VRW S2: Team Owner Expenses Soar at Richmond
- Published ()
- Virtual Racing World
Week in and week out, the Virtual Racing World is tough on the team owner's pocket book. This theory is especially true at Richmond. To prove the theory a VRW insider informed SimAutoRacer.net that the damage total at Richmond alone was over $900,000 for the Cup series. Damage for one car totaled over $125k. Taking this into account you may imagine that quite a few cautions flew over the course of the event. While that is true we will not focus on the negative this week. We'll let it slide without mentioning any names. We don't want to get anyone fired you know.
Team Cyclone's young Dustin McGrew took the pole position for the Cup event with a lap of 22.285 seconds around the three-quarter mile oval. Ellison Motorsports Nim Cross took up the outside of the front row, two hundredths of a second back on time. McGrew's race would end with phantom contact with Roger Voss. McGrew was able to avoid the bumper panel coming off on his first stop after the wreck but not afterward. According to the VRW rules, any car with a missing panel must retire from the race.
Sporting a news paint scheme in #21 Farmer Racing entry was Jay Taylor who started in the 3rd position for the 300 lap event. Taylor won races in Season 1 and is one of the VRW highest paid drivers with a $86,000 salary. Taylor has had a tough season since the Daytona 125's with the #21 car behind the wall at race end every week. At Richmond, Taylor finally broke out of the slump and brought the #21 home in the 5th position.
Team Cyclone's Mike Ramsden started in the 7th position and led 14 laps during the event. The VRW Champion seems to be back on track to make a run at his second consecutive drivers title after tough showings at Daytona and Texas. Ramsden brought the #3 home in the 4th position at the checkered flag.
C.W. Webster had his best finish of the season, backing up his 4th place finish at California with a strong 3rd place finish at Richmond. Webster moved all the way from the 25th starting position. Webster started 24th at California.
Jeff Shell continues to prove that Schiller Racing made a good call when they picked him up for $5k a race. Shell started in the 12th position and led 6 laps over the course of the race on his way to a second place finish.
The big story was Shannon Whitmore, driver of the #7 Air Force entry of Ellison Motorsports. Whitmore dominated the race, leading 110 laps and taking the win for owner Donnie Ellison. For Whitmore it was his first points race win of the season, as Whitmore won the second Daytona 125 race and finished a very [VERY - Ed.] close second to Shawn Wise in the Daytona 300. Whitmore took his first VRW victory at the Indy 300 during the VRW's first season.
Ostrow Racing and series points leader Shawn Wise had a tough day as compared to the rest of his season (minus California). Wise started mid-pack and ended up finishing in the 14th position without ever leading a lap of the race.
Tyler Hudson of Tim Doyle's TDRacin' led 62 laps and finished in the 6th position in the #00 entry.
The race featured 18 caution flags for 72 laps. In all that is a reduction from the previous season, in which over 20 caution flags flew during the event. The event was very competitive at the front, with 21 lead changes among a total of 10 drivers
Ever since Michael won the Daytona 125 Race #1 to start the season he has had little luck. During the Grand National Richmond 125 the driver of the #22 Team Green entry changed all that with a dominating performance that left most of the field in his dust.
Crane started on the pole, with a lap 121.6 mph. Starting next to him was teammate Joao Vaz, who was coming off a disappointing last place finish at California after leading much of the event. Vaz rebounded with a strong 11th place finish at Richmond. Al Sena came home in second place, fending off Brian K. George, Scott Paton, and Sean Higgins.
Crane led an amazing 204 of the 240 laps in a Shearburn-like performance. The race was yet another great display of patience by the Grand National Division, with the 10 cautions being the fewest total of yellow flags of any of the three divisions at Richmond.
The Sportsman event at Richmond is most likely one that the owners would rather forget. LikeReal Racing driver Wade Hermes led 107 laps early but was out with less than 85 laps to go in the 240 lap event.
While the event had 15 cautions for a total of 62 laps, the field was considerably off pace at the end of the event. Only 13 of the 32 starters finished the event, and of those only 5 were on the lead lap.
In the end it was CaPco Homes Racing driver Steve Tanner who took the victory. The HFRL Champion led 58 laps and passed pole sitter Dan DeNayer in the closing laps to win by a mere seven-tenths of a second.
The VRW returns to Lowe's for a night race. Several teams and drivers have moved up after one cup team went bankrupt. Be sure to check out how the promoted teams and drivers perform at the Concord, N.C. 1.5 mile track.