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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.

NASCAR Drive for Diversity Video Features iRacer Dylan Smith

November 8th, 2011

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online racing

iRacer Dylan Smith plays a featured role in a video on NASCAR’s 2011 Drive for Diversity Combine, conducted at Langley Speedway in October.  The program brings together 26 drivers of diverse backgrounds ranging in age from 16 to 24 and representing 10 states, Mexico and Puerto Rico to compete for spots on the 2012 Revolution Racing team as part of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity. After trying-out for the team last year and not making the cut, Smith worked in the Revolution Racing shop and trained on iRacing virtually non-stop.  The results?  He was fourth fastest in October’s Drive for Diversity Combine. Click here to see the video.

Wyatt Gooden Featured in “Sports Car”

by James Kearney on October 31st, 2011

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ScreenHunter_01 Oct. 31 11.56

The November, 2011 edition of Sports Car (the official publication of the Sports Car Club of America) contains a revealing article on iRacer Wyatt Gooden’s emergence as one of the top young drivers on the America racing scene.  Here is an excerpt of James Kearney’s story in the First Gear column.  Click here to read the article in its entirety. Mid-Ohio, July 1, 2011. The young, slender man stepped from his fluorescent orange Formula F 1600 in impound, as if emerging from a dream. A faint bemused smile played on his face as he stood beside the car. Wyatt Gooden simply couldn’t believe it. In his first formula car race ever he had bested a field that included numerous champions. He would repeat the feat the next day in the [...]

Tim’s Corner Podcasts

by David Phillips on October 29th, 2011

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Tim’s Corner Podcasts

Can’t get enough of Tim Terry’s entertaining and informed reportage on the NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modifieds, NASCAR iRacing.com Class C Series and NVIDIA Cup?  You’re in luck.  The energetic Mr. Terry is launching a weekly podcast on his new website (TimsCorner.ca).  With the “real” racing season on the verge of hibernation, Terry plans to include a lot of iRacing content in the coming months, beginning with interviews with Frosty St Clair and Brandon Kettelle in the debut episode.  Terry plans to put up a new show each Wednesday. Not content with the podcasts, Terry is also backing Josh Connors in the upcoming NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series, as the Indiana Club sim racer will be sporting Tim’s Corner livery on his Impala. To listen to Tim’s Corner Unplugged, you can check [...]

iRacer Profile – Kimmo Suominen

by David Phillips on October 29th, 2011

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iRacer-Profile

For a guy whose favorite quote reads “all good things must come to an end. Preferably in a humongous explosion,” Kimmo Suominen enjoyed a particularly “un-volatile” 2011 Season 3.  No surprise, really, given his safety rating of 4.80 and iRating of 6812.  Given those impressive mumbers, it’s also no surprise the resident of Salo, Finland piloted his Corvette C6.R to not one but two racing series championships in Season 3 — the iRacing Prototype and GT Challenge titles in open and fixed set-ups.  With 34 wins in 43 starts in the open series, and 21 wins in 32 tries in the fixed setup C6.R, that comes out to a sweet 73.3% winning percentage. Nor were these two titles anything new for Suominen, who claimed the Season 2 GT Championship (fixed [...]

iRacer Profile: Ashley Miller

by David Phillips on October 22nd, 2011

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racing simulations

Ashley Miller has racing in his blood.  The great nephew of legendary Modified racer Junior Miller, Ashley has been a member of iRacing simsince 2009 and would love to transfer his sim racing skills to real world racing.  Those skills are formidable.  After finishing eighth in the NASCAR iRacing.com Class C Series Division One standings in 2011 Season 2, Miller has amassed a dozen wins in 32 starts this season and headed into the final week of the 21011 Season 3 atop the NiCCS standings. The Lexington, NC resident is not just about Silverados, however.  He’s started a couple of NASCAR iRacing.com Class B Series races this season, winning a 2432 SoF race and more than holding his own against the likes of “high-ranked guys” Josh Berry, Kevin King, Richie [...]

