Mann Up at Richmond

Week Seven saw the iRacing.com Street Stocks Series sim-racers take to the short but tricky Richmond International Raceway.  The grid this week saw Scott Mann in pole position ahead of Jammey Walker, Robert Dykstra and Darrin Isenberg, with the rest of the 10 car field sorted by their iRatings.

The green flag flew and the field was off to the races.  Going three wide into Turn One, Isenberg got turned around in front of the pack to bring out the first caution of the race.  The restart everyone got off to a great start with Caleb Geist gaining two spots being followed by Kenneth Lane.
Further back in the field came the off-the-pace cars of Randy Bledsoe and the damaged Chevy of Isenberg, who doesn’t look like he’ll be able to get back up to speed following that first lap incident with William Karp. Lap 13 and the second caution of the day is out, this time for the spinning Karp, which allows Giest to move into the third position and Lane into fourth.

Mann had Walker in his mirrors from start to finish.

At the green flag again Mann retains the lead from Walker and Giest.  A newcomer to the series this week, Mann seems to be on fire as he leads the 24th lap of the race. Walker, charging hard for the lead, won’t settle for anything other than first – as we saw back in Week Two when he fought hard for the lead before losing control and retiring.

Giest is pushing for the win as well, and now sits third, only a second behind the two leaders.  Giest has been one of the consistent contenders for this championship, racing each week and finishing in the top three in all of his races.  Can he do better this week and take the win?

Only 10 laps after our last caution and the yellows wave again, this time for Jonathan Perl Garrido who spun in Turn One all on his own.  As the field closes-up under yellow, Giests has his chance to make a push for the win, while Dykstra has an opportunity to push for a top three as well.

At the halfway mark the Mann v Walker battle is still raging, leaving Giest behind in third. Mann has now led all 40 laps of this race and is looking favourite to take the chequered, but Walker won’t allow him to do it easily and keep the pressure on every lap.

With the field now spread out, Karp and Dysktra are the only others within contact of each other. Dysktra tries to go low but gets his nose cut off by Karp. Looking the stronger driver in this battle, Dykstra makes it pay-off by going round the outside of Karp. Giest still sits third, dropping from the leaders each lap as they manage to pull away with their pace.

Lane seems content to run as the last car on the lead lap, while Isenberg – the first of the lapped drivers — hasn’t been able to get his pace back after damaging his car in that first lap incident.  Meanwhile, Garrido is very much in a race of his own after missing the start, putting him 15 laps down.
With 10 laps to go Mann pulls away from Walker, who must be struggling with his tire wear.  Giest still runs third, two seconds behind the leaders, followed by the duel between Karp and Dysktra.  Although not much has changed since mid-race, anything can still happen.

Dykstra overdoes it in his efforts to grab fourth place.

And it does. Pushing as hard as he can to get by Karp, Dykstra spins, sending him into the outside wall and bringing out the final caution of the day  . . . and with it the end to any further competition as the race ends in a yellow/chequered finish with Mann taking the win from Walker and Giest.

Full results can be found here.

And with this article I end my time writing for the Street Stocks series and head to Indy Fixed.  It has been a pleasure to write for this series, and I take my hat off  and say thank you to those who have helped me with replay.  I couldn’t have done it without you. I hope you continue to read my articles when I move to Indy Fixed and hope to see you all on track soon –  Jake

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