In keeping with NASCAR Camping World Truck Series tradition, the V8Thunder Truck Series went short track racin' at Lucas Oil Raceway this week followed by a blast around the Sprint Cup's newest track, Kentucky Speedway.

Ian Smythe took the Pole at LOR, but with the top 6 being covered by just a tenth of a second, close action was guaranteed. At the start Caspar Kähäri rode the rim in turns 1 & 2 to take the lead on the outside and lead the opening 15 laps until the leaders came across traffic, at that point Smythe nipped past to lead for a few laps but it wasn't long until Kähäri had taken back his lead spot, the Swede stayed up front until the end leading 46 of the 50 laps. Behind Smythe looked to have second sewn up until Martin Buchan caught and passed him in the late stages. With constant traffic being a factor it wasn't long until Buchan hesitated exiting turn 2 behind a lapper and in an instant Smythe was back alongside entering turn 3, but the two touched sending Buchan into the wall and back to 13th, while Smythe continued to secure the second spot ahead of Ruben Hornacek in third.

Immediately after the series took the long haul to Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, for 81 laps around the 1.5 mile speedway. With only 15 minutes of practice everybody was on the hurry up to fine tune their setups and Ruben Hornacek took the pole by a tenth of a second from Jim Turner. After what seemed like an eternity running under caution after two multi-truck wrecks exiting turn 2, the race eventually settled into a long green run with Caspar Kähäri and Martin Buchan both taking turns at the front, with Ian Smythe third and Ruben Hornacek fourth.


3-Wide Life: Smythe (#06 top), Peter Hillesheim (#3 middle) and Kähäri (#36 bottom) at Kentucky.

Lap 63 saw the first of the green flag stops, with Smythe and Hornacek nipping in together, both took two tyres but Hornacek leapfrogged Smythe in the pits to have a second and a half lead by the time they returned to the track, next lap Buchan and Kähäri stopped as well, but this time both taking four tyres each, leaving them around 7 seconds behind the leaders by the time the stops had cycled through. In the final laps Smythe caught and past Hornacek, and in turn Kähäri and Buchan caught up to Hornacek too, setting up a grandstand finish which saw Smythe take the win by a second from Buchan in second, Hornacek third and Kähäri fourth, the three covered by just a tenth of a second after 81 laps.

Next week sees the series take to the relative wide open spaces of Gateway International and Talladega Superspeedway...
Image courtesy Casper Kähäri/Scared Hitless Inc.

Ruben Hornacek took the first pole of the Series when the Truck Series rolled into Memphis Motorsports Park for the first of the 12 race Winter Series.



Hornacek lead the opening 19 laps with Smythe in close company, Sergey Rebrov & Caspar Kähäri ran 3rd and 4th in similar fashion, but as the leaders came up to lapped traffic, Smythe took the opportunity to vault past Hornacek when he was slowed slightly by a lapper. Smythe then led the race to the finish while Hornacek had a quick spin in turn 2 after clipping the apron, but recovered to finish 4th. Rebrov & Kähäri continued their fight over the now 2nd place right up until the end of the race, where Kähäri got the better of Rebrov in the closing stages to finish second.

Race 2 of the night saw the series move to the concrete Nashville Superspeedway. Jim Turner was on his usual quick form and took the pole from Ruben Hornacek. After a few early yellows mainly caused by the tricky concrete surface, the race settled into a long green run that saw Turner and Hornacek swap the lead back and forth, with up to 10 trucks running in the lead pack it lead to some great side-by-side running on the mile and a third track. Turner held on to take the victory, with Paulo Rocha finishing second, Caspar Kähäri third and Ian Smythe fourth. After 2 of 12 races, including penalties, Smythe holds a slender lead in the series over Jim Tuner and Caspar Kähäri who are equal second 5 points back, Paulo Rocha holds 4th, Pete Hillesheim 5th and Sergey Rebrov round out the top 6.

Next races: Lucas Oil Raceway & Kentucky Speedway on 12th January.

The UK based V8 Thunder racing league proudly presents its Winter 2012 season, featuring the return of the popular Trucks series. Returning for it’s 17th season, The Truck Series will take place on the regular race night of Thursday night. Last running on the iRacing platform in Winter 2010, the series returns to it’s NR2003 roots and the NCTS09 mod last run in Summer 2009.

