Engelhart Rocks Richmond

Herb Engelhart took another early step towards his second NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series (NiTMS) championship by taking the victory in Week Two of the series at the Richmond International Raceway. Engelhart, the 2011 Season Two series champion, has been involved in NiTMS series since its inception.

Meyn (1) led lots of laps on Wednesday, but Engelhart (2) was in front when it counted.

Along with his teammates from Wide Open Racing, Engelhart paced the field in Round Two by capturing a 3487 Strength of Field (sof) race on Wednesday. Three cautions slowed the 100-lap event which saw three lead changes.  Engelhart led just eight laps in the race, including the most important one, en route to topping Taylor Meyn (who led 86 laps in the race), Kevin Walker, Mitch Miller and Troy Talman. The top three in this race would end the week atop the standings with Engelhart scoring 212 points with Meyn and Walker pocketing 190 and 169 points, respectively.

Shane Kline and Derrick Cormier2 finished the week with one point between them after taking different routes to their 152 and 151 point totals respectively. Cormier2’s week started out dismally with a seventh place finish in the aforementioned win by Engelhart. Cormier2 had to fight hard to salvage a good point total from Round Two and did just that by winning the final race of the week on Saturday. The triumph came during a 2853 sof race in which Cormier2 led 74 laps in the one caution affair. Kline was second, crossing the line over four seconds back after leading 24 circuits. Rick Webster was third, followed by Brett Osborn and Carl Sundberg in the 100-lap race. Kline would capture his 152 point total from this race while Cormier2’s point total would be tallied up to his fifth place run for the week, one point behind Kline.

Cormier2 and David Chmura made the most starts of the week, each taking the green flag six times. Cormier2’s two wins shared the spotlight with Joe Gauthier and David Markham for the most wins of the week. Paul Wisniewski, Larry Pyrtle, Webster, Jamie Damgar, Brian Lowe, Justin Chase, Meyn and Engelhart also made singleton trips to victory lane. Defending champion Brandon Salvatore set the pace in qualifying with a 20.531 second lap around the 3/4 mile oval. Meyn, Engelhart, Kline and Nathan McGee made a top five run amongst the 77 sim racers who took to the track in qualifying. McGee would back that run up by taking the win in the Time Trial competition, accomplishing the feat over Marc Pilon, Curt Hunter, Ray Farlow and Osborn.

Going, going . . . gone. The NiTMS made its one and only Season 4 visit to RIR in Week 2.

Engelhart is in the driver’s seat after two weeks in the series, as he enjoys a 58 point lead on Meyn, 440-382.  Kevin Walker is third with 326 points with Division Two drivers Jamie Damgar and Mitch Miller completing the top five overall. Divisional leaders from Divisions Three through Nine include David Markham, Timothy Finnegan, Josh Brown, Kyle L Moquin, Brian Lowe, Dylan Cecce and William Stone2.

Week Three will take the series to Lanier National Speedway. Can Wide Open Racing and Engelhart continue to keep up the pace en route to their third consecutive title as a team or will another driver step up to the place to take the win? Find out here at inRacingNews.

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

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