Race Reports – Page 7 – Champion Motorsports

VWSC 1971 – 1.2 Hours of Sebring

Race Report by George Angelidis Images by Jerry Chen Broadcast by Ross “Tnadz” Smith March 6, 2021 – On a rain-soaked day at Sebring, Ben Boorman almost pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the historic era of sports car racing, in his Rookie Monsters Porsche 917K car to the overall win at the 1.2 Hours of Sebring. He ultimately finished 2nd coming from dead last some mere 30 secs of winner Ahmed Abdalla, who marked his first win VWSC in 1971 and Scuderia Cavalli Ferrari’s maiden victory. The weather-plagued race played into the advantage of the German car, which took five of the top 10 finishing positions overall, and remarkably majority being Purist entries, typically splitting the top of the field with the Pro class. S 5.0 - Purist Ben Boorman with his Porsche 917K, endured through a near-record 70% wet race duration (the longest in any > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: rFactor 2, rFactor2, Sebring, VWSC|

NARS Virtual DTM Championship – Round 5 at Nurburgring

Race Report by Matthew Overton Images by Jerry Chen Broadcast by Ross “Tnadz” Smith March 4, 2021 - It was a return to Germany once again for the VDTMC teams with a pilgrimage to one of the most imposing and storied circuits of Europe - the Nurburgring. And while perhaps best known for the longer layouts, including those used for F1 and the 24-hour endurance races, for the VDTMC it was to be the Sprint layout that would be waiting to test their mettle. 19 drivers (8 PRO and 11 AM) with their supporting teams gathered at the paddock for what turned out to be one of the most hotly contested races of the season to date. With the weather difficulties still fresh in the minds of the teams, preparations for rain were very obviously in hand but as the weekend rolled out the threatening nature of the skies > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: Nurburgring, rFactor 2, rFactor2, VDTMC|

NARS Virtual DTM Championship – Round 4 at Zolder

Race Report by Matthew Overton Image by Jerry Chen Broadcast by Ross “Tnadz” Smith A wet week with plenty of rain provided real challenges for the drivers of the NARS VDTMC as they prepared for their next challenge at Zolder. Teams and drivers both struggled with the constantly changing conditions and the difficulties of managing undulating terrain and constant chicanes in addition to the sweeping high-speed curves of this iconic Belgian track. 22 drivers were present for the race weekend, including PRO newcomer Edgar Cruz as well as AM recruits Pedro Gomes and Morgan McCalister. Qualifying Come qualifying, a welcome relief from the rain allowed the drivers to put down some seriously fast times. PRO driver Ahmed Abdallah proved that he was the man to beat, setting a time that at 1:23.474 was .8s clear of JT Tami. PRO drivers Dan Kirby, Norm Graf and Jon Uyan were close > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: NARS, rFactor 2, rFactor2, VDTMC, Zolder|

CMS iRacing GTE/GT3 Season Opener at Imola

Race Report by Tim Collier January 24, 2021 - With two months off between seasons, the atmosphere was electric as the new season of sportscar racing took the green flag, kicking off a six-race season of multi-class racing! In what has been a staple at Champion Motorsports with their Wednesday night iRacing series, this season saw a change with the GTE class cars on track with GT3 class cars, where patience and cooperation were key to a good night of racing for all. Qualifying In the 2 lap solo qualifying session, Tyler Campbell would take the pole position in the GT3 class over second-place Marc Johnson, with last year's GT4 champion Kurt Polter close behind. This class would be competitive, and it was apparent with the top 5 qualifiers within a quarter of a second of each other! The GTE class pole was easily won by Justin Hess, last > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: GT3, GTE, iRacing, Monza|

MNRL Caterham – Round 3 at Algarve

Race report by Bob Williams February 23, 2021 - For Round 3 of the MNRL Caterham Superlight World Tour Championship, drivers found themselves traveling to the northern hemisphere, across the GMT, and preparing to race at Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Portimão, Portugal. Bordering the Atlantic ocean, this course features massive elevation changes throughout a lap, with many blind crests and apexes, and a great blend of high-speed and low-speed corners. The course is perfectly suited for the sporty Caterham Superlight featured in this series, and drivers will find themselves making full use of the available gearing in these cars, topping out 6th gear on the end of the main straight. Qualifying The 10-minute qualifying session saw drivers pushing into the sub-2 minute range, with the fastest drivers pushing into the 1:56:xxx range. Jason Whited qualified on pole and was poised to defend for the next two sessions. Races This > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: Algarve, Automobilista, Automobilista 2, Caterham Superlight, MNRL|