As a break from the Cup tracks that we have raced all summer, the 12 race schedule will visit some different tracks including Indianapolis Raceway Park, Gateway, Nazareth and North Wilksboro. However, the always popular Talladega and Daytona should please with their high speed, unpredictable action whilst Kentucky and Homestead-Miami give drivers another chance to race at these popular venues, right turn fans will also be catered for with one, as yet to be announced, Road Course event.

The season will begin January 5th with the first double header round at Memphis Motorsports Park and Nashville Superspeedway, while the finale sees the return of Rockingham Motor Speedway as the series concludes in the UK, the full schedule can be found on the Truck Series homepage.

The season format will see double header rounds, two races each night, with a short break in between. The first race will be 20% distance with yellow flags off, the second 30% with yellows on. All rounds will be open setup and subject to full V8 Thunder sanctioning, with full penalties, analysis and championship scoring as we look to crown a new Trucks champion.

The Truck Series is a free to play series and open to all existing and any potential new V8 Drivers, to race the series, all you need is a copy of Papyrus Nascar Racing 2003 Season, a wheel or gamepad (wheel preferable because Hardcore mode is active, Hardcore Mode is not suitable for keyboard driving) and a copy of the NCTS09 mod, which can be found in the Truck Series forum.

To place an entry for the series, please complete the Entry Form located here.

The Homestead-Miami Speedway is well known within the V8Thunder community for producing unique twists to finish up a Championship, and the Summer Cup Series was no exception to this when the series wound down in the Florida sunset.

A relatively small field of 9 cars took the start of the delayed race, with Martin Buchan not starting and several drivers absent due to prior commitments. Jim Turner took the pole and lead away, but with the three championship contenders all knowing they had to win to secure the crown, it wasn't long before they started making their moves. Yosh Hughes was the first to challenge Turner for the lead, making his way up from his 3rd place starting spot he passed Ruben Hornacek and set about challenging Turner for the lead, meanwhile both Alex Ballestas (started 4th) and Ian Smythe (started 7th) stayed in touch with the rapid Scott.

Disaster soon struck though, as Hughes passed Turner for that all important lead, the Phoenix based Turner got sideways exiting turn 2 and turned Hughes into the outside wall, both spun and took Hornacek with them, instantly ending any chance Hughes had of taking the title.

After a pre-race rule change which allowed pit entry to be made at turn 4, it was, as many expected, to play a pivotal role in deciding the Championship, after the restart on lap 7, Ballestas took over the lead with Smythe following in 2nd, but, Smythe had pitted at the one to go signal so had a little extra fuel, as Ballestas pitted at the end of lap 37, Smythe stayed out and the almost inevitable yellow flew... Turner also pitted at the end of lap 37, but was clipped from behind by Alex Pab, although Turner kept his car under control and entered pit lane, Pab spun into the outside wall on the front stretch.

The Homestead curse had struck again, Ballestas wisely drove through the pits to avoid going a lap down, but then run out of fuel in turn 4 which caused him enough delay to miss beating the pace car out of the pits by a few feet next lap by, Turner had done the same, but both drivers and Sergey Rebrov, who'd missed his original pit entry on lap 37, all overtook the pace car on the apron exiting the pits, and this, seemingly simple oversight, was enough to decide the title. At the restart Ballestas, Turner and Rebrov were all handed down stop/go penalties for overtaking the pace car on the pit exit road, and this virtually handed the title to Smythe.

After serving their stop/go penalties, all three found themselves multiple laps down, the next caution quickly flew on lap 47 after Alex Pab spun trying to enter the pits, this gave Ballestas the lucky dog allowing him to get one of his laps back, but the title fight was over at that point as once the race restarted, it never went yellow again. Smythe wisely let Ballestas unlap himself at the restart, meaning the Columbian was on the tail end of the lead lap, but as the yellow never came, he wasn't able to take advantage of it and Smythe cruised to the victory and title by 6 seconds from Dariusz Maksajda in second, while Ballestas finished up third. "It was a bit of a gamble to let Alex unlap himself mid way through the race, because we didn't have the pace to beat him in a proper fight, but the caution didn't come so the gamble paid off, I'm very pleased to have won the series, but I'd have preferred it to be a fair fight, it's been a very long season and a black flag deciding the title was very unfortunate for Alex" Smythe commented after the race, he added "I'd like to thank everybody who races week in week out for making this possible, without the other drivers turning up, it would be a pretty boring series, anybody who made it to the final stretch deserves a medal, 11 months of racing is quiet a commitment".

