Conti 11th After Contact, Davies 18th in eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Debut at Road America

Ron Lemasters | 6/30/2021

Axe Brad Davies eNASCAR iRacing Michael Conti News WR1 Sim Chassis

JRM eSports drivers Michael Conti and Brad Davies finished 11th and 18th, respectively, on the big Wisconsin road course.

Track Specs: 4.048-mile road course / 31 laps
Conti's finish: 11th
Davies' finish: 18th  
Team Standings: 11th (-139)

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (June 30, 2021) - JR Motorsports eSports drivers Michael Conti and Brad Davies were able to avoid the troubles that have plagued them in recent eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series races on Tuesday night at the virtual Road America course, with Conti earning a solid 11th-place finish and Davies turning in a tide-changing 18th-place run on the big Wisconsin road course. (Watch the full race.)

Conti turned in a solid qualifying effort in his No. 8 WR1 Sim Chassis Chevrolet from the JRM stable, which was equipped with a special paint scheme harking back to his series championship in 2014. After getting a solid launch up Road America’s front straight, Conti was in the mix as the field headed toward the pivotal Turn 5. Making in through on the inside, the young New Jersey driver pounded up toward Turn 6 only to get punted off the track by another car.

Powering through the gravel trap, Conti rejoined the race at a disadvantage, having lost 15 spots thanks to the bump-off to run 21st. Clawing back positions as he could, Conti worked his way back to 11th by the time the checkered flag waved, battling with Casey Kirwan, Garrett Lowe and others along the way.

Davies began his night in the No. 88 AXE Chevrolet from 25th position after missing a couple of corners in qualifying. At the initial start, however, Davies started to move forward around the big, fast road course and picked off several positions. With the race being just 31 laps, Davies planned to pit as soon as possible once he got within his fuel window, and that happened at the end of lap 13.

Davies hit pit road after having carved his way well inside the top 20, avoiding any miscues during the stop and set about moving as far up the ladder as possible in the remaining 18 laps. He did so, establishing a rhythm and eventually finishing 18th.

Despite the good finish, Davies is 29th in series points after 10 races and 126 markers behind the leader. The Florida driver is also 44 points outside the top 20, which is the cut line for maintaining his status in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for 2022.

Mitchell DeJong started from the pole and led all 31 laps the inaugural event at virtual Road America, becoming the first repeat winner of the 2021 season in the process. DeJong, who won earlier in the season on the road course at Circuit of the Americas, snapped a string of 10 consecutive different winners in the first 10 races of the season.

DeJong won over road-course ace Bobby Zalenski, Steven Wilson, Graham Bowlin and Corey Vincent in the top five, with Jimmy Mullis, Vicente Salas, Blake Reynolds, Nick Ottinger and Kirwan the remainder of the top 10 ahead of Conti in 11th.

The two-car JRM team stayed 11th in the team standings, 139 off the lead group, after 10 races.

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series will race again on July 13 at The Magic Mile, otherwise known as the virtual New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Michael Conti, driver No. 8 WR1 Sim Chassis JR Motorsports Chevrolet team

"Disappointed with the result tonight, but happy with the pace our No. 8 WR1 Sim Chassis Chevrolet exhibited throughout the evening. It would've been easy to hang our heads and lose focus after we got punted off on lap 1, but thanks to encouragement from Adam {Benefiel, crew chief] and some gritty driving, we salvaged a solid finish and built some points on the other winners. Racing at Road America was awesome and I can't wait to get to Watkins Glen in a few weeks. But next, we'll head to Loudon and try to get our third win at that track!"

Brad Davies, driver No. 88 AXE JR Motorsports Chevrolet team

"Today's race was pretty uneventful, which after the last several races, is really what we needed. The start of the race was clean, we kept the car on track all night and we had no mistakes on pit road. I felt like our No. 88 AXE Chevy could run top-10 pace on fresh tires but we seemed to be a lacking a little grip compared to some others out there as the tires and fuel burned off. All in all, a solid night for Team AXE and I felt like we finished about as well as we could have tonight considering the circumstances. In a couple of weeks we head to New Hampshire where we'll be looking for another solid performance to get us back on the right track towards the top 20 in points."

Articles

image

XFINITY Series Schedule

  • March 30 01:30 PM ET
    ToyotaCare 250Richmond Raceway
  • April 6 07:30 PM ET
    NXS Spring Race at MartinsvilleMartinsville Speedway
  • April 13 01:30 PM ET
    Andy’s Frozen Custard 300Texas Motor Speedway
  • April 20 04:00 PM ET
    Ag-Pro 300Talladega Superspeedway
  • April 27 01:30 PM ET
    A-GAME 200Dover International Speedway

XFINITY Series Standings

After Dead On Tools 250

Martinsville Speedway | 10/28/2023
Results are not available.