zach leonhardi

Zach Leonhardi started the night off right in Round Five of the iRacing Craftsman Late Model Championship Series with a pole position start in heat race number one, by virtue of turning the fastest time in his qualifying run. Point leader Howard Weaver had his work cut out for him, coming from the sixth position in a race in which only the top four drivers transfer to the main event.

Rotten luck continued to plague Howard Weaver. On lap five, Weaver lifted for the number 21 car of David Heileman who bobbled momentarily. When Weaver lifted, the number 007 car of Jacob Fields had nowhere to go. It was clear that Fields checked up to avoid running over Weaver but still gave him a little tap. The end result was that Heileman was able to hold on to the fourth position while Weaver and Fields lost a lot of ground to the field and were virtually out of the eight lap heat race and relegated to the last chance qualifying race at that point. Here’s how the top four stacked up in heat race number one:

1. Zach Leonhardi
2. Alex A. Bergeron
3. John Fidler
4. David Heileman

Drew Herchko was on the point for the second heat race of the night. The action started immediately in turn one as Casey Kirwan, in typical fashion, ran into the number 26 car of Herchko. I don’t know why some drivers are allowed to race at this level, given their history and pattern of literally running over other drivers on iRacing. Nevertheless, Herchko held onto the lead despite serious challenges from Dylan R. Houser in the number two car. Many expected big things from Austen Semmelman2 in this series, and he has done well here but not quite as well as some expected. Semmelman ended up fifth in this heat race, just missing the final transfer spot. Here’s how the top four shook out in heat race number two:

1. Drew Herchko
2. Dylan R. Houser
3. Casey Kirwood
4. Phillip Diaz

The cushion continued to move up the track as we headed into heat race number three. Kevin Dedmon started on the pole for this race. Mike McKinney, who was very strong at Knoxville started way back in eighth position for heat race number three. McKinney dove low going into turn three on lap number four as Brandon Schmidt drove up James Edens’s tail pipe. It was a good move as McKinney passed both cars and picked up two spots and advanced from eighth to sixth in one corner. There was some great racing going on for the final transfer spot as Virgil Graham gave it everything he had on the low side, trying to get a slider going on the number 74 car of Adam Elby. Elby kept Graham pinned to the bottom and didn’t allow him enough room to get the slider working. Here is the top four:

1. Kevin Dedmon
2. Charles Cosper
3. Nick Cooper
4. Adam Elby

Fourteen cars took the green flag for the last chance qualifying race. Austin M. Carr started on the pole with Austen Semmelman2 on the outside. The drama started quickly as James Edens got the dirty end of the stick and banged the wall on lap one. It’s not clear exactly what happened. It looked as if Edens got sideways exiting turn two and lost control, collecting one other car in the process. There was a lot of dicing position in the back of the field. Meanwhile, Howard Weaver managed to move into the final transfer spot (eighth) on lap three as Austin M. Carr started driving away from the field.

The outside of the track started to go away around lap ten. Some cars were actually touching the outside wall. That was the fast way to go if you did it right, but it’s not easy to do it right consistently. Some of the drivers started to move down toward the middle or even the bottom of the track as they continued to dice for position throughout the field. Justin Thomas started losing ground. Howard Weaver captured the seventh position from Thomas on lap eleven, then Brandon Schmidt and Josh Phillips got in on the action. Justin Thomas then made a bold, breathtaking move, threading a needle as he drove between the number four car of Josh Phillips and the number 007 car of Jacob Fields coming out of turn four on lap twelve. That was probably the best move of the night but it didn’t do any good. All of the jockeying allowed Garrett Niebruegge to pull away in the final transfer spot as Thomas continued to fall back. Austin M. Carr held on to win the last chance race by about 1.3 seconds. Here’s the top eight:

1. Austin M. Carr
2. Austen Semmelman2
3. Matthew McKinney
4. Mike McKinney
5. Virgil Graham
6. Marc Molnar
7. Howard Weaver
8. Garrett Niebruegge

Heat race winners Zach Leonhardi and Drew Herchko made up the front row for a main event that had all the earmarks of a real barn burner. Some of the top drivers were starting further back in the field and would have to claw their way to the front if they were to have any hope of a top finish. Austen Semmelman2 was starting way back in fourteenth. The McKinney brothers were fifteenth and sixteenth. Virgil Graham started seventeenth on the field. Point leader Howard Weaver was mired back in the nineteenth starting position.

There was a lot of three-wide and maybe even some four-wide racing in the early laps. The top was going away. The bottom seemed to be coming in — sort of. The middle seemed to work for some drivers. Cars were everywhere. I think maybe we even had some five-wide racing!

The first caution flag fell on lap six as Virgil Graham spun himself as he came up the track across the front end of the number 35 car of Nick Cooper. It looked like Graham thought he had cleared Cooper, but he had not. That put Graham in the last spot with a long way to go to get anywhere near the front.

Zach Leonhardi continued to dominate on the restart on lap 10. Alex Bergeron started on the outside of Leonhardi but he didn’t have anything for him.

The caution flag flew again on lap eleven for an incident involving Matthew McKinney and Phillip Diaz. A couple of other cars got involved and also spun around, one of which was the number eighteen car of Austen Semmelman2.

The next caution came on lap seventeen when Austin M. Carr ran all over the number five car of Kevin Dedmon. The race restarted on lap 21. Mike McKinney brought out another caution when he hit one of the tires on the inside of the track on lap 22.

The next restart, on lap 25, was single file as race control tried to clean up the racing a little bit. With a few green flag laps going, Drew Herchko went to work on Alex Bergeron for the second spot. Howard Weaver, who started nineteenth, had moved up to the ninth position by lap 34.

The caution flew again on lap 35 for an incident involving Nick Cooper, Matthew McKinney and Phillip Diaz as the stacked up against the wall in turns on and two.

Zach Leonhardi led the field down for another single file restart on lap 37. The action really picked up around lap 43 as several cars started fighting for third through fifth. It started when Drew Herchko found the outside wall and Dylan Houser took the third spot away. Austin M. Carr then threw a slider on Herchko looking to take the fourth position. There was contact but both drivers held their ground for the moment. In the next turn, Carr got into the wall and lost several positions.

While all of those cars were slicing and dicing, Howard Weaver played it cool and made one of the best moves of the night, advancing to fourth position on the field after starting all the way back in nineteenth. Behind Weaver, there was five-wide racing that resulted in some cars banging the wall and bobbing and weaving all over the track. The top three cars pulled away during all this racing for fourth spot.

Leonhardi dominated the entire event, qualifying first, winning his heat race, then winning the main event. Honorable mention goes to Howard Weaver for charging from nineteenth to fourth. Drew Herchko had some hard luck late in the race, falling from a very competitive third position all then way back to a ninth place finish. We may be seeing the beginnings of a bit of a rivalry between Herchko and Dylan R. Houser as those two have battled for at least the last two rounds.

Here’s the finishing order:

1. Zach Leonhardi
2. Alex A. Bergeron
3. Dylan R. Houser
4. Howard Weaver
5. Austin M. Carr
6. John Fidler
7. Adam Elby
8. Nick Cooper
9. Drew Herchko
10. Matthew McKinney
11. Casey Kurwan
12. Phillip Diaz
13. Austen Semmelman2
14. David Heileman
15. Garrett Niebruegge
16. Virgil Graham
17. Kevin Dedmon
18. Charles Cosper
19. Marc Molnar
20. Mike McKinney

Current official point standings after 5 rounds: