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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.

Walker Wins at Phoenix

by Tim Terry on October 6th, 2011

84

With point leader Brandon Salvatore taking a week off due to work commitments, the NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series (NiTMS)was there for the taking this week at the Phoenix International Raceway.  However, the sim racer who seized the opportunity was none other than Salvatore’s Wide Open Racing teammate Kevin Walker. Walker, who hails from Cheticamp, Nova Scotia took the overall win for the week, scoring 230 points and edging out a former NiTM champion in the process. Walker came home the victor in Thursday’s 3676 sof race which featured one caution and three lead changes. Walker led just 27 of the 75 laps on the desert mile to take the win over Shawn Colley, Taylor Meyn, David Colley and Jason Brown2. Meyn led the most laps (35) and turned the [...]

iRacing.com Japan GP Slated for October 8

October 5th, 2011

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racing simulations

Scene of some of the most exciting – and controversial — races in the history of the World Drivers Championship, Suzuka Circuit hosts the final event in the 2011 World Tour of iRacing on October 8, 2011: the iRacing.com Japan Grand Prix.    Slated to run the day before Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and friends contest the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix, the iRacing.com Japanese Grand Prix features the Williams-Toyota FW31 and will consist of 53 laps of the 17 turn, 3.6 mile Suzuka Grand Prix circuit with its distinctive cross-over/figure 8 layout. Open practice and qualifying begins Thursday, October 6 at 00:30 GMT (Thursday, October 5 at 8:30 pm ET), and is open to all iRacing members who own the car and track content. The [...]

Coomans Continues at Lime Rock

by Tim Terry on October 5th, 2011

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Excitement is guaranteed when the NVIDIA Cup comes to Lime Rock!

The 2011 Season 3b champion of the NVIDIA Cup Jan Coomans picked-up right where he left off this, as he picked-up the overall win in Week One of Season 3c at Lime Rock Park. Coomans, who scored the convincing victory in the title chase over Mikko Nassi, exited Lime Rock in Round One of the current season with 174 points – 24 more than any other of the 1,893 sim racers who saw the green lights in Connecticut. Four starts were on the menu for Coomans, who was victorious in all four events. His biggest win was his final of the week on Thursday when he roared his Mazda-MX5 to victory in a 2956 sof race. Coomans started from the pole position and led all 20 laps en route to [...]

Kusheba Goes Big at Charlotte

by Allen Krier on October 4th, 2011

74
Stevie Minson leads a field of Street Stocks to the green flag at CMS.

Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted Week Nine of the iRacing.com Street Stock Series as top online sim racers tried to draft their way to the front. Last week saw many new faces run in the series, yet old names came out on top. Weekly High Strength of Field Last week’s high Strength of Field race had an SoF of 3457, which was the highest SoF since Week Four at Lanier National Speedway. Paul Kusheba (Connecticut), who won that SoF race at Lanier, would come away with the victory over Dustin Lengert (Western Canada) at Charlotte. For his victory, Kusheba received 216 points while Lengert gained 196 for his second place finish. Chris Overland (Texas) finished in the third position, 18 seconds behind, and received 176 points. Fourth belonged to Brandon Kettelle [...]

Oscar Owns (Mid) Ohio

by Jordan Hightower on October 4th, 2011

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? of the 400+ iRacers to compete at Mid-Ohio arc through the Keyhole.

Week Eight of the Thrustmaster Mustang Challenge brought sim racers from all around the world to the 2.25-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.  Almost 400 racers attempted to put their name on the trophy, but after seven days of racing, Oscar Sahlin (Scandinavia) added his name to the list of greats who have earned a podium position at Mid-Ohio. Weekly High Strength of Field By winning the week’s highest Strength of Field (SoF) event, Sahlin added 168 championship points to his season-long total.  The 2689 SoF saw Sahlin leading all of the event’s 18 laps and crusing to a 15.057s margin of victory over Tamas Wagner (Central-Eastern Europe).  Maik Peters (Benelux) finished in the third position, followed by Yann Laprevotte (France) in fourth and rounding-out the top [...]

