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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.

Ottinger Marches to Milwaukee Win

by Tim Terry on November 4th, 2011

41
Ottinger Marches to Milwaukee Win

Current NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Champion Nick Ottinger made his move on fellow Pro driver Brandon Buchberger with 13 laps to go to take the victory in the C2C Racing Designs 120 at the Milwaukee Mile. Ottinger, who took two right side tires on his final stop at Lap 93 of the 120 lap event, led the final 12 circuits en route to his first career GSRacing.net Truck Series win. Josh Berry was positioned on Ottinger’s back bumper and poised to make a move on the #05 Gale Force Suspension Chevrolet when the final caution of the evening came-out with two laps to go. Berry was thus credited with second place ahead of Brandon Williamson, Thomas Hazard and Chad Coleman. Eleven yellow flags slowed an action-packed race, which took one [...]

iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing Opener Broadcast Saturday

by David Phillips on November 4th, 2011

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The iPSRR kicks-off at majestic Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday.

PSRTV’s coverage of opening round of the iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing will be broadcast live on iRacing.com on Saturday, November 5 beginning at 6 pm Eastern (22:00 GMT).  Featuring the Williams-Toyota FW31, the 44 lap race at challenging Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is the first step for some of the world’s top sim racers seeking to qualify for the 2012 iRacing.com NVIDIA Grand Prix Series. The race features the top twelve finishers in Seasons 1, 2 and 3 of the iRacing.com Grand Prix Series, together with the bottom 25 finishers in the recently concluded iRacing.com NVIDIA Grand Prix Series.  The top 25 finishers in the 12 week-long iPSRR will then be eligible to race in the 2012 iNGPS. Catch all the action on www.iracing.com on Saturday beginning at 6 pm [...]

New Tracks, New Features Highlight Season 4 Release

by David Phillips on November 3rd, 2011

237
Classic Oulton Park is one of the highlights of the 2011 Season 4 release.

The addition of Oulton Park and Kentucky Speedway, together with a host of new features and infrastructure improvements, highlight iRacing.com’s 2011 Season 4 release. An integral part of the fabric of the British racing scene for more than half a century, Oulton Park boasts eight different configurations, including the 2.8 mile, 12 turn International Circuit, the 2.2 mile, seven turn Island Circuit and the 1.6 mile, six turn Fosters Circuit — each as challenging as it is picturesque.  Long-time host of IZOD IndyCar, NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series events, Kentucky is the latest track to join the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule. And if last summer’s overflow crowd for the 1.5 mile oval’s first Sprint Cup race is any barometer, Kentucky figures to be among the most popular new [...]

Lindsey Wins Texas to Open 2011 NiPS

by Jason Lofing on November 2nd, 2011

452
Lindsey's sexy black car heads to victory ahead of Henion, Mears and ?

The 2011 NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS) started with a bang Tuesday night and saw Marcus Lindsey come away with his first NiPS victory. With 25 spots in the 2012 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship up for grabs and 61 very talented drivers vying for those spots, everyone was predicting some intense online racing action. Texas Motor Speedway played host to the opening race, making it a race of track position as passing would prove to be extremely difficult. That is exactly what happened. Fast qualifier Kenneth O’Keefe led the field to the green flag and it only took half a lap for the fireworks to start flying when Mitchell Hunt spun off of Turn Two and slammed the inside wall. The hits kept on coming early in the race [...]

Meyn, Talman Top Thompson; Salvatore Takes Title

by Tim Terry on November 1st, 2011

78
?

While Brandon Salvatore virtually wrapped-up the 2011 Season 3 NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series (NiTMS) championship weeks ago, the cars and stars of the series rolled into Thompson International Speedway for Week Twelve to officially crown the champion and complete their season with one final round. When all the online racing was complete in the finale, it was Taylor Meyn who stood tall with the overall victory of the week, besting 62 other sim racers on the high banks of Thompson. Meyn wasn’t the only one with an impressive performance though as Troy Talman took away four wins in four starts in Round Twelve. One of those included a massive, 3862 Strength of Field (sof) race on the final day of the NiTMS week on Wednesday. Talman was in need [...]

inRacingNews Challenge Round-Up

by Christopher Leone on November 1st, 2011

129
Charlotte's "roval" proved to be a fitting "challenge" to the iRNC.

The final three weeks of 2011 Season 3 were an exercise in globe-trotting for inRacingNews Challenge competitors, as the sim racers brought their Pontiac Solstices and SpecRacer Fords to three very different races tracks in three equally different locales: Summit Point Raceway’s tight, natural terrain “short” course in West Virginia; Charlotte Motor Speedway’s “roval” in North Carolina and the alternately flowing and technical natural terrain “full” Okayama International Circuit in Japan.  No matter the state, country or venue, the on line racing action was typically hectic and, when the final checkered flags of the season had waved, two worthy overall champions emerged along with a host of divisional title winners. Week 10 Week 10 of the third season of the 2011 inRacingNews Challenge took place on the short configuration of [...]

