Warren’s Richmond Surprise

by Jason Lofing on November 30th, 2011

The NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series went under the lights at Richmond International Raceway for Week Five and fireworks flew from start to finish with Alex Warren playing his strategy just right to come away with his first series win. The caution waved early and often with 15 yellows slowing the action for 75 of the 200 laps and, in the absence of long green flag runs, pit strategy and track position proved more important than ever. Joshua Laughton put down an impressive qualifying lap, taking his first pole position of the 2011 season with a run of 20.551s to best Michael Conti (20.608s). Some tough competition lined-up behind the front row-sitters including Nick Ottinger, who started third, and teammates Marcus Lindsey and Kevin King, who started fourth and fifth respectively. [...]

Ottinger Back On Top At Lanier

by Allen Krier on November 29th, 2011

The iRacing.com Street Stock Series made its way to Braselton, GA, home of Lanier National Speedway as well as Road Atlanta. 922 sim racers attempted a race at the 3/8th mile oval and a familiar name made its way to the top. Weekly High Strength of Field Last week’s high Strength of Field race had an SoF of 3207 and paid 195 points to win. Maxime Paquette (Eastern Canada) started on the pole and led 19 laps but would not be able to bring it home as he finished second behind Brandon Atkinson (Carolina), who led 21 laps and collected 195 points for the win. Paquette earned 175 points for his runner-up finish. Rounding-out the top three was Paul McCollum, who earned 156 points, while fourth belonged to CJ LaVair [...]

Four for Four for Kerkhof

by Chris Hall on November 28th, 2011

In yet another dominant display of sim racing, Atze Kerkhof steered his Williams-Toyota FW31 to a fourth victory in the iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing at the virtual Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. With maximum points to his name, the Dutchman looks set to breeze into next year’s iRacing.com NVIDIA Grand Prix Series and challenge for the 2012 title, even though there’s still two-thirds of the Pro season remaining. Starting from pole position after setting 1:18.668 lap in qualifying, Kerkhof maintained his position at the front as the pack filtered their way through Turn One aka Copse, with Jeremy Bouteloup and Samuel Libeert in close vicinity. After capitalising on a bad start for Libeert, Twister Racing’s Bouteloup couldn’t hang on to the coattails of the leader for the opening laps, as [...]

Salvatore’s Reminder

by Tim Terry on November 28th, 2011

Brandon Salvatore reminded the NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series (NiTMS) drivers why he is the defending champion of the series by taking the win on Week Three at the Lanier National Speedway. Salvatore topped 126 other sim racers in the short track series to take the overall win at the Georgia track. Salvatore’s 190 points came during Thursday’s 3101 Strength of Field (sof) race in which he led 67 of the 120 laps and defeated Derrick Cormier2 by one second for the win.  NiTM point leader Herb Engelhart was third in this event, which featured three cautions. Paul Wisniewski and Ray Farlow completed the top five in the 12 car field. Salvatore credited the win to a two tire change which got him out ahead of the rest of the [...]

Buchberger Best Overall at Homestead

by Tim Terry on November 28th, 2011

Over 1,400 sim racers brought their skills to the track for Round Three of the NASCAR iRacing.com Class C Series (NiCCS) in 2011 Season Four at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. When all the dust settled after thousands of laps had been completed and the motors were silenced, it was Sugar Grove, Illinois, Brandon Buchberger who stood tall as the driver who amassed the most points amongst his peers. The race in which Buchberger captured his 212 point total for the week was Thursday’s 3362 Strength of Field (SoF) affair. Buchberger led just the final eight circuits of the 90 completed and outlasted Byron Daley, Scott Speed, Tyler Hudson and Alex Warren to take the win. Speed led the most laps in the race (78) and was one of just three drivers [...]

Past and Present Pros

by Jameson Spies on November 28th, 2011

While “Smoke” was dethroning Jimmie Johnson at Homestead-Miami Speedway, iRacing.com members had races of their own taking place every two hours around the 1.5 mile track. Much like their physical world counterparts, NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series sim racers had to find the balance between a strong setup speed wise, all the while not eating-up those all important tires. With that being the case, it offered the chance for veterans to school the newcomers on how to balance their setup correctly, while driving it to perfection. However, some newcomers to the series did not stand idly by as the big boys drove to the front. NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship race winner Steve Sheehan started only one race on the week, but that one start was in a high enough [...]

iRacing, Intel Team for Intel GT Series

by David Phillips on November 26th, 2011

iRacing is again teaming with Intel to deliver the very best in global online racing competition with the Intel GT Series. A series of regional online competitions around the world from November through February will culminate in the online finals of the Intel GT Series in March, 2012, coinciding with the Intel® Extreme Masters World Championship professional eSport competition. In contrast to last year’s Intel GP Series, which saw finalists travel to Hannover, Germany for the Intel® Extreme Masters World Championship during the CeBIT Exhibition, competitors will be able to participate in the entire Intel GT tournament, including the finals, from their home. As was the case last year, however, the Intel GT Series finale features an impressive prize package valued at more than $5,500, including a custom Intel gaming [...]

