After fending off the relentless pressure for the lead behind him the entire race, Evan Seay held off CFM eSports teammate Blake Matjoulis in the final laps to win his eighth career DIRTcar eSports Tour Feature. Former iRacing Late Model World Champion Hayden Cardwell charged from 11th to third, and nearly passed both drivers in the dash for the finish line on the final lap.
With his second victory of Season 4, Seay has now taken the points lead from Alex Bergeron, who has led since the start. Only two races remain on the schedule to settle the battle for a brand-new champion.
Kilgore places 19th, loses ground on points leader Jackson while Hackney rebounds
Although he recently traded-in some of his iRacing experience in for some seat time in a real-world DIRTcar Stock Car, Tyler Jackson proved Wednesday night that he still knows how to wheel it in the virtual world, too.
Leading all but four laps in the seventh race of the Chevy Performance Street Stock League, Jackson, of Rockford, IL, went head-to-head in a fierce home-stretch battle to the checkers with defending Limaland Feature winner Keith Hackney, of Calhoun, GA, to collect his third win of DIRTcar eSports Season 3.
Jackson took off from the third starting spot, grabbed the lead from polesitter Aidan Skraha on Lap 3 and began his defense of the top spot right away, as Hackney went right with him and slipped into second shortly thereafter.
Hackney hammered the top side of the 3/10-mile lap-after-lap and kept pace with Jackson’s #25 until he decided to make a daring move for the lead with under five laps remaining. A big slide job in Turns 3-4 by Hackney caused a bit of contact as they sailed through the turns, but Jackson was able to keep momentum and returned the favor in Turn 1-2.
“I saw Keith coming and had to make a move to try and win the race,” Jackson said. “So we battled it out, and he threw kind of a nasty slide job but he owed me one from the Heat, so it’s all good from here.”
The two exchanged slide jobs several times more over the final two laps until Jackson went low to protect the lead on the final lap. Hackney drove it in deep underneath one final time in Turn 3, but it wasn’t enough. Jackson survived the bumper tap and drove away with his third $100 payday of the season.
With his third win of the season, Jackson now extends his points lead over Carl Kilgore. It was a rough night for the Greenville, MS-native, who had made it up to fifth before contact with Skraha sent him backwards in the final laps, leaving him with a 19th-place finish.
To a bunch of his on-virtual-track success, Jackson attributes his time on the sim rig. Last weekend, he got his first taste of a real-life DIRTcar Stock Car in a weekly event at Fairbury Speedway – just one of several events he plans to compete in this year, using what he’s gathered on the virtual track.
“Even though we crinkled-up some fenders, I went down and helped Greg [Osman, car owner] beat some of that stuff out. We’ll be back racing Macon [Speedway, Illinois] Memorial Day,” Jackson said.
The Chevy Performance Street Stock League is back in action next Wednesday night for Round #8 of DIRTcar eSports Season 3 at the Eldora Speedway. Catch all the action live on DIRTVision presented by Drydene.
Chevy Performance Feature (25 Laps) – 1. 25 Tyler Jackson (3), 2. 69 Keith Hackney (6), 3. 17 Brett Rowles (2), 4. 121 Edward Farness (5), 5. 717 Bobby Rafferty (4), 6. 05 Devin Ramsey (12), 7. 48 Kyle Vaughn (7), 8. 71 Daniel Stiffler (10), 9. 21 Jim Reavis (9), 10. 077 Holden English (17), 11. 93 Steve Miskolczi (13), 12. 225 Nathan Lemons (24), 13. 18 Justin Henson (19), 14. 111 Jaron Valley (11), 15. 77 Anthony Corini (23), 16. 38 Ryan Carlisi (21) 17. 73 Scott Reid (20), 18. 6 Mitch Erickson (15), 19. 021 Carl Kilgore (8), 20. 53 Aidan Skraha (1), 21. 92 Payton Gries (16), 22. 23 Brayden McMahan (14), 23. 546 Randy Axner (22), 24. 026 Sage Luther (18)
Jackson, Kilgore score more top-five finishes, now top points standings
Three laps remaining. Restart upcoming. Keith Hackney had one shot to clinch the win he worked so hard to defend all race long.
Hackney, a frequent racer with the Chevy Performance Street Stock League, had led 20 of the 21 laps completed before the restart, and was just three trips around the virtual Limaland Motorsports Park away from his first career Feature win under the DIRTcar eSports banner. He took off on the restart well, but Carl Kilgore hit it even better.
“Carl got a heck of a jump there, and that sort of worried me,” Hackney said. “I thought he was going to drive around me on the outside.”
