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5dollarpromo_160x600 Simcraft

February 2012

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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.

Jake Stakes Early GP Series Lead

by Teemu Iivonen and Simon Cattell on February 6th, 2012

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Stergios topped the overall

iRacing.com Grand Prix Series off to a exciting start with new faces and updates to Williams-Toyota FW31 The 2012 Season 1 iRacing.com Grand Prix Series (iGPS) kicked-off with some longed for updates as the Williams-Toyota FW-31 was added to the list of cars with the New Tire Model. In addition to the NTM, the car was given a sound update, subtle refinements to aerodynamic side forces, reduced temperature of the tire warmers and most important, an ending to the problem that has caused trouble at the starts during previous seasons – the random engine blow. The online racing itself started-off at the virtual Road Atlanta, a fast and flowing circuit located just north of Braselton, Georgia, USA. The circuit is not particularly suited to the Williams-Toyota FW31s taking to the [...]

GSRacing.net Late Model Championships Set for February 12th

by Tim Terry on February 6th, 2012

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GSRacing.net Late Model Championships Set for February 12th

The crown jewel of short track sim racing returns to iRacing on Sunday, February 12th and a star studded field of drivers is set to duke it out for their spot in the 30 car starting field. The Fourth Annual Late Model Championships Presented by GSRacing.net at New Smyrna Speedway has already drawn over 110 entries and, when all is said and done, one of them will stand tall as the winner and take away the lion’s share of the purse which hovers around the $400 mark. Live flag-to-flag coverage of the main event of the weekend, the Late Model 250 Presented by GSRacing.net, can be watched live at 7:15pm Eastern on February 12th on WebRacingNetwork.com. The list of entries boasts a Who’s Who of iRacing’s best drivers. The 2010 [...]

Intel GT Series Shifts to Overdrive

by David Phillips on February 6th, 2012

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motorsports simulations

The Intel GT Series shifts into overdrive this week, with online racing action involving both the South American and European regions. The South American Regional Series starts tomorrow (February 7) with a week of online racing action at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps featuring the HPD ARX01c.  The week’s top 20 points-earners will qualify for the South America Regional Finals, slated for Friday, February 17. The top eight finishers from the South American Regional Finals will qualify for the Intel GT Series World Finals, to coincide with the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in March, 2012. Meanwhile, the European Regional Finals are slated for Friday, February 10 at 21:00 GMT.  The field was set last week in a European Regional Series that saw 2011 iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing champion Benelux’ Atze [...]

Peters Principle

by Tim Doyle on February 6th, 2012

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IndyCar Iowa Doyle and Awg

Week One of the 2012 Season 1 iRacing.com IZOD IndyCar Series visited the little track in the heart of America: Iowa Speedway.  Due to inclement weather (technical difficulties) the online race was moved from the traditional Monday time slot to Wednesday. 44 drivers showed-up to do battle, splitting the event into fields of 22 sim racers each, and battle they did!  Before the race, qualifying was intense seeing many starting positions change place minutes before the start.  Earning the pole was 2011 Season 3 runner-up, Chris Cahoe, with a stellar lap of 17.652s, beating his previous time of 17.658s in 2011 Season 4.  The 2011 Season 3 champion, Tim Doyle, moved-up several positions in the final qualifying session to slot in P2, just over two hundredths off the pace with [...]

Hazard Steals “The Show” at PIR

by Tim Terry on February 3rd, 2012

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Hazard Steals “The Show” at PIR

Thomas Hazard entered the JoeTheShoe 120 at Phoenix International Raceway leading the GSRacing.net Truck Series on Thursday night by a single point. At the end of the night, he not only left with his point lead intact but also with the checkered flag. Hazard captured his league-leading fourth victory of the season by taking the win in the penultimate online race of the 2011-12 campaign. 2011 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Champion Ray Alfalla chased Hazard to the line at the finish, ending-up two tenths off Hazard at the completion of the 120-lap affair. Kevin King rebounded from an earlier accident to finish third, besting Jon Adams and Brandon Buchberger at the checkered silk. Brian Schoenburg started the JoeTheShow 120 from the pole position with a time of 27.442 seconds while [...]

