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5dollarpromo_160x600 Main Performance PC Lionel Skip Barber Racing School Derek Speare Designs Dream Racing ROAR One Lap of America

September 2012

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The Team

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  • David Phillips
    Editor and Chief
    David Phillips is a long-time contributor to print and electronic publications in the U.S. and abroad, including Racer, Autosport, AutoWeek, Motor Sport and SPEEDtv.com, oversees the daily updating of news stories and assigns, edits and contributes feature material for inRacingNews.com.
  • Chris Hall
    iRacing.com Series Writer
    Chris Hall has been writing since the nineties and moved into motorsports reporting in 2005, covering series such as ALMS, British GT, FIA GT, Le Mans and 2CV racing for Full Throttle magazine, Motorsport.com, The-Paddock.net, GTGateway.com, L' Endurance and, of course, inRacingNews. During 2008 and 2009, he worked with the RSS Performance Porsche Carrera Cup Team (and former British GT(C) champions) as a data engineer for a variety of drivers and models of 997s.
  • Jameson Spies
    Contributing Writer
    19 years old, Jameson Spies lives in Quartz Hill, California. He grew-up surrounded by racing. His mother raced late models throughout Southern California while his father built and setup the car. Not surprisingly, Jameson began racing go-karts at the age of 13, and is now racing Spec Trucks at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He has a passion about all forms of racing and hopes to make a career out of it.
  • Jason Lofing
    iRacing.com Series Writer
    Jason is 21 years old and was born and raised in Elk Grove. California. A big time NASCAR fan, he hasn’t missed a race on Sunday in years. Lofing is also a huge San Fransisco Giants fan and tries to take in at least a couple games a year. Other than sim racing, his biggest (and far more expensive!) hobby is photography. Although he is rather new to sim racing, Lofing has already accomplished some pretty impressive results, qualifying for the 2011 iRacing Oval Pro Series in Season 1, 2011, winning the inaugural Landon Cassill Qualifying Challenge and finishing runner-up in the second one.
  • David Ifeguni
    Contributing Writer
    I was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1988 and moved to Midland, Michigan when I was two years old. I stayed there until third grade when I moved to Farmington Hills, Michigan and now I currently live in Naperville, IL where I'm attending Metea Valley High School as a 9th grader. In the past, I have participated in soccer and this year I plan on joining swimming or water polo. My family includes my 15 year old sister, a 7 year old sister and my mom and dad. I have been writing since 6th grade and have participated in many writing contests in my school and have received several awards for writing.
    My fascination for motorsports began when I was nine. The first NASCAR race I watched on TV was the 2009 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway, won by Kasey Kahne. My favorite NASCAR drivers are Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Jimmie Johnson. I have watched all the races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series since 2010. I currently have three wins on iRacing, two of them in the Nationwide car at Daytona and one in the Street stocks at Charlotte. My favorite car and type of track on iRacing is the Nationwide Series (B Class) car and superspeedways.
  • Katier Scott
    Contributing Writer
    I am a veteran sim racer who first started racing way back in 1993 on the SPRTSIMS section of Compuserve with a league who can trace themselves all the way to the present. Within that league I act as Chief Steward and try to bring the unique viewpoint that this experience gives me into my articles.
    I have a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Editorial design and have been writing for seven years and currently cover the Lotus 79 CTC and Radical series alongside my freelance work. Living in the UK, as well as motorsports I love Photography, Arts and Crafts and reading.
  • Dylan Sharman
    Contributing Writer
    I was born in Adelaide and we moved-out for Angle Vale for a few years until I was about 7 years old, when we moved to the Barossa Valley where I live now. I'm 19 years old and currently traveling back and forth weekly as I'm studying for a Diploma of Furniture Design and Technology.

