By Justin Melillo
A winner other than Alex Bergeron emerged on Monday night in the iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series event at Williams Grove Speedway. Timothy Smith was dominant, winning the pole, his heat, and leading every lap in the feature for his second career win and first of the 2023-24 season.
The first two races hadn’t gone the way of last season’s champion; Smith started things off by missing the Volusia feature and only scoring 11th in the feature at Weedsport. This time, he was untouchable, leading from the start of the night to the finish in another caution-free event. Noah Carpenter finished in second while two-time iRacing World of Outlaws Late Models champion Evan Seay finished in third.
After posting the quick time in qualifying, Smith went on to handedly win the opening heat race, but behind that, troubles for some of the top names this season began to brew. Incumbent points leader and three-time series champion Bergeron only mustered a 21st place qualifying effort, which meant a sixth place starting spot in the first heat race. After getting collected in an incident, he wound up in eighth, scoring only a single point and forcing a trip to the Last Chance Qualifiers.
In the second heat, the Late Models championship rivalry from earlier this year was reignited when Seay went to battle against Logan Rumsey. There were blocks aplenty, as well as sliders and flashy moves. Seay wound up on top once again while Rumsey settled for third, having been passed by Shawn English late in the going. The battle for the last transfer spot also saw a photo finish between Kenny Hoffman and Tanner Pettit, the edge belonging to Hoffman.
Heat 3 saw Carpenter rise to the occasion from third on the grid. Kendal Tucker led the opening three laps but Carpenter took it on the fourth lap and ran away with it. The fourth and final heat was the calmest of the bunch, but it wasn’t without action as Nathan Van de Wakker held off Matthew Powell for the final transfer spot behind Tyler Schell, who was able to win over Ryan Avila and JD Brown.
Defending Williams Grove winner Hayden Cardwell was also on the wrong side of the transfer in Heat 1, but he would eventually get through to the main event in the first LCQ, transferring with Joey Lingron. Aiden Bierlein and Pettit were able to also get through in the final LCQ. That meant that Bergeron would miss the feature race and only score a single point, a huge blow to his hopes for a fourth championship.
The main event once again went clean and green, with all 20 drivers finishing the race on the lead lap this go around. Smith went wire-to-wire from the drop of the flag. Carpenter was able to get around Seay and set chase for the lead, but could not catch up. The result moves Seay up into the points lead by six points over Carpenter and seven over Avila, who finished in fourth. Bergeron falls to seventh while Smith jumps up to 11th with seven races to go on the season.
iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series results from Williams Grove Speedway were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Driver |
Laps |
Interval |
Led |
Best |
Pts. |
| 1 | 1 | 86 | Timothy S Smith | 35 | 0.000 | 35 | 18.289 | 78 |
| 2 | 3 | 42 | Noah Carpenter | 35 | -1.758 | 0 | 18.288 | 75 |
| 3 | 2 | 33 | Evan Seay | 35 | -2.972 | 0 | 18.417 | 72 |
| 4 | 8 | 49 | Ryan Avila | 35 | -4.097 | 0 | 18.377 | 68 |
| 5 | 4 | 85 | Tyler Schell | 35 | -4.191 | 0 | 18.379 | 66 |
| 6 | 5 | 20 | Aiden Forster | 35 | -5.026 | 0 | 18.378 | 62 |
| 7 | 10 | 41 | Logan Rumsey | 35 | -5.753 | 0 | 18.500 | 58 |
| 8 | 12 | 14 | JD Brown | 35 | -6.266 | 0 | 18.461 | 55 |
| 9 | 15 | 52 | James Edens | 35 | -6.778 | 0 | 18.489 | 51 |
| 10 | 7 | 00 | Kendal Tucker | 35 | -7.270 | 0 | 18.452 | 50 |
| 11 | 17 | 07 | Hayden Cardwell | 35 | -7.920 | 0 | 18.413 | 45 |
| 12 | 14 | 11 | Kenny Hoffman | 35 | -9.028 | 0 | 18.491 | 44 |
| 13 | 11 | 5 | Braden Eyler | 35 | -9.440 | 0 | 18.441 | 43 |
| 14 | 18 | 13 | Aiden Bierlein | 35 | -10.359 | 0 | 18.491 | 38 |
| 15 | 19 | 16 | Joey Lingron | 35 | -10.947 | 0 | 18.550 | 37 |
| 16 | 9 | 8 | Ross Keiser2 | 35 | -11.641 | 0 | 18.445 | 37 |
| 17 | 6 | 960 | Shawn English | 35 | -11.656 | 0 | 18.490 | 36 |
| 18 | 20 | 24 | Tanner Pettit | 35 | -11.677 | 0 | 18.467 | 31 |
| 19 | 13 | 127 | Blake Matjoulis | 35 | -13.135 | 0 | 18.497 | 30 |
| 20 | 16 | 89 | Nathan Van de Wakker | 35 | -13.259 | 0 | 18.587 | 28 |
iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series points after Race #3 are as follows:
- Evan Seay, 190
- Noah Carpenter, 184
- Ryan Avila, 183
- James Edens, 172
- Tyler Schell, 167
- Aiden Forster, 163
- Alex A Bergeron, 156
- Tanner Pettit, 156
- Logan Rumsey, 132
- Aiden Bierlein, 130
- Timothy S Smith, 127
WATCH: iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series Race #3 – Williams Grove
Coming up next in the 2023-24 iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series season is a trip to Lincoln Speedway on December 4. Last season, Timothy Smith was a force to be reckoned with, but at the end of the day, Kenny Miller was able to score the victory. The virtual Sprint Car racing action will stream live on DIRTVision and across iRacing social media channels every Monday night through November and December in 2023 and January in 2024, all starting at 9PM ET.
