Osborn Paves his Own Way to Victory Lane

Osborn was a in a class of his own at New Smyrna.

Week 4 of the NASCAR iRacing.com SK Modifieds series, traveled to New Smyrna Speedway, home of the World Series of Asphalt Auto Racing. At just under a half mile in length New Smyrna Speedway is fast and, with the potential of multiple lines, the sim racing here can produce nail biting moments. In this week’s feature race of the week we would see a couple mid-pack starters charge to the front in this 2266 strength of field race.

The closest anyone would come to battle Osborn for the lead was on the pace lap.

Pole-winner Brett Oot tsborn shared the front row with Matt Wirick Jr and, as the pace car ducked-off the track, Osborn shot-out to the lead, opening a sizeable gap over the rest of the field. The action would be farther back in the pack as John Minotto and Kevin J Myers looked to move through the field from their P6 and P7 starting spots, respectively. The field quickly sorted itself out into single file and, on Lap 3, Myers looked to the inside of Jeffery White for fifth.  By the following lap both Myers and Minotto had cleared White and continued their  march to the front. It took just half a dozen laps for the  twosome to catch the fourth place car of Robert Sandt Jr.   As Sandt got loose coming out of Turn 2 Myers wasted no time pulling to the inside . . .once again with Minotto in-tow.  Sandt put up a strong fight on the outside  but a lapped car would decide these positions as Sandt got trapped on the high side allowing Minotto and Myers to both clear.

Sandt battled hard until lapped traffic forced him to yield to Myers and Minotto.

By Lap 15 Minotto was clearly tired of following Myers around and looked to get around him before they caught the P3 car of Alex McCann. As they raced side-by-side Myers took full advantage of the high side to keep Minotto at bay.  Up ahead, meanwhile, McCann slipped-up in the next set of corners and found himself falling into the clutches of Myers.  Not wanting to put up the fight on the outside, McCann yielded the position to both Myers and Minotto.

Eight laps later Myers was on the bumper of Wirick in P2.  As Myers closed-in he midjudged Wirick’s braking and got into the rear of the second place machine with Minotto (again) following suit and get into the back of Myers as well. All three sim-racers gathered it back up and kept going around Turn 1.   However, Wirick got loose on the exit of Turn 2 and pulled to the inside on the backstretch, allowing Myers and Minotto past.

While this action was going on Osborn opened up a massive 4s lead over Myers and Minotto.

Hitch-engaged as Myers tows Minotto around New Smyrna.

The battle contiuned to rage between Minotto and Myer, with Minotto closing on Myers on Lap 32.  They raced side-by-side for a couple laps before Minotto cleared his race-long rival and set his sights on Osborn. But in the final 15 laps he could only cut a second off Osborn’s 4s lead.  Osborn thus took the checkered flag as Minotto came up 3.309 seconds short with Myers another 2.029s back in third. Wirick recovered from his early mishap and finished fourth ahead of Sandt.

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