Miller, Hazard Celebrate at Homestead

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 of those races. The highest split race he pocketed was a 4262 sof on Saturday in which he led 20 of the 90 laps en route to the victory. Jeremy R Allen was second, followed by Alex Warren, Jeremy Thornton and Cody Kutzner. The race featured five cautions and 15 lead changes with Thornton leading the most laps (31). Hazard collected 266 points for the win but when his next top start was factored in, the Minnesota driver left Miami with 254 points. Meanwhile, Warren’s 234 point total from this performance credited him with fourth overall for the week. Allen made nine additional starts over the seven day period and wound up seventh overall.

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

The second big event of final week came on Thursday when Josh Berry topped a 4012 sof race. The race, which featured six cautions, saw Berry lead just a dozen laps before crossing the line first at the checkers ahead of Tanner Stoops, Chase Paduano, Mike Montesi and Brandon Buie. Thirteen lead changes set a frantic pace for the event which saw Thornton once again lead the most laps, pacing the field for 34 circuits. For the win, Berry took away 251 points and the second place position overall for the week while Stoops and his 236 point performance from that race slots him third overall for Week Twelve.

Miller came home fifth overall at Homestead to close-out his championship campaign. Miller scored the win to lock-down his championship on Sunday’s 3573 sof race which saw the champ lead 58 laps en route to the top spot. The race featured three cautions and nine lead changes. Tucker Wingo came home in the second place spot, ahead of Billy Angstadt, Tyler Hill and William R Harris. Miller’s win was worth 223 points.

Hal James and Robert Bland each made 23 starts on the week while Thornton won the most events, taking the checkers first in seven of his 12 starts. Brian Schoenburg lit up the track for his fans in the qualifying session, setting the pace at Homestead with a 32.819 second lap, one thousandth of a second ahead of Hazard. Miller, Jim Caudill Jr and Alex Warren completed the top five in qualifying. Miller took the weekly win in the Time Trial competition over Smith, Belongea, Joa Antonio and Victor Vollrath. Miller completed his double championship for Season 3 with the overall Time Trial championship over Smith (798-796). Mark Russell, Florian Kirchhofer and James Heater completed the top five.

Miller will go down as the 2011 Season Three champion, defeating Smith by 84 points, 1726-1642. Jesse James will be credited with third overall with 1535 points, 32 points better than Michael Guest (1503). Chris Overland (1473) completed the top five in the points. Divisional champions include G Allen Lewis (two), Chris J Miller (Three), Tommy Lark (Four), Jonathan Mohon (Five), Brian VanMierlo (Six), Brian Manchester (Seven), Jason Wallen (Eight), Devin Chapman (Nine), Bobby Stark (Ten) and Jimmy Campbell (Rookie).

The NiCCS continues competition next season for the final quarter of 2011. Who will be able to keep up to the pace Ashley Miller set in 2011 Season Three? Will we see a new champion emerge? Find out here at inRacingNews!

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

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