For V8Thunder, it was also a unique event, after 14 seasons, this was the first, and only, time, the top series overall title has been won by an Independent driver. "Yosh Hughes should take the bulk of the credit for that," Smythe said, "without his base set-ups kindly given to all the drivers before each race it's doubtful I'd be in this position because more often than not, I used Yosh's base setups quiet a few times this season".

V8Thunder now takes a break for a few weeks over Christmas, before opening up the Winter Truck Series at Memphis Motorsports Park on 5th January 2012, entries for the series will be open soon.

The V8 Thunder Cup Series draws to an end this week at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida for a 134 lap shoot-out around the 1 mile oval. Although based in the virtual world, the racing is just as competitive as it's real world counterpart, V8 Thunder allows drivers around the World to race from the comfort of their home together on digitally recreated race tracks from across America and the World, using the Nascar Racing 2003 Season simulation software.

After 35 races spanning 10 months on 22 different tracks following the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule, the Champion could be decided by something as simple as leading one lap, let's meet who is within a chance, and how they can win the series.

#10 - Alex Ballestas
Alex Ballestas heads into Miami as the Championship leader, having lead the series since April. The 36 year old was born in Bogota, Colombia and now lives in Frankfurt, Germany working as a Translator. He's been the surprise of the series, being a rookie to V8 Thunder, he's clocked up 5 wins and 30 top 10's on his way to Florida, but really it should come as no surprise as he drives for the dominant Cardiff based vMaxSR Team. However, Alex has not won a race since Kansas in June and his Chase campaign has been fraught with technical problems and finishing 9th at Phoenix didn't help matters when he crashed due to his screen freezing. Ballestas has an average finish of 5.5 during the Chase. "I like this grid with very competitive guys and always very fair races, should be a fun last race. Homestead has always been a lot of fun. Just hope it isn´t decided by technical issues by anyone. Hopefully everyone can finish the race with their cars in one piece". Ballestas commented before the week began.

#06 - Ian Smythe
Ian Smythe rolls into Miami on the back of a run of 9 top 5 finishes, the 39 year old from Surrey, England, is the reigning V8 Indycar Series champion and works as a website developer. Smythe is the odd one out of those in contention, driving without team backing as an Independent, he's had 3 wins so far this season notably mostly on 1 mile ovals, at Darlington, Dover and a lucky win at Talladega. Ian finished 2nd at Phoenix but admits he's been racing gently for the last few racing after having the threat of a race suspension hanging over him for the majority of the Chase due to clocking up too many penalty points during the season. "The potential suspension has really helped me on finishing the races clean recently, knowing you're a spin away from the sinbin has certainly focused my attention. Homestead is a great track for the final as it produces close and exciting racing, but the track hasn't been as very kind to me in the past, so it's anybody's guess how the race will go". Smythe said. Ian's average finish during the Chase is 2.5.

#33 - Yosh Hughes
"No longer Young" Yosh Hughes is the last realistic contender, the 41 year old from Lothian, Scotland is a Gallery workshop manager. Sitting 14 points back from the lead entering Homestead he comes in fresh off a win in the last race at Phoenix. Hughes is also team mate to Ballestas at vMaxSR, so there's yet another ingredient to add into the mix, does Hughes help his team mate to victory, or does he race him like any other rival and risk handing the title to Smythe? Despite winning the last race, Hughes average finish is 4.44 throughout the Chase, could his strong run be to little too late? "It should be a really interesting final race, I'm surprised to be in this position under the circumstances, my aim is too make a clean race and be in with a shout at the end, May the best man Win. "

