VRW: Pole Sitters Dominate the Sportsman 125's
- NR2k2
- Published ()
- Virtual Racing World
On Monday, April 29th, 2002, the VRW Sportsman series lined up at Daytona for the Twin 125's. The split field, 125 mile races would again prove that winning the pole sometimes is the best way to win the race.
The #38 and #37 Like Real Racing Monte Carlo's of Jeff Czupta and Wade Hermes took the front row for the first VRW Sportsman 125 qualifyer. The weather was a warm 69 degrees with a strong North 12 mph wind. Qualifying was tough with the entire field being separated by only .2 seconds from 1st to 20th.
The weather was decidedly a chilly 57 degrees with a wind West at 5 mph as the race started smoothly and the field ran off the first eight laps without incident. On lap 9 Shawn Soules was spun into the outside fence in the #20 Team GTR Racing Grand Prix entry after traffic got backed up and sub driver Russ Haley got into the back of him in the #70 Flatout Motorsports entry. The wreck also put Wilbur Gildersleeve Jr in the #44 and Steve Tanner in the #98 behind the wall.
After the resart the field formed up two by two, with the #36 Dr. Diecast car of Nick Morse taking the lead on the outside of the #38 car. Morse made several strong moves while somehow using both the high and low lines. With 10 to go he finally got shuffled back and ended the race in 7th.
The Like Real Racing cars dominated the day, with Jeff Czupta winning the event under yellow and VRW veteran teammate Wade Hermes following in the second position.
In the second sportsman race Dan DeNayer took the pole for the #30 Kenneth Campbell Racing Team with a time of 49.772. Nick Morse's teammate at Hurst Motorsports, Daniel Williams, took the second spot.
Once again the race went smoothly for the first 6 laps. Precision Racing 2 driver Jim Painter brought out the first caution on lap 6 after loosing control in turn 4 and slamming the outside all after making contact with a car in the low line.
On lap 11 after the restart Precision Racing 2 team owner Kevin Debello's day got even worse as his other team driver, Scott Perrault, got into the back of Dan Williams up in the front of the field. Perrault, a experienced VRW Season 1 driver bumped the #35 in the middle of turn 3, bringing out another yellow. The multi-car wreck put out Williams, #69 Eric Rodaman, #18 Brian Blankenship, #6 Fred Anderson, and #89 Ron Jaggers.
With the field trimmed down to only 13 cars, the field relaxed and worked together. #19 Mark Zimmerlee and #00 Dave Pressley both went a lap down after loosing the draft. While the drivers did work side by side, the general attitude was one of give and take not seen when more cars were still on competition.
With only 3 to go the #17 Tom Wigent was looking to lead a lap over DeNayer when he tapped the #30 in turn 4. He slammed into the outside wall taking several cars with him, most notably John Lynch in the #57 Team Independent entry.
DeNayer dominated the race and led all 50 laps as the race ended under caution.