Oh Canada!
February 24th, 2011 by DavidP
The GRAND-AM iRacing.com Online Sports Car Series headed to the illustrious Circuit de Spa Francorchamps for Round Three of the 12 week online racing championship. Open to subscribers of the iRacing Motor Sport Simulation service, the ‘mini-endurance’ series pits online-racers from all over the globe in digital-replicas of the Riley MkXX Daytona Prototype and the Ford Mustang FR500S, on international race circuits that have been precision laser scanned; mirroring every bump and eccentricity of their real-life counterparts.
Daytona Prototypes
For the second week running, Kenneth O’Keefe sits atop of the overall and pinnacle Division One standings following pole-to-flag victories in consecutive rounds. As a result of the Canadian’s maximum score in Division One, his advantage is extended to 25 points over Matthijs Ottenhoff, who occupies second with 566 marks to his name. Just 16 points behind Ottenhoff, Finnish sim-racer Elias VarisVaris scored the second highest Prototype score at the legendary Belgian circuit, moving into the overall GRAND-AM iRacing.com Online Sports Car Series top three.
In Division Two, Martin Dube moves to the head of the standings after securing a podium finish in his solitary race of the week . . . enough to earn the Canadian 172 championship points. Chasing in Dube’s shadow, Rygh Galloway also moves up the standings, 16 points behind the leader. Former divisional leader Chris Zijlstra now finds himself in third position, having ‘dropped’ 33 points at Spa Francorchamps
Michael Blenkinsop (1) is in the pink rounding La Source on the first lap ahead of David Ward (5) and the threesome of Danny Asbury (2) , Jeremy Burris (13) and Adrián López (7).
Maintaining his grip on the Daytona Prototypes Division Three lead, Richard Hasenhuetl extended his overall advantage over Jeremy Burris to 25 points, despite the European scoring a relatively low 96 for the week. Fortunately for Hasenhuetl the damage was limited, as a new name to the championship secured the largest divisional haul of the week, when Kevin Vekemans took 144 points for an outright victory in one of his 50 minute races.
Whilst Jim Davey struggled to find points during Round Three of the GRAND-AM iRacing.com Online Sports Car Series, the American was able to move to the top of Division Four with an advantage of 13 marks. By virtue of the third highest total of the week, Sergey Soldatov is now chasing the leader, closely followed by Pete Thickett, who took the accolade of division’s top score for Round Three by a slender two points. After taking two wins and a multitude of top five finishes on the 3.6 mile digital rendition of Circuit de Spa Francorchamps, Danny Asbury left Round Three as the top driver of the week in Division Five; however, as it was the American’s first outing in the GRAND-Am iRacing.com Online Sports Car Series, he failed to make any serious dent into the divisional leader, Massimiliano Biekar.
By scoring 81 points during Week Three of the championship, just four off the Division Six score, Steve Groninga moves into the divisional lead, with a slender gap of eight marks over Gary Cates, who took the plaudits for the week’s top score. In Divisions Seven and Eight, Nico Verbelen (7) and Bruce Perry (8) continue to lead their respective championships, whilst Douglas Wyatt (9) and Troy MacLean (10) become the new heads of their divisional battles.
Ford Mustang FR500S
Round Three in the GRAND-AM iRacing.com Online Sports Car Series’ Ford Mustang class proved to be a bonanza week for many, with points scoring records being smashed at the digital Circuit de Spa Francorchamps. Collecting the highest ever tally recorded in the championship, Chris Hughson took a class victory to secure a whopping 452 points. The huge points haul puts the American back in the championship hunt in an overall third position behind newly appointed leader Dennis Grebe, who may have set the record himself but for Hughson after collecting 352 points for a class victory during Week Three.
Unable to prolong the inevitable, Alexander Khalkin sees his status as Division Two’s top Mustang Driver brought to a shuddering halt, after the Central-European failed to make an appearance at Belgium’s most famous race track. This left the door open for Tim Classens to move into the divisional top spot after he claimed a trio of podium finishes. However, Classens’ lead could be short lived as Australian Scott Wood, the division’s top scorer during Week Three, is just nine points behind the European online-racer.
There’s a new name at the top of Division Three following the GRAND-AM iRacing.com Online Sports Car Series’ visit to the Ardennes region, with Alexandre Fornieles leap-frogging his way into the championship lead and keeping Lance Snyder at bay, who has played the role of bridesmaid since the start of the season. With the top divisional score of the week by virtue of a pair of class victories, Frenchman Sebastian Tixier moves up to third in the standings table, 33 points off the leader.
After establishing themselves in top two spots of Division Four during Round Two, David Sanders and Marc Bechmann continue to occupy first and second respectively in the divisional standings. Neither of them were close to the Ford Mustang class’ top scorer for the week — Giacomo Angeli. But because the Australia-based sim-racer was competing in only his second round of the season, Sanders and Bechman remain atop the standings, along with Jim Davey 35 points clear of the chasing field. With four wins from seven starts to his name, Ian Bundell took the lion’s share of points in the fight for Division Five honours. The Englishman, who made his début during Round Three, moves into the top ten of the standings, albeit 194 points off the current divisional head, American Tom Czarny.
There’s no change at the top of Divisions six through to nine with Ryan Deady (6), Shane Umbarger (7), Evgeny M. Garanin (8) and Mike Hogg (9) maintain their respective positions as divisional leaders, whilst Russ Allison becomes the new name to beat in the tenth division as the GRAND-AM iRacing.com Sports Car Series heads to Lime Rock Park.
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