Kerkhof Back To The Top at VIR

by Chris Hall on December 20th, 2011

Putting the ‘momentary blip’ of the previous round into the iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing history books, Atze Kerkhof returned to the top-step of the podium in dominating at the virtual Virginia International Speedway. With the Dutchman taking his sixth virtual Williams-Toyota FW31 win of the season in Round Seven, there are now only three remaining candidates for the 2011 iPSRR title. Although Kerkhof was pipped to pole position by Martin Krönke, who set a 1:21.480 qualifying time, the Team Redline sim-racer was at the front of the pack by the time he’d exited Turn One. In a points-punishing misjudgement of braking, Krönke relinquished the lead as he skidded across the grass around the outside of the first corner . The error sent the My3id pilot falling down the order [...]

inRacingNews Challenge x 3

by Chrisopher Leone on December 20th, 2011

Week Four of the final 2011 season of the inRacingNews Challenge saw the Pontiac Solstices and SpecRacer Fords tackle the tricky Lime Rock Park road course. Coming-off of its second round at Summit Point Raceway in the first three weeks, Lime Rock represented a different challenge for the series’ top sim racers. In Solstice, Michael Booth’s one win in two starts was good enough for 168 points and the best performance of the week. Nenad Matijevic placed second with 149, while third place went to Michael Vaughn with 126. Meanwhile, Gabriel Tobar’s one-for-one week produced 161 points and top honors in SRF, with Daniel Mageste’s 144 points placing him in second. Sean Farrell edged Jan V. Merkatz for third place, 135 points to 134. Chris Hughson paced all Solstice statistical [...]

Osborn, Engelhart Set Sail at SoBo

by Tim Terry on December 19th, 2011

While Herb Engelhart will go down in the record books as the overall winner from Round Six of the NASCAR iRacing .comTour Modifed Series (NiTMS) at South Boston Speedway, it was Brett Osborn who made one of the biggest statements of the week. Osborn took one of the top two online races of the week, which set the tone when it comes to the weekly standings at the Virginia track. Osborn’s win came in Thursday’s 3102 Strength of Field (SoF) race in which he led 47 of 120 laps at the famed Virginia short track. David Colley was second, followed by Rick Webster, Donny Moore and Thomas Zinninger. Six cautions slowed the race while three leaders swapped the lead twice and front row starters Jerold John (one lap) and Jamie [...]

Miller Magic at New Hampshire

by Tim Terry on December 19th, 2011

Defending NASCAR iRacing.com Class C Series (NiCCS) Champion Ashley Miller showcased his talent once again in the series by taking the overall win during Week Six of the 2011 Season Four season at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Miller’s victory in the 3012 Sterngth of Field (SoF) race on Tuesday put him over the top for Round Six with 188 points. Seven cautions slowed the 90-lap event for 25 laps and Miller showed his strength by leading 55 laps in the event. Second place belonged to Alan Jones while pole-sitter Heath Hindman, Roger Wagner and Phil Brown completed the top five. Runner-up in the Granite State belonged to Greg Evans based on his performance in the top split race of the week. The online race, which tipped the scales at [...]

Chad Smith’s Five Screen View of HPD-ARX01c at Lime Rock

December 18th, 2011

iRacer Profile: Landon Sciacca

December 17th, 2011

Columbus, Ohio’s Landon Sciacca is a fan short tracks, be they real or virtual.  His favorite track on the iRacing service?  Richmond International Raceway.  His favorite “real life” tracks?  Toledo Speedway,Columbus Motor Speedway and Winchester Speedway.  Sciacca knows where-of he speaks in both cases, competing in the Main Event Racing Series and focusing on NASCAR iRacing.com Class B, C, Late Models and Legends in iRacing.  To good effect.  With 13 top fives (and six wins) in 27 starts, he’s currently second in points to Bill Wease in Class C (fixed) Division 4, and 12th in Legends Cup Division 1 with 37 top fives (and 11 wins) in 48 starts. Q:    How long have you been sim racing? A:    Five or six years now, with Dirt Track Racing 2, rFactor, Nascar [...]

