HORL WC2 Michigan: New Division Starts On Good Foot
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- Hendrick Online Racing League
HORL WC2: New Division Starts Off On Good Foot
The WC2 boys started their season off at Michigan by copying the "Big Boys". Their first caution was on lap 9, in turn 3, and was a self spin. Almost identical to how the WC Division's race started. The #113 car was the reason for the 1st yellow by driving into hard and spinning out. He was the only car involved and pitted to try and fix his car. Bmorse pitted with the #113 car for no apparent reason, while on pit road the #28 car of bmorse forgot where his pit stall was and over drove it. Bmorse thought he had undershot it and went forward some more, than he realized that he had overshot it and backed up 9 stalls to his pit box and got his car serviced. He took 4 tires and fuel and left pit road to rejoin the field in 7th place.
With the restart on lap 15 the #04 car of DDiFrancesco was in the lead followed by the #52 car of dsmith-HORL and the #24 car of HIGH TIMES24. Going into turn 1 the #24 car made a move low on dsmith-HORL and took the 2cd place spot away from dsmith. Dsmith-HORL would fall back to 4th place before he could get back in line.
On the next lap into turn 1 the #40 car of Mike Johns passed the #84 car of RandyH moving RandyH to the 7th position and the #40 car to the 6th position. In the same turn behind those two drivers, the #50 car of ->hashman<- got sideways and locked up the brakes. Then bmorse got loose, hit the apron, and slid into the wall. Neither incident would bring out a yellow and both drivers were able to continue the race. Bmorse would drop to last place after hitting the wall, he suffered no damage.
Next lap, going into turn 1 the #50 car would get sideways again but this time he would be unable to save the car and he hit the wall causing him heave nose and hood damage. The #50 car elected to keep going hoping for a caution rather than pit and get the damage fixed under a green flag run.
On lap 18 the #40 car passed the #25 car of DevilDogUSMC going into turn 1 moved himself to 5th and the #25 to 6th place. Also on lap 18 the #28 car of bmorse would pass the #113 car coming out of turn 2.
On lap 20 D_Matlock would pass HIGH TIMES24 in turn 1 and move to 3rd place. At this point DDiFrancesco had a 2.44 sec. lead on 2nd place and it was growing lap by lap.
On lap 27 ->hashman<- would move past the #84 car of RandyH in turn 3 and move up to the 7th position. ->hashman<- would then pass the #25 car on lap 24 and move into the 6th position. The #84 car tried to follow the #50 car past the #25 but was unable to complete the pass.
With the pack spread out single file racing occurred until a debris caution came out during the middle of the race. The field would pit and go green flag again 4 laps later. The pack spread out quickly and green flag, single file, racing occurred until a yellow appeared it was coming out when it actually didn't. Everyone backed off the gas except for the #28 car of bmorse. Bmorse went up the middle and to the lead. Bmorse led the field till the next yellow came out. It appeared that bmorse had the race locked up with an 18 second lead with only 9 laps to go.
Racing just isn't that way sometimes and on lap 72 of 80 the #113 car of fl_domino slowed down drastically out of turn 4. It appears that the #113 car was pitting, but the #24 car of HIGH TIMES24 didn't see the hand signals of fl_domino and the #24 stayed on the gas. This caused the @4 car to run over the #113 car and bring out a yellow with only 8 laps to go in the race.
On lap 76 of 80 with bmorse in the lead the green flag flew again. Bmorse knowing he had no chance at winning the race because of his old tires wisely stayed high into turn 3 later that lap and let the other 3 cars go bye and battle for the lead. Bmorse led a total of 15 laps and finished the day in 4th place.
Going into turn 3 on lap 77 the #40 car of Mike Johns passed the #28 car of bmorse and took the lead with 3 to go. On lap 79 the #97 car of D_Matlock looked low on Mike Johns for the lead into turn 1. Behind the two leaders, about .2 tenths back, the #24 of HIGH TIMES24 and the #40 of DDiFrancesco were side by side battling. Both DDiFrancesco and D_Matlock completed their passes, it would take D_Matlock one turn longer though as D_Matlock got past Mike Johns in turn 3. On the last lap in turn 3 Mike Johns got loose and drifted up the track losing his 2cd place position to DDiFrancesco. D_Matlock would cross the line and win the first race in the WC2 division for HORL.
Editors Note
Congrats to the #97 car of D_Matlock on the win and congrats to everyone for a great night of racing. Way to go guys, great respect shown, you all never had raced with each other before and you go out there and act like seasoned veterans. I am very impressed with only a 3 caution race, 10 showed up tonight and you 10 had a blast. This will help in the points and finishing next week will help too. Good luck to all of you at Sears Point and give me another good race to write a story about! See ya later!
Nicholas Morse