#14 - Chris Hill
Chris "CJ" Hill is the last of the 12 Chase Drivers to be mathematically within contention for the title, but the SRD International driver needs nothing short of a miracle to take it. Sitting 155 points back from Ballestas, he needs the top 3 to wrack up enough penalty points to basically cancel out their race scores, then if that happens, Chris needs a top 5 to take the title. It might seem a long shot, but it's not unheard of for wicked twists of fate to decide titles at V8 Thunder. At 25 years old Chris is the baby of the contenders, presently studying Digital Media Design at Brighton University, but also the veteran of the group having raced at V8 Thunder since it began back in 2003. "I have been with V8Thunder since 2003 and have had a great time racing in the series. 2011 has been a fun year, I feel lucky to have notched up 7 wins and had some great races along the way... Going into the chase we were seeded 3rd and things looked good for a Championship run. Unfortunately we had some technical issues at Chicago and Dover and then a bad handling car at Kansas which really put to be our chances of a championship." Chris said, "I feel I am back on my game though with 2 wins in a row recently. All we can do at Homestead is go and have fun and try to win the race. It has been a really fun year though, thanks to the admins who make this happen and thanks to my fellow competitors for some great races.".

To muddy the waters, the top 4 are not the only drivers capable of winning, Steve Pearce and Sergey Rebrov both have a win apiece this season, and of the other regular chase drivers, Peter Hillesheim, Ruben Hornacek, Alex Pab & Paulo Rocha are also more than capable of winning the race while having their own fight over the remaining top spots. Fellow SRD drivers Mathieu Souphy and Jack Keithley could also come out the woodwork to support Chris Hill while Martin Buchan could do the same for vMaxSR, so anything, literally, could happen in Florida.

So who needs to do what to win?

For Ballestas, Smythe & Hughes it's simple, win the race to take the title, if someone else not in contention wins the race, then it gets a bit more complicated: If Hughes finishes 2nd and leads the most laps, then Ballestas has to finish 4th or lower for the Scotsman to win (even if Smythe finishes 3rd). If Smythe finishes 2nd leads a lap and Ballestas is 3rd and doesn't, Smythe wins, if Ballestas leads a lap, he wins. There are literally hundreds of variations over who can take the title, but in the end, only one will factor into the drivers minds during the race, win it to win.

The V8Thunder Cup Series finale, scheduled for 24th November 2011, has been postponed to another date due to technical issues with our server. Further updates will be posted as and when available.

Update: The Race has now been scheduled for 15th December 2011. This means the Winter Truck Series will be delayed until January.

The penultimate round of the 2011 V8Thunder Sprint Cup was held at the newly reconfigured Phoenix International Raceway, teams had to start with a clean slate when thinking about their setups.

VMax seemed to get things together very quickly by locking out the front row with Yosh Hughes on pole and Steve Pearce alongside. Meanwhile championship contenders Alex Ballestas and Ian Smythe started much further back. Hughes took the lead at the start of the race and held it through most of the day, posting consistently quicker lap times than anyone else. The #14 of Chris Hill and #68 of Sanjin Haler tried to keep him honest, hill even took the lead away from the 33 on a restart but couldn’t hang on when his tyres wore out quicker.

Championship leader Alex Ballestas was having a solid day and worked his way up to 4th by the mid stages of the race until lap 97 where he encountered a technical failure which resulted in him slamming hard into the inside wall on the backstretch before coming to a halt in turn 3.

Towards the latter stages of the race Ian Smythe realised the opportunity to capitalise on the misfortunes of the #10 car and his car really came to life. Soon after the last restart he passed Hill for 2nd and went chasing after the leader. Hughes and Smythe short pitted during the last green flag run whilst the #14 stayed out hoping for a caution which eventually never came which saw Smythe grab the lead after the stops.

Up front the #33 and the #06 had a great battle for the lead whilst the unfortunate Sergey Rebrove suffered an engine failure, giving up 3rd with 10 laps to go.

Hughes eventually closed the 4 second gap to Smythe and overtook him entering turn 3 with a few laps remaining to take back the lead, Smythe's two fresh tyres being no match for the four of Hughes. Yosh took the deserved win with Smythe finishing right behind in 2nd. Chris Hill wound up 3rd, #48 Pete Hillesheim came home 4th and #68 Sanjin Haler rounded out the top 5.

So the stage is set for an epic championship battle at the last race of the season, the Ford 400 at Homestead Miami Speedway. Just 14 points separate the top 3. Can Alex Ballestas hold on to take the championship or will Ian Smythe or Yosh Hughes wrestle it away from him?

With 3 races to go, the V8Thunder Cup series headed to Texas Motor Speedway. Ruben Hornacek took pole position with a blistering lap around the 1.5 mile speedway.

