Story and Images by David Anderson April 30th, 2023 - With three races into the 2023 iRacing Porsche Cup Series, the official support series to our iRacing Team Endurance Series we have our first repeat winner. Congratulations to Michael Parker for taking the victory at Fuji in a thrilling race that saw him hold off a hard charging Blake Reynolds from the Penguin R/C simulation team in the final laps. Parker would lead all 19 laps of the race after Pole Sitter Cameron Barker had trouble on lap one as well as defending series Champion Miguel Colon as several cars had to make unexpected stops to deal with issues from the unforgiving sausage curbs around the Fuji Circuit. Series regular Chad Dick also had to serve a pit lane penalty as well from an issue at the previous race. Blake Reynolds was one of the cars that would suffer > more

Story and Images by David Anderson March 26th, 2023 - The 2nd race of the 2023 Champion Motorsports / Penguin R/C simulation Porsche Cup series saw the teams and drivers go across country from where they began in Daytona Beach to arrive at Laguna Seca for the second race of the season. This race would be one of two rounds in the eight race season which would operate separate from the iRacing Team Endurance Race schedule at corresponding tracks. Thirteen teams would make the trip to California and DJ Alessandrini would be the winner. DJ would start from the rear after struggles in qualifying and would take the win, but not without controversy. A large incident on the first lap of the race that involved his car and others is still under post race review from the CMS stewards, however DJ was named the official winner after he would charge > more

Article and Images by Thomas Fisher March 5th, 2023 The 5th of March marked the date for the opening race of the 2023 iRacing Team endurance championship (iRTES). With a fantastic grid of 38 cars taking the green flag, the field set off for three hours of intense action around the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Starting at the head of the action was the LMDh class driving the brand new BMW v8 Hybrids. This new class replaces the outgoing Daytona Prototype class, completing the lap just a few seconds faster than its predecessor. The No 66 Penguin R/C Simulation took pole in LMDh with a time of 1:31.03, a tenth of a second ahead of second place Obsidian Racing in their No 13 BMW. The rest of the top eight were separated by a tiny margin of just three tenths of a second. With margins this > more

Story by David Anderson Images by JT Tami March 6th, 2023 - Champion Motorsports and Penguin R/C simulation would like to congratulate Michael Parker for winning the opening round of the 2023 CMS iRTES Porsche Cup Support series Round 1 at Daytona.  Michael drove a nearly flawless race and also capitalized on mistakes of others to win in impressive fashion to kick off the 2023 season of Endurance racing here at CMS. The race started with Cameron Barker taking the pole in the event and Michael on the outside of the front row.  Miguel Colon, defending season champion from 2022 lined up on the 2nd row to lead a grid of 25 cars at the World Famous Daytona Circuit. Colon and Barker would both fall victim to trouble in the race, that would set them out at various times for contention and Michael Parker was able to cruise comfortably > more

Story Credits: Matthew Overton - Photo Credits: Jerry Chen It was out to upstate New York and a classic American track for both NARS and VWSC this week as the Hypercars and GTs strutted their stuff at Watkins Glen and the demanding Boot layout.  Both events hosted strong fields of first 29 cars (15 HY/14 GT) and 30 cars (11 HY/19 GT) that guaranteed exciting action at every point of the track for the 60 racing laps. NARS qualifying saw the gauntlet thrown down across the classes with personal bests being set up and down the field.  Series newcomer, PRO Luka Gray unlocked the potential of his Toyota GR010 to set a blazing 1:30.369 with the next four Hypercars within a second of that time.  Top Hypercar AM was Jerry Chen in his Porsche 908-4 at 1:31.850, well ahead of his closest rival but laying down a marker that > more

Story Credits: Matthew Overton Photo Credits: Daniel Kirby, George Whitehouse While MNRL was on a gap, both the NARS and VWSC enjoyed one of their marquee events for their multiclass Hypercar/GT series with the longest events of their respective calendars.  Le Mans holds a special place in the hearts of endurance drivers whether RL or virtual, with the two CMS events seeing strong fields to contest their races. NARS On a relatively cool and dry track, it was PRO Hypercar driver Daniel Kirby that set the fastest overall lap at 3:25.961 in his Mercedes AMG 1 with Hypercar AM driver Jerry Chen coming in at P7 after putting up a 3:30.097 in his Porsche 908-04.  On the GT side, PRO Eduardo Beninca set the standard for that field at 3:53.82 in a Lexus RCF with the fastest GT AM qualifier, Stuart Barge putting his Honda NSX around the circuit > more

Story Credits: Matthew Overton |Photo Credits: Daniel Kirby June 6th, 2022 - The single rF2 event at CMS this week was the double sprint night at Trembling Mountain for the Radical series at NARS.  As with Toban the week before, the twisting nature of this track, based on Mount Tremblant, was a real levelling agent between the two classes, putting them almost on equal footing. Qualifying set the tone for the entire race meeting as none of the GT3 drivers were able to put themselves ahead of the SR3s driven by the PROs. AM driver Tom Mountjoy slotted into P3 in the qualifying with a 1:34.500, well shy of the 1:32.880 set by Daniel Kirby to take the overall pole. R1 saw P2 Eduardo Beninca off track almost as soon as the race had started with a long recovery drive ahead of him while Kirby had his own difficulties > more

Story and Photo Credits: Matthew Overton May 31, 2022 - This week, the MNRL traveled to Portland for a couple of sprints with the Datsun 510s while NARS took the Radicals to Toban for their second endurance race of the season. Eduardo Beninca pipped Jason Whited for the pole in the first of the two sprint races, less than 1/2s ahead with a 1:21.489.  The tight qualifying battle carried on into R1, with Beninca prevailing by an even smaller margin after 18 laps!  Joe Miller placed 3rd, only 8 seconds adrift of the leading pair, attesting to a very hotly contested race. R2, with the reverse grid, saw equally intense racing, every driver bettering their best race lap timings. Despite Whited’s best efforts, Beninca was able to pass and stay in front of his rival to take the second win of the night .  Whited had to content himself > more

The CMS rF2 Week in Review: Maher with the Double Win in AM at LeMans Photo Credits: Daniel Kirby, Matthew Overton After a quiet week, all three CMS rF2 chapters were back in action.  While all the attention was focused on the WSC 91 races at LeMans, the Radical series at Barber proved that it could provide some exciting racing as well. First up was the MNRL at LeMans, with the poles in class claimed by George Angelidis (Overall and PURIST) in his Lucky Strike Mazda 787B, Brian Hall (PRO) in his Hall Brothers Jaguar XJR-14 and John Maher (AM) in another Lucky Strike Mazda. The 14 drivers launched enthusiastically into the 2.4h race with 10x time compression for a full day/night cycle.  With the special BoP for the race, some close competition on this unique circuit was guaranteed. With a small field however plenty of racing room was > more

Story Credits: Matthew Overton Photo Credits: Daniel Kirby Just one race this week for rF2 - Radicals at Road America for the first of the endurance format races. A venue very familiar to CMS racers, anticipation was high for some keen competition in the two classes. AM driver Paul Ibbotson set the pace with a 2:05.068 in his GT3, almost a second clear of his closest competitor, newcomer Adrian Wong.  In the SR3s, with a 2:08.746, PRO Daniel Kirby just edged out Eduardo Beninca, renewing the rivalry that has become a fixture in the NARS races. While Road America with it’s long straights is ideal for the GT3s to stretch their legs over the SR3s, it proved to be more of a challenge than expected for the AM drivers. Only three of them were able to finish ahead of the SR3-equipped PROs and by the checkered flag, only four > more