iRTES Round 2 at Sebring

Race Report by Doug Atkinson Images by Brian van Beusekom & Andrew Cheslock Results / Data by Jason Lundy February 21, 2021 – Round 2 of the Champion Motorsports 2021 iRacing Team Endurance Series (iRTES) is now over, and while it was a flag-to-flag win in LMP2 and GTE classes, the in-between action was intense, including one of the most epic early laps crashes appropriately nicknamed "the carpark". Just as the first iRTES Round last month at Daytona, the event was well attended with 35 teams taking the green flag in the central Florida morning sunshine. LMP2 The REVO Satellite Team of Paul Darling and David Williams again led the way. While there were moments of challenges from other LMP2 teams, it was the second-in-a-row win for the REVO team. Do they do a hat trick at Le Mans next month? Coming in second place was the always strong > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: GTE, iRacing, iRTES, LMP2, Sebring|

NARS Modern Sportscar Championship – Round 2 at Twin Ring Motegi

Race Report by Matthew Overton Image by Jerry Chen Broadcast by Ross “Tnadz” Smith February 18, 2021 – For the second round of the Virtual Modern Sportscar Series, the drivers and their support teams made the round-world trip from Florida to meet the rising sun in Japan to test themselves against the Motegi circuit in the Tochigi Prefecture. Conditions were almost ideal throughout the weekend, with all the visitors remarking on the excellent facilities and the support they received from the local organizing committee. Enjoying the weekend most fully was the Ferrari factory delegation, hosted to the event by their Nissan colleagues who were to be disappointed by the results of the race at their ‘home’ track. While not every driver was able to make the long trip – with Daytona LMH AM winner Jose Florez and GTE AM 2nd place finisher Dan Minges among them - it was > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: NARS, rFactor 2, rFactor2, twin ring motegi, VMSC|

VWSC 2021 – 60 Minutes of Twin Ring Motegi

Race Report by George Angelidis & Matthew Overton Images by Jerry Chen Broadcast by Ross “Tnadz” Smith February 20, 2021 - It was truly a day for the partisans of the Rising Sun with Nissan getting a full return on the effort they put into attracting and staging Round 2 of the VWSC ‘21 Championship at their ‘home’ track. A total of 30 cars and drivers arrived early in the week to complete testing and preparations for the weekend. It was clear that many teams had been hard at work during the break since Daytona, though not all were able to put past difficulties behind them, as the race was to show. Qualifying LMH-Pro Storm Rider Racing driver Ahmed Abdallah set the pace with his Nissan by grabbing pole ahead of LMH-Pro contender driver Marouane el Idrissi and his Triploski GorillAAAH Nissan. In the GTE field, it was the > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: rFactor 2, rFactor2, twin ring motegi, VWSC|

NARS – VTDMC Round 3 at Lausitzring

Race Report by Matthew Overton Image by Jerry Chen Broadcast by Ross "Tnadz" Smith February 11, 2021 - This week, the drivers of the NARS VDTMC made the pilgrimage to the European center of automotive testing, the DEKRA facility at Lausitz, to show their manufacturers how well they could extract performance from their cars on a track the manufacturers themselves know so very well. The weather, while generally overcast, in the end, provided excellent conditions for the race, which saw plenty of action from the 8 PRO and 11 AM drivers that lined up on the starting grid. While a number of drivers opted to skip this stop, the field welcomed warmly four new drivers to grid – familiar face Tony Boynton and NARS newcomers John Maher, Chris Cox, and Cedric Collins, all in the AM category. Qualifying Qualifying was intense, with some great times being set during the > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: DTM, Lausitzring, NARS, rFactor 2, rFactor2|

CMS Sweeps 1st and 2nd at Majors Road Atlanta

Race Report by David Anderson January 30, 2021 - Congratulations to the Champion Motorsports Pro Endurance team for their dominant and amazing win this weekend at the iRacing Majors Series Team Endurance Championship (MTEC) event at Road Atlanta. The CMS teams would qualify first and second in the race and win by leading every lap of the race in an impressive show of teamwork and RaceCraft in the series. Taking first place in the event was the car driven by Chris Chmelir and Brian Blanchette with Chris Taylor on the crew. Closely behind would be the car driven by Jordan Johnson, and Mike Tyler, with Brett Stephens and David Anderson on the pit wall. After the race at Road Atlanta (Round 3 of 5) the CMS team finds themselves with both cars on the podium to date for the Championship and within striking distance for the title with races remaining > more

