MichiganCircleTrack.com is the online home of the MARC Times Racing News & Michigan Racing Scene and MARCTimesTV.

It was a busy week for members of the Michigan Circle Track Sim-Racing League in preparation for our first Tuesday night race, at our new host site. After getting things set up, there were fifteen drivers that showed up for the 100 lap race at the Rockford Speedway, in Illinois. A number of the drivers were short track sim-racing veterans, who were participating in their first MCT-SRL event. With the combination of new drivers and a tight, quarter mile paved oval, it was sure to make for an interesting night. The practice sessions were chaotic to say the very least.

Don Dangler, Kinross Speedpark’s 2009 4-cylinder Stock Champion, grabbed the pole with a 13.133 second (68.530 mph) lap, in his No.15 National Guard entry. John Hernly lined up his No.64 TV Land Chevy next to Dangler on the front row, with a 13.14 second (68.493 mph) qualifying lap. The initial start of the race was marked by an extremely late green flag, which wasn’t presented until the leaders were almost in turn 1. Luckily it was a situation that occurred only once during the evening.

As was expected, there was bumping and banging everywhere, given a single groove track and stiff competition. Along with some excellent racing, the event produced its share of cautions, of which there were seven. Most of these occurred during the first half of the race. On lap 7, DeWitt’s, Craig Curtis in the No.74 was under Kalamazoo’s Phil Loedeman in the No.0, battling for the 3rd position. Curtis pushed it too hard into turn three and got loose. Loedeman tapped the No.74, sending it around. Both cars made contact with the turn four wall and then took turns bouncing off of one another down the front straight. On lap 24, pole sitter Dangler had a self spin that sent him into the pits. No yellow flag, but after contact with the pit wall, his night was done.

Fallout from a few incidents came to a head on lap 40, resulting in one driver being ejected from the event. The un-sportsman like conduct that followed, briefly disrupted the race and resulted in another driver being ejected. Both League Administrator Craig Bristol and I were forced to retire from the race early to deal with problem. Once addressed, things settled down and the race ran under green for the next 44 laps.

Hernly in the No.64 had been leading most of the race. Half-way through the green flag run, Kyle Lawson, a dirt track racer from Minerva, OH, used lapped traffic to his advantage, getting around Hernly for the lead. The caution came out on lap 90 when Todd Whiteside, racing from Victoria Harbour, ON, had a self spin, setting up a 5 lap shoot out for the finish. Lawson was able to hold off both Hernly and a hard charging Craig Curtis, until the caution came out one last time on the white-flag lap when Keith Shoener of St. Clair, PA got into the back of Loedeman’s No.0 on the back straight. The remaining half lap finished under yellow, with Lawson taking the win his first time out with the league.

MCT-SRL Rockford Race Results

MCT-SRL Standings after 8 of 14 races