V8 iRacers farewell Dan

by Patrick Atherton on October 18th, 2011

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MID1

Sim racers are just like any other motorsport enthusiast. When a real-world driver’s life is tragically cut short,  all enthusiasts feel as though they have lost a colleague. The loss of IZOD Indycar driver and 2011 Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon was felt by all in the iRacing community. The V8 racers no less, as Wheldon was scheduled to drive at the Gold Coast V8 Supercar event. The Las Vegas tragedy took the edge off a normally charged-up and dynamic iRacing V8 Supercar Series by Bigpond Sport, when they arrived at Mid-Ohio for Week 11. This report will be equally subdued. The evening’s racing was as well-fought as usual, with plenty of spills. However the highlight of both timeslots was a silent tribute lap at the close of racing, organised [...]

Remarkable

October 15th, 2011

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driving games

iRacing.com was part of a remarkable evening of racing last Saturday at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, IL.  That’s when and where Shane Hmiel returned to Victory Lane on the anniversary of an accident that left him paralyzed.  A year after a crash in a USAC Silver Crown race at Terre Haute ended his career as a racing driver, Hmiel won USAC’s Gold Crown Midget Nationals as the owner of RW56 Motorsports’s 3 Wide Life midget driven to victory by five time USAC national midget champion Levi Jones. “What a remarkable night,” Jones said. “To be able to win in just my second start for Shane and on the anniversary weekend of his wreck is just absolutely amazing. The weekend couldn’t have worked out any better for us. It was [...]

iRacer Profile: Maksym Yefanov

by David Phillips on October 15th, 2011

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racing games

Should you find yourself in the middle of an iRacing.com Prototype and GT Challenge race with a Ford GT piloted by an iRacer in a blue and yellow helmet, chances are good that the Ford GT is being piloted by Maksym Yefanov.  The long-time iRacer has proudly adopted the colors of his native Ukraine for his helmet paint scheme.  Chances are also good that that Ford GT will be at or very near the front of the Ford GT class competition.  After all, Yefanov currently stands P2 in the Ford GT class of the iRacing.com Prototype and GT Challenge, trailing only Wyatt Foster in the points race thanks to a dozen wins and more than two dozen top five finishes in 27 starts. Q:    How long have you been sim [...]

The Certain Champion

by David Phillips on October 14th, 2011

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Ou (20) battled friend/teammate Doyle for the IZOD IndyCar Premier Series Oval title.

Dario Franchitti or Will Power?  Who will wear the mantle of 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series champion?  We won’t know for sure until the conclusion of Sunday’s IZOD IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but the identity of one 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series champion is already certain.  That would be 22 year old Yang Ou, winner of both the iRacing.com IZOD IndyCar Premier Series Oval and Road Racing competition and, as such, iRacing’s overall IndyCar champion.  And the spoils of his many online racing victories include a cash prize and a trip to Las Vegas for the 2011 IZOD Indy Car Series finale. And what a long, strange trip it’s been.  A native of Wu Han, China, Ou currently resides in Copenhagen, Denmark where he is studying media technology.  [...]

Q&A With the 2011 NiSWC Champion Ray Alfalla

by Jason Lofing on October 11th, 2011

312
"From the win at Daytona, the season had amazing flow and I was able to bring home good finishes almost every week."

Nine months ago, fifty drivers set out with a goal: to win the NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship and the title of best oval sim racer in the world, not to mention more than $10,500 worth of cash and prizes. With consistency the key, Ray Alfalla rose above the rest of the field to claim the title a fortnight ago with a run to second place at Phoenix International Raceway.  Heading into tonight’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Alfalla has not only matched Brad Davies for most wins this season (three), week-in and week-out he has kept his nose clean and constantly finished at the front of the field. I had the pleasure of sitting down for a chat with Ray after he clinched to find out more about what [...]

Rising Stars in Sebring Darkness

by Patrick Atherton on October 11th, 2011

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Rising Stars in Sebring Darkness

With Australia’s biggest V8 Supercar race, the Bathurst 1000, run and won in the real world the day before, the V8 iRacers were missing one or two of their real-world regulars, for obvious reasons. At Week Ten of the iRacing V8 Supercar Series by Bigpond Sport, the battle was revisited under the night skies of Sebring. Unlike NASCAR, Australia’s premier race cars’ headlights are real. With daylight savings the focus, and the availability, of the competitors was divided over two evening races. For “Race 1″ of Week Ten, Rens Broekman was on pole from series leader Madison Down. Joshua Muggleton followed up his VIR podium with third grid spot here. Next was split one newbie Beau Cubis from Lewis Dodimead, Cal Whatmore, Simon Black, Richard Lock, Paul Larkin and Gavin [...]

