iRacer Profile: Fredrik Tackman

by David Phillips on December 31st, 2011

You could certainly say that Fredrik Tackman is a quick learner.  Last season he finished a respectable 13th in the iRacing.com Star Mazda Series with seven wins in 22 starts.  Season 4?  He’s leading all comers after eight weeks of racing, with 19 wins (and 38 top fives overall) in 42 starts.  But as the 40-something (at least until October!) from Ostersund, Sweden says it’s not really the results that give him pleasure so much as the feeling of being in control of the car.  And Tackman is in control of a lot of  different cars on the iRacing service, with wins in Season 4 in a Class A Impala at New Hampshire and in an HPD-ARX01c to his credit, along with all those victories in the Star Mazda. But [...]

Tricky Magic

by Jameson Spies on December 30th, 2011

Tricky New Hampshire Motor Speedway was the venue for Week Eight of the NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series (NiCAS). Nearly 250 sim racers were brave enough to take on this oddball of a track in the top oval stock car in the world of online racing.  While some were able to overcome to challenges of the Magic Mile, others were left scratching their heads. Flat track ace, and current NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship (NiSWC) driver Josh Berry captured top honors on the week.  A constant threat whenever he races, Berry positively thrives at flat tracks . . . as this week demonstrated.  Berry heads a rather unusual top five with Brendan Doyle coming home second, followed by the surprise of the week, Brodie Kostecki in third. Kostecki is an [...]

Hooks Rolls at Thompson

by Allen Krier on December 29th, 2011

Week Eight saw the r iRacing.com Street Stock Series travel to Thompson International Speedway. Thompson, which is located in Thompson, CT, is a 5/8th mile semi-banked oval. 760 sim racers attempted at least one online race during the week, while 274 racers turned a qualifying lap. Weekly High Strength of Field Last week’s high Strength of Field (SoF) race had a rating of 2666, which paid 161 points to win. Kevin Moody (New York) started on the pole and lead all 40 laps in route to a seven second victory over Benjamin Harste (Midwest). Harste collected 143 points for second while Moody racked-up 161 points for the victory. CJ LaVair (New York) finished in the third position, nearly 10 seconds behind and earned 125 points. Chad Cole (Midwest), who started [...]

Kerkhof Seals the Deal

by Chris Hall on December 28th, 2011

In formidable fashion, Atze Kerkhof powered his way to an unchallenged seventh victory in the iRacing.com Pro Series Road Racing at Road America, and ensured the iPSRR title would be heading to Dutch shores. With four rounds of the championship remaining, the Team Redline pilot’s path to the title has earmarked Kerkhof as a front-running contender for the 2012 NVIDIA Grand Prix series that opens its third season in late January. Starting from his seventh pole position of the season with a time of 1:33.775, Kerkhof made a clean getaway from the line to lead the field of sim racers into Turn One, closely followed by My3id’s Martin Krönke, who had followed the Dutchman past Danny Davison into second position. For front-row sitting Davison, the drop of the green flag [...]

Adams Makes his Mark

by Jason Lofing on December 28th, 2011

With the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS) starting to wind down for 2011, sim racers took to Pocono Raceway for the ninth race of the season. The Tricky Triangle is a very demanding track, with three very different corners, requiring drivers to compensate on their setup to ensure their car drives well in all three turns.  Throw-in a dash or two of the unexpected — such as the number and timing of caution periods and the resulting havoc they play on pit stop strategy — and you had the makings of a thoroughly unpredictable online race.   Jon Adams got it right on all counts, emerging as the fastest man on the track in the second half of the race and then playing the fuel strategy perfectly to power home [...]

