Weaver takes Volusia in Season Opener

by Randy Chenowth The opening round of the new iRacing World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Championship Series brought us to Volusia Speedway Park, one of the most unique tracks on the iRacing service. The short straights, sweeping corners, and specifically the curved back straight away challenges many competitors. With that said, the season opener was expected to be a brilliant race, and it delivered. The first four heat races featured hard but mostly clean driving, demonstrating that these guys were here for the big show. Drivers in transfer spots early raced smart. The back half of the field took more chances. Multiple grooves widened the track as the race went on, which gave us plenty of three-wide action. The Last Chance Qualifier is where the track really came in. Drivers began moving up the track looking for speed, but some drivers were able to hook up the bottom for some heated side-by-side racing. It was an early breakaway in the top five. David Heileman was agonizingly close to grabbing a transfer spot after a disappointing sprint car opener. However, at the end, Ricky Thornton, Mike McKinney, Virgil Graham, and Austin Carr would take the last two rows in the 20-car main event grid. The Feature was dominated early by teammates Howard Weaver and Garrett Niebruegge. They comfortably ran away from the field for the first 15-or-so laps, but a caution caused in the mid-pack would stack everyone back up again. The restarts in the midpoint were a struggle for Niebruegge, who went from looking like he had a comfortable second place to getting shuffled back into the depths of the field after a bad restart. He was later involved in an incident with about 15 to go. The late race restart allowed James Edens to make a last race charge on Howard Weaver, who had been able to stay clear of the melees behind. However the 07 of Weaver was flawless and didn't succumb to the pressure. Edens was only able to have one shot of making a move into turn 3 for the final lap, but it wasn't nearly enough which crowned Howard Weaver as your winner. First and Second

One of the topics during the prerace coverage was drivers who showed pace in both the Sprint Car Championship and the Late Model Championship, and Howard Weaver could not be a more perfect example. A seventh place run at Eldora in the Sprints and a win at Volusia in the Late Models shows his multi-car talent, despite identifying himself as a Late Model specialist. It will be interesting to see if he can keep up this performance in both series. The World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Championship returns May 21st as they take to the Dirt Track at Charlotte at 9PM Eastern, and the Late Models will have their second race at the 1/4-mile track at Limaland on May 28th. Both tracks are the two most recent additions to the iRacing dirt oval content and are sure to put on an exciting show. Be sure to catch the iRacing action presented by Racespot TV on iRacing Live and on DIRTVision. VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS FROM VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY PARK, MAY 14, 2018 OFFICIAL RESULTS FROM VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY PARK, MAY 14, 2018

Fin Pos	Start Pos	Name	Car #	Interval	Laps Led	Fast Lap	Pts
1	1	Howard Weaver	7	0	50	16.275	70
2	5	James Edens	52	-0.307	0	16.21	67
3	4	Dylan R. Houser	2	-1.72	0	16.35	64
4	3	Tyler Ducharme	25	-2.233	0	16.282	61
5	11	Austen Semmelmann	18	-2.522	0	16.275	58
6	17	Ricky Thornton	20	-2.722	0	16.274	55
7	6	Nick Cooper	35	-4.503	0	16.305	52
8	18	Mike McKinney	96	-5.303	0	16.445	49
9	10	Brandon Schmidt	3	-5.487	0	16.477	46
10	9	Joshua Laughton	40	-5.872	0	16.47	43
11	15	Jacob Leverstein	777	-6.107	0	16.443	41
12	19	Virgil Graham	42	-6.376	0	16.374	39
13	16	Zach Leonhardi	24	-6.524	0	16.38	37
14	7	Drew Herchko	26	-7.002	0	16.373	35
15	13	Alex A Bergeron	12	-7.53	0	16.434	33
16	14	Phillip Diaz	94	-7.684	0	16.465	31
17	12	Marc Molnar	97	-7.834	0	16.393	29
18	20	Austin M Carr	1	-8.586	0	16.411	27
19	2	Garrett Niebruegge	19	-11.174	0	16.39	25
20	8	John Fidler	115	-1 L	0	16.256	23

POINT STANDINGS AFTER VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY PARK, MAY 14, 2018

Standings	Name	Points	Starts	Wins	Top 5	Laps Led	Poles
1	Howard Weaver	84	1	1	1	58	1
2	James Edens	76	1	0	1	0	0
3	Dylan R. Houser	75	1	0	1	8	0
4	Tyler Ducharme	73	1	0	1	8	0
5	Austen Semmelmann	64	1	0	1	0	0
6	Nick Cooper	60	1	0	0	0	0
7	Ricky Thornton	59	1	0	0	15	0
8	Mike McKinney	53	1	0	0	0	0
9	Brandon Schmidt	52	1	0	0	0	0
10	Joshua Laughton	49	1	0	0	0	0
11	Jacob Leverstein	46	1	0	0	0	0
12	Virgil Graham	43	1	0	0	0	0
13	Zach Leonhardi	42	1	0	0	0	0
14	Drew Herchko	42	1	0	0	0	0
15	Alex A Bergeron	38	1	0	0	0	0
16	Garrett Niebruegge	38	1	0	0	8	0
17	Phillip Diaz	36	1	0	0	0	0
18	Marc Molnar	35	1	0	0	0	0
19	Austin M Carr	30	1	0	0	0	0
20	John Fidler	30	1	0	0	0	0
21	David Heileman	4	1	0	0	0	0
22	Chris Brenner	3	1	0	0	0	0
23	Chase Raudman	3	1	0	0	0	0
24	Jesse Carr	3	1	0	0	0	0
25	Charles Cosper	2	1	0	0	0	0
26	Kyle Johnson	2	1	0	0	0	0
27	Kevin Dedmon	2	1	0	0	0	0
28	Matthew McKinney	2	1	0	0	0	0
29	Adam Elby	1	1	0	0	0	0
30	Jacob Fields	1	1	0	0	0	0
31	Randall Carter	1	1	0	0	0	0
32	Zak Rounds	1	1	0	0	0	0
33	Casey Kirwan	0	1	0	0	0	0
34	Josh Phillips	0	1	0	0	0	0
35	Justin Thomas	0	1	0	0	0	0

Stories Tagged Howard Weaver

Weaver Wins First iRacing Championship Feature