Hudson Scores Chicagoland Win

by Tim Terry on December 16th, 2011

Tyler Hudson made a rare 2011-12 GSRacing.net Truck Series appearance on Thursday night and wasted little time reminding the competitors of the series who he is. Hudson captured the victory in the Exlander Designs Solutions 150 at the Chicagoland Speedway, his first of the season in only his second start of the campaign. Hudson took the point for the final time with 15 laps to go in the 100 lap, 150 mile online race and never looked back en route to the triumph. Brad Wright returned to the series with a second place run as he held-off a hard charging Ray Alfalla for the spot. The podium run for the 2011 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Champion was his first top five of the GSR season. Completing the top five were [...]

iRacer of the Year

by David Phillips on December 16th, 2011

iRacing.com is excited to announce the first annual iRacers of the Year awards.  The iRacing.com 2011 Driver of the Year will be awarded to a member for his/her achievements in competition on the virtual race tracks of iRacing.com.  The iRacing.com 2011 Member of the Year will be awarded to a member for his/her contributions to the iRacing community as whole as the result of their technical contributions, helping other drivers and/or simply adding to the fun, fellowship and sense of community. Below are the nominees for the iRacer of the Year awards.   Voting runs from December 15 through December 31 at 23:59 GMT and the winners will be announced in early January.   Click here to cast your votes. Driver of the Year •   Ray Alfalla – NASCAR iRacing.com Series World [...]

Full Moon over Richmond

by Jameson Spies on December 15th, 2011

Week Six of the NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series (NiCAS) took competitors under the lights at Richmond International Raceway.  Track position is key at the 0.75 mile D-shaped track. With the right strategy, a driver can turn a top ten car into a winning car, more so here than anywhere else on the schedule. A full moon set its sight on Richmond throughout the week (!), and one thing is for sure, night time definitely brings out the competitor in everyone. Kile Gottula once again represented California well, stamping his name at the top of the weekly standings. With his big week, Gottula extended his points lead over Steve Ritter, who was no slouch, putting himself fifth overall on the week. Gottula led 76 of the 140 laps from his [...]

Slepian Slips to the Top

by Allen Krier on December 15th, 2011

For Week Six of the iRacing.com Street Stock Series, top sim racers traveled to the great north woods and the famed Oxford Plains Speedway. In total, 693 racers took to the track at least one time during the week at the 3/8th mile oval. Weekly High Strength of Field Last week’s high Strength of Field (SoF) race had a ranking of 2838, which paid 171 points to win. Taking home the honors of winning the top SoF race was Dylan Slepian (New York). Slepian started sixth and lead 14 laps in route to a two second victory over NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series regular Brandon Buchberger (Illinois), who led 27 laps and collected 152 points for his effort. Chris Hughson (New York) finished the race in the third position, over five [...]

Round Six to Berry

by Tim Terry on December 15th, 2011

The iRacing.com Late Model Tour headed into Iowa Speedway for Round Six of the series and it was a familiar face to the iRacing service that ended-up on top of the standings at the end of seven days of sim racing. Josh Berry, a NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship driver took the overall win on Week Six against 721 others who saw a green flag at the Iowa short track. Berry earned his 208 point total with a win in Thursday’s 3362 Strength of Field (SoF) race. Berry led 29 of the 45 laps in the race and crossed the line ahead of Nick Johnston by three tenths of a second. Jason Fuchs was third, followed to the line by Brian Ewoldt and Rick Ricketts. Berry, Johnston and pole sitter [...]

Davis, Speed, van Gisbergen Shine in iPRoC

by David Phillips on December 15th, 2011

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

Ottinger Steals Victory at New Hampshire

by Jason Lofing on December 14th, 2011

Nick Ottinger pulled-off what likely will be the wildest finish of the 2011 NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS) season on Tuesday night at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  Ottinger stunned everyone by going from fifth to first in just one lap to steal the win from Kevin King, who had been the dominant sim racer for most of latter part of the event. Ottinger started the online race from the pole, and looked to have a very fast car but King got by him on a restart and used his track position to maximum advantage. That is, until the final restart. King led the field down to the line with only three laps remaining, holding the lead over teammates Marcus Lindsey, Richie Davidowitz, and Daniel Pope II. King took-off clean on [...]