The #21 lead the opening laps but then surrendered the lead to #14 Chris Hill as he fell down the order. Championship leader Alex Ballestas took over the race lead shortly before green flag pit stops around lap 30. The first caution of the day came out for an incident involving pole sitter Hornacek and the #74 of Sergey Rebrov on Lap 42.

A long green flag run followed which saw Hill and Ballestas relentlessly battling hard for the lead. Championship contender #06 Ian Smythe was ever present in the top 5 despite racing with a migraine and got the jump on the 2 leaders when he pitted early under green and got the advantage of the fresh tyres just after the halfway point of the race. Hill and Ballestas were then able to run down the #06 to take over 1st and 2nd place respectively.

On a restart with just over 50 laps to go Hill, who had lost 3rd gear on a previous restart, was slow away but flying Scotsman #42 Martin Buchan had an electric restart and took the lead on the exit of turn 2. Hill tried to tuck into 2nd place but got it all wrong and sent Buchan hurtling into the inside wall, collecting the unfortunate Pete Hillesheim in the process. Buchan was done for the day.

Hillesheim continued until his engine expired setting up a 1 lap dash at the end of the race. Hill, Ballestas and Smythe had just pitted under green whilst #99 Alex Pab stayed out and managed to trap Ballestas 1 lap down. On the restart it would be 99,14,06. However, terrible luck befell the #99 Pab as technical issues struck whilst leading under caution with only a handful of laps to go. Hill inherited the lead but would have to fend off Smythe who had 4 fresh tyres compared to the #14 who took right side tyres only on his last green flag stop. Unfortunately however, Smythe spun his tyres on the restart and that was enough for Hill to hold on and claim his 7th win of the season.

Smythe held onto 2nd, a solid points day for Ballestas in 3rd, the unfortunate Pab coming home in 4th place with Hornacek coming home in 5th. The day would prove a struggle for #33 Yosh Hughes who could never manage to get amongst the leaders, he managed to salvage a 6th place finish and keep himself in the title hunt.

So with just 2 races to go now its off to the Arizona desert for the Kobalt Tools 500 at the reconfigured Phoenix International Raceway. With all the uncertainty that the new surface provides, will it set us up for a title showdown in Florida?

After the high banks of Talladega where Ian Smythe snatched victory from the helpless Erwin Greven who run out of fuel in turn 3 on the last lap, it was on to the smallest track on the calendar, Martinsville Speedway in Virginia for race number 7 in the 2011 Chase for the V8Thunder Sprint Cup.

Points leader Alex Ballestas kicked off his day in fine fashion by grabbing the Coors Light Pole then lead the opening laps of the race from VMax teammate Yosh Hughes but was forced to retire due to technical issues very early on. Hughes and Ian Smythe realised that this was an opportunity they must capitalise on in order to put pressure on the Colombian in the title hunt. After a couple of early cautions for minor incidents the race then went green for almost 100 laps.

Chris Hill lead throughout most of this time but was closely pursued by the #33 of Hughes. Storming his way through the field with added determination and a car that would be lightning quick over a long run was the #06 of Smythe who had started at the rear of the field and found himself running 3rd in the mid stages of the race.

Hughes pitted early under green and managed to get the jump on Hill with the fresher tyres when pit stops cycled through. It looked like Yosh had things under control until he made a mistake, sliding wide in a corner allowing Hill to retake the lead; the ever catching Smythe now had the leaders in sight. With around 40 laps to go the yellow flag flew for the #21 of Ram Hornacek who was stranded on the back straight. Pit strategy ensued with Hughes and Smythe Taking 4 tyres whilst Hill took right sides only. After a clean restart the #99 of Alex Pab and #60 of Jim Turner then had a coming together inside 25 to go which set up a nail biting fight to the finish.


Tight fight: Smythe grabs the lead for about hundred yards from Hill while Highes looks on.

Smythe on fresher tyres tried a brave attempt to take the lead from Hill on the outside line but the #14 held off the challenge to sweep the Martinsville races in 2011. Hughes came home with a good points day in 2nd place, Smythe was 3rd, 4th was Jim Turner who survived the late incident and came back from 2 laps down. Steve Pearce rounded out the top 5.

