- Name
- Michael Conti
- Birth Date
- April 6, 1997
- Hometown
- Woodland Park, N.J.
Michael Conti enters his fourth season of competition with JR Motorsports in the eNASCAR iRacing World Championship Series, fresh off a seventh-place finish in the series standings in 2021. WR1 Sim Chassis, Conti’s sponsor for the past two season, returns for a third campaign with the 24-year-old New Jersey native.
Conti drove his No. 8 WR1 Sim Chassis Chevrolet to one victory, six top-five and nine top-10 finishes on the season, using a third-place finish in the season finale to secure his spot in the final standings. The victory, which was the second for the combination of Conti and Chad Wheeler, owner of WR1, came in the opening race of the season on the virtual oval at Daytona International Speedway, locking the team into the playoffs immediately.
Conti and teammate Brad Davies finished eighth overall in team points for the 2021 season.
Conti began his sim racing career in 2002 at the age of five, and despite his tender years will embark on his 18th season as a sim racer in 2021. Conti received NASCAR Racing 2002 as a birthday present from his father, along with a wheel and pedals. Father and son would spend hours racing, tuning and simply having fun. When the original computer eventually went the way of all machines, Conti switched to the console gaming units and continued his education.
In 2009, Conti overheard an interview with team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. in which he was extolling the virtues of iRacing. That lit the flame that Conti keeps going today. “He (Earnhardt Jr.) was talking about how he and his buddies would get on there and race, that it was a ton of fun, like the best thing out there,” Conti remembered. “I saved up some money, begged my Mom and Dad to get me some sort of computer to run iRacing, and they did. I’m very thankful for that. I got my start in iRacing in late 2009, and I’ve worked my way up through the ranks since then.”
He won the 2014 eNASCAR iRacing World Championship Series title and has earned 12 race victories during his time in the series.
In 2020, Conti racked up a victory at Texas Motor Speedway and added four poles, seven top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in 20 starts. He also led 268 laps.
In 2019, Conti came a whisker from competing in the winner-take-all finale, eventually finishing seventh in the final point standings. Over the course of the season, Conti earned three poles, three top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 12 races, leading 308 laps.
While he spends his off-time working on his eNCCiRS career, Conti’s days are filled by his duties as a service manager for the Hendrick Automotive Group, the massive automotive concern owned by Hendrick Motorsports founder and JRM co-owner Rick Hendrick.