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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.

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 [...]

McLeod Wins Battle, Loses War

by Patrick Atherton on January 24th, 2012

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MADISON DOWN THE SERIES CHAMP AGAIN Just to add a little spice to the already-hot iRacing V8 Supercar Series finale, series points leader Madison Down was unable to front for the maximum points Monday Night Showdown at Road Atlanta due to pressing travel arrangements. While some would argue that it detracted from the event, leaving the series destiny at the mercy of an SOF points variable, it also meant that Mitchell McLeod and Rens Broekman, both trailing Down, would have a genuine shot at series victory. At the very least, the points gap would be minimal. Broekman drew first blood with pole position by a tenth of a second, which is a country mile in this series. McLeod put the Tatts.com Falcon on the front row. Mick Claridge made a [...]

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 [...]

iRacer Profile: Joni Hagner

by David Phillips on January 21st, 2012

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It would come as no surprise if Finland’s Joni Hagner were to stop into his local tattoo parlor for some bow-tie “ink.”  After all, he’s pretty much a Chevrolet kind of guy when it comes to iRacing.  A fixture in the top ten of the Corvette class of the iRacing.com Prototype and GT Challenge (Fixed and Open), he’s got his first championship in sight heading into the final weekend of 2011 Season 4, holding a narrow edge on Fernando Pento in the Fixed Set-up series.  He’s also piloted his ‘Vette to the runner-up spot behind countryman Teemu Vuolle in the Open Set-up series. And Hagner is a very respectable P31 in Division 2 of the NASCAR Class A standings in, what else, a Chevrolet Impala. In truth, Hagner’s not so [...]

Multi-Class racing comes to RSR

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

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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 [...]

Daley Sails to New Smyrna Win

by Tim Terry on January 20th, 2012

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Daley battles Hightower (20), O'Keefe and Danny Hanson (32) on the way to his win at New Smyrna.

Byron Daley reversed what has been a streak of bad races for the #91 MattDRacing.com Chevrolet team in the GSRacing.net Truck Series in a big way Thursday night by taking the victory in the JDR Graphics 125 at the New Smyrna Speedway. Daley, who came within a half straightaway of winning the JDR Graphics 100 at Iowa Speedway last week, passed Jordan Hightower on the outside on the final restart with five laps to go. Third place in the JDR Graphics 125 belonged to Kenneth OKeefe while Danny Hansen and Brandon Kettelle rumbled home to complete the top five. The race was a slugfest for the sim racers in the GSRacing.net Truck Series as 16 yellow flag periods slowed the pace of the online race, which took only one hour [...]

Tour Mods Title is Wide Open

January 19th, 2012

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The Tour Mods action at USA International and New Hampshire set the stage for a two-way battle for the season title at Thompson in Week 12.

Wide Open Racing teammates Brandon Salvatore and Taylor Meyn flexed their muscle in the NASCAR iRacing Tour Modified division during competition on Weeks Ten and Eleven in the series. Salvatore, who is looking to defend his Tour Modified crown, took one step forward at USA International Speedway when he took the week’s big split online race. The win for Salvatore, which was rated at 4174 Strength of Field (SoF) saw the champ lead 26 of the 100 laps after starting second. Former series titlist and pole-sitter Herb Engelhart led the first 74 laps before turning the lead over to Salvatore in the only lead change of the race. Derrick Cormier2 came home third, followed by Taylor Meyn and Troy Talman. Salvatore took home 254 points for the win in the [...]

Stepping-Up in Class A

by Jameson Spies on January 19th, 2012

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More than 500 Class A racers took to the high banks at MIS.  Here

With only two weeks remaining in the the NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series season, Michigan International Speedway hosted one of the most pivotal weeks of the season. With speeds well over 200mph, a comfortable feel for drivers was crucial. While some drivers stepped up their game to match the intensity of MIS, others lost ground at one of the worst times imaginable. One driver stepping up his game not only this week, but this season is Kile Gottula. Gottula leads the NiCAS Division One standings by a considerable margin, and he put his stamp on the championship this week in Michigan. Placing himself at the top of the charts at MIS all but l locks-up the California sim racer’s championship.  Although mathematically eligible, Steve Ritter would need a minor miracle [...]

Street Stocks: Paquette Still on Top

by Allen Krier on January 18th, 2012

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More than 600 Street Stocks answered the call at CMS.

Week 11 of the iRacing.com Street Stock Series saw sim racers travel to Charlotte, North Carolina to race on the 1/4 mile Legends Oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway. During the week, 629 drivers made one or more starts while 211 drivers turned at least one qualifying lap and Maxime Paquette (Eastern Canada) looked to increase his points lead in his drive to bring home the season championship. Weekly High Strength of Field Last week’s high Strength of Field (SoF) race registered at 2773 which paid 168 points for the victory. New NASCAR iRacing,com Series World Championship qualifier Paul Kusheba (Connecticut) found himself on the top step of last week’s high SoF race after starting sixth. Kusheba lead 43 laps in route to a four tenth victory over Benjamin Harste (Midwest). [...]