Categories: Race Reports|

NARS – VTDMC Round 2 at Norisring

Race Report by Matthew Overton Images by Jerry Chen Norisring January 30th, 2021 - The historic city of Noris, better known now as Nuremberg, was the venue for the second stop of the NARS VDTMC in 2021. While the skies were overcast and threatening throughout the day, drivers and teams heaved a great sigh of relief by race end that no rain had been visited on what was a hectic and demanding race under the looming presence of the Steintribüne. PRO PRO driver Ahmed Abdallah showed the field that he was not going to dwell on his early retirement at Monza with an impressively strong performance on the bumpy and unusual layout of Norisring. Setting a blistering 46.767s to capture pole position, he led the race from flag-to-flag, taking the fastest lap of the race to boot. JT Tami was determined however to make a race of it, dogging > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: DTM, Norisring, rFactor2. rFactor 2|

CMS Wins at Daytona 24 in LMP2

Race Report by David Anderson January 24, 2021 - The CMS Pro Team of Jordan Johnson, Chris Chmelir, and Chris Taylor were joined by Matthew Overton, Doug Hintze, and Andrew Cheslock to round out a six-man roster that took the win at the 24 Hours of Daytona this past weekend on iRacing. The team qualified fifth in the 30th of 47 total race splits. No doubt, the largest sim racing event in history. The team had a great start fighting up to 2nd place in the opening laps but as night fell their luck would change. After a couple of close calls with slower traffic, a spin, and some miscommunication in the pits, the team found themselves back in 6th place but had high hopes of catching back up. While contending with the challenge of consistently setting competitive lap times in constant traffic with slower class cars, the team > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: Daytona, iRacing, LMP2|

VWSC 2021 – 2.4 Hours of Daytona

Race Report by George Angelidis January 24, 2021 - After New Year’s every sportscar fan in the world is waiting for Daytona. The twice around the clock endurance race traditionally held at the last weekend of January is for many of us the start of the racing season. With its high speeds and high banks, it’s a spectacle on its own. The sun may rise at Daytona in the United States, but it was the machine from the Rising Sun country where the day belonged. Nissan finished 1-2 in LMH-Pro and 1-2-3 in LMH-Am dominating the first race of this new era of hypercar sportscar racing. In GTE 2 teams dominated their classes respectively: the CMS Pro Ferrari and the Trash Panda Racing Aston Martin. LMH-Pro Ahmed Abdalla took the win in LMH-Pro class and overall, shifting from his dominant GTE-Pro performances from last year. While he couldn’t make > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: Daytona, rFactor 2, rFactor2, VWSC|

NARS Modern Sportscar Championship – Round 1 at Daytona 2.4

Race Report by Matthew Overton Photo by Jerry Chen Broadcast by Ross Smith January 21, 2021 - The thunder was heard loud and clear last night at Daytona as the Hypercars and GTEs of the VMSC took to the track for the first of twelve rounds of action. LMH PRO Weather conditions were almost perfect and provided a stunning backdrop for the landmark victory of Ferrari FXX driver George Angelidis, who scored his maiden win at CMS with a commanding performance in the LMH PRO class. Lacking only the fastest lap and leadership of 5 race laps that fell to others while he was being serviced in the pits to complete a sweep of the race, it was nevertheless a long-held dream come true for the veteran CMS driver. Against a strong field in the class that included Brian Hall (2nd), Norm Graf (3rd), JT Tami, and, in a > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: Daytona, NARS, rFactor 2, rFactor2|

iRTES Round 1 at Daytona Road Course

Race Report by David Anderson January 18th, 2021 - Round 1 of the Champion Motorsports 2021 iRacing Team Endurance Series (iRTES) is complete, and big congratulations to "Revo Satellite Racing" for the overall win and class victory within LMP2, as well as "Unified Racing" for their class win in GTE. The race featured 36 teams taking the green flag and nearly all completed the race. It was a very strong and overall clean start to the five-race season for iRTES. LMP2 The Revo team piloted by Paul Darling and David Williams led 83 of the 93 laps in a dominant performance for the first win of the year. They were joined by "CMS Pro Summit" and "Imperial Motorsports -Shake" on the podium in LMP2. Paul Darling and David Williams GTE In the GTE Class, Justin Hess and Kurt Polter would lead and win from the Pole for > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: Daytona, GTE, iRacing, iRTES, LMP2|