Kile King of the Hill

by Jameson Spies on February 2nd, 2012

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The NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series wrapped-up at Kentucky Speedway.  More than 1500 sim racers took at least one green flag in the 2011 Season 4 NiCAS.

With another season of the NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series now in the books, parity has never been more evident, as the list of champions continues to expand. The 750+ horsepower Chevrolet Impala is the top oval racing stock car in the world, and is masterfully recreated in the iRacing.com software to give sim racers the rush of piloting the 3,450 pound, high powered tank around the track at speeds over 200mph. A dozen tracks over the course of the 12 week season challenged drivers and teams in every way imaginable. From short tracks to big, day to night, and asphalt to concrete, there is no place to hide when competing at the top level of online racing. iRacing.com offers ten divisions of competition, allowing drivers of all levels of [...]

Jake Stergios Takes GP Series Title

by Teemu Iivonen on January 31st, 2012

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The sight of Stergios disappearing in to the horizon was a common one during the season.

The fastest, most challenging, most exciting road racing series on the iRacing service, the iRacing.com Grand Prix Series features the Williams-Toyota FW31 on many of the world’s most fabled and demanding circuits. With its seven speed, semi-automatic, seamless-shift transmission, state-of-the-art aerodynamics honed by the AT&T Williams wind tunnel program and a 2.4 liter Toyota RV8 engine, the Williams-Toyota FW31 is the fastest and most technically advanced car in the iRacing stable of online racing cars. The Season 4 2011 Grand Prix Series would see 289 drivers start a race during the 12-week long season. After finishing second to Andre Boettcher in Season 3, Jake Stergios (New England) was back again to compete for the top step of the podium. The season finale would be held at the well-known Silverstone Circuit.   [...]

No Shortage of 2011 Season 4 Champions

by David Phillips on January 30th, 2012

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The site of Hulbert disappearing up the road was common in the Radical Racing Challenge.

iRacers never like to give up a good thing, which goes a long way toward explaining why Season 4 of 2011 didn’t conclude until 23:59 GMT on January 23, 2012 . . .  Not only can we look forward to the start of 2012 Season 1, we can take a final look in the rear view mirrors at the season just past and celebrate the achievements of iRacing’s most successful and prolific sim racers. Kalle Ruokola certainly qualifies on both counts.  He bested Yoeri Gijsen and Rami Kaukola to capture the Time Trial (TT) honors in the Corvette Class of the iRacing Prototype and GT Challenge (Fixed), and collected no fewer than four runner-up finishes in everything from Classic Lotus Grand Prix TT (behind Mark Mullineaux and ahead of David [...]

Salvatore Seals Second Tour Mod Title

by Tim Terry on January 30th, 2012

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Your 2011 Season 4 NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series champion: Brandon Salvatore.

Brandon Salvatore completed a feat in the 2011 Season Four that no other iRacer has done before.   The Georgia sim racer became the first driver in the history of iRacing to go back-to-back as champion in the NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series (NiTMS), and the first to win two championships in the six season history of the series. Salvatore sealed the deal at Thompson International Speedway by topping 77 other sim racers who took the green flag on the Connecticut high banks. Salvatore went to victory lane during Thursday’s 3834 Strength of Field (SoF) race in his final start of the season, leading every one of the race’s 125 laps. Former series champion Herb Engelhart was second, followed by Kevin Walker, Ray Farlow and Samuel Dick. One caution slowed the [...]

Gary W Clark Memorial Race

by Ed Sutcliff and Les Turner on January 30th, 2012

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RSR_SilverGP_LT_n_Vettes_1280

Members of the Red Sox Racing League honored former league member Gary W. Clark during week three of the 2012 RSR multi-class racing schedule.  League administrators dedicated the event, the “Gary W Clark Memorial 30 at Silverstone GP” in Clark’s honor after learning he had died in Knoxville, Tennessee on January 7th.  Clark was only 53 years old at the time of his death. Competitors who knew him from past RSR seasons recalled Clark as an upbeat person who was a consummate gentleman on the track.  “Clark was a classy guy who made sim racing fun”, said RSR members Jeff Thomas and Les Turner. The race was held at the Silverstone Grand Prix track in Towcester, Northamptonshire in the United Kingdom.  RSR drivers are very familiar with the track, having [...]

