WAU ace extends Eseries title lead

Joshua Rogers has extended his championship lead in the Gfinity Supercars Eseries with a dominant performance in the American leg of the season on Tuesday night.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver took victory in both Race 5 at Sonoma Raceway and Race 7 at Laguna Seca.

In between was a stunning drive to fourth from the back-row in the reverse grid heat at Watkins Glen International.

Rogers led home Race 6 victor Jake Burton and a fast-starting Madison Down at Laguna Seca to take his third win of the season, which he duly celebrated with a series of impressive burnouts.

“We got thrown a little bit of a spanner there with the [high] track temperature, so it was an interesting one to get used to,” Rogers said of the finale.

“I think we had about mid-40s or so, so it was all about trying to take it easy initially, kind of like you would in a real car I suppose, trying to really build up to it and gain the confidence over the run.

“But yeah all in all I can’t be any more pleased with the results tonight.

“The boys put in a lot of effort and hopefully the team enjoyed it.”

Rogers is now firmly in the box seat with an 82-point lead over nearest title rival and WAU teammate Jarrad Filsell.

Every driver’s worst two races will be wiped from their points tally after Round 4 in a fortnight: for Rogers, that remarkably is currently a sixth and a fourth, both in reverse grid starts.

“Consistency is the main focus in this championship,” he said.

“Obviously with the reverse grid races as well… it’s always important to make sure that you’re scoring good points in those races because those are the kind of ones where anything can happen.”

Burton was the biggest mover of the round, jumping from seventh to third in the standings with his fifth, first and second placings.

“It’s awesome to get a win under my belt in this series and funnily enough to do it at the same track and in the same sort of way as when I first won in a similar series last year, so really cool for the Dunlop team,” he said.

Burton was joined on the Watkins Glen podium by Ian Ford and Brady Meyers, while the first race of the night saw silverware fall the way of Rogers, Filsell and Down, in that order.

Red Bull Holden Racing Team competitor Dayne Warren lost out, dropping from third to sixth overall after a disastrous night.

Warren overcooked his run into pit entry at Sonoma and fired into the concrete walls, causing significant damage. He would finish that race in last position, nine laps down.

He could only manage seventh and eighth in the next two races.

The series next heads to mainland Europe for Races 8-10 on November 5 at the Nurburgring, Circuit Park Zandvoort and Circuit De La Sarthe.