Erebus Academy’s Jobe Stewart showed impressive pace during last night’s Eseries as the category returned to oval racing at the Fan’s Choice Michigan International Speedway.
Pro Series Sprint Race
Having qualified on the third row for the Pro Series sprint race, Jobe was feeling confident and got a great jump off the line making it as high as P3 by end of lap 2.
Continually finding himself in the middle row of a three-wide pack, Jobe was able to find gaps amongst the group as he looked for a draft from the race leaders.
Jobe’s race looked promising as he ran within the top five but unfortunately an unavoidable collision with Cooper Webster on lap 10 saw a pile up of cars, resulting in Jobe limping to the finish line in P17.
Combined Feature Race
With his previous race result dictating his grid position, Jobe started the second race of the evening at the back of the pack in P33.
Amongst the chaos of the opening lap, Jobe was involved in a heavy shunt that saw him airborne and forced into the pits for repairs after copping significant damage.
While the majority of the field came into the pits on lap 14 for fresh tyres, Jobe continued to work his way back through the field, having picked up his compulsory set of tyres on the opening lap.
With the safety car deployed on lap 21, Jobe was waved through to find himself back on the lead lap where he worked hard to run as high as P12 three laps later.
Narrowly avoiding a multi car pile up on lap 25, Jobe continued to find gaps and was able to cross the line 14 positions higher than he started in P19.
Jobe Stewart said: “I was feeling quite good heading into the first race after qualifying. I knew anywhere in the top 10 or 15 around an oval, you’d be on the money if you can race well because everyone just stays in the draft and it’s a huge pack so anywhere in the top 10 I would have been happy with. The sprint race was going pretty well until those final laps, there was a bit of a pile up that I couldn’t avoid. I was still feeling alright heading into the combined race, I knew I was going to be starting at the back but I also knew that with such a large field there would probably be some big crashes again. It was definitely a chaotic grid combining the All Stars and Pro Series categories. Oval racing is super fun but overall I’m still pretty disappointed, especially after qualifying, I really expected a few top tens.”
The Eseries returns to normal programming next week with the drivers heading to Phillip Island, August 10.