Bolton Blisters Daytona/Kusheba Takes Championship
January 21st, 2014 by Jaime Baker
The final week of action in the NASCAR iRacing Class C Fixed Series brought 3,236 sim racers from all around the world to the laser scanned Daytona International Speedway. The 2.5-mile monster of a racetrack provides arguably the closest and most exciting racing of any motorsport venue. One of the things that brings large numbers of sim racers to the high banks of superspeedways is that everyone has a chance to win; and who doesn’t like winning?
One driver who enjoyed his time at Daytona was Kyle Crump (Michigan) who started from the 18th position in the No. 18 Silverado to take the victory in the week’s top Strength of Field after leading five of the event’s 25 laps. Justin Bolton (Pennsylvania) came up just 0.173 seconds short as he took the checkered flag in the second position after leading the most laps in his No. 2 Silverado. Nick Furler (Canada) filled the final spot on the podium, leading four laps and ending the race incident free after starting from the 11th spot. New Englander Christian Pedersen started deep in the field (16th) to finish in the fourth position and NASCAR iRacing Series World Championship champion Tyler D Hudson (Mid-South) rounded out the top five after starting from the fifth spot in the 5450 SoF. The race was slowed just two times for caution for a total of six laps and saw six lead changes among four drivers.
Although Crump took the victory in the week’s top SoF event, it was Bolton who earned the most championship points with 323 due to Crump making 17 starts during the week. Last week’s top point earner Brandon Hauff (New York) came up big again this week as he added 318 to his season total. To go along with his podium finish in the week’s top SoF event, Furler ended the week in the third position after making two starts and recording one top five finish all while netting 304 championship points. The aforementioned Crump took the green flag for 17 events during the week, four of which resulted in a victory and the accumulation of 287 points. The remaining spot in the top five was filled by EJ O’Rourke (New England) who made two starts and recorded one victory and the addition of 284 points to his season total.
Due to exploits still being using in qualifying, there will be no report on it for the week.
After a season-long battle which included 21 starts and five wins, Paul Kusheba (New England) is the 2013 Season Four NiCCF Series champion, besting Sean Robbins (Carolina) by a mere 84 points. Robbins made 14 starts during the season, taking his Silverado to victory a total of six times. Nathan McGuire (Carolina), also a name that frequents the top of the standings after each week, ended the season in the third position after taking the green flag for 23 events during the season which resulted in eight victories. New York native Justin Fuller raced his virtual Silverado a total of 103 times during the season and was fortunate enough to take the victory in 39 of those, but came up 197 points short of the championship, forcing Fuller to settle for a fourth place finish in the overall standings. Also ending the season 197 points behind Kusheba was NASCAR iRacing Pro Series competitor Josh Berry (Mid-South) who made 20 starts during the week and was the first to take the checkered flag a total of 11 times during the season.
After an excitement-filled season which saw 6,465 sim racers take the green flag for at least one race during the twelve weeks of online racing, the new season is right around the corner. Check back in two weeks’ time for a full recap of the action from Pocono Raceway!