Next week we head to Texas Motor Speedway for the AAA 500. Can Alex Ballestas return to winning ways or can Hughes and Smythe take the championship battle right down to the wire?

The vMaxSR team continued their lockout of the top race spot at both Dover and Kansas, but it wasn't the teams regular winner taking the spoils. At Dover Martin Buchan made up for being on the end of a bump and run in the early season Dover race to take the win, with Ian Smythe following him home in second and Alex Ballestas third.

When the series moved onto the cookie cutter at Kansas nobody expected the drama to unfold as it did. Jim Turner took the pole and headed the first few laps until a caution flew when Ruben Hornacek crashed exiting turn 2, during the caution Turner was the only driver not to pit so when the race went green again he found himself in the position of having to fend off the entire pack on fresh tyres, eventually contact was made between him and Sergey Rebrov and Turner crashed at the start of lap 18 entering turn 1.

The race then went caution free for the next 112 laps, Ian Smythe looked to have the car to beat initially, with Yosh Hughes and Alex Ballestas in pursuit, but Smythe threw away his 6 second lead when pitting on lap 75, speeding in pit lane he was handed a drive through dropping him a lap off the pace, from then on it was a vMax lockout at the top. With several drivers on different strategies, Alex Ballestas, Yosh Hughes and Sergey Rebrov all took turns at the front with Filipe Caldas hanging to the tail of the top 3.

With 10 laps remaining, Ballestas looked to have the win sewn up, leading Yosh Hughes by 12 seconds with Caldas in third, Rebrov fourth and Smythe fifth, Caldas pitted, then Rebrov, being off sequence, also stopped, but the drama was only just starting - a debris caution then flew setting up a one lap shoot out - Ballestas and Hughes stayed out on their 30 lap old tyres, Rebrov lined up third with a set that had only a handful of laps on and Smythe was the only lead lap driver to take a new set. Caldas fell back to a lap off the pace with Pete Hillesheim and Steve Pearce in their own fight for 5th, 6th and 7th.

At the restart, Ballestas made a slow start but Hughes made a worse one stacking up Rebrov and Smythe behind, the two nipped by Hughes in turn 1 and set about chasing down Ballestas, entering turn 3 almost 3 wide, Rebrov's slightly newer tyres were no match for Ballestas's 30 lap old ones and the Russian took the lead, Smythe followed and tried to crossover between the two, but Rebrov had just about enough momentum on the outside to take his first win of the season by 00.023s over Smythe, with a disappointed Ballestas dropping to third in the final rush to the line. Hughes came home fourth with Pete Hillesheim and Filipe Caldas having a similar close battle for fifth, Hillesheim beating Caldas by just 0.007 seconds for 5th spot.

Next up is another Cookie Cutter - Charlotte.

Steve Pearce took his first victory of the season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this evening. After 150 laps of the flat oval it came down to a one lap dash for cash with Pearce leading away at the restart, Ian Smythe, Martin Buchan and Chris Hill battled over second with Smythe and Buchan spending most of the final lap side by side, after several exchanges of paint, Smythe held onto second with Buchan third, and CJ Hill waiting back in fourth "for the wreck that never happened".

It was another bad evening for the chase favourites, Jack Keithley was unable to start due to technical problems and Championship leader Alex Ballestas found himself trapped a lap down when the caution flew mid way through green flag stops, eventually coming home 10th.

Next race sees the league return to the Monster Mile at Dover.

After a 1 week break the V8Thunder Cup Series was back in full swing as a packed field of 24 cars took the green flag at this years prestigious Brickyard 400.

#44 Jack Keithley started on the pole and led the opening circuits whilst being hotly pursued by 4 of the vMaxSR drivers. The Ipswich driver seemed in command out front which looked ominous for the rest of the field, however on lap 34 after pitstops had reshuffled the order, Keithley was caught in a race ending accident which also involved his SRD International teammates #14 Chris Hill and #24 Mike Cooper.

The new order up front was Martin Buchan, Dariusz Maksajda, Alex Ballestas. At the next caution everyone pitted for 4 tyres except Mathieu Souphy who took a gamble on 2 tires. This propelled him to the lead on lap 44. Souphy had a tough task on his hands being the only driver on 2 tires but he held on well at the front.

