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5dollarpromo_160x600 Simcraft

February 2012

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M T W T F S S
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iRacing TV

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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.
  • Ray Bryden
    Technical contributor
    Ray grew up in Nova Scotia, which means he’s a hockey nut, but in Nova Scotia’s two non-winter months he had to find other diversions, which meant watching F1 racing on weekends with his dad and brothers. Without the resources to get started in racing, he gravitated to computer versions of racing – first Atari games like Pole Position, followed by PC racing games like Indianapolis 500: The Simulation. Dozens of others came and went, until Grand Prix Legends came along and he decided sim-racing was his official hobby. Years were spent enjoying this both offline and online until a few years of fatherhood took priority. When free-time reappeared he heard about iRacing and signed up in 2008 and became so involved in the service that he wrote one of the first books on the subject of sim-racing, iRacing Paddock. When not writing for inRacingNews.com, his main occupation is as a research associate with Saint-Gobain working on advanced ceramic materials.
  • Patrick Atherton
    Contributing Writer
    Patrick Atherton, originally from Adelaide in the state of South Australia, currently resides just outside of Melbourne, Victoria with wife of 17 years and 3 kids. A business manager by profession, but also dabbles with blogging, cartooning and fine art, having been published both as a writer in a short-lived South Australian motorsport yearbook and later as a cartoonist in a niche trade magazine. At the age of 19 he competed in club circuit events in an Austin Healey Sprite, later indulging in sprint karts between 1994 and 2000. Following the move to the State of Victoria he raced Road Race Karts (“Superkarts” as they are known in Australia) in the popular Rotax class, competing at Phillip Island, Oran Park, Mallala, Wakefield Park, Eastern Creek, Calder Park, Sandown and Winton. It was during this time he met former Australian F2 champion and inventor of Australia’s first, and most prolific race simulator rig, Jon Crooke. This culminated in an introduction to Papyrus’ legendary NR2003 simulation, and the subsequent sim racing addiction which brought him to iRacing.
  • Tim Terry
    Contributing Writer
    Tim Terry, aka the voice of Maritime stock car racing, fell in love with sim racing in 2004 after he joined the Sim Racing Network crew as a pit reporter. From October 2004 to SRNtv’s closure in June 2007, he’s covered prestigious races and leagues such as the Online 500, FLM Fall 400, Real Racing Online and the DMP Racing League – each as the lead broadcaster for the company. At the same time the wheels started to turn in another direction as he began announcing stock car racing locally. Terry became the assistant announcer at Scotia Speedworld in May 2007 and took over full duties in May 2009 when long-time voice Mike Kaplan retired from the track. Terry also became the series voice of the Parts For Trucks Pro Stock Tour in ’09 and continues to hold down both posts in 2011. He has also announced races for the Pro All Stars Series, Atlantic Open Wheel and Maritime League of Legends tours and has called races at six different Atlantic Canadian tracks. Terry can be heard online at WebRacingNetwork.com, RLMtv.com and OLRtv.com covering sim races. He also makes occasional appearances on PSRtv.com. In addition to inRacingNews, his articles and columns can be read on ScotiaSpeedworld.ca, MaritimeProStockTour.com and his own website at timterryonline.com.
  • David Allen
    Contributing Writer
    North Carolina born and raised with over 15 years of computer/IT experience, I combine two of my biggest hobbies -- racing and technology -- here at inRacingNews. In my spare time I run a Nascar fan site and cure my own need for speed riding atvs. If it involves technology or racing I'll be there, but combine the two and I'll be looking a front row seat. Stop by and say hello anytime!
  • Allen Krier
    Contributing Writer
    Allen was born in West Palm Beach, Florida but grew up in Atlanta and attended Georgia College and State University where he received a BS in Information Systems. Currently a resident of Albany, GA, he started sim racing in 2008 while in college when iRacing was first released to the public. Since then, Krier has been a two time iRacing Pro Series driver (2009 and 2010), picking up one Pro Series win at Daytona in ‘09. Besides sim racing, Allen’s other hobbies include RC Car racing as well as “attending and watching any sporting event that I can including going to the local dirt track.

