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 Trey Jarrell exchanged the lead twice.

More than 700 iRacers made the virtual tow to Iowa Speedway for Week Six of the Late Model Series.

Brian Macklin came home second for the week when his second place finish in a 3387 SoF race resulted in the Atlantic Club member being rewarded with 185 points. Johnston was the winner of the race, leading 27 of the 45 laps in the event and taking the checkered flag by seven tenths of a second. David Combstock led 18 laps from the pole before falling to third, ahead of Brad Mahar and Joshua Burchette. Johnston, who scored 206 points for his win in this race, would start a total of seven races during Week Six, winning two, and finished the round with 161 points, good for sixth place overall. Comstock’s 164 point performance in this race locked-down fifth place for the week at Iowa.

G. Allen Lewis pocketed 183 points for his win on Saturday – good enough for third place overall . The victory came during a 2990 SoF race in which Lewis led wire-to-wire in the 45 lap race but barely edged Alex Ciambrone for the victory. Third belonged to Michael Guest with Ricketts coming home with another top five finish in fourth. Rounding out the top five in this race was Daniel Williamson.

Nestled in fourth for the week is David Rattler, who scored the victory in a 2655 SoF race on Thursday. Rattler was the only leader in the event, which featured a margin of victory of seven tenths of a second. Ciambrone was second with Lance Gomez Jr, Ronnie Binkley and Kyle Hayden also scoring top five runs. Rattler scored 166 points for the victory.

James Falcon Pratt made the most starts of week, hitting the grid 22 times over the seven day period. Ciambrone’s 14 starts on the week produced nine wins, the most of any iLMT driver at Iowa. Tommy Burns was the quickest driver in qualifying, lapping the Iowa oval in 24.273 seconds. Kevin J Myers, Kevin Burris, Binkley and Ian Blanchard completed the top five of the 347 who qualified for starting positions in the 45-lap shootouts. Thomas D Smith took the top spot in the Time Trial competition over Heath Smith, Burris, Burns and Myers.

Trenton Moriarty will leave with one less point on his championship lead as now Burris is just four points behind (914-910) in the battle for the top spot on the iRacing Late Model Tour standings. Rattler has closed-in to two dozen points behind the leader (891) while Matt Campbell continues to sit fourth overall with 830 points. Six points behind Campbell sit Myers and Division Two leader Matt Campbell, who are knotted at 824 points. Divisional point leaders from Divisions Three to Ten include David Rotruck, Binkley, Sean Sewell, Brody Hayes, Kevin Sockow, Mike Hasty, William Stone2 and Christoher Curtis.

Next up for the short track drivers of the iRacing Late Model Tour is the tri-cornered Concord Speedway. Can the tiny triangle make Moriarity’s point lead even more miniscule or can the Washington driver add to his advantage? Find out here, next week at inRacingNews.

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track.