Humpe Dominates Paperclip
April 12th, 2013 by Jaime Baker
Martinsville hosted top sim racers from all over the world for week six of the NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series (NiCAS) eight week season. Over thirty shiny new Gen6 stockcars would enter the ancient speedy, and hardly any would leave without some sort of damage. Any racer can make decent lap times around the paperclip shaped track, but it takes an ace to handle the challenge Martinsville presents when over thirty cars are going for the same piece of real estate on the curb. While the track built in 1947 does offer a surprise winner from time to time, Martinsville rewards experience and car control, which means the winners are usually no surprise to anyone.
Kenny Humpe thoroughly dominated his competition throughout the week in Virginia, including wins in the top two rated races of the week. Humpe is no stranger to success on the iRacing.com service, and he flexed his muscle once again over the course of week six. Leading 149 of the 150 laps in the top rated race of the week on Thursday, and 127 laps in a nearly identical rated race on Sunday, Humpe had no problem fighting off the competition at the short track. No matter the level of competition, it was clear Humpe was the man to beat as he is now one step closer to reclaiming the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS) license he once possessed.
Behind Humpe in the top rated Thursday night race was an impressive run from Kollin Keister. Keister scored 343 points for his runner up finish, enough to edge PJ Stergios by one point in the weekly standings. Lee Herron put together another solid week as he looks to lock himself into the upcoming NiPS, while Brodie Kostecki rounded out the top five. Our overall points leader Dylan Duval has been a model of consistency throughout the season, and he quietly put together another 300+ point week to extend his points lead over fellow former NiPS competitor Justin Trombley.
As frustrating as Martinsville can be, Shane Dougherty deserves a medal for his eleven starts on the week, the most of anyone on the service. Dougherty managed to keep the fenders on it in the majority of his races, scoring a top five in nearly half of his starts, while earning a solid average finish of seventh. Scoot Johnson and Joseph Gulotta tied for second with eight starts, but you had to go back to George Stratton with the fourth most starts to find the first of the group to walk away with a grandfather clock. A stat line that can’t go unnoticed belongs to Dillon Raffurty, who not only led the way in wins with four, but more impressively led 803 of his 884 completed laps around the paperclip.
Next week for the NiCAS is back to outrageous speeds as the new Gen6 stockcars make their first trip to Texas Motorspeedway. While TMS fits the description of a “Cookie-Cutter”, it presents challenges to teams not found at any other tracks. Be sure to check back at inRacingNews.com next week for a full recap of all the news coming out of the lightning quick Texas Motorspeedway.