Watkins Glen eyes IndyCar return

December 27th, 2011

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Watkins Glen eyes IndyCar return

Watkins Glen track officials have confirmed that they are in discussion with IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard about a possible return to the schedule in 2013. Track president Michael Printup told local newspaper The Corning Leader that he had spoken to Bernard about the potential for the series to run at the New York circuit again, potentially in tandem with NASCAR Trucks.

Franchitti: New car needs changes

December 25th, 2011

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Franchitti: New car needs changes

Reigning IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti has called upon the series to do more to ensure that the new Dallara DW12 chassis that will be introduced for 2012 can be adapted to different driving styles.

Kentucky off 2012 IndyCar calendar

December 22nd, 2011

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Kentucky off 2012 IndyCar calendar

Kentucky Motor Speedway has been dropped from the IndyCar calendar for the 2012 season.

Conway to race with Foyt in 2012

December 20th, 2011

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Conway to race with Foyt in 2012

British driver Mike Conway has signed with AJ Foyt Racing for the 2012 IndyCar season. The 28-year-old, who replaces Vitor Meira, took his first series win with Andretti Autosport at Long Beach this year, but said that he was looking forward to starting work with his new team. “Hopefully we can hit the ground running with off season developments and be quick out the box,” said Conway, who will be embarking upon his third full year in the series

Lotus sets date for first engine run

December 20th, 2011

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Lotus sets date for first engine run

Lotus has confirmed a date for the first track test of the engine that it will take into IndyCar in 2012.

Sato’s 2012 hopes boosted by test

December 19th, 2011

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Sato’s 2012 hopes boosted by test

Takuma Sato is optimistic of securing a seat for next year’s IndyCar Series after carrying out the manufacturer test for Honda at Sebring last week. The former Formula 1 racer drove with KV Racing Technology this season, but that team’s decision to switch to Chevrolet engines in 2012 has meant that the Honda-affiliated Japanese has had to look elsewhere

Engine firms relaxed about DW12

December 19th, 2011

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Engine firms relaxed about DW12

IndyCar engine manufacturers believe that the series will not suffer if the new DW12 chassis initially proves to be slower than expected on ovals. Championship officials have long been optimistic that the new chassis will outperform its predecessor at tracks such as Indianapolis, although this has not been borne out in initial testing

Barnhart says banking not to blame

December 15th, 2011

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Barnhart says banking not to blame

IndyCar president of operations Brian Barnhart has quashed claims that Dan Wheldon’s fatal accident at Las Vegas in October could be attributed to IndyCars running on 1.5-mile, high-banked ovals. The suitability of IndyCars to tracks such as Las Vegas and Texas has been subject to intense scrutiny since Wheldon’s crash, with the series confirming last week that it was backing out of plans to race at Las Vegas next year

IndyCar wants more team co-operation

December 15th, 2011

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IndyCar wants more team co-operation

IndyCar officials have said that they expect more co-operation from teams and drivers in testing to ensure that they have a full understanding of how cars behave in pack conditions in order to avoid a repeat of Dan Wheldon’s fatal crash at Las Vegas. Speaking at today’s announcement of the initial findings from the investigation into the accident that claimed the life of Wheldon in October, IndyCar president of operations Brian Barnhart said that understanding how the cars functioned in race conditions was critical in restricting the opportunity for similar accidents in the future. “I think it is one of the byproducts to come out of this is that [teams will] have a better understanding of the request and requirements that we are expecting,” Barnhart said.

Pole contact caused Wheldon’s death

December 15th, 2011

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Pole contact caused Wheldon’s death

IndyCar has confirmed that Dan Wheldon was killed by a head injury sustained through contact with a catch fencing pole in his crash at Las Vegas in October.

