SimGrid’s Sprint Cup Season 4 would move to Australia for its mid-season race on an iconic track with a little bit of everything: Bathurst. The two previous races have shaken the field up with various elements causing moments of chaos and disarray. Read on to find out why Bathurst will be the first race of the season where the outcome finally came down to the drivers only.
A Tight Qualifying that saw some Surprises
The race in Bathurst promised to be one of the closest nights of racing of the season. The track’s long straights favour brute force cars like the Bentley or the only BMW in the field, driven by the SpacePace & BITO SimRacing.de team. Its narrow and unforgivingly tight turns of Mount Panorama are perfect for nimble cars like the Ferrari or Lamborghini. After various BoP changes, everyone was in a position to wrestle a good lap time out of qualifying. And they did.
As usual, the field’s pace was tightly matched. This time, 28 out of 34 cars set their fastest lap times within just one second from the pole setting team. But, to a great surprise, the #39 YAS HEAT – Microsoft team was found right at the outer edge on P27. Unfortunately, their worst qualifying result so far was topped with a 15-seconds penalty for unsafely rejoining the track after one of their qualifying pitstops, making it an evening to be forgotten soon.
In contrast, things seemed to come together for the SideMax Motorworks team finally. The #285 team has not yet finished within the top 10 this season, but Harry Spiers’ great qualifying lap guaranteed them a race start from the third position. However, their prospects for a podium finish were torn from the team when Spiers disconnected early into the race. He would soon rejoin on the track but had lost so much time that the team had no chance of competing – a highly unlucky outcome for this promising team.
Two Race Winners in a Class of Their Own deciding the Race between Themselves
The front row saw the two race winners of the previous races leading the field. When the lights turned green, Michael Tauscher driving for Random Pasta Bowl did not seem satisfied with his second position. On the outside of the very first turn, Hell Corner, he cheekily swept past the Griphax Engineering – BIOS Ferrari with Joonas Savolainen behind the wheel. With a perfect run onto the Mountain Straight, things seemed to be settled now.
However, in that same lap, Tauscher would briefly lose the rear of his Porsche on the opposite side of the track while meandering through the three-turn-sequence of The Chase. Savolainen then flew past the #992 Porsche and was back in the first position while Tauscher had to fend off Harry Spiers, who had cast an eye on the second position.
But the Random Pasta Bowl and Griphax Engineering teams were clearly setting the pace. Behind Tauscher, a gap soon emerged that grew bigger and bigger while the two front-runners led the field. It seemed as if Tauscher’s pace was better than Savolainen’s in front of him, but he would not try to make a move. When the pit window opened, the strategy of the Random Pasta Bowl team became obvious: They were going for the undercut. After pitting earlier than their rivals, Maciej Malinowski, now behind the wheel, pushed his #992 Porsche and its fresh tires to the hardest.
A few laps later, the tension rose to its highest as Griphax Engineering’s new driver, Jesse Kauppinen, would slowly exit the pit lane while a chasing Malinowski came round Hell Corner. As both cars were approaching the mountain, it came as a surprise that Malinowski was able to fly by that first positioned #11 Ferrari so easily. However, Griphax Engineering lost four seconds to their rivals in the tricky approach towards the pit lane by playing it safe.
This order remained to be unchallenged for the remaining half of the race. In the end, the Random Pasta Bowl team was able to finish the race with an unambiguous 13-second gap to Griphax Engineering.
An Exemplary Race Start opened the Stage for Incredibly Tight Racing
Judging by the front-runners’ determination to use the narrow 90° Hell Corner for an early and decisive attack, one might assume that the remaining 32 cars would feel encouraged to do the same. It came, therefore, as a welcome surprise to see the entire field making it through the cleanest race start in this season so far. Elbows were out as cars were going two or three wide through Griffin’s Bend, but everyone would eventually yield to the intimidating might of Mount Panorama.
However, everyone was waiting for their chance to get a good slipstream after exiting Forest’s Elbow, especially Yaroslav Shevyrtalov. Starting from 6th, the Simware.pro driver already had gained a position and was now after F3 driver Alex Smolyar. However, at the end of the 2km long Conrod Straight, he got his braking wrong and was on a steady course towards the rear of the #889 Aston Martin of the Race Field Team. After his evasive swerve to the inside, Shevyrtalov lost his car and would take Smolyar with him into the grass.
This played well into the hands of the UKOG47 team behind them. Their driver, George Boothby, passed both unlucky drivers and was now in the fourth position. Forty laps later, the #47 McLaren with Niels van de Koekelt behind the wheel saw a nerve-wrenching end to the race as a very quick Vaska Anufriev from the Dalking Community tried to close that one and a half second gap. But, in the end, the clean and consistent driving of the UKOG47 team rewarded them with their first podium of the season, and the #38 Dalking Community team could celebrate their highest finish of the season.
What the Podium Drivers had to say
Second-placed Griphax Engineering driver Joonas Savolainen described the race from his position: ”I knew [Michael Tauscher] didn’t have the power to pass us on the straights […] but I couldn’t get away from him at all. I think that they were constantly faster with the Porsche.” The dejection in his voice makes it no secret that the team was striving for more.
But the team has a clear idea of what they have to be working on to contest that premier position in the standings: “We are still struggling to get a safe setup for the Ferrari that we can both drive”, Joonas explains. “I like rear-happy cars but it was too much for Jesse. So, we need to come up with a solution.”
Third-placed UKOG47 gave insight into their strategy for the evening: “Our game plan was to just try to stay out of trouble”, a very good-humoured Niels van de Koekelt explained. So far, this is exactly what the #47 team has been doing all along.
Asked about one of the remaining three races, Niels shed some light on his aspirations: “I live five minutes from the track [Zandvoort]. I want to become the hometown hero.”
The Winner’s Confession
Random Pasta Bowl’s driver for the first stint, Michael Tauscher, explained why he consistently occupied the rear of the #11 Griphax Engineering car without making a move: “I messed up the tire pressures, so I suffered a bit of understeer. And I also had a lot of dirty air.”
Maciej Malinowski then explained why the latter was a problem: “We knew that our car is amazing in clean air. It was setup in that way because that was the only option to make the Porsche work in Bathurst. So, we had to go for high downforce.”
“Basically, our plan was to stay behind Joonas [Savolainen], get the slip stream and then undercut them.” With this brief sentence, Michael Tauscher summarised Random Pasta Bowl’s entire one and a half hour race.
On a side note, Maciej also briefly mentioned how they were preparing “just a tiny bit more than for the other races”. With two smashing victories in their pocket, one might expect that practice for Random Pasta Bowl starts right after the end of the race before. However, when Maciej confided that their preparation started just 2 hours before the race, he had some explaining to do: “It’s boring practicing all the time. Michael and I are both pretty adaptable. We can just jump into the car and both of us will make it work.”
Random Pasta Bowl may currently be at the top of the championship standings. However, victory will definitely not continue to come as effortlessly to the team. The cards are on the table now: The three podium finishers are currently facing each other on the top of the standings, with UKOG47 being just nine and Griphax Engineering only 15 points behind. Nevertheless, both teams have declared their intention to challenge Random Pasta Bowl. There is no doubt they will be putting more than two hours into their preparation for the continuing fight for the championship.
Join us for round four of SimGrid’s Sprint Cup Season 4 on Thursday 26th August, when the field will make its trip to the Eifel, where they will be battling it out on the iconic Nurburgring.