Divi’s Guide to iRacing Driver Aids

by Divina Galica on October 3rd, 2011

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driving games

Listed below are some really awesome iRacing assists for “Rookie” drivers like myself who are challenged by the intricacies of racing simulations. I truly wish some of these aids had been available when I started racing the sim in 2006, but now I use them frequently and find they help a lot. I’m listing them in order of my preference. Splits For some reason for several months I had no idea that if you hit your tab key you brought up a green and red line at the top of your driving screen. Now I use it all the time and find it helps with my lap times especially in qualifying. I usually run in Best Lap mode.  The great thing is that it remembers your best lap for that [...]

iRacing.com Petit Le Mans Presented by NVIDIA

by David Phillips on October 3rd, 2011

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Racing games

Within hours of Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz driving their Peugeot 908 to victory in a 2011 Petit Le Mans that featured 52 cars in six classes, iRacers took part in a 2011 iRacing.com Petit Le Mans Presented by NVIDIA featuring more 320 cars in three classes: HPD ARX01, Corvette C6.R and Ford GT. Like the American Le Mans Series’ event, the iRacing Petit Le Mans Presented by NVIDIA was staged on the 12 turn, 2.54 mile Road Atlanta course and proved a challenging test of speed and endurance for sim racers in all classes as they raced their immediate competition while keeping an eye out for the other classes running at varying speeds. Norbert Sulzer (DE-AT-CH) led Roderic Kreunen (Benelux) and Andrew Slocombe (Florida) home in the [...]

Cream rises at the Resort

by Patrick Atherton on October 3rd, 2011

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McLaughlin leads, but no foregone conclusion

Week Nine of the iRacing V8 Supercar Series by Bigpond Sport kicked back at the resort, Virginia International Raceway. But nobody was relaxing. With daylight savings in effect in Australia, it spread the massive interest in this series over both evening timeslots. This report covers the first event (7.45pm EDST). Real world V8 Supercar racer Scott McLaughlin loves the sweeping, razor-edge curves of the full VIR layout, and he duly snared pole position from Rens Broekman. Series leader Madison Down was third from Richard Hamstead. Fifth was Mitch McLeod after his absence in Round 8, hoping to claw back some margin having slipped to 3rd in the title. Craig Woodhouse was next from the third Nfinity driver Scott U’Ren. Next was Richard Lock, Stuart Wood and Bigpond Sport’s Vern Norrgard [...]

RRDC Launches Ground-Breaking “Safe is Fast” Web Site

by Judy Stropus on September 30th, 2011

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RRDC Launches Ground-Breaking “Safe is Fast” Web Site

HILLIARD, Ohio (Sept. 19, 2011) – The Road Racing Drivers Club announces the launch of www.SAFEisFAST.com – a ground-breaking Web site devoted to the education of racing drivers. The world’s top champion drivers offer a collection of inside secrets not found anywhere else. Access to the SAFE is FAST Video Symposium is FREE (upon registration). Supported by the FIA Motor Sport Safety Development Fund, this comprehensive site is an invaluable tool for up-and-coming racing drivers, as well as established ones, to hone their skills and learn from the best in the world. Hosted by RRDC President Bobby Rahal, SAFE is FAST features more than 30 RRDC members and other industry experts in some 90 minutes of high-quality videos covering subjects from physical and mental preparation to driving techniques, driver safety [...]

Pope to run Main Performance PC/Obutto Gaming Cockpits Late Model at Martinsville

by Jason Lofing on September 30th, 2011

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racing games

iRacer Daniel Pope has partnered with Main Performance PC and Obutto Gaming Cockpits and will be running a Late Model in the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 at Martinsville Speedway on October 9.  Pope, 24, has been extremely successful in his number 16 Late Model so far this season, collecting three wins to go along with 18 top five and 21 top ten finishes in 22 starts. The Smyrna, Tennessee native currently lies thirty-first in the NASCAR Whelen All American Late Model Series national standings. Pope is no stranger to the race track, having raced for most of his life. In 2007, Pope drove a Kevin Harvick Incorporated truck in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Mansfield. 2009 saw Pope drive a Late Model at the Nashville [...]