iRacer Profile: Christian Aranha

by David Phillips on October 8th, 2011

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racing games

Christian Aranha is not letting any grass grow beneath his feet when it comes to one of the newest cars on the iRacing service, the HPD ARX01.  The Floridian jumped into the sensational new LMP2 sports prototype, grabbed the lead in the iRacing.com Prototype and GT Challenge and hasn’t looked back.  With 15 wins in 28 online races (and 19 poles as well), Aranha has staked himself to a useful if not insurmountable lead in the points over rivals Klaus Ellenbrand and Ryan Murray, and it will take some doing to unseat him in the final weeks of 2011 Season 3.  He’s also currently P2 in the series Time Trial competition, as well. Not that Aranha is completely focused on the Prototype and GT Challenge.  He took time to compete [...]

Five Minutes With Hugo Luis

by Chris Hall on October 7th, 2011

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racing simulations

This weekend could witness a new era in sim-racing, as Hugo Luis sets-out to claim the iRacing.com NVIDIA Grand Prix Series title on Saturday in the penultimate round of the championship at the Suzuka International Circuit. In his début year of competition in online road-racing’s most prestigious series, the Brazilian has surged into a commanding 65 point lead ahead of current champion Greger Huttu (who will register a full compliment of results at Suzuka), and is on the precipice of of securing over $10,000 in prize money. As the My3id Team pilot prepared for this weekend’s crucial showdown, we tracked this relative new-comer to online sim-racing to get the insight on his championship so far. Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself Hugo… A: I born and live at [...]

Happy Birthday to Hungarian iRacing League

by Tibor Sándor on October 6th, 2011

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The first six rounds of the iRacing Triangle Series feature the Mustang FR500S.

The Hungarian iRacing League – run by iRacers.hu – started almost exactly one year ago and matches-up sim racers and even real life racers from all around the country. Participation is very good.  We currently have more than 30 permanent racers and we expect this number to go up even more during the series. The number of iRacing members doubled in Hungary in one year but for us Hungarians, it is still a relatively new thing. There are members who have been avid sim racers for a very long time and we are happy to have them in our competition. Following our summer league, the official 2011/2012 league has just started called the iRacers Triangle Cup. The “triangle” in the name represents the three cars used throughout the league. The [...]

Cream rises at the Resort

by Patrick Atherton on October 3rd, 2011

113
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 [...]

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 [...]

Down the Hatch

by Patrick Atherton on September 20th, 2011

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The field tries to chase Down

Week Seven of the iRacing V8 Supercar Series by Bigpond Sport travelled to the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. The Indy “club” section, with its tight, narrow confines, is a stark contrast to the wide-open, sweeping curves of the forest section. With its dramatic elevation changes and awkward cambers, it would prove to be another tyre-killer. With less than half the season to run and only three points separating series leader Mitch McLeod from the rapidly closing Madison Down, things were getting tense. McLeod did what he needed, duly taking pole from Madison Down, by 5/1000ths of a second, the story of the season. Once again, Down was the cat amongst the Nfinity pidgeons, with U’Ren and Broekman third and fourth. Richard Hamstead was an excellent fifth in his first [...]

iRacer Profile – Trent Brown

September 17th, 2011

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racing games

There’s more to Trent Brown than Sprint Cars.  After all, he owns a fair number of iRacing vehicles and holds-down P26 in Division Three of the iRacing.com GRAND-AM Online Sports Car Series in Daytona Prototypes.  He’s currently finishing his mechanical engineering degree at the University of Michigan and, as an alumni of legendary Ilmor Engineering, not surprisingly he loves race cars with big time horsepower.  Oh and, as you’ll see, he’s married to a very supportive wife, Kelly. But when it comes down to it, at least in terms of iRacing, this Wolverine is first and foremost a sprint car racer.  After finishing behind Vinnie Sansone, PJ Stergios and Kayne Hills in the 2011 Season 2 iRacing.com Sprint Car Cup, he is solidly ensconced in second place in the Season [...]