JRL: Thomas And Webster Tame The Lady In Black!
- Published ()
- JustRacin League
The JustRacin League continued mirroring the NASCAR Winston Cup schedule this week with Darlington. The first Superspeedway NASCAR ever went to is still the toughest, and the same holds true for the simulation side of things. Though by the time sim racing came along there where more Superspeedways then anything else on the NASCAR schedule, the famed lady in black holds as much challenge as ever especially on the computer side of things. In fact with the newly invented wall glue the famed Papyrus designers have come up with, it may be even tougher then the real thing!
Stock Division
With expectations generally low heading into the week everyone was ready to just race the track as qualifying got underway on Tuesday for the Carolina Dodge Dealers 200 in the JRL Stock division. Only 30 drivers where man enough to show up and qualify for the race so there was no worry about making the field and what a tight field it was! Kevin King took the pole with less then half a second separating the top 20.
The drivers took to the track with much trepidation, and this race would realize most of their fears. The pole sitter King was strong for the first few laps but he soon began to fall with his usual connection problems (on a side note, word has it there is a fund now circulating to get the man off of AOL, J/K).
With cautions a plenty the race never established a flow, even though we did manage one near full green run. But with 13 cautions slowing the pace for 47 laps the race was defiantly one of attrition. Paul Rigney probably had the best run of the bunch leading the most laps but falling late due to damage. Mike Ramsden also led a large portion of the race but pit strategy would shuffle him out of contention by the time the checkers where in sight.
The race saw at least one major wreck, and many more minor wrecks which saw most cars running with at least some damage at the end. And when it was all over Erick Thomas took the win on a late race series of caution flags. Paul Rigney was in the lead with about 6 laps to go with a well damaged and off the pace car. On the final restart of the race Thomas got by Rigney and Ramsden also got by to take over second place. With 3 to go the caution once again flew, and that was all she wrote as the field finished behind the pace car.
Matt Sentell and Jeff Shell finished out the top 5 both just happy to survive all the carnage.
Thomas had this to say of his tenuous win; "Paul almost pulled the thing off... In fact if he could have held on for one more lap he would have taken it. I’m really happy to finally get the luck it takes to win one of these races"
Modified Division
As we moved on to the Modified division race on Thursday everyone was feeling a bit humbled by the track to tough to tame and perhaps that made the race a bit tamer. Or maybe it just scared everyone as only 17 cars made qualifying attempts out of the 25 car starting field. Paul Rigney took pole by 3 one hundredths over Dmitri Charaev.
The Carolina Dodge Dealers 250 got of to an expected bumpy start as the early stages of the race saw several cautions, but after everyone got the butterflies out of their stomachs a long green flag run was in the making.
Indeed green flag pit stops soon ensued; something everyone was happy to see. Unfortunately the smiles didn’t last long as the caution flew and several drivers got trapped a lap or more down even though most of the leaders had already pitted.
As the race played out many more green flag laps where put under the belt and the shoot out for the win began to shape up. Jeff Shell and CW Webster raced hard as Shell took the lead under the green flag. The final caution of the day came out with about 15 laps to go with Shell keeping his lead after pit stops for fresh rubber.
The final laps saw some of the most dramatic racing of the year as Webster battled Shell for the win swapping the lead several times. With two laps to go Darlington reached out and grabbed Shell as he got into the wall sealing the victory for CW Webster; his first of the season.
Points
The JustRacin Stock division saw a big shakeup in the points thanks to the lady in black. Roger Voss, who became the proud father of a new baby boy on Wednesday, grabbed the points lead after a rather disappointing finish at Darlington thanks to a late race wreck involving the eventual winner Thomas. Last week’s leader Oliver was shuffled out of the top 5, unfortunately not able to make the race this week.
Oliver did hang on to second, however, now 37 points adrift of Voss. In third is Mike Ramsden and forth sees Erick Thomas moving into the top 5 after his win. Finally Tom Robbio is in 5th, keeping up well due to consistent finishes even though he has yet to take a win.
On the Modified Division side Mike Ramsden continues his death grip on the top spot. With 3 wins in 5 starts it’s going to be a while before anyone can take that lead away from him. Although a poor finish at this week’s race by Ramsden gives Tom Robbio 2nd place now only 57 points behind. Rounding out the top 5 are Jeff Weltz, Jeff Shell, and Joey Caporicci all about 110 points behind Mike.
And that’s how things went this week for the JustRacin League. Rest assured all the drivers have learned a lot about wreck avoidance; a skill they will be in serious need of next week as we head to the Bristol Motor Speedway. Please be sure to check back here for a complete rundown of the Food City 200 and 250!