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David Phillips
Editor and ChiefDavid 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 WriterChris 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 Writer19 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 WriterJason 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.
Tim Terry
Contributing WriterTim 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 WriterNorth 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 WriterAllen 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.
Chris Cunningham
Contributing WriterChris is 20 years old, and recently moved to Charlotte, NC during his sophomore year in college to feed his need for speed. More than just an auto racing enthusiast, Cunningham has risen through the ranks of BMX Racing, Sailboat Racing, and Cycling. Cunningham recently took up go karting, and qualified as an alternate for the 2011 Red Bull Kart Fight at the PRI expo. Aside from racing, Cunningham has recently picked up the hobby of competitive eating (Ranked #7 Collegiate Eater in the country!), and competes all over the east coast in various contests. Chris also enjoys sim racing, writing, playing the drums, and enjoying college at UNC Charlotte.
Tim Doyle
Contributing WriterI've been a race fan since before I can remember, going to dirt tracks around the Washington, DC area since the early 70's with my parents. I got away from racing during my school years but in 1989 a friend and I went to a race in Hagerstown, MD and from there my life was all about racing. I currently live in Winchester, VA and while Dirt Late Models is my favorite form of racing, I also enjoy many other forms such as F1, IndyCar, 410 sprint cars on dirt and (probably more than anything) sim racing. My favorite driver is Ayrton Senna.
I was introduced to sim racing in 1989 when a friend turned me onto Indy 500 The Sim by Papyrus. It took me a few years to own my own PC but once I did, all I wanted to do was sim race. I tried to race my friends as much as possible via modem racing back in the 90's before joining TEN in 1998. From there I devoted a lot of time to online racing enjoying every minute of it. I was able to meet a lot of my competitors from all over the world at LAN events and races I went to. Being able to call some real world drivers friends as a result of sim racing is probably the neatest part of this whole deal!
David Roberts
Contributing WriterDavid lives in Brisbane and is a former Australian National Formula Ford Champion who now owns his own marketing and design company. After racing in Europe, David returned down under to swap a career behind the wheel for a career in the creative department. He now has three children, an ongoing love affair with the good ol’ days of motor racing, and just enough spare time left to enjoy a bit of sim-racing with a few of his old mates.
Ben Rothberg
Contributing WriterI was born and raised in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne where I still am situated. I am currently at University studying for a Certificate in Motorsport and hoping I will be able to achieve my top goal and become a part of a race team. In the sim-racing world, I won an rFactor V8 Supercar season and also was awarded with Best & Fairest award. I am now situated with the best simulation in the world (iRacing.com!) and love every minute of it. I currently race in the V8 Supercar Online Series and finished 16th overall in 2012 Season 1.
Dylan Sharman
Contributing WriterI was born in Adelaide and we moved-out for Angle Vale for a few years until I was about 7 years old, when we moved to the Barossa Valley where I live now. I'm 19 years old and currently traveling back and forth weekly as I’m studying for a Diploma of Furniture Design and Technology.
I’ve always had a love for racing as my close family did some racing and we were always out at the local dirt track. I joined iRacing back in 2010 and slowly but surely got the hang of it as this is my first experience with sim racing and am loving it each time I race. I’ve won two SK Modified titles (almost had three in a row but finished P2 in 2011 S4), an inRacingNews Challenge championship (2012 S1 Mazda) and was also an AustralAsian Intel GT Series Finalist.
Al Attiyah on his Dakar defence
December 31st, 2011
Nasser Al Attiyah heads in to the 2012 Dakar as the reigning champion and pre-event favourite, but with lack of works entries from Volkswagen and Mitsubishi he knows this year’s rally could be one of the closest in its history.
Moreover the former works VW driver has switched machinery himself for this year’s campaign and is set to drive a Hummer developed by Robbie Gordon’s off-road team. He spoke to AUTOSPORT prior to the event, which begins in earnest on January 1 at Mar del Plata in the south of Argentina.
Q. The Hummer’s going to be quite a different car to the VW isn’t it?
Nasser Al Attiyah: It is, I know. Very different. The whole thing will be a different challenge for me. One of the main things is that the car is two-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive. It’s not four-wheel drive like the Touareg was, but I think this can be an advantage at times.
Q. What’s the hardest thing about Dakar?
Al Attiyah: It’s staying clever all of the time and all of the time remembering that this is the Dakar – a very long race. The Hummer’s not going to be a difficult car to drive, but we have to find the places which will suit that car and then really push.
Q. Have you identified some sections which will suit the car?
Al Attiyah: Absolutely, yes. The route is new, but we have an idea of what is coming with the event and we know which places will suit the car the best. When the road is fast, we believe we will be able to push the Hummer harder and make some time out of the four-wheel drive cars there. Also, where the road is very bumpy and rocky, we should also be able to make the best use of the Hummer’s bigger suspension travel. This car is based on something more like a buggy, whereas the VW was more based around a normal car; the Hummer should be able to go anywhere.
Q. Is it better or worse without the enormous build-up of a VW Dakar programme?
Al Attiyah: I think it’s giving me less headaches. For the last three years, everything has been very intensive, but this time I feel more relaxed about things. Maybe this is partly because I won the event last year as well.
Q. Has the win given you more confidence?
Al Attiyah: I feel good confidence from the inside. I have plenty of experience of the race and I have a good idea of what is coming from Dakar.
Q. But the route has changed?
Al Attiyah: Yes, we won’t start from Buenos Aires, which is a shame – the crowds there were just incredible. But the organiser knows the good road and going up into Peru is very good as well. It will be a new adventure this time.
Q. What’s the aim?
Al Attiyah: To win, of course! I want to be the first driver to win two Dakars in succession since Ari Vatanen. Ari Vatanen did this in 1990 and 1991 and he did it in different cars, first in the Peugeot and then in the Citroen. This is my chance to do the same thing in different cars.
Q. You have great experience of Dakar and now you’re obviously a Citroen factory driver in the WRC as well. How does Dakar compare with WRC?
Al Attiyah: You can’t really compare the two. But with the way some of the rallies are changing now, with more rallies going back to an endurance-style of event, I think my Dakar experience can help me more and more in the WRC. Look at rallies like Monte Carlo, this is quite different and a lot longer now. Okay, we won’t be there because we’re on the Dakar, but with other events like Argentina moving in the same direction, my experience of long competition will help me. It’s about being able to concentrate for really long periods of time and to maintain competitive speeds for that time as well, it’s not easy, but Dakar helps.
Q. It’s going to be a busy year for you now…
Al Attiyah: It really is. Dakar is fantastic, but, with the support of the Qatar government, I am competing in the whole WRC from Sweden onwards with the same car as Sebastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen, which is a dream for me. And, of course, I will be in London in the summer for the Olympics where I form part of the Qatar shooting team.