VRW: TJ Majors Takes Tough Win At Martinsville
- NR4
- Published ()
- Virtual Racing World
No one denies that Martinsville is tough. Tough on brakes, tough on tires, tough on the ol' sheet metal. It's also tough on the VRW team owner's virtual pocket books.
The VRW circus came to town and 32 of the best drivers virtual money can buy ran door to door on the tight 1/2 mile bull ring. Even for the VRW that mean old track in Martinsville proved that it will make no exception and the team owners could only watch as the sheet metal flew. Only a great last green lap pass for the lead overshadowed the 23 cautions for 91 laps that slowed the 300 lap race to a crawl.
In qualifying Chris Shearburn put the #27 of Team Gulf Holmes on the pole with a fastest lap of 20.300 seconds, beating Team Cyclone's #3 of Mike Ramsden by five hundredths of a second. Also starting in the top five was financially doomed Southpaw Motorsports, with Nelson Rivera starting in the 4th position.
Accidents would be the theme of the day for the VRW field, as over 90 of the 300 laps run were under caution. Only 30 laps into the race a massive wreck turned four cars into a snowball that driver Tom Robbio could only stop and watch behind.
Southpaw Motorsports final chances faded early, as Nelson Rivera was damaged and put out of the race. Most of the competitors seemed to understand that it was 300 lap race but a few were rubbing for position. For some it paid off but for others it ended up in the wall. Shawn Kimball took the halfway money.
Mike Ramsden spun on lap 196 after contact with TJ Majors. In the aftermath the #66 of Derek Alabamsky was overturned on the pit wall. He was towed in and continued, a violation of VRW rules. Alabamsky will most likely be removed from the final results according to VRW chief administrator Nim Cross. The fine amount has not yet been announced.
Polesitter Chris Shearburn had a mostly quiet race until he had contact with series admin Nim Cross. Cross was near the front and the two made contact and Cross was spun out. Rumor has it that there were some words (and maybe some fists) were thrown between the two after the race. No fines are known to have occurred except for the above mentioned fine. Watch out for future paint scraping interaction between these two hot-headed drivers!
Speaking of hot, the racing really heated up over the final 50 laps, with as many as ten cars with a legitimate chance to win the race.
Ford Performance Online Motorsports hot new driver Brett Rupert again proved himself to be a front-runner, leading 4 laps and running in the top 5 for much of the afternoon. His afternoon was slightly ruined after contact with the #99 Ostrow Racing Chevy of Angelo Corredino while disputing the 10th position. He would finish last on the lead lap in 11th.
Jay Taylor in the #21 Kokanee Farmer Racing entry looked strong enough to win and led most of the last 30 laps of the race as he held off a hard charging Shawn Wise. Taylor stayed out front however and looked to be on track for his first win since Texas.
Dover winner Darren Stevens drove his Power Puff Girls #5 of Weidner Racing home to a strong 4th place. A tenacious Shannon Whitmore would overcome a three lap deficit and several undeserved black flags to finish a respectable 8th place.
Taylor's run to victory would be spoiled however by a hard charging TJ Majors. Despite being picked upon all day by the VRW regulars Majors put the #28 Schiller Racing Designs Ford in victory lane with a perfect pass on Taylor just as the final yellow flag came out. Majors celebrated his first career VRW win with several burnouts right in front of the flag stand.
Here are the complete standings for the VRW Martinsville 300:
F S # DRIVER INTERVAL LAPS LED POINTS STATUS
1 38 28 TJMajors 67.064 300 4 180 Running
2 3 21 Jay Taylor -0.50 300 88 175 Running
3 12 5 D_Stevens -1.11 300 0 165 Running
4 1 27 CShearburn -1.46 300 114* 170 Running
5 5 98 Shawn Wise -1.74 300 0 155 Running
6 11 14 Chad Rogers -2.74 300 0 150 Running
7 13 06 Roger Voss -3.75 300 0 146 Running
8 19 68 SWhitmore -4.31 300 0 142 Running
9 10 07 Nim Cross -4.91 300 4 143 Running
10 21 17 Gilles_Mourette -6.01 300 0 134 Running
11 6 50 Brett_Rupert -6.76 300 4 135 Running
12 14 01 Scott_Hieronymus -1L 299 0 127 Running
13 29 29 Mike_Bonoffski -1L 299 0 124 Running
14 2 3 Mike_Ramsden -1L 299 83 126 Running
15 23 99 A_Corredino -1L 299 0 118 Running
16 17 4 Tom_Oliver -1L 299 0 115 Running
17 39 66 Derek Ablamsky -3L 297 2 117 Running
18 27 11 Bob_Rowden -5L 295 0 109 Running
19 22 18 edrauch -21L 279 0 106 Running
20 16 96 Chuck Keller -25L 275 0 103 Running
21 15 26 Darin_Gangi -48L 252 0 100 Retired
22 8 12 Charlie Buscher -84L 216 0 97 Retired
23 7 86 Billy Murphy -105L 195 0 94 Retired
24 31 8 Tom_Robbio -145L 155 0 91 Retired
25 9 00 S_Kimball -148L 152 1 93 Retired
26 20 42 A_Austin -229L 71 0 85 Running
27 24 9 K_Gibson -253L 47 0 82 Retired
28 4 43 Nelson Rivera -261L 39 0 79 Retired
29 35 6 D_Brown -264L 36 0 76 Retired
30 18 05 Tom_Ostrow -264L 36 0 73 Accident
31 25 08 Wade Hermes -267L 33 0 70 Retired
32 26 69 Don Colliau -289L 11 0 67 Ignition
Caution Flags: 23 (91 laps)
Lead Changes: 12 (8 drivers)
Weather: Clear, 67F, East 10 mph