Ritchie Stanaway won last week’s opening round of the Cash Converters Supercars All Stars Eseries. This week, he returned as the New Zealand Wildcard in the hopes of claiming another victory. He took the win in round two of the Supercars Eseries, ahead of Brodie Kostecki and Cam Waters. Why does the Kiwi keep winning? Let’s take a look at the last two rounds.
Supercars All Star Eseries Round Two
Last week, Stanaway was lucky enough to capitalize on some final lap mistakes from the other drivers. Anton De Pasquale, who held the lead for most of the race, crashed out on the final lap. Chaz Mostert, Brodie Kostecki and Matt Chahda were also unlucky to crash out on the final lap. When it comes to racing, either in the physical world or online, small mistakes can mean the difference between crossing the finish line or not. Drivers practice for hours; learning the tracks, understanding which line to drive and how to handle the car around each corner. Even with the perfect lap, add other cars and other drivers into the mix and there can be carnage. That’s what happened in the opening round of the Eseries, ahead of this week’s race.
Ritchie Stanaway only claimed the win by 0.01 of a second. This is one of the narrowest victories seen on the virtual Pocono track. Behind Stanaway, was Brodie Kostecki, in the number 99 car. Only 0.04 behind Kostecki was Waters in the number 6. These top three drivers made a mad dash for the finish line on the closing lap. Kostecki was a little disappointed to lose after starting the race in first position. He was, however, very happy to cross the line after crashing out last week. “It was good clean racing to the finish […] it was a lot of fun!” Kostecki said in an official press release.
Sim racing Vs. the physical world
Both Brodie Kostecki and Cam Waters are favorites in the series. They, like Ritchie Stanaway, spend a lot more time on the virtual iRacing circuit than some of their fellow Supercars drivers. These younger guys find the transition between digital racing and physical world racing much easier. This is because they each spend a lot more time on both types of tracks. While sim racing has a close-to-real-life counterpart, the transition between the two platforms (physical and digital) is still one that needs to be managed.
In the physical world, these drivers must compete as a larger team. They have a pit crew, a team director and another driver to consider. The drivers need to manage the physical weather, along with the strain on the body. While these things are still felt in the digital world, it is not to the same extent. Each driver concentrates much more on their own driving rather than on any of the other elements. Instead of worrying about potentially crashing the car and doing real damage to themselves and their vehicle, they are more free to experiment with their driving.
On a negative note, the feedback from simulation racing is nothing like physical world driving. These younger drivers who keep claiming the Eseries titles have had more experience in this type of environment than the other Supercars drivers. Put all the drivers back into the physical world, and the results are very different.
One thing is clear, the Cash Converters Supercars Eseries gives the drivers the chance to compete and race against one another in this COVID-stricken world. Supercars fans are also enjoying the opportunity to watch and connect with their favourite Supercars drivers.
Cash Converters Supercars Pro Eseries
It was back-to-back victories in the Supercars Eseries this week. While Ritchie Stanaway claimed back to back in the Supercars All Stars Eseries, Dayne Warren claimed his second title in the Pro Eseries. He completed a pole to victory race and extended his lead in the Pro Eseries. Erebus Motorsport driver Jarrad Filsell came in second, with Brad Racing driver Jackson Souslin-Harlow behind them. These drivers are much more accustomed to sim racing, competing regularly on the iRacing circuit. Many of the Pros drive for various professional sim racing teams and some have even competed internationally.
You can watch all the action for both the All Stars and the Pro Eseries every Wednesday night, or in the early hours in the US, live on Fox Sports 506, Kayo, 7Plus, Sky NZ and Supercars’ social media channels, including Twitch.