Baldwin’s Race, Warren’s NiPS Crown

by Jason Lofing on January 18th, 2012

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Thrill of victories, agony of defeat: On his way to the NiPS title, Warren (82) leads eventual race winner Baldwin (52) and Ottinger (05) whose bid for the title was destined to be derailed by a crash.

25 Qualify for 2012 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship With a championship and the top 25 points positions – and their guaranteed berths in the 2012 World Championship – in the balance, the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series headed to Kentucky Speedway for the last race of the season. Alex Warren came into the finale with a three point in the standings, needing a finish of twelfth of better to clinch the title while Marcus Lindsey, Patrick Baldwin, Kevin King, Richie Davidowitz and Nick Ottinger looked to overhaul him in the standings with strong finishes. Also, Josh Connors, PJ Stergios, Matt Sentell,  Kenneth O’Keefe and Mitchell Hunt were among the sim racers hoping to lock-in a spot in the top 25 in points and secure their place in the 2012 NASCAR [...]

Schmalenbach Surges to Sebring Victory

by Chris Hall on January 17th, 2012

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Schmalenbach used a combination of speed and strategy to grab his first iPSRR win at Sebring.

In a race of pit-stop tactics and survival, Sebastian Schmalenbach scored his first 2011 iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing (iPSRR) victory in the penultimate round of the championship with a masterful fuel-strategy over 52 laps of the virtual Sebring International Raceway. As the green flag dropped Pablo López tried to squeeze his Williams-Toyota FW31 between the left-hand wall and My3id’s Andre Boettcher. Finding there was no room to get through, the Radicals Racing sim racer darted to the right, directly into the path of Twister Racing’s Jeremy Bouteloup.  Bouteloup’s attempt at evasive action resulted in contact with Roy Kolbe, triggering a chain reaction involving a further eight cars – including Ian Lake, who barrel-rolled into retirement along the front-straight. The midfield carnage on the start-line separated the field into two [...]

Karlavige King of Kentucky

by Tim Terry on January 17th, 2012

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The NASCAR iRacing.com Class Series heads from Iowa to Pocono and Dover in the final weeks of the season.

Gale Force Racing’s Jason Karlavige is quickly making a name for himself on the iRacing service. The sim racer who has made selected starts in the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series and who is a winner in the GSRacing.net Truck Series put another big stamp on his resume by winning Week Ten in the NASCAR iRacing.com Class C Series at the Kentucky Speedway. The Pennsylvanian’s week-winning victory came during Friday’s 3426 Strength of Field race, as he led 27 of the 90 laps to defeat Allen Lewis, Greg Spears, Mason Weitzel and Heath Hindman. The race featured nine cautions and saw 15 lead changes amongst ten drivers with Karlavige leading the most laps after starting on pole. Karlavige took away 215 points for the win. Chad McCumbee came home second for [...]

Motorsport Stars Gravitate to iRacing at Autosport International

by Chris Hall on January 16th, 2012

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Gary Paffett gets some virtual seat-time before the Sky cameras.

Last week saw iRacing make their first “full” appearance at the Autosport International Show with a dedicated booth.  In the opening two-days (reserved for the motorsport trade patrons), the iRacing stand (72465) was one of the busiest at the NEC, Birmingham show.With a pair of VRX 3D motion simulators, the iRacing display brought delight to sim-racers, race fans and drivers alike. The first professional driver to dip his toe into the iRacing Motorsport Simulator was Mercedes-Benz DTM driver/McLaren F1 tester Gary Paffett.  Paffett found himself pitted against Sky Sports correspondent Craig Butler in a demo race featuring the HPD ARXo1cat Spa-Francorchamps.  With the benefit of some guidance from Kevin Bobbitt, iRacing Director of Marketing, Butler and Paffett started their three-lap sprint. Following a close start, Parfett was able ro break [...]

Pro Series Finales Broadcasts on Tap

by David Phillips on January 16th, 2012

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iRacing.com will broadcast the finales of the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS) and iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing (iPSRR) this week on Tuesday and Saturday.  In addition to crowning iRacing’s two newest Pro champions, the races will determine the final 25 qualifiers for iRacing’s upcoming online racing World Championship series, the 2012 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship and the 2012 iRacing.com World Championship Grand Prix Series. First on tap is the NiPS finale at Kentucky Speedway at 9 pm (Eastern) start on Tuesday, January 17 (02:00 GMT January 18).  The race will feature 43 starters going for the final checkered flag of the season over 133 laps of the 1.5 mile speedway under the stars.  At the forefront of the competition will be the battle for the NiPS title.  Alex [...]

