8/8/2024

CJR officials released the list of penalties Thursday following Mondays Truck event at the historic Rockingham Speedway.

William Ransone, independent driver of the No. 76 Ford F-150, made contact with the wall, losing control and making contact with the No. 84 of Corey Schramm. He will be assessed an IC.

Previously mentioned, William Ransone again made contact with a competitor. Appearing to not see the No. 89 of Daniel Jursza, William’s truck made contact with Daniel’s and brought out the caution flag. He will be assessed a second IC.

Austin Runkel, Driver of the No. 18 Ryco Chevy failed to make the corner, washing up into the No. 21 of Mack Fabiny, bringing out the caution. He will be assessed an IC.

Tyler Belanger, Driver of the No.29 Old Spice Ford, entered turn three with the No. 97 Chevy of John Connor slow on the inside. Tyler was not clear of the 97 and brought out the caution. He will be assessed an IC.

ICs Heading into next week

Going into next week these drivers will be served with these penalties.

William Ransone: 2 ICs, Drive Through Penalty, must be served under green flag conditions.

Austin Runkel: 1 IC, EOL at beginning of race.

Tyler Belanger: 1 IC, EOL at beginning of race.

As always these and any other penalty applied can be protested through the help desk on the League Discord.

VRS Truck Series took to the high banks of the Rockingham “The Rock” Speedway for 200 laps of high-speed racing for Round 4 of 8 on Monday night. The weather and track temps were hot, and the chase for the playoffs is getting even hotter with just 4 races to go for drivers to make their move and to secure their spot. Click here to watch the race recording.

Johnny Avila and Cody Porter are feeling comfortable leading the 3rd split standings, Avila has a 26-point lead over Porter, and Porter has a 79-point lead over Tyler Krawczyk. Even though they might feel comfortable in the standings Avila and Porter have still been battling week in and week out on race day.

Qualifying

Avila and Porter would keep duking it out in qualifying, but Avila would come away with the pole with a time of 24.152, Porter would take second with a time of 24.170, and Pete Morales would start 3^rd with a time of 24.361. Zack Saunders would start 4^th with a qualifying time 24.412 and Nishil Condoor would round out the top 5 starting 5^th with a time of 24.539. Avila and Porter’s speed was evident from the beginning as everyone else was still trying to get their trucks dialed in with the hot track temps.

STAGE 1

Avila would lead the field to the green flag and would lead the first 5 Laps before Pete Morales would capture the lead on Lap 6 and would lead the race for 11 laps before Avila would take back the lead. The first caution of the evening would come out on Lap 30 when William Ransone would make contact with Corey Schramm sending Schramm up hard into the wall in Turns 1-2. Schramm was seen at the infield care center and promptly left the track when cleared.

On the restart Jim “Papa” Mott would give it a bit too much throttle when the green flag dropped and got loose turning into the outside wall. Garth Griswold would move to avoid the wreck making contact Tyler Krawczyk who would get turned and come to stop in the middle of the track bringing out the second yellow of the night.

Stage 1 would come to an end two laps early on Lap 43 when Daniel Jurza and Tyler Krawczyk would get mixed up in an incident and bring out the third caution of the night. Avila would take the stage win, and the odds were increasing for Avila to win his 4^th straight race in the VRS Truck Series. Porter would take 2^nd, Morales 3^rd, Condoor 4^th, and Tyler Belanger would round out the Top 5 with 5^th in Stage 1. 

STAGE 2

Porter who has been looking for any edge to knock Avila out of victory lane, got a little to ambitious and was caught speeding off pit road. Porter would have to fall to the rear of the field to begin Stage 2 while his frenemy Avila would leave the field to the green flag to begin Stage 2.  Porter would fight his way back to the front but was unable to catch Avila before the end of the stage allowing Avila to win back-to-back stages. Belanger would take 3^rd, while Condoor and Matthew Owens would take 4^th and 5^th at the end of Lap 95.

STAGE 3

Matthew Owens would stay out at the end of the Stage to take the lead and would quickly fall back on the older set of tires. Avila would take the lead coming out of Turn 2, with Porter sniffing his bumper. Porter who was under pressure from Belanger for 2^nd would recapture the lead on Lap 106 from Avila, and Avila would fall back to third by Lap 108. Avila would take back the 2^nd place spot on Lap 121.

The first caution of the stage would come out on Lap 143 when Austin Runkel would get tight going into Turn 1-2 and made contact with Mack Fabiny sending Runkel into the wall. Runkel who has had a rough year in the VRS Truck Series currently sits 17^th in the season standings and would take the truck back to the garage.

Porter and Avila would really battle for that lead through Laps 150-162. Porter would finally pull away and start to run away from the field until the caution flag would fly with 18 laps to go. I’d imagine that every driver on the track besides Porter was hoping for the caution and their wish was granted.  Everyone would pit with 16 to go and Porter’s pit road troubles would continue again when he would slide through his pit box. Giving Avila back the lead with the green flag set to wave with 13 laps to go. They would go door to door for 2 laps before Porter would get the better run on the high side and take the lead.

