Burcher, Payne and Collins share the spoils in Bathurst
Murray increases Championship lead in Porsche PAYCE & MICHELIN Virtual Cup
Following three thrilling iRacing rounds in Europe and the United States, the top Carrera Cup and Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge drivers turned their attention to the infamous Mount Panorama Circuit for round four of the Porsche PAYCE & Michelin Virtual Cup.
After amassing seven victories from nine races so far this virtual season, many wondered if Championship leader, Cooper Murray, would continue his winning form in Bathurst.
With both Jaxon Evans and Matt Campbell, sitting out this round after an arduous Virtual 24 Hour Le Mans schedule on the weekend – which saw the German sports car manufacturer claim victory in the GTE Class – Murray was a strong favourite to continue his winning streak.
But after the 20-minute qualifying session early on Monday evening, it was clear that the Melbourne resident’s steepest opposition in this round would be from rising young Formula Ford star, Cody Burcher, as well as New Zealand karting ace Matthew Payne – who had both challenged Murray on separate occasions already this season.
Payne and Burcher would proceed to lock-out the front row for Race 1, recording times more than 0.6 secs faster than Murray and his McElrea Racing teammate, Harri Jones.
There was also an impressive performance in the Pro-Am field by Ashley Seward Motorsport mechanic, Andrew Collins, who qualified in fifth overall on debut – over 1.2 seconds faster than his nearest class rival.
Race 1 would see the top five make a clean start before Burcher overtook the young Kiwi into Quarry corner on the opening lap. With Murray, Jones and Collins in close attendance, the top five cars quickly amassed a 4.5-sec gap over Ollie Shannon and Sam Brabham.
Jones would be the next to lose touch with the leading trio, after swerving to avoid a spinning backmarker. Collins meanwhile, had built-up a commanding lead in the Pro-Am battle over Matthew Belford, David Ryan and John Goodacre.
With five minutes remaining, Burcher and Payne were glued together with Murray just hanging on in third. Jones and Collins, by contrast, were having relatively lonely races, occupying fourth and fifth respectively.
The inevitable contact came between the two young guns in the dying laps though, when Payne nudged Burcher wide into turn two, and sportingly redressed straight away to stay in second position.
Burcher would succumb to the pressure moments later though, out braking himself into the pit straight on the final lap, dropping him to third behind Murray. This left Payne to take a well-earned victory, with the front pair, yet again, crossing the line with less than half a second between them.
Jones and Collins would retain their fourth and fifth positions over the line, while Marc Cini would post his best result of the season with second place in the Pro-Am class, ahead of both Belford and Goodacre.
Payne would make another clean start in Race 2 and take a defensive line to keep Murray behind him on the opening lap. Murray would out-brake himself into The Chase just laps later, dropping the Phase 8 driver down the order.
After gradually building a lead of 1.6secs over Burcher, it was then Payne’s turn to make a mistake from the lead dropping him to tenth position. In the remaining laps, he would recover to fourth with Burcher taking the race win ahead of Jones and Murray.
Collins would repeat his race 1 win ahead of Belford and Sergio Pires in the Pro-Am class, with Belford earning valuable points for his championship fight with Dean Cook.
Jones would make a poor start in Race 3, losing a position to Payne and tangling with Maxwell on the exit of Turn 1. Burcher unfazed by the carnage behind him quickly built a 1.2-second lead, while Payne would overtake Murray for second.
By the halfway mark, only 0.6 seconds split the top three, with Shannon a further 13 seconds back in fourth.
Unlike Collins, Pires and Zalloua had escaped the early carnage to lead the Pro-Am field from both Goodacre and Belford. But the quartet was gradually caught and passed by a recovering Collins in the dying laps of the race. Collins would go onto claim his third class win of the night in convincing fashion, coming home ahead of Goodacre, Pires and Belford.
At the front of the Mobil Pro field, Murray had lost touch with the front pair by the final laps. Burcher then pressured Payne into a mistake exiting The Chase.
This allowed Burcher to take the outside line and undercut Payne onto the pit straight. He would go onto hold this lead until the end of the race, followed home by Payne, Murray, Shannon and Josh Hunt.
All three races from Round 4 in Bathurst will be shown on both the @PorscheMotorsportAU Youtube channel and Facebook page at 20:00 (Melbourne time) on Friday evening.
Results: Round 4, Bathurst
Race 1
Mobil Pro
1. Matthew Payne
2. Cooper Murray
3. Cody Burcher
Pro-Am
1. Andrew Collins
2. Marc Cini
3. Matthew Belford
Race 2
Mobil Pro
1. Cody Burcher
2. Harri Jones
3. Cooper Murray
Pro-Am
1. Andrew Collins
2. Matthew Belford
3. Sergio Pires
Race 3
Mobil Pro
1. Cody Burcher
2. Matthew Payne
3. Cooper Murray
Pro-Am
1. Andrew Collins
2. John Goodacre
3. Sergio Pires
Sources: Angus Thompson/Porsche Cars Australia