    I've always had a love for racing as my close family did some racing and we were always out at the local dirt track. I joined iRacing back in 2010 and slowly but surely got the hang of it as this is my first experience with sim racing and am loving it each time I race. I've won two SK Modified titles (almost had three in a row but finished P2 in 2011 S4), an inRacingNews Challenge championship (2012 S1 Mazda) and was also an AustralAsian Intel GT Series Finalist.
  • Nathan Aljoe
    Contributing Writer
    Nathan's passion for motorsport first began in the late 1980s, captivated by the season in which Aryton Senna won his first F1 title with McLaren. Over the years his interest widened to include the British Touring Car Championship, World Rally Championship, NASCAR and various other forms of motorsport. Nathan began sim-racing in the mid 1990s using games developed by Papyrus. He later moved onto SimBim simulations such as GTR, GTR2 and GTR Evolution and has most recently joined the iRacing community.

    When he's not working or sim racing, Nathan enjoys spending time and relaxing with his family. Other hobbies include going to festivals, tinkering with his car and doing up his house.
  • Austin Hartenfels
    Contributing Writer
    Born and raised in Fredericksburg, Virginia, I have always had a serious passion for cars and motorsports. Hoping one day to become an automotive journalist for a magazine, I constantly crave the exciting competition that comes along with racing and sim-racing. Having participated in a mere test session in a Legends car at Old Dominion Speedway, I have not been able to get into any real-life competition . . . yet.

    As a sim racer, my interests date back to "GTR Evolution." My goal is to have fun and win some races. I made it to Oval Pro in 2010, but did not become very successful. I enjoy any mixed road racing competition and love racing the Silverados around almost any track.
  • Jordan Hightower
    Contributing Writer
    Jordan began sim-racing in 2005 with the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season sim and then joined the iRacing community in June of 2008. He hails from Fort Smith, Arkansas where he is currently enrolled at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, after which he plans to attend the University of Arkansas to earn his MBA. Although he enjoys watching and playing basketball, most of Jordan's focus is on motorsports, particularly NASCAR: "Anything that burns gas and goes fast, I like."
  • Scott Kelly
    Contributing Writer
    Born and raised in the greater St. Louis, Missouri area, Scott Kelly has had a love for motorsports ever since his father did the right thing by introducing auto racing into his life. No longer able to quench his need for speed by spectating NASCAR races on TV and watching dirt track stars slide around local tracks, Kelly eventually picked-up sim racing in his teens, wheeling cars found in Ratbag Games' "Dirt Track Racing" and "World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars" while also becoming introduced into multiple Papyrus sim-racing series. Joining the iRacing ranks in late 2011, Kelly set his sights on the short track racing he was familiar with, focusing on the sprint car, while also driving the Legends and street stock in multiple iRacing.com leagues.

    Kelly brings not just his enthusiasm for racing to the highest-rated motorsports simulation, but also his B.A. degree in English; he covers the action seen in the iRacing.com Sprint Car Series, while also placing the spotlight on various leagues within the service. Enjoying his start to a career in motorsports journalism, Kelly also doesn't mind visiting victory lane from time-to-time.
  • Kenneth O'Keefe
    Contributing Writer
    Kenneth was born in Smithville, Ontario on December 23, 1994. A major racing fan, he enjoys competitive kart racing in the Rotax Max category at Mosport International Karting. Kenneth also tunes into Formula One and NASCAR races on those Sundays when he is not at the kart track.

    O'Keefe has been sim-racing since 2005, starting on the Live For Speed simulator. After moving to iRacing in 2008, he was able to qualify for the NASCAR iRacing Pro Series (NiPS) in both 2011 and 2012. He will continue to compete and write about the iRacing.com Skip Barber Series throughout the coming year before taking another run at the NiPS in late 2013.
  • Chris Owens
    Contributing Writer
    I was born in Florence, South Carolina in 1989 and have lived here my entire life. I've been around racing since I was a young kid watching with my dad on Sundays. In 2009 and found my local track, Florence Motor Speedway and started working for them as a PR guy the same year. At the end of that season, I started writing for RACE22.com, a Late Model Stock Car news site. In 2010, I picked up my first DSLR camera and started shooting races. To this day, I've experienced some of the best races from behind the camera.

