VRW: The Grand National 125's Show More Domination By the Pole Sitter
- NR2k2
- Published ()
- Virtual Racing World
On Tuesday, April 30th, 2002, the VRW Grand National 125 Qualifier races were held at Daytona. The events were a study in contrast as one went nearly without caution and the other had a number of wrecks in the back of the field.
Michael Crane took the pole in the #22 Sierra Nevada Team Green with a lap time of 50.158 seconds in weather of clear, 55 degrees F, west 6 mph. NetVelocity Racing's #13 Troy Bouffard took the outside pole with a time of 50.206 seconds.
The first event was an intense, yet clean battle that went down with only one caution. Everyone stayed in line for the initial laps, getting themselves sorted and settling down for a long green flag run. Crane led the first 7 laps of the event, working with Brian K George in the #48 car.
The #13 SimAutoRacer.net Chevy of Troy Bouffard took the lead with a nice move low and led 12 laps before moving to the high line and eventually loosing the leader on the outside. VRW veteran Charlie Buscher played a large part in Bouffard's ability to lead the race.
The race looked like it might go green the whole distance but that chance was lost when the JustRacin.net #65 of Al Sena made contact with the #74 entry of Troy Worrick. The wreck was a result of the Sena coming up the hill right as Worrick came down. Amazingly both cars were not severely damaged and continued on in the lead lap.
Michael Crane put himself in a position of power by taking the pole for the race and it payed off on lap 50 when he brought the entire 20 car field to the checkered with everyone still on the lead lap.
Darryl Young is a VRW veteran from season 1, so it was not too much of a surprise when he put his Ana Motor Sports #87 Iams Ford Taurus on the pole for the second event with a lap time of 50.231 seconds. Jack Kloeber's #10 ride brought up the outside pole with a lap of 50.264 seconds in the 58 degree weather.
The #18 O'Hearn entry of Jeff Vogel immediately took over second place on the race start and stuck behind Young. The green flag did not last for long however as trouble occurred in the back of the field at the end of the first lap when Tim Hammer, subbing for Scott Chew in the #59 Horst Motorsports car, barely avoided running into the back of the #14 SimAutoRacer.net Chevy of David Stickney and slammed into Sean Higgins in the #19 Cheetah Racing car.
After the restart the field settled down for about ten laps, with Young leading comfortably in front of Vogel. The caution flew yet again on lap 9 after the #60 Horst Motorsports entry of Stephen Campbell lost control in the draft, hit the outside wall and flew directly into the path of Tony LeGrene, David Stickney, and Dan Finch. No cars were badly damaged but the #14 of Stickney spun onto pit road, earning him a black flag.
The big one occurred on lap 19 when Scott Paton tried tapped Jason E Davis' right quarter panel in turn two. The drivers behind were unable to avoid the wreck and five cars in all hit the outside wall at the same moment in time. Luckily a few drivers, like Steven Campbell and Kevin Bolin, managed to make it through the carnage.
The green on the restart did not last for long the #27 Rebel Racing entry of Mark Davidson got spun by an impatient Tim Hammer on the restart. The pace car returned to the track.
When the green dropped again, the field seemed to settle down and work together better. There was not another caution for the rest of the race, despite a couple of wall riding experiences by certain drivers, but we wont pick on them by name.
Ultimately the makeshift team of Young and Vogel worked best, and Darryl Young brought the #87 home in first place after narrowly holding off a last turn charge by Vogel. As the rest of the field exited 4 a huge wreck occurred and many of the drivers crossed the line while spinning or driving backwards.