Kilgore, of Greenville, MS, had been breathing down Hackney’s neck throughout the 25-lap affair and got a great run to Hackney’s outside at the drop of the green. He led the field across the stripe to complete Lap 22, but Hackney stayed with him on the inside.
With a big leap across all three lanes, Hackney, of Calhoun, GA, threw a big slide job on Kilgore in Turns 1-2 to defend the lead. A successful attempt, as Kilgore ran into Hackney’s rear bumper at the exit of Turn 2.
This move dampened Kilgore’s momentum enough to allow both Tyler Jackson and Jesse Wall to close the gap as the white flag was displayed. As Hackney sped away with the win, three-wide across the line came Kilgore, Jackson and Wall for the runner-up spot.
Wall ended up edging out Kilgore and Jackson by .014 seconds at the line for the runner-up spot with a great move through the middle, threading the needle between his opponents as they raced through Turns 3-4.
“I wish we would have had a few more laps up there to try and catch Keith, but man, that was fun,” Wall said.
Kilgore stayed glued to the top side and made it work in the final corner, squeaking past Jackson at the line by just over one tenth of a second. He, like Jackson, has won with the League before and is now sitting inside the podium in the points standings.
The Chevy Performance Street Stock League action continues next Wednesday night, April 7, from the Eldora Speedway! Don’t miss a moment – watch all the action in the iRacing server at 7pm Eastern or on the DIRTVision live broadcast for free.
Jackson runner-up in return, Visage posts career-best in third
Nothing like a walk in the park victory for Australian Street Stock guru Mitchell Clark. Particularly, Limaland Motorsports Park.
That’s exactly what Clark set himself up for Wednesday night, setting fast-time in Qualifying and leading every lap of his Heat Race and the 30-lap Feature for his first career Chevy Performance Street Stock League Feature win on iRacing.
Nobody seemed to have anything to challenge the Track Tech #0 on his way to Victory Lane, as Clark rode the high side for much of the race, kept his nose clean and made the good restarts count.
League regular and two-time winner in Season 2, Tyler Jackson, rejoined the roster this week after missing last week’s race over the holiday break and came back with his A-game, placing second after a tremendous battle for the runner-up spot in the final laps.
He and former League winner Lewis Clark joined third-place Paul Visage and Larry Barber Jr. with less than five laps remaining in a slide-job fest for position. Inside, then back to outside Jackson and Clark swapped spots before Visage joined in as the white flag waved. When all was said and done, Jackson was able to pull the crossover move out of Turn 4 on Lap 30 to claim second, while Visage slipped by up high to take third.
“Once you get two or three guys battling for second, that leader just runs away from us,” Jackson told announcer Rick Eshelman in the DIRTVision post-race interview. “I think if all 30 laps were green, we might’ve had something.”
The DIRTcar eSports Chevy Performance Street Stock League action continues next Wednesday night, Jan. 13, with a second visit to the USA International Speedway for Round #7 of the Season 2 campaign. Sign up today at DIRTcar.com/eSports or watch all the action live on DIRTVision!
Parr with back-to-back podiums, Jackson first two-time winner
LIMA, OH – Three races into the Chevy Performance Street Stock League as part of DIRTcar eSports Season 2 and Tyler Jackson has found himself right at home as the League’s first two-time winner.
Originally scheduled to start fifth, Jackson took off from the third spot on the grid after Chris Meyers was unable to make the call for the Feature, sliding the entire inside row up one spot. He dove into the first corner with no fear on the low side and snatched up the lead before the field even got into Turn 3. Put simply, this was the beginning of the end for his competition.
Even with the single restart early in the show, allowing those behind him another crack at a pass for the lead, Jackson held strong. Most notably, Jackson was able to avoid a lapped car that spun directly in front of him with just two laps remaining to help seal the victory.
“I was trying to figure out if I’d be better off getting a caution and having them bunch back up on me or just try and wiggle my way through some of those lapped guys,” Jackson told Street Stock League Announcer Rick Eshelman in the post-race interview on DIRTVision. “There were two-or-three really close calls of that; I jammed-up on the brakes.”
Grant Parr crossed the stripe in second after a solid run in the top-five all night. He passed for second in the latter half of the race and led a charge to Jackson’s rear bumper, but just flat-out ran out of time. After a third-place finish last week, Parr’s got the momentum he’ll be carrying into Volusia Speedway Park in one week’s time.
“I noticed I was catching [Jackson], and was hoping maybe a lapped car would mess him up and give us a chance or a caution,” Parr said. “It didn’t happen tonight, but we had another good run.”
The DIRTcar eSports Chevy Performance Street Stock League action continues next Wednesday night, Dec. 23, with a visit to the Volusia Speedway Park. Catch all the action live on DIRTVision!