Burris Best at Bristol
January 23rd, 2012 by DavidP
Kevin Burris edged one step closer to the 2011 Season Four iRacing.com Late Model Tour (iLMT) title during Round 11 as he took the overall victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Over 700 sim racers took to the high banks in the popular short track car over the seven day span to test their luck and skill against the best on the iRacing service but, in the end, it was the point leader edging-out the weekly victory.
Burris’ victory came during Thursday’s 2840 Strength of Field (SoF) race in which he led 18 laps from the pole position. He edged Trey Jarrell by under two tenths of a second for a victory with Alex Ciambrone, Aaron Easler and Gary Dawson completing the top five. Jarrell led 32 laps in the 50-lap event. Burris would pocket 172 points for the win, valuable points he would put towards the championship chase.
Jarrell’s second place run to Burris came on the heels of a win which would slot him second place overall for the week. Jarrell’s victory took place in a 2648 SoF race on Wednesday in which he topped a field of 15 Late Models at Bristol. Jarrell led wire-to-wire in the 50-lap race and came home first by four seconds over Ciambrone. Easler was third, followed by Bill “Dr. Noise” Martin and Kevin Walter2. For the win, Jarrell took home 164 points.
The 160 point effort turned-in by Ronnie Binkley in Week Eleven was good enough to slide the Carolina Club member into third place for the week. Binkley had a dominating performance in Thursday’s 2575 SoF contest in which he led all the laps from the pole and crossed the line first 11 seconds up on Kenneth Smith3. Benjamin Harste was third with Larry Conour and Easler rounding out the top five. Fifteen cars started the race.
Bryce Dulabhan and Bob Bryant each made seven starts on the week and came home with 144 points. Bryant’s week included five wins and a top five finish in each of his seven starts for the week. His biggest win was during Saturday’s 2705 SoF race in which he led 28 of the 50 laps in the race en route to the win over Easler, Miguel Gomez, Andrew Grigg and Thomas Zinninger. Bryant started 12th and quickly disposed of the field, winning the race by over six seconds.
Dulabhan’s big win came in a 2560 SoF race on Saturday when he led the final 45 laps of the 50 lap race to take the win over Josh Skroupa, Andrew Shirley, Bryant and Kyle Manger. Skroupa, who started on the front row to the inside of Dulabhan, led the first five laps of the race before handing it over to the eventual winner. Sixteen drivers began the race.
Chris Marang made the most starts of the week, putting in 31 races over the seven day span. The most successful of the week was S Douglas, who turned in seven tickets to victory lane over Week Eleven. Skroupa was the quickest of nearly 400 qualifiers at Bristol with a 14.756 second lap. Trenton Moriarity was second, followed by Burris, Johnny Housley and Jarrell. Skroupa also set the bar in the Time Trial competition as he edged out Heath Smith, Gary Dangelo, Dylan Cecce and Burris.
When it comes to points, Burris will take a 74 point lead into the final week of racing over Moriarity, 1360 to 1286. Jarrell has moved to third with 1213 points, just ahead of Kevin J Myers (1170) and Mark Wilsey (1124). Wilsey is the Division Two leader and he joins Alex Scribner, Binkley, Sean Sewell, Brody Hays, Kevin Sockow, Travis Swaim, Brett Newburry and Christoher Curtis as Divisional Leaders in the iRacing.com Late Model Tour. The smallest gap between first and second in any division is 26 points in Division Four between Binkley and Jeremy Ahlum heading into the season finale.
The final week of the 2011 Season Four for the iRacing Late Model Tour will be contested at the Stafford Motor Speedway. Can Moriarity pull a historic comeback in Week Twelve to take the title or can Burris hold on for the prestigious short track sim racing title? Find out here, next week at inRacingNews!
Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!