Spa Delivers Thriller in Strategy Race for the Ages

Cold tyres brewed an abundance of Safety Car interventions, leading to several battles up and down the field, all rarely settling from lights out to the chequered flag. Even under Safety Car conditions, not everyone was safe...

Here is your race review from Round 3 of The Gamesmen GTPro Invitational Series at Spa!

Zach Rattray-White Takes Statement Pole for Eclipse Simsports

With car choices locked in since before the GT3 rebuild, drivers would be put to the test as they acclimatised to their cars new strengths and weaknesses.

Ford Mustangs and McLaren 720s Evo’s dominated the board in qualifying, taking up nine out of the top ten positions.

The one outlier to the onslaught up the front was Reece Gucul, charging his Evolution Racing Team #456 Acura on to the front row alongside Zach Rattray-White, who had claimed pole by over two tenths for Eclipse Simsports.

Behind Rattray-White, just over half a second would separate the field down to 13th, with only three tenths separating the top 10. His teammates, Byron Phillips and Damon Woods, would lock out the second row in third and fourth respectively.

Brenton Hobson would haul his Synergy Sim Racing #88 onto the third row of the grid, accompanied by Ryan Bettess of One Performance Racing in front, and Byron Pearce of Arete eSports behind – all in Ford Mustangs.

Dented Doors and Wonky Wings on Green Flag

Jamie Christison and Byron Phillips Led the way down into Turn 1, with Jon Piesnik forced to leave room for Damon Woods and Ryan Bettess on the inside. Woods would have a snap of oversteer on the exit of the infamous hairpin, but was luckily straightened out by Bettess before things got hairy.

Orbit Drop Bear’s Sam Blacklock would be involved in a similar incident, half-spinning across the front bumper of Ewan Baker before being straightened by the same car moments later. Both cars emerged unscathed in that affair.

Dylan Shephard would not make it to Les Combe before the OPR #43’s afternoon concluded, overcorrecting at the top of Raidillon before slamming into the barrier on the right side of the circuit. The force of the impact was so severe that Shephard bounced all the way back across the track, ending up in the grass on the opposite side. Somehow, no other cars were involved.

Just down the road at the exit of Malmedy, a major incident toward the back of the field left several cars with missing panels and bent steering.

Safety Car Makes First Appearance of the Night

Dylan Shephard could only limp his Ford Mustang as far as No-Name before coming to a halt. With no reasonable escape road nearby, Race Control issued the first Safety Car of the afternoon. Less than a full racing lap had been completed.

With the Safety Car deployed so early, there was no strategic benefit to pitting — the running order remained largely unchanged, aside from those diving in to repair significant damage.

Cold tyres would catch out two front running cars on the restart, with Jon Piesnik in the ERT #456 and Brenton Hobson in the SSR #88 both spinning out on the run through Pouhon. While Piesnik would find his car sideways in the tyre wall off to the right of the racing surface, Hobson would meet the concrete on the left. Both cars would be left with damage that put them out of effective contention.

With a moment of green flag running beginning to sort the pecking order, the lead pack of Christison, Phillips, Pearce and Woods started to bridge a gap to the rest of the field. A fierce battle on the fringe of the top 10 including Ewan Baker, Sam Blacklock and Lachlan Caple would only extend the growing gaps further.

Nasty Incidents Foreshadow Second Safety Car

Just over half an hour remained in the first stint when Madison Down and Josh Purwien went side-by-side through Blanchimont before making contact and spearing into the barriers at frightening speed. Incredibly, both cars were able to continue despite the damage.

But the GTPro Series field wasn’t safe just yet. Moments after Down and Purwien’s incident, the Summit Sim Sports #55 driven by Jaxon Reihana came to a standstill at Pouhon. When that car was deemed to be in an unsafe position by Race Control, the Safety Car was summoned once again.

This is where strategy gets interesting. While the majority of the top 10 opted to stay out, the Orbit Drop Bear #862 was the first car to box. This would extend the second stint to around the halfway point of the race, providing half a tank of fuel offset to those who chose to stay out for track position. The #862 would emerge in 16th – a net position loss of only seven places.

Nightmare Afternoon Continues for Summit Sim Sports

When the cameras panned to the SSS #25 Ferrari parked up in the gravel without a rear clip, you couldn’t help but feel another Safety Car was imminent. Surely enough, the field was under full course yellow for the third time in less than an hour.