A LATE CAUTION

With 5 laps to go it seemed as if Porter & Avila were going to run away into the sunset and fight it out all alone. But Tyler Belanger who seemed to be the only challenger left was trying to stay with the leaders when he made contact with John Connor. Connor who wasn’t quite up to speed stayed low hugging the yellow line when Belanger tried to get back to his line a little to early and made contact with Connor causing them both to slide up into the wall.

Belanger wouldn’t take his truck to the pits and the field would line up for the first attempt at the first G/W/C of the night. Porter and Avila would go door to door to take the green flag, but Porter would get the jump when the green flag waved. Porter would be be playing defense as Avila would ride his bumper like a road rage lunatic on the freeway all the way down the back stretch. Porter would be able to hold off Avila in the end and take the checkered flag for the win which would be Porter’s second win of the season.

Nishil Condoor would capture the 3rd place finish to join Porter and Avila on the podium. Pete Morales would secure a 4th place finish and Thomas Villano who started at the very back of the field would capture the biggest mover of the night title has he would move all the way up to take 5th. Belanger who was fighting to keep up with the leaders would fall back to finish in 9th after taking damage in that final caution wreck.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

With 4 races left in the chase for those final playoff spots in the VRS Truck Series it would seem that Avila and Porter have the top 2 spots locked down for the split with the 3rd playoff spot going to Tyler Krawczyk currently. But Thomas Villano is right behind him trailing by just 15 points in Split 3 Standings. For the wildcard playoff spots, Garth Griswold currently holding onto the the 1st place spot, with Matthew Owens trailing 9 points behind. The third place spot is really up for grabs as it is currently held onto by Stephen Menke who hasn’t shown up for a truck race in the last few weeks. Villano also has this path that could lead to playoff birth trailing Menke by 11 points currently. Jim Mott and Pete Morales are right behind trailing by 9 points and 16 points. Check out the playoff picture here.

VRS Truck Series at Indianapolis Recap
The Crown Jewel Racing League kicked off its inaugural season with the Virtual Racing School (VRS) at Indianapolis Raceway Park. The 200-lap race was action-packed and featured more cautions than there are potholes on an interstate. But in a night filled with fresh faces, one driver looked familiar in victory lane. Johnny Avila captured his third consecutive VRS Truck Series win, reminding everyone that he’s still the man to beat.

During the qualifying session, as the sun set in the West, the new Sheriff in town Johnny Avila and his Deputy Cody Porter took control of the front row. They led for most of the race, covering 179 out of 205 laps. Porter took the lead early on and led 57 of the 58 laps to win Stage 1, with Avila coming in 2nd, and Nishil Condoor taking 3rd in the caution-filled stage. The fans were enjoying the race, but were eager for some green flag racing as 28 of the 58 stage laps were completed under the yellow flag.

“I tried to dodge Jim Mott and got spun around and luckily I got spun straight and didn’t get any head damage from the incident.”

Connor Wold #88 Black Rifle Coffee Chevrolet

During the stage caution, William Ransone chose not to pit and instead took the lead to lead the field at the start of Stage 2. As the stage commenced, Ransone engaged in a heated battle for the lead with Porter. Unfortunately, their intense competition led to contact in Turn 3, causing Porter’s car to spin out.

Stage 2 would get the early cautions out of the way and go green for the 2nd half to finally appease the fans for some green flag racing. Avila would take the Stage 2 win on Lap 120, with #82 Nathan Campbell in 2nd, and Condoor bringing home another 3rd place stage finish.

“Cory must have got the track workers to spray some caution be gone on the track cause this is some GREEN FLAG RACING.”

Cody Leach Season Ticket Holder

The green flag runs would continue into Stage 3 and would have some great green flag racing until Lap 167. Corey Schramm making his first start in the VRS Truck Series, was making his way to the front a little to fast and punted myself into the outside wall. Campbell was also involved in the incident sending all three to pit road to get repairs.

“It was an accident and those happen on short tracks. The same thing happened to me with 3 to go when I just clipped the outside corner of Kallhoff and sent him around. Hopefully we all understand these accidents happen on the short tracks.”

Garth Griswold #00 Lane Frost Chevrolet

It would be a caution filled final 20 laps with 3 different cautions. The final caution would come on lap 198 when Henry Kallhoff would get a push from Griswold and send Kallhoff around. The caution would send the race into overtime for a Green-White-Checkered Finish.

Avila would take green flag and run away with the lead on the green flag fighting off Porter, he would come around and take the white flag just before wrecks would start behind him. The race would stay green and Avila would come around to take the checkered flag and secure his third straight win.

The VRS Truck Series will be taking a break next week and will resume on August 5th at Rockingham Speedway. There are five races left in the regular season, and it looks like both Porter and Avila will have secured playoff spots, which will make the lead-up to the playoffs quite interesting. It will also be intriguing to see if Mike Burnett, who has been absent for the last few weeks, will make a comeback for the playoffs and attempt to regain his early season dominance.

For all of your sim-racing needs be sure to go checkout our sponsor Virtual Racing School for your sim-racing setups, coaching, and sim racing equipment. Don’t miss out on the Circuit Cup Series Crown Jewel race at the Brickyard 400. Racing action will begin at 8 P.M. EST and will be streamed by Mr. Christian Delgado and recasted to the Crown Jewel Racing Network.

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