A perfect example of this great sportsmanship was in heat race #5 when Max Miriovsky was challenging for the third and final transfer spot. There were a total of 5 heat races and the top 3 in each heat race transferred straight to the A-Main. Miriovsky, was trying everything he could to make the pass to get around 3rd place Mark Manno on the final lap. Miriovsky, had an opportunity to force his way into a transfer spot on the bottom of Manno, but elected to race respectful and he came up just short if a transfer spot, finishing in the 4th position.

Our QuickTime Promotion Series fastest qualifier was Blade Wisdom and he would collect the $50 award for setting the quickest lap in qualifying. 2nd fastest was Nathan Waddell, 3rd Matt Pridgen, 4th Matthew Selby, and 5th was Blake M. Andrews.

The top 3 finishers and 3 transfer drivers of a pretty calm and tame heat race #1 was QuickTime qualifier Blade Wisdom, National Tour points leader James A. Murphy in second, and the 3rd and final transfer spot went to Connor New with his 3rd place finish. Each heat winner received $10 from QuickTime Promotion Series as well as another $10 from Williams Junk Removal.

Heat #2 would a little more intense as drivers were throwing elbows trying everything they could to lock themselves into the A-Main with a top 3 finish. Hunsinger started in 8th after a poor lap in qualifying, but was the biggest mover in heat 2 as he avoided most of the scuffles and ran up to 3rd place where he would finish behind Trevor Doyle in 2nd and Nathan Waddell, the winner of heat 2.

On the front row of heat was Matt Pridgen and eventual Spring Nationals winner, Richard Murtagh Jr. “Big Papa Pridge” took control of the race immediately following the green flag. Murtagh Jr. stayed close and was able to wrestle his way past the #14 of Pridgen. Murtagh Jr. would pick up the win in heat 3 with Pridgen finishing just behind him in second with Brody Duescher (9) finishing in the 3rd and final transfer spot.

Heat #4 went green the whole way as did the previous heat races thus far and Matthew Selby captured the victory after leading all 8 laps. Damian Kiefer finished in the 2nd position and one of our latest drivers who entered for the Spring Nationals Laken Martin, finished 3rd.

One of the drivers in heat #5 was IRL IMCA Modified driver and Eastern Region IMCA Director, Jake Maynard. Jake, is the older brother of Mitchell Maynard, who is the owner of the 2 Fat Guys Sim Racing Promotions as well as a League of Outlaws admin.

Mitchell gave up his seat at his racing simulator so brother Jake could put is real life racing skill to the test on iRacing. Unfortunately it was a rough go for Jake Maynard in his heat race. He would start 7th and would make some contact with a couple of other cars that sent him spinning into the inside wall. Jake would later try to transfer into the Big Show from the C-Main.

Up front in heat 5 would be Blake M. Andrews capturing the win with Luke Bishop in 2nd. The final driver to transfer into the A-Main and finish P3 in heat #5 would be Mark Manno, a driver that was with the League of Outlaws at the very beginning of the leagues existence but hadn’t been on the racing sim since the end of last year. He caught wind of the big money Spring Nationals so he dusted the cob webs off, did a ton of updates on his PC, and was able to climb back behind the wheel.

In the C-Main, Max Miriovsky was one of the many drivers trying to place in a transfer spot after he just missed the transfer in his heat race. Corey M. Boudinot, who is typically playing the Race Control role for the League of Outlaws, battled as hard as he could all 20 laps but was not able to transfer. Max Miriovsky’s night would also end in the C-Main as he wasn’t able to make the show either after finishing in the 6th position, one spot behind Boudinot.

With one race left to determine the starting roster for the LoO IMCA Style SimRacerHub.com Spring Nationals Presented by Rick Sparks Auto Sales, 18 drivers buckled into their racing machines to hash it out on the now very slick Lanier National Speedway.

Early on, Matt S Sanders threw a slider on Gabe Griffin to take the lead. Behind them, it was a couple LoO regulars, Jared Murphy and Trevor William’s, duking it out fiercely for the final transfer spot.

At the mid-point of the race, the Plum-Wild Podcast yellow flag would wave. Dustin Glenn and James Braswell got stuck together on corner entry. Both cars would shoot up the track and into the wall with Bradwell taking the brunt of it and would not be able to continue on due to the amount of damage.

On the restart, some controversy ensued when race leader Matt S. Sanders’ car got very sideways when trying to fire off through the slick. 3rd place Jared Murphy had to pedal it to keep from spinning Sanders out and an accordion effect happened, causing 5th place to spin Jared Murphy and resulting in several others spinning.

Finally, it was time for the big dance, the A-Main. 50 laps aren’t the tricky and slick Lanier National Speedway with over $1,000 on the line. A mix between League of Outlaws regulars, some big hitters that were here chasing the money, and several random and new faces to the Series that were trying to do the same. 21 drivers rolled off the grid and participated in the first ever LoO “4 wide solute”,  a formation where the guys ride around 4 obsessed during the parade laps. Such a beautiful site to see that can only be seen in dirt track racing.