RSR F1 Championship for Vincent

by Ed Sutcliff and Les Turner on January 14th, 2012

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After joining the Red Sox Racing League at the start of its third season of the 2011 calendar, Brad Vincent quickly put veteran league members on notice that he was going to be a force to be reckoned with.  The RSR 2011 Season Three schedule called for twelve races between Sept 15th, 2011 and December 8th, 2011.  Championship points were accumulated throughout the season, but drivers were only scored in their best 10 of 12 events.  The two race cushion allows league members to recover from poor finishes or missed races, but Vincent didn’t need the help.  He completely dominated the competition by winning seven races, including the first and last races of the season.      The last race of the season, the “Toboggan Des Ardennes F1 GP at Spa”, [...]

iRacer Profile – Teemu Lappalainen

by David Phillips on January 14th, 2012

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Away from the sim machine, Teemu Lappalainen is the shy and retiring type; the sort of fellow who likes to sit on the beach — in anonymity.  Turn the Finn lose on the tracks of iRacing.com, however, and he is anything but shy . . . or retiring.  After finishing sixth in the HPD ARX01c’s inaugural season of the iRacing.com Prototype/GT Challenge, he’s out to do far better in 2011 Season 4.  As the light at the end of the seasonal tunnel grows ever brighter he finds himself in the midst of a torrid tussle for the overall championship.  Heading into the penultimate weekend of the season, Lappalainen occupied fifth spot in the standings behind Roderic Kreunen, Darren Marsh, Pascal Dupers and Cristian Lorente.  However, he’s just ten markers behind [...]

Third Annual World Cup of iRacing on Tap

by David Phillips on January 13th, 2012

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The third annual World Cup of iRacing is nearly upon us. In just 10 days the green flag will wave on a week of spirited international competition among the 25 top qualifiers from iRacing’s 38 geographical clubs. Of those 25 clubs, two dozen will be looking to dethrone two-time World Cup champions DE-AT-CH (Germany/Austria/Switzerland) in a week of road racing (Star Mazda at Spa-Francorchamps) and oval track (Chevrolet Silverado at Michigan International Speedway) competition. The World Cup tournament seeds the 25 qualifying clubs into four groups for the opening round of competition, the Group Championship, which run from January 24-27 with races rotating between road and oval. The top nine road and oval drivers from each club will advance to the Group Finals on January 28, with the top scoring [...]

Daytona Past and Present

by David Phillips on January 13th, 2012

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When it comes to Daytona International Speedway, iRacing will soon be offering its members the best of both worlds: Daytona past and Daytona present. Following the 2010 racing season, of course, the famed “Big D” underwent a $20 million resurfacing project.  Although the primary focus was the 2.5 mile oval, the Bus Stop chicane and adjoining apron on Daytona’s 3.56 mile road course were also resurfaced.  In keeping with its commitment to the accuracy of its digital race circuits, iRacing conducted a total rescan of Daytona following the repaving work and is in the process of rebuilding its version of the track. Although the “new” Daytona International Speedway will be integrated into iRacing’s various online racing series in February, the service will continue to make the “old” Daytona available to [...]

Alfalla Rumbles to Blue Grass Win

by Tim Terry on January 13th, 2012

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Alfalla Rumbles to Blue Grass Win

The 2011 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Champion Ray Alfalla finally got the monkey off his back Thursday night by scoring his first GSRacing.net Truck Series win of the season in the Mason Baker Designs 150 at Kentucky Speedway. Alfalla started in the last row of the online race and worked his way through traffic, taking the lead for the first and final time on Lap 93 of 100. Thomas Hazard rebounded from a dismal Chase to the GSRacing.net Championship to finish second at Kentucky. Kevin King finished in third, followed by Daniel Pope II and Chase driver Dylan Duval. For the second consecutive race, Hazard led the most laps in a GSRacing.net Truck Series event as he ran up front for a race high 43 laps. Brandon Kettelle entered the [...]

2D or Not 2D?

by Katier Scott on January 13th, 2012

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Is 3D the way forward for sim racing? Probably sim racing’s biggest technology ‘buzz word’ during 2011 was 3D.  What with the growth of 3D TV, the vast increase in the number of 3D films being released and 3D’s cause being championed throughout the gaming world, inevitably, 3D is a subject the sim racing world is keeping its eye on, be it in 2 or 3D. 3D is also a technology that visitors to the Autosport International show are getting the chance to sample for themselves, as the VRX simulators running at iRacing.com’s booth at the NEC this weekend are both triple screen, nVidia 3D setups. However, with one setup running in 2D mode to allow spectators to view the racing easier while the other is running in 3D, it’s [...]