Salvatore’s Stafford Story

by Tim Terry on December 13th, 2011

The chances of Brandon Salvatore repeating as the NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series (NiTMS) champion are very much alive after his performance during Week Five of the series at Stafford Motor Speedway. The reigning champion was once again atop the sim racing Tour Modified world after his big win vaulted him back to the head of the weekly standings and will surely make him a factor for the title when drop weeks are factored-in. Salvatore captured the glory during Thursday’s 3524 Strength of Field (SoF) race in which he led all but one of the event’s 100 laps. Runner-up Derrick Cormier2 finished four tenths of a second behind, followed by former champ Herb Engelhart, Jerold John and Ray Farlow. The race featured just the one lead change between Salvatore and [...]

Stress at Suzuka

December 13th, 2011

The iRacing V8 Supercar series by Bigpond Sport was a tense affair. By the time the sun had set on week 6 at Suzuka, there was a hefty virtual repair bill across the field. The in-form trio of Madison Down, Rens Broekman and Mitchell McLeod were at it again, qualifying for the main event in that order. However, Down remains the pick of that bunch and ran away with victory. McLeod was caught up in early carnage, putting him back as low as fifth. The carnage then blew up into full scale warfare. Fortunately for McLeod, he dodged some bullets and clawed his way back up to second place at the flag, ahead of Broekman and his Tatts.com teammate Scott U’Ren. Nobody, however, could touch Down. Further back, moods reached [...]

O’Keefe Tops Intel GT Series North American Regionals

by David Phillips on December 12th, 2011

Round 2 Begins Tuesday 16 year old Kevin O’Keefe (Eastern Canada) battled his way from fourth to first on the opening lap and was never headed en-route to victory in Sunday’s Intel GT Series North American Finals.   O’Keefe’s HPD ARX-01c led all 13 laps en route to the online racing victory at Circuit Spa-Francorchamps, setting fastest lap of the race and outdistancing Ken Leach (New York) by 9.7s with Austin Cobb (Mid-South) coming home third. The win earned O’Keefe an Intel Core i5 processor, motherboard and $50 in iRacing credits.  What’s more, he and the other top eight finishers in last night’s race earned a spot in the Intel GT Series Finale in March, 2012.   In addition to O’Keefe, Leach and Cobb, the iRacers to qualify for the Intel GT [...]

Zandy iPSRR Gallery

December 12th, 2011

Spindel Snatches Last Gasp Win

by Chris Hall on December 12th, 2011

In a dramatic 71 laps around the virtual Zandvoort Grand Prix Circuit, Emil Spindel became only the second sim-racer to chalk up a victory in the 2011 iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing, breaking Atze Kerkhof’s monopoly on wins.  Indeed, Spindel capitalized on a fuel calculation error by the championship leader to clinch his triumph on the final lap of the race. On the face of things, Round Six of the iRacing Pro Series looked set to be another chance for Kerkhof to extended his 100% winning-record in the Williams-Toyota FW31′s.  After all, Zandvoort is the Dutchman’s ‘home’ circuit and he grabbed the  pole-position with a time of 1:12.398.  What’s more, his clean break-away from the line and lead of two-seconds within a handful of laps, was certainly running to script.  [...]

iRacing Pro Race of Champions Gets Green Flag Wednesday

December 12th, 2011

Real World Pros Meet in the Virtual World The green flag waves on the inaugural iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions (iPRoC) this Wednesday, December 14.  Make that two green flags, as top professional race drivers from around the world will compete in a pair of online races Wednesday evening, both of which will be broadcast on www.iRacing.com/live beginning at 8 pm EST. The first event will see the Pros racing their digital Chevrolet Silverados for 25 laps under the lights on iRacing’s virtual version of Charlotte Motor Speedway. In the “night cap,” the Pros will tackle Watkins Glen International’s Cup Course for ten laps in their Mazda MX5s. More than two dozen professional race drivers are expected to compete in Wednesday’s races including NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte, GRAND-AM [...]

Berry Ices Iowa Win on Last Lap Pass

December 12th, 2011

Mooresville, North Carolina’s Josh Berry was at the right place at the right time on Thursday night to claim his first win of the GSRacing.net Truck Series season in the JDR Graphics 125 at Iowa Speedway. Berry swept to the lead for the final time on the last lap of the online race when Byron Daley (Bronx, NY) pushed high out of the final corner, grabbing a small piece of the wall with the right rear of his MattDRacing.com Silverado. The small miscue from Daley opened the door for Berry to drive to the inside and take the victory by a truck length in the #72 Main Performance PC Chevrolet. Daley held-on for second while point leader Thomas Hazard (Rochester, MN) crossed the line in third and in turn extended [...]