Paint the Yellow Kicks-off November 28th

by James Howard on November 25th, 2011

Paint the Yellow is set to kick off Season One Monday, November 28th, 2011. With the first signup coming November 5th, registrations have soared to nearly 60 sign-ups in just over two weeks. Paint the Yellow, a superspeedway racing group, was formed by iRacers Jack Honeycutt and James Howard who have long raced superspeedways through leagues and hosted online racing. Chris Crosby and Gary Horsley are also founders of the group. Jim Eberstat (Skyraider Avaiation), Paul Covington (Omega Construction), and many others have stepped-up to sponsor and offer support as Paint the Yellow was formed.  Jim Eberstat, Mark Richardson, Chris Crosby, Troy Eaton, and Robert Ziegler are all well known through the superspeedway racing community and are all supporters of what Paint the Yellow is doing to form a superspeedway [...]

Moriarty Puts Irwindale on Ice

by Tim Terry on November 25th, 2011

Van Winkle posts nine wins in eleven starts. While Trenton Moriarity was making a statement in the chase for the NASCAR iRacing.com Late Model Series championship during Round Three at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, Division Six sim racer Joshua Van Winkle was lightning the iLMT on fire. The Carolina Club driver started 11 online races over the week and took the checkered flag in nine, including the top split race of the week. The biggest win came on Wednesday when Van Winkle took the victory in a 3278 sof race. Van Winkle led 24 of the 75 laps in the event after having to rally from the eighth place spot in the ten car field to take the win. Moriarity took second place with Michael Luna, Brian Kemerait and Andrew [...]

Hazard Cruises at Charlotte

by Allen Krier on November 24th, 2011

Charlotte Motor Speedway was the location for Week Three of the iRacing.com Street Stock Series as top sim racers tried to draft their way to the front. For the first time, racers competed under the lights and the action was nothing short of amazing. Weekly High Strength of Field Last week’s high Strength of Field race had an SoF of 3289 and paid 201 points to win. NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship driver Thomas Hazard (Midwest) won the race over teamate Jeremy Allen (Indiana) by a 0.06 second margin. Allen received 182 points for his second place finish while Clint Monahan (Georgia) garnered 164 points for third. Cody Evanson (Northwest) finished in the fourth position and gained 146 points while Bill Martin (West) rounded-out the top five and claimed 127 [...]

iRacing’s Driver-Friendly 3-Fer

November 24th, 2011

iRacing.com will debut three new “driver-friendly” online racing series will debut next week: NASCAR iRacing Class C Series (fixed setup) together with IZOD INDYCAR Series – Oval (fixed setup) and IZOD INDYCAR – Road (fixed setup). All three will be Class C series and, in the case of the two IZOD INDYCAR series, driver aids will be allowed. All three series will mirror their “open setup” counterparts when it comes to weekly schedules. However, race distances will be half of the open setup events. The two new IZOD INDYCAR Series will run on alternate weeks, starting next week with the oval series.

iRacing Pro Race of Champions Set for December 14

by David Phillips on November 23rd, 2011

Real World Pros Meet in the Virtual World The inaugural iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions (iPRC), featuring top professional race drivers from America and around the world, is set for December 14 with nearly $2,000 going to the winners’ favorite charities.   Among the drivers who have already committed to compete in the event are former NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte, ALMS GT champion Joey Hand, perennial NHRA Funny Car standout Ron Capps, INDYCAR winner and former Formula One driver Justin Wilson, Australia V8 Supercar winner Shane van Gisbergen, and GRAND-AM winner Jordan Taylor. The online racing event will be broadcast on www.iRacing.com beginning at 8 pm EST and will consist of two segments.  The first will see the stars racing their virtual Chevy Silverados for 20 laps under the [...]

Mahar Conquers Homestead

by Michael Conti on November 23rd, 2011

Homestead-Miami Speedway played host to all the action of Week 3 of the NASCAR iRacing.com Class B Series (NICBS).   Arguably one of the most fun tracks on the iRacing service, HMS offers some of the best in side-by-side online racing thanks to the variable banking of its corners. “Variable Banking” is a new style of track construction that has surfaced in the past decade where the bottom of the track is less banked than the top, which gives the top side a slight grip advantage over the bottom — an advantage offset by the fact that the top groove is the long way around any turn.  Because of this, variably banked tracks see drivers using three to four grooves of the track to try to find the fastest way around. [...]