Hulbert Claims Radical Racing Challenge Crown

by Katier Scott on January 29th, 2012

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Hulbert Claims Radical Racing Challenge Crown

VIR Grand East Tops 2012 Season 1 Schedule Following Successful 2011 Season 4 In a Radical Racing Challenges series that would seem to be appropriately named, the drivers of the Class C Radical sports car look forward to a schedule in 2012 Season 1 that includes circuits as diverse as Virginia International Raceway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway.  And if the just completed 2011 Season 4 – which saw over 750 sim racers take part in the series – is any barometer, the fierce competition and exciting blend of tracks will draw even more drivers to this Class C road series. 2011 Season 4 saw Simon Hulbert bring home the overall honours with a dominant performance that placed him ahead Frank Winter and Xavier Busoms. Maurice Dietzel did a superb [...]

World Cup of iRacing in High Gear

January 27th, 2012

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online racing

The third annual World Cup of iRacing shifts into high gear this weekend with Saturday’s Regional Annual Club Championship (RACC) Finals and the World Cup Final on Sunday. 25 of iRacing’s 38 geographical clubs qualified for the World Cup of iRacing tournament, which began on Tuesday with the RACC Runoffs consisting of road course competition at Spa-Francorchamps in Star Mazdas and oval track competition at Michigan International Speedway in Chevrolet Silverados. Although two-time World Cup of iRacing champions DE-AT-CH (Germany-Austria-Switzerland) must rate as the favorites, there are two dozen clubs – and hundreds of iRacers – who would like nothing better than to deny the club’s bid for a “three-peat” with a World Cup of their own. The weekend’s schedule is as follows: RACC Final – Saturday Jan 28 Oval: [...]

RSR Round 2 at Road America

by Ed Sutcliff and Les Turner on January 27th, 2012

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iRacingSim-2012-01-19-22-39-29-40

Members of the Red Sox Racing League traveled to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for the league’s second multi-class race of 2012, “The Kettle Moraine 30 at Road America”.  Family, friends, and fans enjoyed the beautiful countryside and attractions near the challenging road course while twenty-four RSR drivers practiced for the race.  The track has three long straight sections broken up by several tight turns and high speed corners along a 4.048 mile layout.  The track first opened in 1955 and is one of the few road courses in the world which has not changed its original layout.     Week one of the RSR multi-class experiment saw six drivers retire early from the Watkins Glen race as a result of damage.  In what was probably the most incident filled race in RSR [...]

Paquette Dethrones Ottinger

by Allen Krier on January 26th, 2012

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Paquette

Week 12 of the iRacing.com Street Stock Series saw sim racers travel to Oxford Plains Speedway for the final week of the season and the crowning of the 2011 Season 4 champion. Many drivers started-off the season with the goal of dethroning three time series champion Nick Ottinger (Carolina) but only one driver was able to make it happen. Maxime Paquette (Eastern Canada) was the one who came out on top when all was said and done. Weekly Standings With a season championship within his reach, Paquette set fire to Oxford Plains. In two races, Paquette won both while leading 81 of 100 laps and netting the most points of the online racing week with 185. Cole Anderson (Midwest) finished the final week of the season by also winning both [...]

Double Vision – Again

January 26th, 2012

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motorsports simulation

The final weeks of the 2011 Season 4 inRacingNews Challenge saw the mixed class (SpecRacer Fords and Pontiac Solstices) visit three very different circuits:  the short course configuration at Summit Point Raceway, Charlotte Motor Speedway’s “r-oval” road course and Okayama International’s  long course.  Long or short, r-oval or pure road circuit, Michael Booth and Gabriel Tobar proved unbeatable as they swept to the Solstice and SRF titles, respectively . . . again (in Booth’s case, his second straight title, while Tobar took his third SRF crown in the past four seasons). Week 10 of the inRacingNews Challenge season headed to West Virginia and Summit Point Raceway, marking the fourth and final visit of the season to the series’ de facto home track, and one of precious few opportunities for the [...]

