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“He was doing a darn good job tonight. I was on his bumper lap after lap and I couldn’t get by him!” The praise coming from MCT-SRL Administrator, Craig Bristol, was for Plainwell, Michigan’s Doug TerMeer, driver of the No.91 TerMeer Builders Chevy. Craig’s sentiment was echoed by several other drivers who were all happy to see the No.91 have a good night racing. Doug had struggled a bit making the transition into Sim-Racing, but he also had the absolute worst dumb luck of anyone in the league. Doug was listening to the chatter over the Teamspeak voice channel following the finish of the Baer Field race, but his mic wasn’t working. Doug simply typed, “Thanks guys. Getting the race setups early really helps.”

In the post race discussion, Doug’s brother Tom TerMeer, reflected on his own progress in the league. Over the past couple of months, all arcade like aspects of the Sim had been disabled. “I didn’t like it at first,” Tom said. “Now, I must admit that running in “hardcore” mode has made me a better driver. I was always driving it too hard before. With no aids and driving from the cockpit, I have a much better feeling for the car.”

The lead up to the race at the half mile oval in Fort Wayne, Indiana had been a bit interesting to say the least. The drivers encountered a number of bugs with the track, from humorous, such as pit crews being half buried in the grass, to the serious, such as there being no way to get service from the number one pit stall. “Yeah, I’d say there are a few things that need to be worked on here.” laughed points leader John Hernly, driver of the No.64.

After the green flag dropped, everyone was stunned to hear their spotter announce only 20 laps to go on lap 10 of what was a 140 lap event. We finished up the truncated race, discarding the results. Administrator Bristol then did some testing to see what was going on. After a couple of resets, the decision was to go for a 75 lap race with a lottery start due to the late hour. In a lottery start the qualifying session is skipped and starting positions on the grid are chosen at random by the server. In this case, Montrose, Michigan’s Ken Shook in the No.34 Howe Racing Pontiac lucked out and got the pole position.

Despite the bugs, the track itself was trouble free and the racing was excellent! Shook led the field to the starting line, but first time MCT-SRL driver T. Ben Raber in the outside line jumped the start, earning him a black flag penalty and an eventual disqualification when he failed to serve it. Raber got loose entering turn four and collected Shook. Somewhere in the weaving and dodging the rest of the field did to avoid the spinning front runners, I crossed the line first in my No.73 Ultra Tuff Dodge as the yellow flag flew. The field got sorted out and the restart came on lap 6, where I promptly surrendered the lead and four additional positions, by drving it too deep into turn one. Josh Walker in the No.83, driving from Ringgold, Georgia led lap 7. Walker had his own problems exiting turn two a few laps later and the No.3 of Craig Bristol swooped in to assume the lead on lap 10. Hernly in the No.64 was hot on the heels of the No.3 and after a few laps of close door-to-door racing, Hernly was able to make the pass. Doug TerMeer also passed Curtis on lap 23, dropping Curtis to third.

The yellow flag flew again on lap 56 when Walker’s No.83 Krystal Chevy, exited turn four sideways. His effort to correct the slide went on the entire length of the front stretch, ending in turn one with him facing the wrong direction. Walker, who had just gone a lap down to Hernly, had to pit for tires, giving up a second lap. The caution bunched the field up and for the restart on lap 63 it was Hernly, Doug TerMeer and Curtis lined up one-two-three.

Over the 12 remaining laps, Hernly was never challenged for the lead and went on to easily take the win. The battle for second, third and fourth place was an entirely different story. Under continuous pressure from Bristol in the No.3, Doug TerMeer in the No.91 slipped up on the exit of turn two. With three laps to go Curtis got past TerMeer and then I also attempted to make the pass. TerMeer fought back on the inside and the two of us went door-to-door for a lap and a half. Our battle for the third spot allowed Shook in the No.34 to close in making it a three way contest. As the three of us took the white flag, I clipped Shook’s Pontiac, sending the two of us spinning into the grass. With the checkered flag in the air, Doug TerMeer wobbled on the exit of turn four and his brother, Tom in the No.61 Miller Lite Chevy, just barely beat him to the line for the third place finish, behind Hernly and Curtis. This is definitely a track I will want to run again, even if my pit crew ends up buried up to their knees in turf.