Irby Repeats Victory at the Glen

by Ed Sutcliff and Les Turner on September 30th, 2011

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017_WGboot_L21_BI_takes_the_checkers

The Watkins Glen International Boot road course hosted week two of the Red Sox Racing League’s 2011 Season 3 schedule.  Surrounded by scenic lakes and mountains, the track is a perfect location to kick back and relax… unless you are there to race!  Drivers don’t have that luxury, because the 3.4 mile, 12 corner layout includes massive elevation changes, sweeping high speed corners, a tricky chicane at the end of the longest straight, and very few passing zones.  The track’s fifty years of racing history means fans with a penchant for watching some of the most successful drivers in F1 history will be in attendance, making nervous drivers even more so as they try to live up to the standards set by their predecessors.  Nineteen RSR league members participated in [...]

Hudson Claims Late Model Invitational Tourney

by David Phillips on September 30th, 2011

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Hudson celebrates his Late Model Invitational Win with an Iowa doughnut.

Tyler D Hudson scored an impressive victory in the inaugural iRacing.com Late Model Invitational tournament last night at Iowa Speedway. A winner in one of the evening’s four semi-final online races, Hudson started from the pole position, took the lead at the start and was never headed. Texan Charles Cosper, another semi-final winner, kept things close throughout the 30 lap event. After slipping from second to fourth in the early going, Cosper regained the runner-up spot on Lap 5 and ran within half a second of Hudson most of the way before taking the checkered flag .6s adrift of the winner.  Joshua Laughton (California), John Bage (Carolinas) and Darwin Meints (MidWest) completed the top five. In addition to Hudson and Cosper, other semi-final winners included Joey Israelson (New England) and [...]

Salvatore Tames Concord Triangle

by Tim Terry on September 30th, 2011

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"You just really have to stay on line at this place . . ."

Brandon Salvatore inched one step closer to engraving his name on the 2011 Season 3 NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified (NiTM) series trophy on Week Eight as he once again went to the top of the board, this time racing to victory at Concord Motorsports Park. Salvatore, the Division Two sim racer from Georgia, took the victory in his only start of the week to gain top honors. Salvatore’s solo win came in Thursday’s 2611 sof race as he paced the field for 33 of the 100 laps at the North Carolina based track to come home 2.2s ahead of Mitch Miller, with David Chmura, David Markham and Jeremy Bogdanovitch completing the top five. The race was slowed by six caution flags and saw defending champion Herb Engelhart lead the most [...]

iRacing.com Late Model Invitational Finale Tonight!

by David Phillips on September 29th, 2011

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racing games

120 of the world’s top Late Model sim racers have advanced to tonight’s semi-final round of the inaugural iRacing.com Late Model Invitational tournament at Iowa Speedway. The fast 120 emerged as the top finishers from last night’s rounds of qualifying and heat races. Of the more than 400 iRacers who posted qualifying times, 360 advanced to the first round of races featuring 10 splits of 36 drivers, with the top half of the finishers in each of those events moving-on to Round Two. 120 drivers (the top 24 finishers in each of the five races) in Round Two then qualified for tonight’s four semi-final races, slated for 8 pm EDT with the top ten from each race moving-on to the 8:30 pm final. Topping the list of semi-finalists are Adam [...]

Whitten Wins at ‘Dega

by Tim Terry on September 29th, 2011

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With more than 2,500 iRaacers making the virtual tow to Alabama, there was no shortage of action at Talladega.

Week Eight of the NASCAR iRacing.com  Class C Series (NiCCS) brought the tailgaters to the unpredictable Talladega SuperSpeedway. Over 2,500 sim racers would take to the track during the week in an attempt to be crowned a super speedway king, but in the end it was Matt Whitten who stood tall over his sim racing peers as the overall winner at the famed Alabama track. Whitten took the win in the monster 4676 sof race on Saturday. Entering the race, all but one driver in the 20 truck field possessed an iRating higher than 4000 – with six of those holding at least a Pro Oval license. In the end, it was Whitten who left Talladega with the win, 292 points and a 6503 iRating after leading 35 of the [...]