Three for One; Suominen for Two

by Dennis Grebe on October 31st, 2011

334
. . . and GT1 cars having to deal with GT2 traffic at Laguna Seca.

Season 3 was the inaugural season of the reformed GT & Prototype Challenge, which for the first time in iRacing history saw three different classes on the track at the same time. With the start of the season, the newly released HPD ARX-01c (a Le Mans Prototype of the LMP2 class) and the Ford GT (of the GT2 class) joined the GT1 Corvette C6.R for online races with up to 36 drivers.  As if that wasn’t special enough, there were two distinct series — one with open setups and longer races (45-60 minutes) as well as a series with fixed setups and shorter races (25-30 minutes) from which to choose. LMP2 The fastest car also proved to be the most popular, with a staggering 985 (open setup) and 890 drivers [...]

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 [...]

Vincent Storms Through Road Atlanta

by Ed Sutcliff and Les Turner on October 29th, 2011

57
013

Brad Vincent put on one of most dominating performances of the Red Sox Racing League’s 2011 Season Three schedule at Road Atlanta this week. When drivers showed up for the “Panoz F1 GP at Road Atlanta”, they knew Vincent would be riding a wave of momentum due to his victory at Laguna Seca the previous week. What they couldn’t have known however, was just how futile their hopes of knocking him off the top spot would be in Georgia. Vincent used the practice and qualifying sessions to serve notice that anyone hoping to earn a win at Road Atlanta would have to go through him.  He was the only driver to post a sub-1:02 lap time in either session, and his qualifying lap time of 1:01.428 was a full second [...]

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Tim’s Corner Podcasts

by David Phillips on October 29th, 2011

136
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

287
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 [...]

Miller, Hazard Celebrate at Homestead

by Tim Terry on October 28th, 2011

96
More than 1,200 iRacers traveled to sunny South Florida for the NiCCS Season 3 finale.

While Thomas Hazard won his second consecutive round in the NASCAR iRacing.com Class C Series (NiCCS) at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, it was Ashley Miller who celebrated as the series’ season champion. Miller had been in a season long battle with Thomas D Smith for the championship but it was Miller who was better over the final few weeks of the season to take charge of the series. Meanwhile, Hazard was perfect on the season, scoring his second overall victory in just his second start of the quarter. Over 1,200 sim racers took to the track in Week Twelve for the 2011 Season Three finale. Hazard, who finished third in the ’11 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship, recorded four starts at Homestead for the NiCCS and came home victorious in three [...]

Coomans Doubles his (NVIDIA Cup) Pleasure

by Tim Terry on October 27th, 2011

82
Okayama

While Kelvin van der Linde scored his first overall victory of 2011 Season 3c at Okayama International Circuit, it was Jan Coomans who took away his second consecutive championship in the NVIDIA Cup. While this is Coomans’ second straight title, he has finished in the top two spots in the last four seasons, solidifying Coomans as one of, if not the top Mazda MX-5 sim racers on the service. What is not to be overlooked in all the championship celebration is van der Linde’s win. The 166 points he earned to best the other 1,800 drivers during Week Four were obtained during a 2651 Strength of Field (sof) race on Monday. The International Club driver led 21 of the 25 laps of the race after taking the lead from the [...]

Top Dogs at it in GRAND-AM

by Dennis Grebe on October 27th, 2011

158
driving games

The GRAND-AM Series saw a group of familiar top sim racers take a big chunk of the races in Season 3. In the Daytona Prototype class the races were dominated by Cesc Riu (Iberia), Sebastian Cron (DE-AT-CH), Scott McDonough (California) and eventual series champion Zach Rupcic (Midwest).  All long-time series regulars, they combined for 54 race wins among them in Season 3.  Similarly, in the Mustang class, series regulars Brian Strodtbeck (Ohio), Oscar Sahlin (Scandinavia), Paulo Valente (Iberia) and series champion Dennis Grebe did most of the winning. This is all the more surprising as the series had seen a shift in its schedule prior to the season with a bigger emphasis on the “rovals” that the Grand-Am Rolex Series runs (or used to run);  five of the season’s 12 [...]

Ottinger’s Class A Title

by Jameson Spies on October 26th, 2011

157
Ottinger and Donovan waged an epic battle on the track and in the points, with Ottinger clinching the NiCAS title at Talladega.