Warren Wins at Iowa

by Tim Terry on December 27th, 2011

Alex Warren took one big step forward in his quest to become NASCAR iRacing.com Class C Series (NiCCS) champion in 2011 Season Four during Week Seven by taking the overall win at the Iowa Speedway. Warren, who competes on the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS), is locked-in to a title hunt in both series in this final 12 week season of the 2011 year. Warren’s big win came on Saturday when the Illinois sim racer crossed the line first over Brodie Kostecki, Gary Cooksey, Chris Overland and Mitch McCracken. Kostecki led the most laps (52) in the 100-lap race while Warren led 22 en route to the win. The race featured four yellow flags and five lead changes amongst four drivers. The race was rated at 3459 Strength of Field [...]

Flight(s) of the Phoenix for Cormier & Engelhart

by Tim Terry on December 27th, 2011

While Derrick Cormier2 was racking-up the starts (and wins) during Round Seven of the NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Seried (NiTMS) at Phoenix International Speedway, it was former champion Herb Engelhart who was thinking “big picture” as he departed the “Valley of the Sun” with the most points for the championship hunt. Over 100 sim racers took part in the Week Seven festivities at the one-mile oval. The top split of the week took place on Tuesday as the field combined for a 3585 Strength of Field (SoF).  The 75-lap race featured just one caution and was won by outside pole-sitter Cormier. Cormier led 57 laps in the win and finished the race three and a half seconds clear of runner-up Jamie Collier. Pole-sitter Royce Valley was third, followed by Paul [...]

Karlavige ‘Corners’ First GSR Win at Richmond

by Tim Terry on December 23rd, 2011

While most eyes were on the 15 sim racers eligible to make the Chase for the GSRacing.net Championship, it was Jason Karlavige who scored big by not only taking the victory in the Tim’s Corner Race to the Chase on Thursday night at Richmond International Raceway but also moved into the top 33 in the standings which guarantees him a start in the first race in the playoffs. Karlavige, who made his third start of the season Thursday night moved to the lead for the final time on Lap 99 of the 130-lap affair after a pit stop promoted him from the fourth place. He held-off a hard charging Josh Berry for the win on a one-lap, green flag dash to become the fourth first time winner this season in [...]

Nailing It

by Jameson Spies on December 23rd, 2011

The NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series blew into the “Windy City” for Week 7 of their twelve week season. Chicagoland Speedway always presents some of the best door-to-door online racing of the NiCLAS season, and this week was no different. With speeds topping the 200mph mark into vastly different corners, nailing the setup was the key to success over the course of Week Seven. One person who seems to be nailing the setup every week, no matter the track size or configuratation, is NiCLAS points leader Kile Gottula. Gottula found himself in a tie with NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series contender Robert Hall for this week’s top honors. Gottula won three of his four starts to extend his lead in the season standings, while Hall made one trip to victory lane [...]

iRacer Profile: Scott U’Ren

December 23rd, 2011

Scott U’Ren is a young man who knows what he likes.  When it comes to sim racing that would be iRacing.com and, specifically, the iRacing V8 Supercar Series.  That’s not to say he doesn’t occasionally try his hand at other cars and other series, but it is to say that, since August, he has participated in just four practice sessions driving anything besides his Ford Falcon. Practice may not make the Melbourne-based U’Ren perfect, but it makes him pretty good.  Good enough to have finished P4 in the fiercely competitive 2011 Season 3 iRacing V8 Supercar Series on the strength of a dozen top fives (and two wins) in 14 starts; good enough to currently stand fifth in the Season 4 points race behind Madison Down, Rens Broekman, Mitchell McLeod [...]

McKinney Takes SoBo

by Allen Krier on December 22nd, 2011

For Week 7 of the iRacing.com Street Stock Series, top sim racers traveled to the famous SoBo (South BostonSpeedway ). In total, 832 racers took to the track at least one time during the week at the famous Virginia short track. Weekly High Strength of Field Last week’s high Strength of Field race had an SoF of 2866, which paid 174 championship points for the win Coming-out on top in the field of 11 drivers was NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship regular Tyler Hudson (Mid-South). Hudson led every lap from the pole en route to a 2.3 second victory over CJ LaVair, who netted 156 points. Coming home in third was Nathan Rhew (Carolina), almost 11 seconds behind the race winner. For his efforts, Rhew received 138 points. Mark McDowell [...]