Davis, Speed, van Gisbergen Shine in iPRoC

by David Phillips on December 15th, 2011

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Davis and Speed lead the iPRoC field to the start at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Scott Speed and Shane van Gisbergen won the battles, but Brandon Davis won the war in the inaugural iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions (iPRoC).  The first online event featuring an all star cast of 27 real world professional drivers from most of the world’s top race series, the iPRoC saw former F1 and NASCAR driver Speed take the victory in the opener, a 25 lap race for virtual Chevrolet Silverados at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Australian V8 Supercar standout Van Gisbergen responded with an equally impressive run in the finale, leading all ten laps at Watkins Glen International in his digital Mazda MX5. But it was NASCAR K&N Pro Series’ Davis, who finished .345s behind Speed at Charlotte and .167s behind van Gisbergen at the Glen who picked-up the overall win [...]

Black and gold for Lotus works teams

December 12th, 2011

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Black and gold for Lotus works teams

Lotus has announced that the teams it works with outside Formula 1 will switch to black and gold livery for 2012 to bring them in line with the grand prix squad’s image. Amid the dispute over the rights to use the Lotus name in F1 this year, Tony Fernandes’ Team Lotus used traditional Lotus green and gold, while the Group Lotus-backed Renault team ran in the black and gold colours made famous when the original Lotus F1 operation had John Player sponsorship. But the Group Lotus-sponsored teams in IndyCar, GP2 and GP3 all ran in green and gold.

IndyCar drops 2012 Las Vegas race

December 9th, 2011

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IndyCar drops 2012 Las Vegas race

The IndyCar Series will not race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2012 in the wake of Dan Wheldon’s fatal accident in the track’s 2011 event.

Pagenaud confirmed at Schmidt

December 8th, 2011

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Pagenaud confirmed at Schmidt

Sam Schmidt Motorsports has officially confirmed that Simon Pagenaud will join it for the 2012 IndyCar season. The long-anticipated deal between the Frenchman and Schmidt’s Honda-powered squad was formally announced at a press conference in Indianapolis today.

Newgarden joins Fisher in IndyCar

December 8th, 2011

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Newgarden joins Fisher in IndyCar

Josef Newgarden will graduate to the IndyCar Series with Sarah Fisher’s squad next year.

Wheldon kart race raises UKP20k

December 6th, 2011

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Wheldon kart race raises UKP20k

The cream of British motorsport talent raised around £20,000 for the Alzheimer’s Society as they came together to celebrate the life of Dan Wheldon in a charity karting event at Daytona Motorsport’s Milton Keynes venue in the UK on Monday night. The over-subscribed event, organised by Wheldon’s friend and Lotus GT racer Johnny Mowlem, was won by 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button, who shared a kart with Wheldon’s father Clive in their DW Lionheart team. Button and Wheldon were assisted in no small part by the Cash for Penalties system – which allowed teams to pay bribes to make sure their rivals were black-flagged and docked laps – and justifiably so

Newman/Haas quits IndyCar Series

December 1st, 2011

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Newman/Haas quits IndyCar Series

Newman/Haas Racing, one of US motorsport’s most iconic and successful racing outfits, has withdrawn from the IndyCar Series citing poor financial conditions as its reason for pulling out. The team which ran the 2011 IndyCar rookie of the year James Hinchcliffe and guided Oriol Servia to fourth position in this year’s driver standings, released a short statement on Thursday confirming it will not compete in the category next season.

Dixon hopeful over DW12 handling

December 1st, 2011

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Dixon hopeful over DW12 handling

Scott Dixon believes next year’s IndyCar single-seater is making progress, even though he concedes the handling of the car is still an issue. Ganassi driver Dixon and Penske man Ryan Briscoe completed another test with the Dallara DW12 at Fontana this week, running through a long list of aerodynamic tests. Dixon said the test had been productive, but admitted there is still work to do before the car handles well

Barnhart removed from race direction

November 30th, 2011

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Barnhart removed from race direction

IndyCar has confirmed Brian Barnhart will not be the series’ race director from next year, in a reshuffle of its competition division. Barnhart, who was heavily criticised for some of his decisions during the 2011 season, will remain as president of operations, overseeing the operational and logistical areas, but will be removed from on-track decisions. INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard said the series is reviewing candidates to fill the position of race director

Barnhart out of IndyCar race control

November 30th, 2011

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Barnhart out of IndyCar race control

Brian Barnhart, IndyCar’s embattled competition president, has been asked to leave his position according to reports in the US media.