2026-27 eNASCAR College iRacing Series | Great Lakes Gauntlet at Michigan | Week 1 Recap

100 students entered the first week of the Great Lakes Gauntlet—the fourth Tournament of the 2026-27 eNASCAR College iRacing Series presented by Logitech G—at Michigan International Speedway on Wednesday night. The last Tournament of the Fall Semester, two groups once again took on the Quarterfinal Round and Semifinal Round, and now only 40 students remain with a chance to win the Final Round and the overall Tournament.

The same names keep showing up at the front, and that includes the winner of Group 1’s Semifinal race, Tarrant County’s Jacob Wilkerson, the winner of the Peachtree Pursuit back in September. As for Group 2, the University of Calgary’s Connor Yeroschak returned to virtual victory lane in that Semifinal race in hopes to finally turn around his season and defend the title from half a year ago.

Wilkerson battled for his Semifinal win against the likes of Dylan Ault (Sacramento State), Connor Trifari (UNC Charlotte), Daniel Nanney (Ball State), and AJ Heider (St. Johns River). Heider, in fact, bested Wilkerson in the Quarterfinal round to start ahead in the Semifinal, but the longer race fell into Wilkerson’s hand. Yeroschak, meanwhile, was able to control most of the way from winning his Quarterfinal race in Group 2 as the rest of the field battled for second behind. Points leader Timothy Holmes (Horry-Georgetown) battled for third, but contact with Adam Garza (Triton) and Brian Mercurio (DeSales) coming to the line relegated him to finishing in fifth.

A total of 30 schools will be represented in the Final Round, but only two schools have multiple student representation. One of those schools is the University of Delaware with both Alek Andrecs and Julian O’Neil, but the other, of course, is the powerhouse that is the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, with a whopping 10 students transferred to the Final Round. Three of those students are representing the UNC Charlotte’s Varsity team, but their best point scorer once again came from their regular student body, as Caleb Johnson finished second in Group 2’s Semifinal.

After heartbreak two weeks ago, Brian Mercurio (DeSales) returns to the Final Round to salvage his season. The home team will also be represented with the University of Michigan’s Joonsuh Lim in the field. Other notable transfers include Hector Collazo (Daytona State) who won in his debut last week at Watkins Glen in the Big Apple Battle, as well as Joe Armstrong (VCU) making his return to the series for the first time since the 2024-25 season. Dylan Basen (Pasco-Hernando) will also make his return to the series for the first time in the 2026-27 season.

As mentioned in every Week 1 recap, a new feature in the 2026-27 season is that Week 1 of the two-week format will offer points. In both groups, the top-10 were awarded points for their finishing spot in the Semifinals. It is worth noting, for any reason those points-earning drivers don’t show up for Week 2 and the Final Round, these Semifinal points are forfeited. Wilkerson and Yeroschak score the most points this week, at 10, which is beneficial for both to close in on the championship lead, both closing that gap by four points on Holmes.

Perhaps the most notable point regarding the School Championship are the schools that won’t be able to score points in the final race of the Fall Semester. 11 schools will be eligible to score points in Week 2. They include Ball State, Bowling Green State, Sacramento State, Eastern Shore, Purdue Indy, Spokane, Delaware, Georgia, New Hampshire, UNC Charlotte, and UNOH. UNC Charlotte comes into the fourth Tournament as the points leader. Three of the top-10 schools, however. will not be scoring points.

Tarrant County scored points once, and will likely fall out this Tournament as only Wilkerson has continued to show up. Same goes for Arizona State, who missed out on having a student in the Final Round after Bradley Erickson was involved in a late race incident in Group 1’s Semifinal. The big name missing is Belmont Abbey, one of the five schools that has scored points in the first three Tournaments. The Abbey came into the Great Lakes Gauntlet with five students in the field, but none of them were able to make their way through into the Final Round.

In any case, with former winners Matthew Zwack (Michigan), Logan Clampitt (CSU Fullerton), and Daniel Faulkingham (Maine Machias) all graduated out, there will be a new winner of the Great Lakes Gauntlet in 2026 before heading into the Winter Break. The only question is if the streak of different winners will continue, or if one of the three Tournament winners so far can finally double up before the halfway mark of the season.

GREAT LAKES GAUNTLET | WEEK 2 ADVANCING DRIVERS

Next week, the Great Lakes Gauntlet will conclude with the Final Round at Michigan International Speedway. 70 laps are scheduled at the two-mile oval in Brooklyn, Michigan. The winner of the race will earn 55 points, while second will get 35, each place after that going down by a single point until it becomes a single point, reminiscent of the current day NASCAR points system. The Tournament winner will collect $3,000 and be one step closer to fighting for the ultimate prize of $10,000 for winning the championship later in the Spring semester.

Tune in on Wednesday, November 18th, at 7:00 p.m. ET for the conclusion to the Tournament. Join us 15 minutes prior for the Countdown to Green. The event will be streamed live at eNASCAR.com/live and across all of iRacing’s social media channels.

For more information on the eNASCAR College iRacing Series presented by Logitech G, visit  pcl.gg/pages/enascar.

For more information about eNASCAR, visit  eNASCAR.com.

For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit  iRacing.com.

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