World Championship Fields Finalized

by David Phillips on January 26th, 2012

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The fields for iRacing’s twin 2012 World Championships were finalized last week with the completion of the 2011 NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS) and the 2011 iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing (iPSRR). The top 25 finishers in each of the Pro series secured berths in the upcoming NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship (NiSWC) and iRacing.com World Championship Grand Prix Series (iWCGPS).  Beginning in February, they will join the top 25 finishers from last year’s NiSWC and iWCGPS in battling for the top prizes in online racing and the World Championship titles. The 2012 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship kicks-off on February 21 at Daytona International Speedway and will feature a 17 race schedule mirroring that of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup.  Defending champion Ray Alfalla will lead a field of [...]

Warren Edges Buchberger for Truck Title

by Tim Terry on January 25th, 2012

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Nearly 900 sim racers journeyed to Thunder Valley for the final week of the 2011 NiCCS.

2011 NiSWC champion Adds NASCAR iRacing.com Class C Series Crown to His Trophy Case In the span of seven days, Alex Warren went from winning the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series championship to having to battle fellow Pro pilot Brandon Buchberger down to the wire in the NASCAR iRacing Class C Series (NiCCS). The duel was just that, close enough that it came down to the final laps of the season and when the points were tallied, it was Warren and his Core Pipe/GSRacing.net sponsored team who came out on top after the grueling twelve week season – by one point. Week Eleven saw the series convene at the Tricky Triangle, formally known as Pocono Raceway. Warren finished atop the standings for the week and gained 13 points on his nearest [...]

Spindel Takes Pro Series Finale at Suzuka

by Chris Hall on January 24th, 2012

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Spindel survived a topsy-turvy 53 laps to score his first iPSRR win at Suzuka in the series finale.

In a breathtaking 53 laps around the virtual Suzuka International circuit, Emil Spindel held-off the advances of newly-crowned champion Atze Kerkhof to take his first victory in the iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing (iPSRR). As the lights went green on the twelfth and final race of the season, CST Ajira’s Spindel saw his pole-position advantage immediately evaporate, as Martin Krönke in the My3id Williams-Toyota FW31grabbed maximum traction off the line to lead the field into Turn One. Also making a good start was Kerkhof, who forced his Team Redline entry beneath Spindel as the pair entered the first corner.  However, contact between the duo whilst heading to Turn Two sent the series champion sliding across the track and down to fifth position. With a clear track ahead, Krönke set about [...]

Burris Best at Bristol

by Tim Terry on January 23rd, 2012

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Burris Best at Bristol

Kevin Burris edged one step closer to the 2011 Season Four iRacing.com Late Model Tour (iLMT) title during Round 11 as he took the overall victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Over 700 sim racers took to the high banks in the popular short track car over the seven day span to test their luck and skill against the best on the iRacing service but, in the end, it was the point leader edging-out the weekly victory. Burris’ victory came during Thursday’s 2840 Strength of Field (SoF) race in which he led 18 laps from the pole position. He edged Trey Jarrell by under two tenths of a second for a victory with Alex Ciambrone, Aaron Easler and Gary Dawson completing the top five. Jarrell led 32 laps in the [...]

Multi-Class racing comes to RSR

by Ed Sutcliff and Les Turner on January 20th, 2012

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WG_kirby_checkers_1280

After much discussion, multi-class racing has finally been embraced by the Red Sox Racing League (RSR).  The change in format means that beginning in Season One of the RSR 2012 calendar, league members have the opportunity to participate in some of the most exciting online racing available.  The decision to include fixed setup multi-class racing wasn’t an easy one as league administrators had to struggle with the challenge of designing competitive setups for two different vehicles while ensuring their league points system could handle the new format.   RSR settled on two of the fastest cars in the iRacing stable for use in the multi-class events.  First up was the Honda Performance Development (HPD) ARX-01C as the Class A vehicle.  The Chevrolet Corvette C6R was chosen as the Class B [...]