VWSC 1971 – 2.4 Hours of Daytona Beach

Race Report by George Angelidis January 16, 2021 - Daytona holds a special place for many of us. In the United States, it is as sacred and as important as anything else when it comes to sports cars. It is the “Le Mans of the West”. With its high speeds and high banks, it’s a spectacle on its own. And for this year's race that spectacle belonged to Yassin Marzoug, who put on a fine show with his Lola T70 Mk.3B Chevrolet race car. Further down in the Top 5 positions there were monumental battles while other early leaders faced problems. S 5.0 - Purist Yassin Marzoug took the win in Purist class and overall, the 2nd of the season and solidified his spot to the top of the standings. Strong performances by both Marzoug and rookie in class Ross Smith in the opening two races seem to show > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: Daytona, endurance racing, VWSC, WSC|

NARS Virtual DTM – Round 1 at Monza

Race Report by Matthew Overton January 14, 2021 - It was a dreary day that greeted the teams assembled at the cathedral of speed for the opening round of the 2021 NARS Virtual DTM Championship at CMS. 23 drivers, PRO and AM took to the track, all three manufacturers well represented with Aura clearly the steed of choice. Difficult Weather Light but steady rain during the practice morning raised significant concerns that weather would play a major role in the race, but by the time qualifying had arrived, the rain had lifted although the track remained damp due to the slow drying conditions. JT Tami pipped Ahmed Abdalla at the last moment to take the pole as the drivers struggled with the conditions and the optimal tire choice. While all the drivers were successful in setting a qualifying lap, the range of times recorded as an indication of how > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: DTM, Monza, rFactor 2, rFactor2|

Isle of Man Hot Lap Challenge

Special Event Report by Matthew Overton So the CMS Isle of Man Hot Lap Challenge is now complete and time to reckon with the clock. All told, 16 drivers were successful in setting AT LEAST one timed lap, which was, as almost everyone pointed out, no mean feat! Ahmad jumping at The Haven Country Inn Before we get to all the winners, some notable facts and achievements from the month of time trialing. Notable First competitors on track: David Anderson and Matthew Overton (December 4th, 2020) Last competitor on track: Thom Craine (January 3rd, 2020) The most number of laps attempted as recorded by LiveRacers: 1333 by Ahmed Abdalla The most number of laps completed as recorded by LiveRacers: 690 by Ahmed Abdalla Highest completed laps by percent: 62% Thom Craine (5 of 8 laps!) Highest clean laps by percent: 60% Matthew Marlow (3 of 5 laps!) > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: Isle of Man, NARS, rFactor 2|

CMS iRacing Pro Teams Battles for Top 5 at Majors Phillip Island

Race Report by David Anderson December 19th, 2020 - A hard days work, but worth it in the end as the Champion Motorsports iRacing Pro team overcame some serious adversity to earn a top five finish in Round 2 of the iRacing Majors Series Endurance Team Championship. Coming off tremendous finishes in Round 1 at Imola the team was bullish and looking to build upon two podiums the first race with a repeat performance at the second one. Unfortunately things turned hard on the team early in the race as not one but both cars would sustain serious damage from over aggressive moves from the Prototype Cars making passes in the very large field. Chris Taylor behind the wheel of car two would have a heart breaking accident while leading the GT4 field which would cause major repair and drop the team out of contention of the remainder of > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: GT4, iRacing|

CMS Season 5 Round 6 ACC at Barcelona-Catalunya

Race Report by Mark Dizon December 7, 2020 – After an eventful round 5 at Monza last week, Champion Motorsports Season 5 ACC heads to a warm Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the mid-point race of the season! Racers this week faced a 65-minute endurance format where tire management played a crucial role in victory! The championship standings for split #1 GT3 have Hamza Gulzar leading the field with 225 points followed by Andi Maier in second-place with 175 points. Josh Staffin is not far behind in third place with 167 points. The split #1 GT4 championship order is led by Michael Kundakcioglu with 231 points despite missing the race in Barcelona. Nicole Umbarger sits at second place with 177 points and Troy Barman is only 3 points behind her with 174! Scott Newell leads the split #2 GT3 championship standings with 195 points and is trailed by Chris Pace > more

Categories: Race Reports|Tags: Assetto Corsa Competizione, Barcelona-Catalunya|