Reviews

With Round 1 of The Gamesmen GTPro Invitational Series firmly in the rear view mirror, 39 of the region’s best GT3 teams descended upon Mount Fuji to stake their claim in Round 2.

Drivers were tested from start to finish with interchangeable conditions lurking early - a stark difference from the beaming Florida sun in Daytona last time out.

If you missed the action from Fuji, don't worry! Here’s what went down in Round 2 of 6 in The Gamesmen GTPRO Invitational series.

Car selection debate quickly stomped out in statement qualifying

The Acura NSX has been the apex predator in the GT3 category since its release on the iRacing platform, and while a power cut for this season did bring it back to some level of normality, it has continued to wreak havoc seemingly wherever it goes.

And while there was a moment of hope going into Fuji that cars like the McLaren 720S, Ford Mustang and even Ferrari 296’s could be brought into the mix; the looming weather threat and inevitable strength of the Acura reigned supreme.

By the halfway point of qualifying, Acuras occupied 9 of the top 10 positions, with only the Arete eSports Mustang spoiling the party in 10th.

However, being in a good car is only a fraction of what’s needed to come out on top in this field. Eclipse Simsports showcased their GT3 strengths once again with ominous pace in the early stages. At the halfway mark, the #56 held provisional pole by almost three tenths from the sister #17, with another two tenths back to the Vendaval Simracing #36.

Vermillion Esports would sneak four of their cars into the top 10 by the end of the session, with the #89 Acura leading the way in fourth position. Arete Simsports would climb their Ford Mustang further up the order, wheeling the only non-Acura in the top 10 to seventh place.

Synergy Sim Racing and Orbit Drop Bear rounded out the front running order in ninth and tenth respectively; while the Eclipse #56 only increased their pole position margin to 0.314 seconds.

Vendaval would come close to spoiling the Eclipse party, with their #36 Acura just 0.016 away from stealing a front-row start from the #17.

Acura dominated the time sheets in Qualifying

Green flag drops in Fuji

While the radar showed that rain was well and truly on the way, the track would be bone dry for the race start. That inspired brave moves and imminent chaos as drivers scrambled to make hay while the sun shined.

Eclipse Simsports would hold the fort down into Turn 1, planting the first seed required for making this three-hour run to the flag a little easier. Things would not be so smooth-sailing for Vendaval, who lost 2 places by the end of the first lap. It was Eclipse 1-2, Vermillion 3-4 with lap 1 said and done.

An incident down into Turn 6 left the Trans Tasman #22 with severe damage, with a handful of other cars also exiting that affair with minor dents and scratches. The #952 9INE5IVE Simsport Ferrari would also finish lap 1 with heavy damage, rejoining the racing surface missing its entire rear clip.

The Evolution Racing Team #31 would see their night come crashing down early, with Lachlan Caple finding himself pointing the wrong way out of Turn 6, then being handed a Drive-Thru Penalty for an ambitious dive on the opening lap. It was a crushing sequence of events for that entry, who were race winners last time out in Daytona.

Lap 1 Chaos at Turn 6

Colour on the weather radar!

For the first time this season, rain was officially on its way. Just 15 minutes into the race, the first patch of blue entered the frame, with the first drops set to hit the far side of the track at Turn 10 in a matter of minutes.

Arete eSports jumped at the chance to make positions before the rain arrived, passing the Vermillion #5 to move their #79 Mustang up into fourth place. Arete would jump to third not long after, with the Vermillion #89 forced to serve a slowdown after cutting Turn 3. Just behind, the battle for sixth continued between the Vermillion #228 and the Orbit Drop Bear #692.

As time passed, the radar revealed the incoming weather would only be one band of light rain. While at face value that makes strategy decisions easy; it was everything but.

With the rain arriving right on time for the first scheduled stops, the decision now wasn’t about wet tyres versus dry tyres; it was about whether to stay on the slicks you had or to put on a fresh set. While the extra temperature of your current boots would help as the rain passed through, it could mean ending the second stint with significantly more wear with the track only getting dryer.