Van Buren Victorious in British Road Racing Tournament

by David Phillips on November 23rd, 2011

Rudy van Buren topped an international field of sim racers in iRacing’s first British Road Racing Tournament, held on November 21/22 and featuring the Radical SR8 at Oulton Park.   Winner of one of last night’s four semi-finals, Van Buren started from pole position in the final and led all 15 laps to come home 1.662s ahead of Marius Golombeck who worked his way up from sixth on the grid, setting fastest lap of the race (1:25.110s) along the way. Pablo López, another semi-final winner, finished third ahead of a fierce battle for fourth that saw Dave Gelink, Evan Maillard and Davy Decorps finish within 1.3s of one another. V8 Supercar standout Shane van Gisbergen (Australia/NZ) came home seventh ahead of David Williams and Marcello Maio, with Marc Fangmann rounding-out the [...]

Davidowitz Aces Atlanta

by Tim Terry on November 23rd, 2011

NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series point leader Richie Davidowitz extended his advantage on Tuesday night by leading 24 laps en route to the win in Round Four of the online racing series at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Davidowitz, driving the #25 Davis Technologies Chevrolet, used a late race caution to parlay pit strategy into his first win of the season. Patrick Baldwin recovered from a spin through the infield on lap seven to finish second with Brandon Buchberger scoring his best finish of the season to date with a third place run. Joshua Laughton led 19 laps early in the race but had to settle for fourth while Justin Thompson finished fifth after he spun the tires on a late restart on Lap 149, which kicked the #79 from second place [...]

iRNC Three-Pack

by Chrisopher Leone on November 22nd, 2011

Christopher Leone wraps-up the first three round of the 2011 Season 4 inRacingNews Challenge with reports from Summit Point and Okayama International Circuit: Week One: Summit Point (full) The inRacingNews Challenge returned for the fourth and final season of 2011 with a round at its de facto home track, Summit Point Raceway. The first of four races on various Summit Point layouts, this week marks the only time where drivers would run on the full layout. In both the Pontiac Solstice and SpecRacer Ford classes, a familiar name won the week and thus led the point standings coming out of the gate. In Solstice, Kalle Ruokola went two-for-two and scored 178 points. In SRF, Season Two champion Gabriel Tobar returned with a vengeance in his lone race, scoring 271 points [...]

Engelhart Rocks Richmond

by Tim Terry on November 22nd, 2011

Herb Engelhart took another early step towards his second NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series (NiTMS) championship by taking the victory in Week Two of the series at the Richmond International Raceway. Engelhart, the 2011 Season Two series champion, has been involved in NiTMS series since its inception. Along with his teammates from Wide Open Racing, Engelhart paced the field in Round Two by capturing a 3487 Strength of Field (sof) race on Wednesday. Three cautions slowed the 100-lap event which saw three lead changes.  Engelhart led just eight laps in the race, including the most important one, en route to topping Taylor Meyn (who led 86 laps in the race), Kevin Walker, Mitch Miller and Troy Talman. The top three in this race would end the week atop the standings [...]

iPSRR Indianapolis Gallery

November 22nd, 2011

Three In A Row For Kerkhof

by Chris Hall on November 22nd, 2011

In a strategic 73 lap race around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Grand Prix Circuit, Atze Kerkhof secured maximum points for the third consecutive week, tightening his stranglehold on the iRacing.com Pro Series Championship standings. With a quarter of the season now complete, Kerkhof has established himself as an early favourite for the title, and a likely front-runner in next year’s iRacing.com NVIDIA Grand Prix Series which will see an influx of the top 25 Pro division sim racers in 2012. For the second race in succession, Kerkhof was beaten to the front row of the grid by Sebastian Schmalenbach, who grabbed the pole position with a time of 1:05.734, and Samuel Libeert.  Nevertheless, the Team Redline pilot was able to move into second spot by the first corner. Running a [...]

McLeod’s Watkins Fightback

by Patrick Atherton on November 22nd, 2011

Week Three of the sensational iRacing V8 Supercar Series by Bigpond Sport went upstate New York to historic Watkins Glen. The first two rounds each appeared a Madison Down benefit, but series arch-rival Mitch McLeod has shown a wheel or two and has looked threatening. All punters, including myself, predicted an explosive fight for the series and those projections are looking accurate. The heavy hitting started with qualifying, and even with a very rapid Rens Broekman, McLeod was hooked up and flying. With the top three times faster than last season’s pole time, McLeod in the Tatts.com Racing Falcon nabbed it from the Nfinity car of Broekman by 3/1000ths of a second. Richard Hamstead was third and Down, rather surprisingly, was fourth. Scott McLaughlin was fifth from Scott U’Ren, Cal [...]