VRW: Fierce Competition at Atlanta Delivers First Time VRW Winner
- NR4
- Published ()
- Virtual Racing World
The Virtual Racing World came to Atlanta with the cloud of the "rained out" Homestead 300 hanging darkly over their heads. Two consecutive races had experienced some sort of server error and the VRW officials hoped the Atlanta 300 would go well. If there is one track that most drivers feel comfortable on in Nascar 4 by Papyrus it would most likely be Atlanta. The wide surface and multiple driving lines make for some of the best stock car racing action in the world.
In qualifying Weidner Racing's newest driver Nim Cross captured his first pole of the year, beating Tom Ostrow and weekly pole contender Chris Shearburn with a pole speed of 191.034 mph. Pre-qualifying pole sitter Dustin McGrew of Long Pedal Racing started in the 6th position.
The 195 lap event got off to a rough start as Team USA driver Tom Eckels touched the apron of turn one and pushed up into Slowpoke Racing's #96 of Chuck Keller. Despite the damage the #96 was able to continue on and finished a lap down in 19th position.
Cross's teammate at Weidner Racing, the #5 of Darrin Stevens, pushed past both Shearburn and Cross to take over the lead until a caution was brought out by a self spun Bob Rowden, who locked them down avoid cars getting together in front of him. Rowden collected TDRacin's Scott Hieronymus and Team Cyclone's Tom Oliver, who started from a provisional after super sub CW Webster qualified the #4 for the field.
Nelson Rivera put in a great showing, moving up to second at one point in the race. Afterward he was fired for unknown reasons (end of season points money?).
Ramsden, McGrew, and Wise moved up to challenge at the front after the restart, all of who managed to lead a lap before Oliver spun out Eckels in turn one on lap 20. VRW Pace car driver (and sometimes SimAutoRacer.net test driver) Beedy McBlindo once again showed his prowess for compounding wrecks by broad siding both cars after the wreck, giving roof damage to them both. Eckels them proceeded to spin in front of the on coming leaders while trying to get back under way, damaging McGrew's front valance. Eckels left the race shortly afterward.
Shannon Whitmore and Jay Taylor moved to the front, trying to lead a lap as Shawn Wise lead the field. The #68 Ellision Motorsports driver of Whitmore made a great pass on Wise on the outside, showing patience over the lap and a half needed to make the move stick. Wise regained the lead and he and Ramsden led until lap 125 when pole sitter Nim Cross moved to the front with an inside pass on the #3 car. Cross led for many laps until the ever present Chris Shearburn took the lead on lap 133. Whitmore would fall back into the field and after contact with Keith Yapp put him in the wall his crew removed his rear bumper, a violation of VRW rules.
Green flag stops occurred around lap 160 and the #51 Ford Performance Online Motorsports entry of Craig WIlliams managed to get a little TV time by staying out the longest and leading a lap. In the end Cross emerged with the lead but succumbed to Ramsdem shortly thereafter.
Ramsden appeared to be in control of the race until lap 186, when he slipped back to 4rd place after Cross, a late charging Mike Bonoffski, and Chris Shearburn all got buy him as he was stuck in the high line for a lap. Cross was able to hold off Bonoffski in the final ten laps and took his first career VRW win at Atlanta. The race ended under caution as sub driver Keith Yapp in the #29 sbbsnet.net entry was robbed of an excellent 11th place finish by Fuller Racing's Darryl Young.
In all the race featured an amazing 26 lead changes among 11 drivers, showing just how competitive the VRW can be at the big tracks. The top five finishers were: Cross, Bonoffski, Ramsden, Shearburn, and Wise.
On April 1st the VRW will race the delayed VRW Homestead 300.