    I've been with the iRacing service since its public beta in 2008, back when the top oval car was the Late Model. I've been in over 500 races on the service with 70+ wins on both oval and road. My favorite car on the service is the Chevrolet Silverado. Darlington Raceway and Concord Speedway are my favorite tracks simply because everybody hates them.
  • George Wood
    Contributing Writer
    After beginning his racing career with go-karts at age seven, George then turned wrenches on street stocks until he could finally turn the wheel. Following the successes of his friends and family, George has since retired from real-world racing, where he is now a science and mathematics faculty member for several local community colleges. When George isn't grading laboratory reports or iRacing, he is performing at bluegrass festivals in the Northeast, making fishing lures, playing golf, and rooting for his beloved Baltimore Orioles.

Logano to switch to Penske

September 4th, 2012

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Logano to switch to Penske

Joey Logano will drive for Penske in the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and beyond, the team announced on Tuesday. Logano, a two-time winner in Cup and currently in his fourth full season in NASCAR’s elite, is losing his current Joe Gibbs Racing seat to 2003 champion Matt Kenseth next season.

Kenseth to join Joe Gibbs from 2013

September 4th, 2012

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Kenseth to join Joe Gibbs from 2013

Matt Kenseth will race for Joe Gibbs Racing from 2013, the NASCAR Sprint Cup outfit announced on Tuesday. The 40-year-old will replace Joey Logano in the #20 Toyota. Kenseth announced in June that he would leave Roush Fenway Racing , stating at the time that he had already signed a deal for next season

Hamilton ‘already forgotten’ Spa woes

September 4th, 2012

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Hamilton ‘already forgotten’ Spa woes

Lewis Hamilton says he has already put his Spa-Francorchamps woes behind him and is fully focussed on the Italian Grand Prix. The Briton courted controversy when he released team telemetry data on twitter in what was later labelled “an error of judgement.” On-track his weekend was similarly downbeat as he qualified seventh – almost one second behind team-mate Jenson Button – and then retired in the first corner melee for which Romain Grosjean was subsequently handed a one-race ban . Hamilton said one virtue of back-to-back weekends was that he was able to instantly forget such troubles and could instead re-focus his energy on his 2012 championship bid.

Coletti and Coloni part ways

September 4th, 2012

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Coletti and Coloni part ways

Stefano Coletti has left Scuderia Coloni on the eve of the penultimate GP2 round of the season at Monza.

Ford tests 2013 Falcon

September 4th, 2012

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Ford tests 2013 Falcon

Ford’s all-new Car of the Future, around which its V8 Supercar programme will be based from 2013, had its shakedown at Winton on Tuesday. Ford Performance Racing driver Mark Winterbottom completed a 16-lap shakedown run in the definitive version of the Falcon COTF

Lotus confirms d’Ambrosio for Monza

September 4th, 2012

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Lotus confirms d’Ambrosio for Monza

Lotus has confirmed that its reserve driver Jerome d’Ambrosio will take Romain Grosjean’s seat for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. Grosjean was given a one-race ban for causing the Belgian GP startline crash.

McLaren: Form can continue at Monza

September 4th, 2012

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McLaren: Form can continue at Monza

McLaren sees no reason why its recent run of good form will not continue at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. Updates to the MP4-27 have helped Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button win the last two races, and the outfit is upbeat that its pace-setting speed should keep it ahead for now.

Mercedes: Set-up could explain slump

September 4th, 2012

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Mercedes: Set-up could explain slump

Mercedes is investigating whether a wrong set-up direction with its W03 is to blame for its recent drop of form.

Hughson, Velkov Lead inRacingNews Challenge Through First Third of Season

September 4th, 2012

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iRNChallenge-logo

What a difference removing a class has made from this season of the inRacingNews Challenge. In the past, through four weeks, the eventual champion has usually found a way to establish himself and begin building a major lead; this time around, both the Mazda MX-5 Roadsters and Pontiac Solstices have five drivers within 100 points of the championship leader. In Mazda, that name is one of the most legendary in series history: Chris Hughson. With 509 points, 71 wins, and 64 poles in 78 starts, Hughson is his usual dominant self in the class. (He’s also 27th in overall Solstice points running limited races, with six wins and seven poles in nine starts.) But that doesn’t mean Hughson is running away with Mazda by any means. Christoph Schon ranks second [...]

