Meyn, Talman Top Thompson; Salvatore Takes Title

While Brandon Salvatore virtually wrapped-up the 2011 Season 3 NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series (NiTMS) championship weeks ago, the cars and stars of the series rolled into Thompson International Speedway for Week Twelve to officially crown the champion and complete their season with one final round. When all the online racing was complete in the finale, it was Taylor Meyn who stood tall with the overall victory of the week, besting 62 other sim racers on the high banks of Thompson.

Salvatore was officially crowned NiTMS racing and time trial champion at Thompson.

Meyn wasn’t the only one with an impressive performance though as Troy Talman took away four wins in four starts in Round Twelve. One of those included a massive, 3862 Strength of Field (sof) race on the final day of the NiTMS week on Wednesday. Talman was in need of points as his 125 point total for the week leading into that race wasn’t going to cut it for the Massachusetts Club driver. The 241 points scored in the win would help Talman, who finished second overall in Division Two, vault to third overall for the week after leading all but one lap en route to Wednesday’s victory. Finishing second was Meyn, who would be credited with the overall win for the week with 219 points after Talman’s other top finish was factored into his total. Kevin Walker and Herb Engelhart were third and fourth respectively and the final drivers on the lead lap while Clifton Cockrell completed the top five, one lap down. Only two cautions slowed the event which saw two lead changes between Talman and Meyn.

The race was by far the biggest of the week as each of the top five in the race ended-up finishing in the top five overall for the week at Thompson. Walker (197) was second during Week Twelve with Talman (188), Engelhart (175) and Cockrell (153) also being credited with top five finishes.

Talman and Mitch Miller each made four starts on the week, the most of any NiTMS drivers in Round Twelve. Talman was the only driver with multiple wins on the week (four), joining Jason Brown2, Paul Wisniewski, Miller and Jeremy P Bogdanovitch in victory lane. Talman set the tone in qualifying for the week as he put down a 18.428 second lap around the Thompson oval. Brett Osborn was second (18.437s), followed by Salvatore (18.459s) and Engelhart (18.466s) with Brown2 the only other driver to puncture the 18.5s mark with a lap of 18.496s. Talman made it a clean sweep in Connecticut for Week Twelve with the Time Trial win over James Zimmerman, Nathan McGee, Ray Farlow and Curt Hunter. Salvatore took the season long Time Trial championship over David Jaques, Shane Kline, Jerold John and Farlow.

The NiTMS produced great online racing throughout 2011 Season 3.

Salvatore completed his historic NiTMS championship season with ten wins in 22 starts, 17 top fives, 978 laps led (45% of laps completed he led) and 1555 points. Meyn was second overall and was credited with the Division One champion with 1490 points with Engelhart (1426), John (1349) and Walker (1331) rounding-out the top five overall in points. Of note, Derek Cormier2 won the most races of the season of any other driver with 23, started the most events with 66, led the most laps of any driver (1524) in the series and came home tenth overall out of 571 drivers with 1104 points.

Divisional champions include Bogdanovitch (Three), Shawn Bagby (Four), William Kidd (Five), Brad Sanford (Six), John Christman (Seven), Dave Rudd (Eight), Jeffrey Haddock (Nine), Ken Causey (Ten) and Jeffrey Pettit (Rookie).

The 2011 Season 4 championship chase has already begun at the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. Who will top the charts after twelve weeks? Can Wide Open Racing continue the momentum of two great seasons or can Untamed Motorsports, Crankenstein Racing or another team rise to the top? Find out here, starting next week at inRacingNews!

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

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