Tim’s Corner Race to the Chase Goes Thursday

by Tim Terry on December 22nd, 2011

Fifteen drivers. Ten chase spots. One race and 100 laps to get it done. While the objective for the 35 drivers in the Tim’s Corner Race to the Chase will be simple come race time, 15 of those will have an extra goal in mind and that is to be one of the ten in Chase for the Championship contention after 100-laps at the Richmond International Raceway. After all, when the checkered flag falls at the Virginia short track the ten sim racers who will duke it out for the GSRacing.net Truck Series championship will be decided. The drivers in contention for the title are no strangers to sim racing and have been in these big race type scenarios before. The only driver that is currently “locked in” to a [...]

2012 iRacing.com World Tour Schedule

by David Phillips on December 22nd, 2011

From the virtual sands of Daytona and the digital bricks of Indianapolis to the simulated shores of Phillip Island, the 2012 iRacing.com World Tour will enable iRacers to compete in online versions of some of the world’s classic motorsports events.   Scheduled for the same weekends as their real-world counterparts, the World Tour events are open to all iRacers, regardless of license level, who own the appropriate car/track content. The schedule kicks-off with a mixed-class GRAND-AM doubleheader at Daytona International Speedway – the GRAND-AM Continental Showdown Before the 2.4 and the GRAND-AM Racing 2.4 Hours at Daytona  — on January 27/28.  The World Tour returns to Daytona for the iRacing.com Daytona 500 on February 25 and continues on to Sebring, Charlotte, multiple events at Indianapolis, Spa-Francorchamps, Phillip Island, Talladega and Road [...]

McLean Tops Intel GT Series Round 2

by David Phillips on December 21st, 2011

Round 2 of the Intel GT Series saw Luke McLean (Aus/NZ) emerge as the overall winner in the week-long competition to qualify for the Africa/Asia/Australia Regional Finals. McLean came out on top of nearly 200 iRacers during the week of online racing featuring the HPD-ARX01C at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. For his efforts, McLean wins an Intel Core i5 Processor and Motherboard, along with $50 of iRacing credit. Along with the other 19 top finishers in Round 2 of the Intel GT Series, McLean now moves on to the Regional Finals, which has been rescheduled for Saturday, January 7, 2011 at 9pm AEST (11:00 GMT).   The 20 finalists will compete in a single 30 minute race at Spa in their HPD-AR01Cs, with the top eight finishers qualifying for the Intel GT [...]

Warren’s Dover Strategy Pays

by Jason Lofing on December 21st, 2011

Dover International Speedway played host to Week Eight of the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS) season and saw Alex Warren deny Nick Ottinger’s bid for a third straight win in the series.  Ottinger made his presence known, leading 59 of 200 laps, but Warren had the speed and track position when it counted, leading the final six laps to earn his second win of the season. The Monster Mile didn’t come by its nickname by accident, as the high-banked, bowl of concrete is often the site of some rough and tumble action.  This online race was cleaner than anticipated, however, as the event had two long green flag runs including two rounds of green flag stops, both of which had a pronounced affect on the outcome. It came down to [...]

iPRoC with Joey Logano & Coleman Pressley

December 20th, 2011

iRacers Team-Up

by David Phillips on December 20th, 2011

Two iRacers — NASCAR Sprint Cup regular Joey Logano and NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series/NASCAR iRacing.com Class C Series (fixed) championship leader (and former inRacingNews contributor) Jordan Hightower — teamed-up to provide Logano’s fans with some insights on the recent iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions . . . Oval The first of two events in the inaugural iRacing Pro Race of Champions took place under the lights at the digitally recreated Charlotte Motor Speedway driving the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chevrolet Silverado for 25 laps. Joey Logano started his No. 20 truck from the 17th position and was quickly moving his way up through the field. He would race as high as 12th, but misfortune on lap seven took Logano’s chance at a good run away as he made contact [...]

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 [...]