Archive for the ‘Road America’ Category

More turning right in a late model…

Sunday, March 28th, 2010
ORO racers compete at Road America for their season two event.

ORO racers compete at Road America for their season two event.

Oval Road Odyssey – Road America (iRacing members only!)

I haven’t posted about Oval Road Odyssey (‘ORO’) before on this blog, but a recent race at Road America is a good time to talk about this excellent league. The Oval Road Odyssey is an interesting weekly racing league that seeks to take the Chevrolet Late Model to a range of road tracks in iRacing and let the motor run loose in (usually) 30 minute race events. The late model is primarily an oval car in iRacing, but it also serves as a really great road racing car and is a lot of fun to race.

I first had a taste of road racing the late model back in 2009 when iRacing ran a fun event at VIR, and I blogged about that back then (here). The ORO started up last season and currently is working its way through season 2. The website for ORO is www.oval-road-odyssey.com. All comers are free to join in.

This weeks race took us to Road America in a lengthened 60 minute race with a mandatory pit stop. I didn’t have great pace and qualified 9th of 25 so I decided to run an extreme pit strategy and come in for my stop at the first possible opportunity. My hope was that it would put me in clear air for the first half of the race where I could lap at maximum pace without getting caught up in any battles or spins in the pack.

It worked pretty well – I had to put in a few laps before my pit window opened up (the late model fuel tank would only do around 21 of the 24 race laps in one fill) and generally my opening laps were good. I picked up a few spots and avoided all the early carnage, in spite of some (very) close calls! I climbed to 5th before diving into the pits on lap 4.

I left the pits in 15th and whilst I didn’t have a perfectly clear track, I was able to dispatch a few of the slower cars and generally make good progress.

A great moment happened on lap 14 as car #22 took his pit and left the pits precisely as I was barreling down the pit straight. It was extremely tight and close racing as we both entered turn one side by side, driving by inches! We had a little battle for a while before #22 spun out during a passing attempt and retired.

The final stages of the race saw some more action as I gained a couple of spots by virtue of a spinner and finally an unlucky entrant running out of fuel on the last lap! End result was a fourth place which was great considering the starting position!

I race in ORO each week and I’ll post more about it when appropriate.

Celtic Crash Out Of The World Cup!

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

In a closely fought competition, Club Celtic were beaten in the regional finals of iRacing’s first annual World Cup by the winning club England. France took a distant third place in the final standings.

We took a narrow lead after the second of the four events, but some poor results in the final two races saw us lose out with 101 points to Englands 139.

I had a great race in my race (I raced in one of the four events) and set a new high watermark for a points finish – 205 points for a third place finish.

My Best Ever Race! (iRacing members only!)

It’s a shame to lose out on making the final but it was a pleasure to take part and it was surprising how competitive it got when the stakes were so high! The World Cup final will be held next Saturday between England and six other clubs who will all register five drivers to share the track and duke it out all at once. Winner takes all! The race will be broadcast so I’m looking forward to watching and seeing it all unfold.

Road to the World Cup!

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
Lined up for the start at Road America

Lined up for the start at Road America

After 12 months of racing across four racing seasons its time for the inaugural iRacing World Cup!

The event works by having the entire iRacing membership split into one of 35 racing clubs at the start of the year, grouped by geographic location. Due to its relatively small size my club consists of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The clubs compete each season for the chance to qualify into the next stage of the World Cup by winning one of the four racing season each year.

Club Celtic managed to top their region in two of the four seasons in the last year and qualify with the remaining two berths going to France and England.

In order to qualify for the next stage of the World Cup (the finals, where we have a chance at competing against all the regional winners) we first have to face-off against French and English drivers this coming Saturday and Sunday for the right to be classified as the regional winners.

This week all eligible drivers will be practicing and racing at Road America to hone their skills and earn the right to represent their club in the next stage of the competition. All drivers will be represented, as all clubs will be required to submit two drivers from each racing division (1 through 5), so even the slowest club drivers will play a pivotal role in the destiny of their club.

Club Celtic have some good drivers for the fastest divison but are lacking somewhat in the slower divisions so hopefully we’ll be able to rally the troops and build a strong 10 driver squad that will face the French and English this coming weekend!