‘Spectacular’ Weekend for iRacers

by David Phillips on September 28th, 2009

Urban legend has it that noted auto racing sage Pancho Carter once observed, “If you can’t win, be spectacular.”  iRacers Scott Sharp and Joey Logano certainly took Pancho at his word last weekend at Road Atlanta and Dover International Speedway.

On Thursday, Sharp walked away unscathed from a colossal accident during practice for the American Le Mans Series’ 12th annual Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.  Sharp’s LMP1 Acura collided with Derk Werner’s Farnbacher Loles GT2 Porsche as the latter exited the pits, sending the Patrón Highcroft Acura into a horrific series of end-over-end flips.  Although his car was virtually destroyed, Sharp hopped out of the wreckage as soon as it came to a stop.

“I really don’t know what happened,” Sharp said. “I was heading up the hill in sixth gear and felt a hit in the right rear. The wheel arches are very high with the wide front tires on the Acura – I didn’t see a thing – only felt the contact. I knew it was a big one and I am just really grateful to Acura and all the boys at Patrón Highcroft Racing for building such a strong car . . . I was just thinking to myself how much I like this place when next thing I’m headed upside down with a mouth full of Georgia clay.”

With support from Acura, the rival de Ferran Motorsports and a number of other teams in the ALMS paddock, Patrón Highcroft embarked on the herculean task of building a new car from scratch in little more than 24 hours.  Their hard work was rewarded when Sharp’s teammate – David Brabham – started the race on time in the new car, albeit from pit lane given the team’s inability to qualify.  Driving an understandably circumspect race, Brabham and Sharp worked their way up to sixth place overall when torrential rains forced the ALMS to halt the race.  With the de Ferran Acura finishing well down the order after, first a wayward competitor punted Gil de Ferran into a sandtrap, then Scott Dixon walloped the Turn Five tire wall all on his own, Patrón Highcroft is now firmly in the driver’s seat to clinch the 2009 ALMS LMP1 title.

Patrón Highcroft Acura en route to sixth at Petit Le Mans

Among the other iRacers at Petit Le Mans, the Porsche 911 RSR of Dominic Cicero and Bryan Sellers (regular visitors to the iRacing Driver Development Lab) finished 12th in GT2, one better than iRacer Joey Hand and teammate Bill Auberlin’s BMW M3.

Over at Dover International Speedway, Logano at least made it to the AAA 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race before inadvertently making all the sports show highlights.  Caught out by a concertina effect chain reaction to a competitor ahead braking harder than expected, Tony Stewart nudged Logano into a spin whereupon he was hit by Reed Sorenson and sent into an endless series of barrel rolls, the Home Depot Toyota rolling seven and half times before it came to rest on its side, then slowly fell back onto what remained of its wheels.

A dizzy Logano emerged from the wreck and commented, “That was the wildest ride I’ve ever been on.  It just really scared the heck out of me . . . It started rolling, and I was in there, thinking, ‘Man, just make this thing stop.’  I’m not sure what happened, I haven’t seen the replay . . . I’m not sure I want to.”

As for the race itself, A.J. Allmendinger finished as the highest place iRacer in seventh, with Marcos Ambrose in 14th and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. twentieth.  The day before, iRacer Brad Keselowski finished third in the Nationwide Series race at Dover.  Keselowski’s race was noteworthy for the fact that he had contact with Denny Hamlin on Lap 189 that resulted in Hamlin’s retirement and a heated post-race exchange between the two drivers on pit road.  The third place leaves Keselowski in a similar spot in the Nationwide Series points race, now 86 points behind Carl Edwards with seven races remaining on the schedule.

And out in Las Vegas, three iRacers finished virtually nose-to-tail in Saturday evening’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.  Unfortunately, they finished 16th, 17th and 18th, “they” being Chad McCumbee, Colin Braun and Max Papis, with Braun slipping from fifth to seventh in the CWTS points as a result.