Conor Daly Blog

by Conor Daly on September 28th, 2011

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Conor Daly Blog

Well one of the busiest, if not the busiest season of racing is over for me. It has been an incredible year and the biggest learning curve I’ve ever experienced. The trend of the season was massive improvement every weekend and sure enough we stayed true to that in the final two GP3 weekends of the year… Last time I checked in I was just getting ready for GP3 at Spa-Francorchamps. First of all, what an absolutely incredible circuit. As soon as you get there and look up at Eau Rouge, your mind is blown! No simulator or game does it justice, as soon as you get on track and experience the real deal it’s an incredible feeling. However, I must say that in the dry, it is very simple [...]

King Dominates, Alfalla Crowned NiSWC Champion at PIR

by Jason Lofing on September 28th, 2011

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King (29) was in dominant form at PIR en route to his first NiSWC win.

Week 17 saw the drivers of the NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship (NiSWC) pay their annual visit to Phoenix International Raceway for the penultimate race of the season. It was apparent early in testing that this was going to be a wild and unpredictable race, but no one expected what happened Tuesday night. The race saw plenty of crashes and strategy, a first time winner  and the crowning of a worthy champion. When the dust settled, it was not a series regular who took the checkered flag first. Instead, it was NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series driver Kevin King who not only had the car to beat for most of the race but played the strategy perfectly as well. The path to the front for King was not a walk in [...]

A Trip to the Park

by Jordan Hightower on September 27th, 2011

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The Thrustmaster Mustang Challenge regulars found Lime Rock anything but a walk in the park.

After a week of twists and turns at Virginia International Raceway, the world-class sim racers of the Thrustmaster Mustang Challenge loaded-up and headed north to Lakeville, Connecticut for battle at the 1.53-mile, 7-turn Lime Rock Park.  While this course may seem to be one of the less challenging road courses on the Mustang circuit, it is often difficult to find that perfect lap and even more difficult to put together a perfect race to be crowned the best.  Brian Strodtbeck (Ohio) didn’t let those difficulties get in his way during Week Seven, as he was able to score the most championship points out of the 600+ sim racers who attempted to land that top podium position. Weekly High Strength of Field By earning the victory in the week’s highest Strength [...]

iRacing.com Nears 500 Million Laps

September 27th, 2011

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380-featured

iRacing.com members have now driven over 380 million laps around the  50+ ultra-realistic virtual road and oval tracks since the iRacing opened for business in the summer of 2008. 170 million of the 380 million laps were completed in the more than 30 racing series sanctioned by iRacing.com, which stages some 1,500 official races weekly including many in partnership with organizations such as NASCAR, IndyCar, GRAND-AM and the Super V8 series in Australia.   115 million laps took place in open practice, where iRacers can practice on-track with fellow members from more than 80 countries, while another 11 million laps were run during official qualifying sessions.   Some 30 million laps were turned in iRacing’s time trial competition, along with 15 million laps in “fun” races and special events like the iRacing [...]

Ottinger Dominates but Erlekotte Takes Point Lead

by Allen Krier on September 27th, 2011

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Ottinger (1) topped Dussett (2) in the week's top SoF event at Thompson.

The iRacing.com Street Stock Series traveled to Thompson International Speedway for the second time this season with sim racers looking to capture the season points championship. Many new drivers were looking to dethrone reigning champion Nick Ottinger (Carolina) but he would once again show everyone why he is a two-time champion. Weekly High Strength of Field Week Eight’s highest Strength of Field (SoF) race was run on Wednesday night and had a rating of 3053. Ottinger once again dominated the highest points paying race of the week by leading all 40 laps in route to a 4.8 second win over Richard Dusett (New England). Dusett is no stranger to Ottinger as they are teammates at Gale Force Racing, which got its name from Camping World Truck Series/ARCA/Late Model driver Cale [...]