With Week 12 at Talladega now in the books, Nick Ottinger can officially uncork the champagne bottle and celebrate his NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series Division One Championship. Ottinger averaged a stellar 314 points a week, dominating the competition in the overall standings. While Ottinger was getting dowsed with champagne, other sim racers were biting their nails to the very end of this extremely tight battle to qualify for the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series. With the top twelve Division One Class A drivers throughout the first three seasons moving into the NiPS for Season 4, the battle to make the final group of twelve was the closest yet. With big names like Jim Caudill, Kevin King, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. already clinched, Season 3 provided an opportunity for not as [...]

Ottinger’s Street Stock Three-peat

by Allen Krier on October 26th, 2011

131
"Very pleased with the racing this season," said Ottinger, "and very glad I pulled the third championship off."

The final week of 2011 Season 3 saw the iRacing.com Street Stock Series travel to Oxford Plains Speedway. Sim racers looked to conquer the small oval located in Maine in order to dethrone two-time defending series champ Nick Ottinger (Carolina). Many tried but none were successful as Ottinger once again claimed the points championship. Weekly High Strength of Field Week 12′s top Strength of Field (SoF) race would take place on Thursday and would feature a head-to-head face-off between two championship contenders. Coming into the final week, Paul Kusheba (Connecticut) had a 66 point lead over Ottinger. Ottinger dominated the SoF race, leading all 50 laps in route to a 8.4 second victory over Kusheba. Ottinger received 213 points for the win while Kusheba received 189 points for second. Alex [...]

Penzes Siezes Spa; Sahlin Secures TMC Title

by Jordan Hightower on October 26th, 2011

91
A herd of pony cars thunder through Eau Rouge.

The final week (Week 12) for 2011 Season 3 in the Thrustmaster Mustang Challenge presented the sim racers with what most would call the biggest challenge of the season: racing at the 19-turn, 4.35-mile monster of Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.  A tick over 300 racers attempted to say they were the one to conquer Spa, but after a week long battle, Balazs Penzes (Central-Eastern Europe) was finally able to claim that honor. Weekly High Strength of Field Giuseppe Curri (Italy) captured the week’s highest Strength of Field (SoF) event in dominating fashion, beating second place driver Michele Curina by 13.858 seconds.  The final position on the podium was held down by Samuel Collins (Australia/NZ).  Fourth place belonged to Reuben Bonnici (Italy) while Trevor Johnson (England)  completed the top five. Weekly Standings [...]

Lisner Lights-up Sebring

by Jordan Hightower on October 26th, 2011

58
A crowded -- but clean -- opening lap.

Week 11 in the Thrustmaster Mustang Challenge sent the sim racers down to Sebring, Florida for some online racing under the lights at the 3.7-mile, 17-turn Sebring International Raceway.  228 drivers attempted to conquer the Florida darkness, but after seven days of competition, Jason Lisner (Virginias) emerged the top point earner for the week. Weekly High Strength of Field Danis Richard (Central-Eastern Europe) captured the victory in the week’s highest Strength of Field (SoF) event after a tight battle with Oscar Sahlin (Scandinavia) who came home second.  Marcel Wiemers (DE-AT-CH) rounded-out the final podium position.  Fourth was held down by Finnish sim racer Samuli Vahonen, and completing the top five was Maik Peters (Benelux). Weekly Standings Although Jason Lisner didn’t compete in the week’s highest Strength of Field event, he [...]

Raileanu’s Jetta championship

by Dennis Grebe on October 25th, 2011

274
night racing at Sebring . . .

Moldovian Alexandru Raileanu has won the Season 3 Jetta class of the iRacing.com Grand Touring Cup.  In a nearly perfect season the Central-Eastern Europe sim racer won 11 of his 12 starts, only having had to settle for fourth in his final race of the season after having closed the deal on the championship already. Raileanu did not compete in four weeks of the season and thus did not have the luxury of any drop weeks.  Instead, he had to throw all his eight weeks into the fight to come up a mere 22 points ahead of second place Nicholas Sladeczek of Club Carolina. Sladeczek himself also had a nearly perfect season, piloting his VW Jetta TDi to 22 wins from 23 starts. A close championship at the top saw [...]

Up in the Air

by Jameson Spies on October 25th, 2011

90
Lewandowski took six wins and ? top fives from 13 starts at Charlotte.

Coming into Week Eleven of the Twelve Week NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series season, the battle to make it into the NASCAR iRacing.come Pro Series could not be more up in the air. The good news for bubble drivers was the week’s venue was the very familiar Charlotte Motor Speedway. The track has been a fixture in the NiCLAS since the COT’s introduction to iRacing. However, with all the sim racers being acclimated to CMS track position would be vital for anyone looking to come up big. One driver walking the tight rope at the edge of the cut-off point coming into Charlotte was Mitchell Hunt. With that being said, Hunt came to North Carolina to race, grabbing a dominating win and earning the most points on the week. With [...]