Teams that had not pitted under the previous Safety Car period were now forced to pit. Sam Blacklock would take the lead for the Orbit Drop Bear #862 car, followed by Wayne Bourke in the Vermillion #89 who chose to stay out. Damon Woods would emerge as the leading car for Eclipse in sixth, who had been occupying the top three places for the bulk of the race thus far.

The race would go green for two laps before being plunged back into a full course yellow. When the Vermillion #89 peeled into the lane, the Antic Motorsports #994 piloted by Reece Wakefield claimed second place on the same fuel strategy as the leader.

Damon Woods would launch the Eclipse #56 back into the lead with an hour and 40 minutes remaining, with his teammate Zach Rattray-White in the #17 trailing closely behind.

Blanchimont Claims Another Soul

When the Vermillion #5 McLaren driven by Tao Soerono went firing into the barrier just prior to the halfway point of the race, the race was back to yellow flag running – the Safety Car’s work day continues!

Sam Blacklock would take the opportunity to hand over duties to Harrison Lillas in the #862, with the fuel load on the alternate strategy covering the driver swap time. Damon Woods, Zach Rattray-White and Jobe Stewart would lead the way on the green flag.

Jobe Stewart would come under threat from Vendaval Simracing’s Alexander Bird, who sweeped into third in a scrap that disconnected the pair from the leading Eclipse McLarens.

With an hour remaining, some moves would happen inside the top 10 with Marino Morella pitting for Arete eSports, followed by Matthew P. Johnson for Momentum Motorsport. One lap after, the two leading Eclipse cars would pit with a comfortable time margin they had built in that same stint. These would be scheduled stops that would allow these cars to go to the end.

Hearts would drop when Tom Freer was seen crawling along in a severely damaged Acura NSX; but that car was cleverly limped to an escape road off the racing surface to avoid Safety Car intervention.

What on Earth!?

Adam Jepson wouldn’t be as lucky as Freer in his search of an escape road when his AMG was left with severe damage in the Gravel at Stavelot. Buckle up, the field has been bunched together with 30 minutes remaining.

At this stage, Harrison Lillas was leading the way in the #862, but would likely lose track position to the Eclipse #17 and #56 when he stopped for his last splash of fuel.

But in the most dramatic sequence of events in The Gamesmen GTPro Series so far, the Eclipse stable was thrown into pandemonium. As Kody Deith and Zach Rattray-White rounded the first corner, they would make contact, spinning Deith around on the exit. As Rattray-White waited for his teammate to correct himself, Harrison Lillas exited the lane in the lead of the race.

While Deith and Rattray-White were able to claim the lead over Lillas on the first lap, the #17 of Rattray-White was handed a Drive Through Penalty for causing the collision under Safety Car conditions.

At the entry to the Bus Stop Chicane on the first lap of the restart, Alexander Bird had a look down the inside of the #862 to no avail. When Bird went to accelerate out, he would lose traction in front of Byron Pearce. With no time for Pearce to react, Bird was spun around and was forced to wait for the bulk of the field to pass by.

One More Time

Matt Arnold of Tri Star Racing would find himself backwards and missing a rear clip at the exit of Malmedy with 20 minutes remaining, bringing out the final safety car of the night.

With Rattray-White forced into the lane to serve his penalty to avoid an iRacing disqualification, the order up the front was now Woods, Lillas, Phillips, Pearce and Grigg-Gault. Phillips would be holding on to a 15-second penalty from a previous incident, but would fight to protect the leading Eclipse car now piloted by Kody Deith.

Phillips would pass Lillas at the Bus Stop Chicane with 12 minutes remaining, with Pearce capitalising on the opportunity to follow through at Turn 1 on the following lap to take effective second place.

Bitter-Sweet Victory for Eclipse as Woods and Deith Triumph Chaos

Despite crossing the line to claim a second consecutive victory for Eclipse Simsports in The Gamesmen GTPro Invitational Series, joy would not be the word to describe the face of Damon Woods on this occasion.

It was an impressive victory for the stable, who continue to display pace that is difficult to match across all three of their entries; but disappointment riddled the post race interviews.

“ZRW (Zach Rattray-White) made a mistake, yeah I get that,” said Woods.

“The decision from Race Control to give him a penalty is a bit ridiculous in my opinion.

“I think it’s just ruined the entire race, really. Despite the fact we straight-up had the pace on everyone.”

The Arete eSports #79 would come home second, followed by the Orbit Drop Bear #862 in third.

The Gamesmen GTPro Invitational Series continues onto Le Mans for Round 4 on August 22nd.