VRW: Shannon Whitmore Takes First Career VRW Win in Indy 300
- NR4
- Published ()
- Virtual Racing World
The Virtual Racing World rolled into Indianapolis Monday night for the VRW Indy 300. The race would prove to be safe and exciting as the VRW's best competed at the world's most famous racing facility.
Shannon Whitmore and Chris Shearburn took the front row in qualifying and pulled away from Jay Taylor, Shawn Wise, and Brett Rupert as the field ran caution free for the first 40 laps of the 120 lap event. Chuck Keller and Tom Ostrow had trouble early on and fell behind the field by multiple laps.
Pitstops began occurring around lap 40, with both Shearburn and Whitmore pitting at the same time. Pit strategy payed off for Taylor, Wise, and Rupert as the three made up the three second gap between themselves and the two leading cars. Wise emerged with the lead but was passed on the bottom by a patient Taylor.
The only caution flag of the race flew on lap 49 when Bob Rowden tapped the wall entering turn 3 while running 30th. S Perreault, who was closely following Rowden, was unable to avoid the slightly slowed #11 car and spun Rowden in the turn 3 wall. All 28 cars on the lead lap pitted and Taylor retained the lead with a quick stop. At the halfway point in the race the top 5 were Taylor, Wise, Ramsden, Whitmore, and Kimball. A few laps after the restart Brett Rupert had a close shave when he got loose entering turn 1 while running 6th. Quick hands kept him off the wall as he saved the car and dropped only back to 9th place.
Wise moved back into the lead on lap 64 with a strong inside pass on Taylor. The latter took the lead back on lap 74. Shearburn, running in 4th, would be the first of the leaders to pit on lap 83. Taylor, Whitmore, and Wise would follow on the next lap. Shearburn's strategy would pay off as he cycled through ahead of the previous leaders. His luck would soon run out however when an ill fated attempt to pass the #22 Farmer Racing entry of Tom Robbio on the outside caused him to bank the turn 4 wall hard. The trio of Wise, Taylor, and Whitmore quickly caught and passed his damaged race car. Wise would finally cycle through as the eventual leader on lap 94.
Taylor quickly took the lead and held it until a charging Whitmore took over the front on lap 100. Taylor would rebound a few laps later only to loose the lead again and almost crash after almost getting into the back of Whitmore after he was passed on lap 104. Wise would benefit and take over the lead but Taylor and Whitmore did not loose much ground and Whitmore returned to the lead on lap 106. Taylor would fall from 3rd place to x after hitting the turn 4 wall, causing him to rebound into the inside wall and down the pit entry with only 10 laps remaining. He would drop to 23rd place when he exited the pit.
Hard charging Mike Ramsden, who did not lead a single lap of the race, ran down Wise in the remaining laps and passed him for second place and needed points in the championship.
Shannon Whitmore took his first series win and shared tandem doughnuts at the end of the front straight with an excited Ramsden, who started 20th in the race.
Here is the final standings:
Official Standings
F S # DRIVER INTERVAL LAPS LED POINTS STATUS
1 1 68 SWhitmore 161.395 120 57* 185 Running
2 19 3 Mike_Ramsden -6.74 120 1 175 Running
3 6 98 Shawn Wise -9.03 120 15 170 Running
4 8 5 D_Stevens -12.33 120 1 165 Running
5 17 14 Chad Rogers -14.26 120 0 155 Running
6 2 27 CShearburn -15.38 120 0 150 Running
7 15 01 Scott_Hieronymus -18.35 120 0 146 Running
8 14 30 A_Austin -18.78 120 0 142 Running
9 5 50 Brett_Rupert -18.86 120 0 138 Running
10 24 99 A_Corredino -21.58 120 0 134 Running
11 11 12 Charlie Buscher -21.78 120 0 130 Running
12 20 4 Tom_Oliver -22.01 120 0 127 Running
13 9 13 TJMajors -25.24 120 6 129 Running
14 18 43 Nelson Rivera -25.80 120 0 121 Running
15 12 00 S_Kimball -31.88 120 2 123 Running
16 16 08 Wade Hermes -33.46 120 0 115 Running
17 26 06 Roger Voss -33.85 120 0 112 Running
18 7 8 Kevin DeBello -34.41 120 0 109 Running
19 28 31 Bud_Stewart -43.19 120 0 106 Running
20 3 21 Jay Taylor -43.39 120 38 108 Running
21 23 66 Derek Ablamsky -51.70 120 0 100 Running
22 13 69 Don Colliau -51.77 120 0 97 Running
23 25 67 bcranston -1L 119 0 94 Running
24 27 22 Tom_Robbio -1L 119 0 91 Running
25 34 87 Gilles_Mourette -1L 119 0 88 Running
26 39 05 Tom_Ostrow -4L 116 0 85 Running
27 30 11 Bob_Rowden -5L 115 0 82 Running
28 22 86 Billy Murphy -9L 111 0 79 Running
29 10 96 Chuck Keller -14L 106 0 76 Running
30 21 07 Nim Cross -28L 92 0 73 Engine
31 29 28 S_Perreault -65L 55 0 70 Retired
32 4 29 JacobButner -74L 46 0 67 Running
Caution Flags: 1 (3 laps)
Lead Changes: 14 (7 drivers)
Weather: Clear, 80 �F, Northwest 9 mph
PENALTIES
LAP # INFRACTION PENALTY
57 28 Speeding entering pits Held for 15 seconds