Elomaa and McCracken Tame the Phoenix Mile

by Jeff Yeager on September 4th, 2012

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Aleksi

First let me open with an apology to those who expected the column last week.  I was unable to do a write up for the Indianapolis round because I was on vacation.  I checked to see if our hotel had iRacing installed, but to my surprise the staff had never even heard of it.  What?! 21 drivers set out to attack the Phoenix International Speedway on Monday night.  A new face found his way into victory lane as Aleksi Elomaa won in his first start of the season. In spite of not being particularly happy with his qualifying effort, Elomaa was confident with his race car. “I had a good car for this week, and knew coming to the race I could win the race if everything went just right.  [...]

Edwards not giving up on Chase spot

September 4th, 2012

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Edwards not giving up on Chase spot

Carl Edwards says he has not given up on securing a place in this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase despite a costly engine failure at Atlanta on Sunday . The Roush Fenway driver was runner-up in the 2011 title race, only losing out to Tony Stewart on a tie-break. But Edwards has yet to win a race this year, and dropped to 14th in the drivers’ standings when he retired at Atlanta

Ocean hails safety after Spa crashes

September 4th, 2012

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Ocean hails safety after Spa crashes

Ocean Racing Technology boss Tiago Monteiro praised the safety standards of the latest GP2 and GP3 cars following the high-speed accidents involving his cars at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend. Ocean GP2 driver Nigel Melker and GP3 man Robert Cregan escaped without broken bones in large accidents at the Pouhon and Raidillon corners. Both are set to compete in their respective championships at Monza this weekend

Italy preview quotes: HRT

September 4th, 2012

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Pedro de la Rosa: “Making it to 100 grands prix is something very special and I’m very motivated ahead of Italy, not only because of the 100 mark, but because I’m certain that we can be even more competitive. Monza is a similar circuit to Canada, where maximum speed and brake stability are important; and these are our strengths. I love consecutive races because I like continuity and, besides, Monza is one of my favourite circuits because it’s very different to the rest.

Gordon realistic over Chase hopes

September 4th, 2012

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Gordon realistic over Chase hopes

Jeff Gordon admits getting into this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase now looks like a tall order. The four-time champion’s hopes depend on him beating Kyle Busch this weekend at Richmond – where the Joe Gibbs driver is a specialist

Top F1 teams face entry fee hike

September 4th, 2012

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Top F1 teams face entry fee hike

Formula 1′s frontrunning teams could face a dramatic increase in entry fees for next year’s championship if plans being considered by the FIA come off. As part of the ongoing negotiations between the teams, Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA to frame a new Concorde Agreement for 2013 , talks have edged towards agreeing potential income that the governing body would like to receive from F1 entrants and the sport’s commercial rights holder

Ferrari ‘must forget Spa frustration’

September 4th, 2012

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Ferrari ‘must forget Spa frustration’

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says his team must not carry the frustration of Fernando Alonso’s non-finish in Belgium into this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. Alonso had his first retirement of the year at Spa, after being caught up in a multi-car accident that was triggered when Romain Grosjean moved across on Lewis Hamilton at the start.

Lotus still sure Raikkonen can win title

September 4th, 2012

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Lotus still sure Raikkonen can win title

Lotus boss Eric Boullier believes that his team is still in the hunt for the 2012 Formula 1 world championship , despite Kimi Raikkonen’s failure to fight for victory in the Belgian Grand Prix . Raikkonen had gone into the Spa weekend as many people’s favourite for the win , but his set-up choices left him unable to pose a serious threat to race victor Jenson Button and he could only finish third . Nevertheless, Boullier maintains his faith in Lotus’s potential, and is sure a good end to the campaign could still result in Raikkonen becoming world champion.