Mixed bag of winners in North American leg of Supercars Eseries

Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and New York’s Watkins Glen International played host to round four of the Supercars Eseries, going to four races in the round for the first time in the championship so far.

Though qualifying for both outings saw the experienced sim racing pair of Anton de Pasquale and Shane van Gisbergen start from pole across the opening races at each track, inevitable incidents meant unexpected winners came to the fore.

An American touch highlighted the wildcards for the round with Team Penske NASCAR driver Joey Logano and Andretti Autosport Indycar pilot Alexander Rossi joining the grid, as well as Super2 entrant Angelo Mouzouris and two-time Supercars champion/twice NASCAR Cup Series race winner Marcos Ambrose.

With the fast guys at the front for the opening race of the night, de Pasquale was quickest off the line in Canada to lead into Turn 1 aboard the Erebus Motorsport car but it was van Gisbergen who led out of turn two, sneaking the Triple Eight Commodore past as Scott McLaughlin parked his DJR Team Penske Mustang in third.

The usual opening lap stacks meant the top three were able to streak away from the rest of the pack and engage in their own battle, van Gisbergen taking his pit stop first on lap five with McLaughlin shadowing his strategy on the next lap.

Going slightly longer in the first stint, de Pasquale was the last to pit and lost ground, coming out behind the NEw Zealanders but the trio kept within touching distance of each other heading into the last few laps.

As the final lap started, McLaughlin had a look at van Gisbergen at Turn 1 but couldn’t make the move stick, giving him a tap on the rear bumper at the second corner which helped him take the lead. Being given a call from officials to hand the place back, McLaughlin had to let de Pasquale past too, making the final order van Gisbergen, de Pasquale then McLaughlin on the last step of the podium.

After a shocking run in the first race of the night, Logano found himself on pole for race two with Brad Jones Racing’s Jack Smith alongside. A comedy of errors was triggered when both made mistakes on their launches from the line, leaving nearly every car in the pack with damage after the first lap.

Somehow Fabian Coulthard got his DJR Team Penske car through the carnage, as did Chaz Mostert who sat second in the Walkinshaw Andretti United entry as the safety car came out, allowing some of the field to take their compulsory pit stops.

After the restart and around the halfway mark of the race, both van Gisbergen and McLaughlin found themselves effectively out of contention after separate incidents while de Pasquale was struck by the ailing Smith, ending his strong run for the day.

With Coulthard yet to pit, Mostert had the effective race lead and grabbed it officially when the Mustang headed in for his stop, allowing the WAU driver to comfortably take his first Eseries win ahead of former Tickford Racing team-mate Cam Waters and Matt Stone Racing’s Zane Goddard.

Moving on to Watkins Glen, the scene of Ambrose’s two NASCAR wins which made him the only Australian to win in the American series, it was van Gisbergen who had snagged pole earlier in the night ahead of de Pasquale, McLaughlin again shadowing the pair on the second row.

As the race got underway, van Gisbergen bogged down the #97 and dropped a handful of spots, leaving de Pasquale to take the lead with McLaughlin in hot pursuit. After taking some time to get himself into a groove and drive away from Kelly Racing’s Andre Heimgartner, van Gisbergen started to work his way back to the front from sixth.

Once pit stops were over and done with, it was still de Pasquale who held a slim lead over McLaughlin as the pair were able to extend a margin over van Gisbergen who had fought back to third place. The order remained unchanged until the end where Lee Holdsworth took a surprising fourth place for Tickford ahead of the WAU cars, driven by Bryce Fullwood and Mostert.

The night’s final 14 lap sprint saw Smith start on pole, getting off the line slowly as the Team Sydney car of Chris Pither passed him on the inside, not seeing Goddard taking the lead on the outside and spinning the MSR entry at the opening turn, setting off a chain reaction.

Will Davison spun the 23Red Racing Mustang hard into the Turn 1 wall, bouncing back on the track causing the 20 odd cars behind him to take evasive action to varying degrees of success. The upshot of the crash was that anyone not involved was able to keep fighting on another day and it was the night’s protagonists in McLaughlin and van Gisbergen who benefitted the most.

A Triple Eight one-two headed up the field with Jamie Whincup leading after taking his first Eseries top ten result earlier in the night, fighting ahead of Mouzouris in the team’s effective third car. Rossi was able to sneak himself in to third, bringing his experience as a wildcard in last year’s Bathurst 1000 to the virtual world.

Whincup handed over the lead to Mouzouris lap seven, the 18-year-old staying out until the tenth lap to take his only stop for the race but coming back on track well out of position as the seven-time champion took control of the field.

The gaps between the lead pair and the rest of the field settled as Ambrose held down third, having to fight off Waters and McLaughlin but losing spots to the new generation of Ford heroes. McLaughlin got himself up to third while Ambrose slipped back to sixth as van Gisbergen got past him.

Mouzouris’ good run came to an end as he was spun by the #20 Team 18 car of Scott Pye at Turn 1, dropping him out of the top ten as his team-mate van Gisbergen took the fastest lap of the race en route to fighting his way up to fourth at the finish.

Holding on for his first Eseries win, Whincup crossed the line first with Rossi and McLaughlin closely behind, all enjoying a healthy gap over van Gisbergen and Waters to complete the top five as Ambrose gained nearly ten places to end up sixth.

With the North American leg over for the time being, next it’s off to the land of forrests with European tracks Spa-Francorchamps and the Nurburgring Grand Prix Circuit being the venue for round five. It will mark the first time an Australian V8 has turned laps in anger around the hallowed Spa circuit since 1987 when legendary drivers like Allan Moffat and Peter Brock took on the 24 Hour race in Holden Commodores.