VRW: Wild Twin 125 Cup Races Determine Daytona 300 Field
- NR2k2
- Published ()
- Virtual Racing World
On Monday, April 29th, 2002 the VRW Cup series held the Twin 125 races at Daytona. The Twin 125's help determine the starting order of the VRW Daytona 300 Cup race.
VRW Cup rookie driver Mike Blackstock put his #5 Weidner Racing Clifford The Big Red Dog Pontiac on the pole for the event. VRW veteran Dustin McGrew took the outside pole for the first race.
The race started smoothly, with the field lining up evenly and giving room to each other. In a a move that he most likely later regretted, Blackstock gave up the low line on the entry to turn 3 on the first lap. Another Cup rookie, Tyler Hudson took over the top spot in the #00 TDRacin' Oakley Chevy. He led 3 laps at the front.
Veteran Chad Rogers moved from a 7th place start to the lead on lap 4, motoring past Hudson who had moved to the high line into turn one. Pushed for several laps by Nelson Rivera in the Assimilation Autosports #67 entry and later by Dave Brown in the Farmer Racing #22, Rogers controlled the low line and the field seemed content to settle down.
Brett Rupert, in the #50 Hillbilly Web Design Team Warp Force Racing Chevy experienced a connection issue and lost the draft on lap 3 after getting into the outside wall in turn 1. When Rogers and company put Rupert down a lap on lap 26, Rupert was able to slot into the outside line.
The race ran without incident until lap 40, when Rupert was in the high line trying to help second place Derek Ablamsky move past Brown and Rogers. In the middle of turn 4 Rupert Seemed to slow suddenly, loosing more than 20 mph, and the #8 car of Nim Cross had no where to go while driving on Rupert's bumper.
Rupert and Cross slammed into the outside retaining wall in front of the entire 20 car pack. The crash wrecked at least 8 cars, taking both Team USA cars of #54 Geoff Burke and #55 Billy Price, the #01 of Brad Rosenbaum, Schiller Racing's #28 of Jeff Shell, Assimilation Autosports' #66 Billy Murphy, pole sitter Blackstock, and the #00 of Hudsen with them. McGrew, Cross, and Rupert bore the worst of the damage as all three cars tumbled down the track flipping mulitple times. Needless to say the wreck was very expensive for most of the team owners.
Rogers held the low line on the restart, holding back Nelson Rivera behind him and Ablamsky in the Southern Motorsports entry up high. As the field exited turn 4 on the final lap, Rogers was bumped from behind by Rivera in mid turn and ended up on the apron. He managed to get the car back up on the track in front of Rivera and held off Ablamsky by mere inches at the finish line. It marked the second time in a week that Ablamsky had missed out on first place by inches at the line. The VRW veteran finished second in the VRW Clash by only inches to Tom Oliver.
In hindsight the real trend for the 125's across all divisions was that the pole position was the place to start the race if you wanted to win. With the pressure of falling out of the top 11 cars weighing down much of the field there was not real insentive to run better than second if you could get into that position. Because of this most of the Twin 125's had very few lead changes.
In the second race Shannon Whitmore won the pole position for Ellision Motorsports with a time of 50.248 seconds. Long Pedel Racing's Tom Oliver took up the outside pole with a great lap of 50.257 seconds.
Whitmore held the low line as Oliver moved back a little and the #33 of Roger Voss challenged on the outside for the lead. The other LPR entry of Cornel Schuler Jr. experienced a connection problem just before the race started and had to start from the pit lane many laps down on the field.
VRW Season 1 Championship runner up Shawn Wise brought out the caution after what would have been a strong move down the back straight to get his #98 Ostrow Racing Lord Of the Rings to the inside line. Unfortunately for everyone in the high line, Wise was not clear of the low line to make such a move. Schiller Racing's #29 of Kevin Welch was already in the low line and was forced onto the apron going into turn 3. Team Warp Force Racing's RD Wagner was on the outside of Wise when the #29 got back on the surface. Wise realized that he was in the middle and moved up into Wagner, putting Wagner into the wall and taking out a number of other cars including both Gulf Holmes entries of Darin Gangi and GPL star Chris Moses. Gangi was out of the race because of damage.
The race proceeded smoothly with Whitmore holding the lead and Voss and Oliver working the outside. On lap 27 the yellow came out again after backmarker Schuler and second place Voss came together in the middle of the track through the tri-oval. Most of the field missed the wreck but both of the Extreme Servers entries of Mike Bonoffski and CW Webster were spun into each other. Despite the #97 of Bonoffski riding up onto the hood of Webster, neither entry was damaged.
After the restart Whitmore still held the low line and the lead. Tom Oliver ran in second on the outside, pushed by Darrin Stevens in the #6 Weidner Racing entry. The field quickly ran down the remaining laps and looked as though they would finish the race without any further incident. That was all throw away as they entered the tri-oval to take the checkered flag.
In one of the most bizarre, violent, and expensive finishes in virtual racing history, almost ever car in the field was involved in a massive wreck in the tri oval. As the cars came to the line, Kevin Welch avoided running into the back of Whitmore and turned the car right into the outside lane of Tom Oliver. The tightly bunched group had no time to react. Cars piled into the finish line, creating a massive ball of tumbling cars that sent Darrin Stevens 20 feet into the air and onto the top of the catch fence. Amazingly Kevin Welch managed to slide through the wreckage for second, barely beating Jeff Eiland in the #99.
Only Whitmore remained untouched after the wreck and burned a couple of victory doughnuts into the front straight after the race ended.