It was a family affair at the front of the field in Monday night’s iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship action from Fairbury American Legion Speedway, as brothers Dillon and Austen Semmelmann scored the top two spots in the 35-lap feature. Blake Cannon scored his second podium of the season in third, while defending series champion Alex Bergeron regained the points lead with a fourth place run.
The Semmelmanns dominated the night by qualifying first and second and winning their two heats, with Cannon and Braden Eyler taking the other two heat wins and Tyler Ducharme and Cole Cabre winning the last chance qualifiers on the quick quarter-mile oval. When the green flag dropped on the main event, Dillon Semmelmann jumped to an early lead, leaving Austen to fend off challenges from Eyler, Cannon, Vinnie Sansone, and Shaun Timmermann for much of the race.
Only a handful of incidents interrupted the final, but the final one brought to an end one of the most dramatic battles of the season, as Schyler Brown got into the wall to bring out the last caution. With just a handful of laps remaining, the race ended under caution, allowing Dillon Semmelmann to celebrate his first series victory from a track where he won three races in the World Championship qualifying series earlier this year.
“The top kind of was dominant there, and I figured that, so we got the setup dialed in,” said Dillon Semmelmann. “I knew they’d be going behind me pretty hard, so I tried to just hit my lines and it worked out. It’s always fun racing with (Austen)—we’re really good friends and siblings, but on the race track it’s every man for himself. It was a really good race, and I’m happy he got second as well.”
“I’m just so proud of him,” added Austen Semmelmann. “It’s a really cool night, I’ll never forget this one as far as sim racing goes. It’s just really cool. I couldn’t run the fence quite as well as he could, but we ran it well enough for second. I hope everybody enjoyed that battle, because I know I had fun.”
Full results from iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship action at Fairbury American Legion Speedway were as follows:
Fin. | St. | No. | Driver | Laps | Led | Interval | Best | Pts. |
1 | 1 | 81 | Dillon Semmelmann | 35 | 30 | 0 | 10.962 | 78 |
2 | 2 | 18 | Austen Semmelmann2 | 35 | 5 | -0.655 | 11.226 | 75 |
3 | 3 | 44 | Blake Cannon | 35 | 0 | -1.182 | 11.22 | 72 |
4 | 9 | 12 | Alex A Bergeron | 35 | 0 | -1.877 | 11.35 | 67 |
5 | 4 | 5 | Braden Eyler | 35 | 0 | -2.409 | 11.141 | 66 |
6 | 6 | 80 | Vinnie Sansone | 35 | 0 | -2.85 | 11.321 | 62 |
7 | 5 | 24 | Shaun Timmerman | 35 | 0 | -3.362 | 11.256 | 59 |
8 | 10 | 0 | Kendal Tucker | 35 | 0 | -4.262 | 11.444 | 55 |
9 | 16 | 35 | Nick Cooper | 35 | 0 | -4.779 | 11.218 | 51 |
10 | 18 | 71 | Cole V Cabre | 35 | 0 | -5.542 | 11.354 | 47 |
11 | 12 | 54 | John Battista | 35 | 0 | -6.149 | 11.389 | 47 |
12 | 20 | 52 | James Edens | 35 | 0 | -6.69 | 11.327 | 43 |
13 | 11 | 49 | David Heileman | 35 | 0 | -7.164 | 11.385 | 43 |
14 | 17 | 25 | Tyler Ducharme | 35 | 0 | -7.814 | 11.406 | 39 |
15 | 8 | 10 | Schyler Brown | 35 | 0 | -8.194 | 11.323 | 40 |
16 | 14 | 74 | Adam Elby | 35 | 0 | -8.74 | 11.387 | 36 |
17 | 15 | 55 | Rusty L Kruger | 35 | 0 | -9.598 | 11.446 | 34 |
18 | 7 | 3 | Lewis Hewett | 35 | 0 | -10.524 | 11.509 | 34 |
19 | 19 | 92 | Mike Keegan | 35 | 0 | -11.104 | 11.444 | 29 |
20 | 13 | 211 | Alex Smolders | 15 | 0 | -20 L | 11.525 | 28 |
The iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship season continues next Monday with the series’ return to Knoxville Raceway. As always, the race will stream live at on Monday at 9PM ET/6PM ET on the iRacing eSports Network. For more information on the World of Outlaws, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.