MARLON MCMULLEN
Marlon McMullen is a name which has raced in the online Sim Racing world competitively for the last x6 years. With his wealth of experience, Marlon has tried to establish himself as one of Australia's most prominent drivers in the online V8 Supercar series.
With years of success under his belt coming from winning multiple rFactor championships (x3 Australian Titles - Adrenalin Factor, RSM, xFactor). Marlon came into the Iracing scene looking for a new competitive challenge against some of Australia's most talented online racers.
McMullen joined Iracing back in S3 2012, then following a 6 month hiatus he jumped back into the car as a privateer. Knowing that this was a hard task, Marlon accepted an offer from Ryan Day to join Powerbond Racing and since then he has earn his way up the ranks to become a success story in the Iracing scene winning the V8sonline America's title twice and being able to run within the top 5 consistently on Sim Racing's most coveted night, Monday night's V8sonline Iracing V8 Supercar Series. In his first season out of running 19 races, he had 8 top 5's!
With nearly x400 races worth of experience on Iracing, Marlon has managed to win nearly 100 events, he has had over 220 top 5's and he has also claimed over 70 pole positions. With an Irating of over 6000, Marlon currently sits in Australia as one of the nation's top 30 ranked drivers and currently just sits shy of the 100 best drivers in the world, Irating wise.
Although Marlon is a very different person "off" the track, when it comes to racing you'll need to wake up very early in the morning to try and beat someone as determined and motivated as Marlon. Often being referred to as "Merlin the Magician', Marlon has established himself as a very fast, smart driver with a unique driving style where he is often able to adapt and change to suit different conditions throughout a race. With his love of tinkering around with cars in real life just as much as online, Marlon has been able to demonstrate that he can construct a setup on whatever car to ensure that it suits him. If he can't ever figure out a setup, he'll drive the car by the scruff of the neck around the problem.
McMullen has had a notoriously successful strike rate on street track circuits and technical circuits over the past due to his high level of point to point accuracy in his steering. But when it comes to the more fast flowing tracks, these are his Achilles heel. Over the years McMullen has developed a driving style based off Craig Lowndes, where he is able to take corners shallower than other drivers, which usually means that he carries more entry speed into a corner. With this famous trait of his, he has been renowned in the series for being one of the best "passers".
Once Marlon gets the slightest sense of a chance to pass, he'll ensure that he doesn't waste his opportunity. With some smart positioning of his car McMullen will usually wait for an opportunity to present itself, but if it doesn't then he will make that opportunity happen. How he does this is by putting maximum pressure on his other competitors, usually forcing them into a slight mistake which Marlon pounces on. And once Marlon capitalises on that chance, he'll ensure that he doesn't make the same mistake.
He has always had the dream and envision that one day he could utilise Iracing to improve his racing and one day establish himself as a driver who professionally races for real, a kid's got to dream right? Although he never has had the opportunity to race for real, he has shown a great degree of natural talent on track. He will be attending a V8Race experience at Sandown in late 2014, where he will be driving a de-tuned V8 Supercar flat out for x6 laps which will all be recorded. Marlon has stated that if he loves the experience, he will try and pursue after a real racing career.