On lap 5, the Spring National’s A-Main would have its first Plum-Wild Podcast yellow flag of the night for an issue with B-Main winner, Matt S. Sanders. Sanders, had made some kind of contact with a few others, resulting in some front end damage. He wasn’t able to steer the car well and came to a stop in a scary part of the track as the field was getting ready to roar past him as he was stopped on the bottom of the track in the middle of the corner. Luckily, nobody made contact with him and he would finally make his way pit-side.

Connor New, was one of the drivers electing to get up on the wheel and work him way to the front of the field quickly. New, started in the 11th position and by lap 7, was inside the top 5. Nearly every lap, drivers were throwing elbows, racing hard, throwing sliders, rubbing on one another but doing it in a very respectful way. Just some good ol’ hard door-to-door racing.

The second Plum-Wild Postcast yellow flag would wave on lap 10 for an incident between Trevor Doyle and Aaron Bowman. Doyle, lost traction on corner exit and his car jumped a little sideways. Bowman, had no time to check up and ran into the back of the slowing #024 machine of Doyle and Bowman would solo spin to the outside wall.

One lap after the restart, another Plum-Wild Podcast yellow flag would wave. Matt Pridgen, running in 17th position, would get spun out as the driver of the #05, Gabe Griffin, would enter the corner below Pridgen just a little too hard and washed up into Pridgen. The two cars got hung up on one another before some contact with the tires caused the #05 to run up over the left front of Pridgen’s #14. Both cars would be able to continue, but not before Matt Pridgen would make a trip to the pits to repair some damage.

Things started getting hot up front as Connor New began working on Wisdom for the lead. New, right back to the higher line he used to get past Murtagh and Waddell. Coming out of turn 4, Connor New clipped the right rear of Blade Wisdom’s car and Wisdom got real sideways, but was able to gather it up. This allowed for a 3 car battle as Waddell was breathing down the necks of the top two.

Things were shaping up to be a great battle for the lead with the top 3 but the fans would have to wait as our 4th Plum-Wild Podcast yellow flag came out. Blake M. Andrews and Luke Bishop were battling when the right rear of Andrews swung out on corner exit and hooked itself on the left front of Luke Bishop. This allowed the #9 of Brody Duescher to sneak past both drivers on the inside. The #2 of Bishop had a shallow arc into the next corner and washed up into Andrews and just barely tagged Duescher in the left rear, causing Duescher to go for a spin.

Heading full steam down the backstretch getting ready to approach turn 3, there was some contact amongst the leaders that caused a massive pile up and later on, some internet controversy. Richard Murtagh in the #33, made contact with the rear of Blade Wisdom’s #22 machine which sent Wisom sideways down into Nathan Waddell. About 14 cars were involved in this wreck that made some sort of contact with either the wall or another car. Blade Wisdom had his left front knocked off, although was able to finish the race and Nathan Waddell would eventually not be able to continue with the amount of damage he had.

In the end, it would be Richard Murtagh claiming the checkered flag in the first ever LoO IMCA Style SimRacerHub.com Spring Nationals Presented by Rick Sparks Auto Sales. Damian Kiefer would come by the line in 2nd, Connor New would somehow hang onto 3rd, James and Jared Murphy in 4th and 5th, with Hunsinger right there apart of that close 4 car battle in 6th.

One thing that we really want everyone to be aware of his how thankful we are for everyone that sponsored the event. Within seconds of announcing the LoO IMCA Style Spring Nationals, people were messaging us asking how they could be a part of the event via sponsorship. People were coming to us, not the other way around. That is something that was a surprise to us and were why things went as smoothly as they did.

The one sponsor we did go after was SimRacerHub.com. We really wanted them to be apart of this event because their product is one of the only reasons we are able to do our National championship, which is a combined schedule of points paying races between multiple leagues that run our cars and our points.

The League of Outlaws, has a vision. We want to put on as close to realistic racing as possible with respect, give and take, give incentive to checking up when the car in front of you has a bobble instead of plowing into them and dish out consequences when we don’t check up. In real life, you don’t want to have to replace your front bumper when you could have avoided it. In real life, those big hits hurt. We don’t have to worry about that stuff in sim racing and we want to do what we can to ensure people race in a less “video game like” way.

We care about the quality of our racing and the way our drivers race. If they have a different way they want to race in mind, we simply don’t allow them to race with us. We want all of our drivers to want the same thing we do and pull in the same direction by working together. Our incident points program, penalizes that type of driving. Drivers have 1 point reduced from their end of race points by 1 point for every incident point they acquire throughout the entire night, not just the feature. From the time the drivers pull onto the track, till they pull back off the track, we want it to look and feel real.