Hear from SVG, JDub, GT & CL as they recap their night at Circuit of the Americas 🇺🇸
“Overall, we had another really good night at Circuit of the Americas. It’s such a cool place to race at, and it’s a shame we don’t race there anymore in the Supercars. It’s nice to get another win on the board. Anton (de Pasquale) and I had another good battle in the last race. I went for a dive on the last lap and unfortunately clipped him again, but we had a fair lead from the rest of the pack, so we were able to redress. I’m really happy with my reverse grid race again too. We managed to finish ninth after starting from dead-last on a grid of 31 cars – no idea how I managed to dodge all the carnage from that race. Craig and Garth had a night to forget results wise, but it just shows how different sim racing is to the real deal. Having all four of us on the grid at the same time was pretty cool too. I was able to move into second in the Eseries championship which is good, and it’s going to be a tight battle heading into the last four rounds of the series.”
Shane Van Gisbergen
“It was a tough night for me in Texas, and unfortunately the results didn’t reflect the work I’ve been putting in over the last few weeks. Race 1 was definitely the pick of the bunch for me, as I managed to gain a few spots throughout the race to finish 14th. Unfortunately for Races 2 and 3, again I got caught up in the mid-pack carnage and that shows in my results. As you can tell from GT and Lowndesy’s results, it’s not an easy task to jump in a sim and be competitive – there’s so much more to it. Simulator racing is extremely technical and unfortunately there’s drivers who have 10+ years on me in this field. My aim is to keep getting my hours up and hopefully I can be more competitive when we return to America next Wednesday night. All in all, it was great to have four Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodores on the grid last night, and hopefully we can make it happen again before the end of the season.”
Jamie Whincup
“The Eseries is a lot harder than it looks. Everyone sits at home and criticises all the incidents and accidents but now sitting behind a steering wheel and being part of the action, it was damn hard. It was a lot of fun though, and it was nice to be on the grid again rubbing shoulders with all the names I’m very familiar with. I think knowing the layout of the track from previously racing at Circuit of the Americas was a handy help, but in saying that the sim work is a very different beast, although It’s something I’ve enjoyed getting my head around. The elevation up into turn one in real life is massive, but on a computer game you don’t get to feel that so all those little things come into play, but at the end of the day it was a lot of fun and I got to beat up some old mates. I’d love to come back and have another crack at Eseries racing. Although it was a lot of fun tonight, I think it’s my aim not to start future races from the front of the grid in a reverse grid race. The funniest part of the whole thing is all the chat the goes on between the drivers while they’re racing. In regard to my results, I think they speak for themselves – they were really bad and I was a lot better when we raced there in 2013. As I said, I’d like to come back and try to redeem myself.”
Craig Lowndes
“It was a tough night for my first Supercars Eseries experience. I knew we weren’t going to qualify well because I just wasn’t on the pace that I wanted prior to the event. I thought my race pace was going to be pretty good, which was the case in the first race. I started in 27th and managed to finish in 13th which was good, but the problem with that is you still have to fight your way through the field for the reverse grid. I got caught up in a lot of incidents on the first lap of Race 2 and was unfortunately put to the back due to the damage. I had a great battle with Jamie in that race, although I didn’t quite get the result I was looking for. I didn’t get a great start in the last race but managed to avoid the carnage through turn one, two and three, then someone had a moment, spun and then collected me which spun me out unfortunately. I think that seems to be the story of this Eseries, if you find yourself up the back, you’re likely to get caught up in a lot of carnage and last night was no exception. It was a frustrating night, but I really enjoyed the challenge and hopefully I can do it again before the end of the season.”
Garth Tander
Eseries Round 6 Results
Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Race 1 (COTA) – First
Race 2 (COTA, reverse grid) – Seventh
Race 3 (COTA) – Second
Jamie Whincup – Car #88
Race 1 (COTA) – 14th
Race 2 (COTA, reverse grid) – 28th
Race 3 (COTA) – 22nd
Craig Lowndes – Car #888
Race 1 (COTA) – 30th
Race 2 (COTA, reverse grid) – 24th
Race 3 (COTA) – 30th
Garth Tander – Car #42
Race 1 (COTA) – 13th
Race 2 (COTA, reverse grid) – 25th
Race 3 (COTA) – 21st
