Barry, Rafoss Win Misadventure Great Lakes 100
It was a 1-2 overall finish for Nitro Circus Sim Racing Team in Thursday night’s Misadventure Great Lakes 100 from iRacing’s version of Bark River International Raceway, the first of three rounds in the 2024 Virtual Off-Road Team Endurocross season with #Yes2Motorsport. Two-time iRacing Off-Road Championship title winner Connor Barry and Jakob Rafoss teamed up to take the overall and Unlimited Truck 4WD win, while Josh Edmundson and Cam Pedersen were the Limited Car class winners in second overall, and the only other finishers on the lead lap.
Top qualifier Zak Blanch of 10mm Sockets led from the green flag before handing off the top spot to Lampoon Racing’s Jacob Alexander for a lap during early pit stops. When Alexander pit, the #11 truck of Rafoss—which elected to rear start and had been passing other racers throughout the first stint—inherited the top spot. From there, they led almost every remaining lap, save for one more by Blanch on the second pit stop and one by TeleTUHBies’ Eric Witner on the third until Barry took over the top spot for good on Lap 43 of the 80 completed. Witner and Paul Mikolajczyk teamed up for second in class and third overall, one lap down, with Blanch and Naton Ramsay a lap behind them at third in class and fourth overall.
Edmundson and Bryan Sawyer (Move Over It’s Speedy Time) were engaged in a close battle for the Limited Car class lead early in the race before the familiar #548 was able to pull away. Edmundson, the defending overall VORTEX champion, and Pedersen—not only last year’s runner-up, but also one of the only drivers to ever win the overall in a VORTEX race without running in a Pro 4—eventually extended a three lap advantage over runners-up Matthew Grove and Jake Robichaud of Slaypex Racing Team. Sawyer, Eric Caplinger, and Marcos Palacio teamed up for third in class.
The stage was set for a close fight up front in the Unlimited Car class, as TG Racing’s Tom Grady and PLT Motorsports’ Trever Teal qualified sixth and ninth overall before handing off to Aidan Irvin and Chris Leone, respectively, for the start. Leone took over the top spot in class after Irvin suffered a first-lap spin, but Squadra StunZeed’s Russell Peterson would also spend plenty of time in the class lead early on. Eventually, the #112 car would regain the class lead through pit strategy, and Teal would close out the victory by two laps on Peterson and Matthew Morris. The SRC Miller SubaCats team of Corey Boudinot and Ian Fisher would complete the class podium.
Bark River marked the first time that the full-power Pro 2 served as the second truck class, and the inaugural Unlimited Truck 2WD battle attracted some of iRacing’s top Pro 2 racers. A pair of Racecraft Academy teams would score the top two spots, with Zachary Drapkin and Wes Graham coming out in front of Sean Winkler and Cody Vanderveer. After penalties were applied for solo driving, Kody Winiecki’s solo effort was scored third in class.
All told, 34 entries started the race, with 32 running until the finish; the Unlimited Truck 4WD and Limited Car classes had 10 racers each, Unlimited Truck 2WD had nine, and Unlimited Car had five. All four classes were represented in the overall top 10. Rafoss’ 1:11.361 on Lap 28 was the fastest lap of the race; the other class fast laps went to Pedersen (1:11.794, Lap 60), Grady (1:12.455, Lap 46), and Winiecki (1:14.718, Lap 16).
The 2024 VORTEX season continues on Thursday, August 29 with the 3rd Annual Sierra Nevada 100 from Wild West Motorsports Park, and concludes on Thursday, December 26 with the 4th Annual Group Therapy 100 at Crandon International Raceway. The next Virtual Off-Road Endurocross (solo driving) event is the Tahoe National, also at Wild West, set for Thursday, June 27. In the meantime, weekly #Yes2Motorsport events are run on Thursdays at 7PM ET and Saturdays at 8PM ET.