By Dane Simpson
Premier Series
Weighing in at 4/10 Mile Southern National Motorsports Park manages to provide an ample playground for those courageous or skilled enough to corner 3 wide. The double feature format gave drivers multiple opportunities to score points and made for an exciting race all throughout. Paul Butler #77 came out swinging laying down a 14.665 to qualify p1 for race one. Certainly not leading the most laps, but taking the ones that counted, Nick Nickerson #2 would lead only 23 laps between the two and winning both. Honorable mention goes out to Paul Owens on a pair of 5th place finishes after starting 20th and 17th, as navigating the tight field was no easy task. Next week the League heads to New Hampshire in the Tour Modifieds for the Mid-Season Classic, a non-points race. With half of the regular season races in the books, five drivers are locked into the championship with a win. Carl Handwerk #18 sits atop the points race by a thin 5 point margin to Kevin Foster #8.
GT3 Road to Rio Challenge
Sprint Race
21 cars took to asphalt of the Redbull Ring for race number five of the Core Racing GT3 season. Mason Smith #6 and Adam Jones #46 would bring the field to the green flag for 20 minutes of running up and down the Austrian hillside. Nick Nickerson #2 would qualify 4th and went on to win the sprint race. Asked about managing off tracks in qualifying and the race Nickerson said “I was just pushing too hard in qualifying, and I kept getting in the sand through the esses. During the race I wasn’t running nearly as hard so I could ease up a bit going into those turns.“
Nickerson sprints to another race win
Endurance Race
The endurance portion of the night would not see a huge shake up in the results after the invert, with 9 of 10 drivers placing in the top 10 in both. Derek Sherman #42 had a good showing, placing 6th and 10th in the evenings races. When asked about what helped him break into the top ten this week Sherman commented “ I had a lot of success in season 3 (iRacing season 3) GT3 Challenge, I like RedBull Ring.” With the season half complete, two drivers are breaking out to a bit of a lead. Mason Smith #6 and Adam Jones #46 are separated by less than 30 points, while 3rd place Nick Nickerson #2 is nearly 190 points back of 1st place Smith.
Nickerson the top bull in the paddock again
Developmental Series
Nick Devos #39 gave everyone a case of Beetlemania Tuesday night as he swept the first of four double points nights. Bringing in a total of 124 points on the evening Davos shook up the points standings now leading by 20 points over Marc Gonzales #88 who finished 6th. Thaddeus Marshall #89 showed his skills on dirt transferred over to rallycross as well, placing second and scoring a bonus points for both clean driving as well as leading at least one lap. Next week is the final dirt race of the season and a good run by Marshall could put him back into the mix for the championship, while drivers like Abhi Visuvasam #008 and Marc LaPierre #08 wait patiently for their preferred races.
Nick Devos jumps his way into the points lead
TNT Late Model Series
Race #1
Thursday Night from USA international saw an upset in the first race of the evening as Kevin foster #8 would steal the race leading only the last lap over Adam Jones #46. Jones had lead 27 laps, other leaders included Eric Andrews #9 and David Gargaro Jr #042.
Foster wins it on a last lap pass
Race #2
Race two would see Gargaro Jr put on a stellar performance, leading 46 of 50 laps, with 4 laps going to Paul Butler #77. Foster would finish 2nd, making for a good points night for him. After 12 races the battle for the top 3 spots is separated by only 23 points with Gargaro Jr leading Jones and Brandon Mettler #15.
Gargaro Jr stretches his lead with another victory
