart would quickly reel him in as they slipstreamed together without fighting.

Now in a sandwich of ERT Corvettes, Birse attempted to move into the race lead at Turn 1 with less than an hour to go. That would only play against Birse when he was left on the outside of Veld into Turn 3, allowing Stewart to slip past into 2nd place by the time they got to the hairpin of Turn 5. The two teammates would then form a gap to Birse in a matter of laps, leaving the Eclipse driver with no slipstream support.

Heaven’s gates open for Veld and Caple

With 40 minutes to go, Jobe Stewart peeled into the lane for the final pit stop alone. An interesting call where most expected the ERT pairing to stay together with slipstream in the lead. That of course left Veld in the lead, with a nice buffer back to Birse who boxed the lap after.

Veld would not box for another ten minutes, but would emerge with a comfortable effective lead and fresher tyres than anyone in race winning contention.

When Mathew Dench and Jacob O’Reilly bump-drafted their way up to Reece Gucul, the most jaw dropping incident of the night would take place. Just before the pit entry, Gucul would make a quick jolt down to the inside after maintaining his line in the middle from the bus stop chicane.

Gucul spun across the nose of Dench at over 250kph, firing his Corvette across the pit entry line and onto the grass. While the incident was deemed as NFA by Race Control, Gucul would have to serve a penalty for unsafe entry.

Dench would only lose one spot in that ordeal, but later exceeded the incident limit to land him a drive-through penalty. That car would still finish inside the top 10.

Jobe Stewart would have an issue with his monitor, gradually veering left before slamming into the fence at high speed just before the pit entry. It was game over for Car #7 after the better part of three hours. Thankfully, Stewarts efforts to wheel that car back to the lane meant a Safety Car was not called.

It was doom and gloom on one side of the Evolution Racing Team garage, but complete bliss on the other. Race victory was now imminent for Hayden Veld and Lachlan Caple.

With a dominant 7.7-second lead, the duo took the checkered flag and etched their names into the history books.They had won the opening round of The Gamesmen GT Pro Invitational Series. Christison and Deith rounded out the podium for Vermillion and Eclipse respectively.