The Arete Mustang was the first of the frontrunners to pit, coming in just after the 1-hour mark. The pitlane would roar to life in the following laps.

As rain began to fall the pressure was on teams to make the right call for tyres

Survival of the fittest in interwet conditions

The Vermillion #5 was the first car to spin on the cold tyre, with the high compression right hander of Turn 10 only getting more difficult as track grip diminished. The Synergy Sim Racing #033 would also find itself pointing the wrong way a few laps later at Turn 13.

The field was hard to read at this stage, with a number of cars achieving different levels of fuel save in the opening stint. Regardless of strategy, Eclipse had nothing to worry about, with the #56 and #17 leading comfortably as the race approached the halfway mark.

Aside from a handful of squabbles throughout the top 10, there was not much to note for the majority of the second stint, with most drivers wheeling through the tricky conditions without a hiccup.

But with just under an hour remaining, things got interesting when the Frog Leap Juicd Racing #397 found itself parked up at the far side of the circuit. While the car was parked quite a ways off the racing surface, it was deemed not close enough to an escape road to tow without safety car intervention.

Track conditions were perilous as the field persisted on Dry tyres

Lapped traffic trouble on safety car restart

While the Eclipse #56 piloted by Kody Deith was able to hold on to the lead through the safety car period, six lapped cars were situated between themselves and the Eclipse #17 in second place. That, along with a significant number of other lapped cars who were not cleared under pacing, spelled chaos on the restart with 45 minutes remaining.

By the time the #17 cleared the lapped traffic, the race leading #56 had already run 5 seconds up the road. Additionally, a number of fights that would have occurred inside the top 10 were disrupted by attempts to move through lapped cars.

Why were these lapped cars not cleared? The simple answer is that the rulebook says they are not a mandatory process, instead – they are done at the discretion of race control. The decision by the stewards not to conduct wave-arounds will be one that is hotly discussed in the coming weeks.

A battle that certainly hadn’t been put to an end was the battle for eighth. With the Arete #79 managing to build a gap ahead, Tyson Broad would be left without the help of slipstream. That left the Orbit Drop Bear driver with a lot on his plate with the Vermillion #5 and Synergy #14 following closely behind.

The Gamesmen BMW Safety Car made its first appearance for 2025

The run home

With half an hour to go, Seth Brown launched the Vermillion #5 machine down the inside of Broad at Turn 1 to pinch eighth place. That enabled Brown to go on the hunt for Wayne Bourke and Byron Pearce, who were losing time in their scrap for position.

With 25 minutes to go, Wayne Bourke forced his way past Pearce’s Arete Mustang to claim sixth place. A handful of laps later, the Vermillion onslaught continued when Seth Brown found his way past too. Tyson Broad dropped out of that fight a few laps prior, but wheeled his Orbit Drop Bear #692 back into the top 10 with 15 minutes remaining after passing the Tri Star Racing #999.

Desperation grew for the Arete Mustang, with Pearce spending the last 15 minutes of the race fending off a fearsome attack from the Synergy #14 Acura, piloted by Ewan Baker. That fight quite literally went to the finish line, with the two cars drag racing to the end. Despite the notable Mustang grunt, it was the #14 Acura who triumphed on this occasion. Stealing eighth place by just 0.011 seconds.

Damon Woods and Kody Deith flexed their muscles well and truly at Fuji, racing home to claim victory ahead of the sister #17, piloted by Zach Rattray-White. The Vermillion #228 rounded out the podium in third.

Behind them, the top 10 was completed by the Vendaval #36; Vermillion’s #101, #5, and #89; Synergy #14; Arete #79; and Orbit Drop Bear #692.

Eclipse Simsport proved too strong and claimed a decisive 1-2

Published on

by Harrison Lillas

The Gamesmen GT Pro Invitational Series descended upon the Daytona Road Course on Friday night, getting the season underway with a breed of racing like no other.

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.

The ERT Corvettes were strong in Qualifying

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.

Lap one chaos in the opening corners

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.

Pit lane gets busy a strategies start to play out

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.

A heart stopping moment as Gucul spins towards pit 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.

Published on

by Harrison Lillas