iRacing: Carr Captures Volusia

Carr Captures First Win at Volusia Speedway Park

by Randy Chenowth

iRACING — July 30, 2018 — The sixth round of the iRacing World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Championship Series was another one for the record books. Hard racing all night ended with Austin Carr edging out points leader Howard Weaver for his first win in the Series.

This week gave the competitors a little nudge with the official announcement of the Championship prize package. It includes a VIP trip to the World of Outlaws World Finals in early November and an invitation to attend and be acknowledged as Champion at the World of Outlaws Banquet. The Champion will walk away with a point fund check of $3,000 (plus his weekly purse winnings), an official World of Outlaws Championship trophy, a Craftsman Mechanics Tool Set, and an MPI steering wheel, as well as a one-on-one instructional session with Clint Bowyer in his two-seater Late Model. Bowyer will show techniques and lines and then turn the wheel over to the champ. It’s going to be a great week for whoever wins.

Howard Weaver was back to form putting in Quick Time, the only driver to break the 16-second barrier doing a 15.975 and promptly running over the first heat race with Austin Carr, Matt McKinney and John Fidler rounding the transfer spots.

The second Heat saw Jacob Fields put in a stellar performance to take down the second qualifying race, with Tyler Ducharme, Nick Cooper and Charles Cosper also going straight to the Feature.

Issues hit Heat 3 immediately after green. Alex Bergeron got away clean from the pole, but drivers Zak Rounds, Dylan Houser and Phil Diaz got tangled coming past the start/finish line. That meant that all but one driver who started in a transfer spot had to run the Last Chance Showdown. Alex was the lucky number one, with Zach Leonhardi, Chase Raudman and Marc Molnar counting their blessings and their Feature starting spots.

Heat 4 began to show how the track was changing. Drew Herchko checked out, but the rest of the field was really tight, with side-by-side racing being the norm. Herchko, Garrett Niebruegge, Jesse Carr and Virgil Graham all took the transfer spots.

The Last Chance Qualifier, with only four spots up for grabs, showed some aggression. On lap 5, Josh Phillips had heavy contact which ended his night. It was the only big incident during the race. The track began to become very racy and a bottom groove was exponentially becoming faster. The mid-pack fell short and the top starters moving on included Adam Elby, James Edens, Phil Diaz, and Casey Kirwan.

The Feature had Howard Weaver showing the way for the first 30 laps, going almost unchallenged running the slightly preferred top line. However, the yellows that allowed him to rack up laps out in front would soon be his demise. Austin Carr inched up to P2. Austin was unique in the field as he was finding speed on the bottom and he immediately went to work on Weaver. Carr was eventually able to take the lead with 20 laps to go off of turn 4. Howard tried to put the fight back on but simply did not have the pace and even with another field resetting caution had to settle for second place.

Don’t miss the next World of Outlaw Sprint Car Championship Monday, August 6th at Knoxville Speedway. See it on iRacing.com/Live and Dirtvision.com.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY PARK

RACE RESULTS FROM VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY PARK

POINT STANDING AFTER VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY PARK, JULY 30