February | 2015 | The Weekly Racer

Monthly Archives: February 2015

iRacing: NASTRACK -vs- MORE Race #1 at Chicagoland – Jesse Vaughan the Victor

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Justin Kern Leave a comment

The green flag waves for the drivers at Chicagoland Speedway and the NASTRACK -vs- MORE Challenge.

Two leagues, five races, and only one champion! In a community that has been growing in popularity over the years, drivers from all ages and experience levels take to the world of Sim racing for many reasons – cost effective alternative method to racing, training, or just for the pure fun of racing online with your friends. Believe it or not Sim racing has been around a lot longer than you would have expected. The NASTRACK (formally know as OSCAAR), who we will follow through out some of their races in 2015 have been running together for over a decade!

“We have been running online races since 2000,” NASTRACK co-owner Shawn Pierce told us earlier this week. “We took over last year as Dave wanted a break. He runs the Oscaar SLM in Ontario, and just did not have the time.” In addition the Oscar series was soon trademarked causing Pierce and Walt Walker (co-owner) to coin a new name, and so NASTRACK was born, running divisions as low as Late Models up to the Xfinity car.

After taking over and resurrecting the league Pierce and Walker, working with another league (MORE Racing) decided to pull their drivers together creating a four race challenge series kicking off at Chicagoland Speedway this past Monday. “A Lot of guys run both anyway,” Pierce told The Weekly Racer. “Both leagues have 15-20 drivers each race. Just thought it would be cool to race with 30+ real good racers.”

iRacing: TWR & QMS Finish Top 5 In iRacings First 24 Hours at Daytona

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Justin Kern Leave a comment

The #20 of QMS working through slower GT3 traffic hunting the lead.

Newport News, VA – The month of January to some means play-off football and the approaching Super Bowl, which personally I do love both of those things. However, the month of January to race fans mean so much more than that. Daytona International Speedway has played host to some pretty iconic races in its time, most notable being NASCAR equivalence to the big game – the Daytona 500! However that is not the only iconic race at the famous facility early in the year. The 24 hour sports car endurance race is held every year during the last weekend of January and usually is the first big race of the year for the United States. How is this relevant you may ask? Let me take a few moments to tell you!

2015 marked the first year iRacing (the virtual racing simulator that brings driving real life cars to your bedroom) hosted a true 24 hour race! Since the addition of ‘Team Racing” to the servers, iRacing modeled the following weekend after the Rolex 24 Hour race to the real deal. Minus weather and time change (hopefully coming soon) it was a single session, 24 hours long, four different cars, and up to sixteen of your buddies, all going after one thing… the very first iRacing 24 Hours at Daytona win!

Luckily for us here at The Weekly Racer we were invited to compete on a team composed of several figures from Hampton, Virginia’s premier short track – Langley Speedway. Teaming up with Late Model Stock Car driver Brenden Queen (Queen Motorsports), Charlie Alexander – King Charles Photography, and what was supposed to be Landon Abbott who ultimately had to pull out of the race due to a miscommunication with qualifying, we formed what was known as QMS.

iRacing

Haley Moody Wins NASCAR’S Diverse Driver Award

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Justin Kern Leave a comment

Kinston, NC – The accomplishments keep pouring in for the 19-year-old Limited Late Model driver. Just a few short months ago Moody was crowned track champion in Southern National Motorsports Park Limited Late Model division. Now she has something else to add to her already growing resume as she has been chosen to receive the 2015 NASCAR Diverse Driver Award. Haley will be accepting this award down at Daytona International Speedway later on this month at the 8th Annual NASCAR Diversity Awards Luncheon.

This award is to recognize her on and off track performance as well as her contributions to encourage participation in NASCAR by other woman as well. This award does not come lightly as the 2014 winner is Daniel Suarez, who recently just signed with Joe Gibbs racing to run full-time in the Xfinity series come 2015. Just goes to show that no matter what level of competition you have to leave it all on the track because you never know who might be watching.

Moody is coming off a record-setting season for her self where she earned 16 Top 5’s – 23 Top 10’s – 3 victories all coming from Southern National – in her rookie season mind you! When talking with Haley this afternoon she expressed her excitement for being chosen for this award telling us that she knows this means a lot and she knows this is a big thing for her. Going forward into 2015 Moody told us she is looking forward to travel a little bit more, as well as looking to find herself in victory lane.

For more information on all things Haley we invite and encourage you to stop by her all new website www.haleymoody.com and follow her on Facebook & Twitter (@Haley_Moody50) by clicking the links.

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Kart: Time To Get Down and Dirty, Albemarle Releases 2015 Schedule

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Justin Kern Leave a comment

Elizabeth City, NC – Only a few short weeks before the smell of burnt methanol and dust floods the sky of Albemarle Speedway, a little dirt track just inside the boundaries of North Carolina with some big talent. Albemarle Kart Club, run by president Doug Johnson, is a well-groomed dirt kart track nestled within the Dixieland Motor Speedway Complex. Albemarle runs their program on Saturday’s, under the lights, just like the “big shots!” I say that very lightly by the way because some of these young kids flat fly around that track!

Some of you may remember last October I had the pleasure of running a few laps during the year-end ‘Fun Day’ event thanks to Amanda Frye Racing, and honestly fell in love. Take away that it was the first time in over ten years I was behind a legit wheel of any kind of race machine, running dirt was something I had never done before and grew a whole new level of respect for dirt racers. Couple that with the camaraderie between the racers and the amount of talent seen on the track! That made me want to go back every now and then to see a true race.

Now this is not me saying that the weekly series I usually attend and cover is not some great racing, because then I would just be crazy! However it is nice to take a step back and enjoy the race, and the excitement the dirt adds. With that being said I want to branch out and bring some dirt kart racing to this site. These guys and girls deserve just as much attention as the Lee Pulliam’s & Johanna Long’s – mainly because they are the next big thing in racing! I will be adding a Karting section in the menu tab so you can follow along as I do my best to put these young drivers in the spot light they deserve!

Albemarle recently released their 2015 season schedule, which can be found bellow or over on their Facebook page. Sticking with my idea of weekly racing I want to try to cover some of these races throughout the season. Bring everyone back to where they got their start, if they are a racer, as well as shine some light on the sport for those looking to get their kids started behind the wheel!

The season officially will kick off the second weekend in March with the first points race, however there will be plenty of time to for drivers and crews to head down to shake karts, drivers, and mechanics down before the grueling eight month season is in full swing. Weather permitting the track will host two work days at the end of this month with an open practice scheduled March 7 and the first official race March 14th.