Meanwhile Hill decided it was time to go and drove from 5th place to the lead in just over 10 laps. Just as the race looked like it may have been settling down for a green flag run to the end, the caution came out once again with 21 laps to go. This would bring fuel strategy into play.

Most everybody pitted on the first lap of caution but they would require another yellow to be able to make the distance on that tank of fuel. Meanwhile Souphy, Maksajda, Paulo Rocha and Alex Pab waited until the last lap of caution to pit along with Buchan who pitted for the 2nd time so that they could make the distance. Everyone up front who were praying for another caution would have their prayers swiftly answered when another yellow flag came out immediately after the restart. This meant that everyone could surely now make it to the end on fuel. Alex Ballestas decided to play it safe and pit however.

The race went green again with just a handful of laps to go and it was Hill leading from Sergey Rebrov, Andreas Scholz and a charging Martin Buchan who shortly made it through into 2nd place to hunt down the leader. After the final yellow fans at The Brickyard were treated to a 1 lap dash at the end but carnage ensued on the restart when a multi-car accident involving at least 5 cars including championship leader Alex Ballestas littered the track into turn 1.

On the race back to the line Hill held off Buchan by 2 tenths of a second to claim his 4th victory of the season. Matheiu Souphy came home 3rd, 4th was Sergey Rebrov and Filipe Caldas rounded out the top 5.

Next week the V8Thunder Cup Series heads to Pennsylvania and the Pocono Raceway for the 2nd time this year where everyone will be keen to get a win at the tricky triangle.

V8 Thunder past and present drivers left their mark on the NASCAR iRacing Nationwide (Class B) 2011 Season 2 Series, which ended recently.

Former vMaxSR frontrunner Richard Crozier, who raced at V8 for several seasons, took the overall Nationwide COT title, while V8Thunder Cup Series regular Ian Smythe took the overall Nationwide 09 Series title for the older NASCAR series cars, creating a UK lockout in iRacing's "B" category of oval cars.

Both men thus joined a small group of just 6 people not born in America to win a US based NASCAR sanctioned series. Watch out for the pair in NASCAR iRacing Impala A Class series next season, which starts off at Pocono on 2nd August.

Coors Light Pole winner Ian Smythe lead the field to the green flag for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but after 150 laps of the notorious 1 mile, virtually flat Loudon oval, it was Yosh Hughes who finally got the monkey off his back to take a well deserved first victory of the season for the vMaxSR team leader from Lothian in Scotland, the 15th of his V8Thunder career.


Jim Turner (#60) leads Ian Smythe (#06) while Yosh Hughes (#33) threads the needle out of turn 2.

The capacity New Hampshire crowd were effectively treated to ten 10 lap sprints with the race being littered with 15 cautions, over zealous race officials threw so many cautions that not one of the drivers went a lap down on pace and all cars that finished, finishing on the lead lap. Although the caution count was high, only two had been for car to car contact, despite this the racing was extremely close and competitive at times with 20 lead changes between 10 drivers. With Alex Ballestas being absent due to family commitments, it was an opportunity for the runners to claw back some points from the Colombian's runaway championship lead.

A late race caution setup a shootout finish, with leader Hughes, Smythe and Martin Buchan electing to stay out on old tyres, while the charging pack was lead by the SRD team mates of Chris Hill and Jack Keithley on fresh rubber, with only a handful of laps remaining, Hill cut through from fifth to take second from Smythe on the next to last lap, fortunately for Hughes, Hill had burnt off the advantage of his new tyres by the time he'd got to him and was unable to make a challenge for the lead, with Hughes leading home the East Sussex driver by 1.72 seconds. Early race leader Smythe was a further second back just about holding off Buchanfor the final podium spot, Buchan in turn kept Keithley at bay, the SRD team leader finishing fifth at the finish, the Ipswich teenager suffering damage due to a spin early in the race.

Leading Russian at New Hampshire was Sergey Rebrov, bringing his vMaxSR ride home in a quiet sixth place. Despite not racing, Ballestas still leads the series standings, the drivers now get a week off to recuperate ahead of the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the 4th August 2011.

Jack Keithley has been up and down like a roller coaster lately, after taking back to back victories at Michigan and Infineon, the Ipswich racer came home 9th at Daytona, loosing out in a 3 wide finish for 7th, but when the series rolled up to the Kentucky Speedway for the inaugural Quaker State 400 he was back on top form for the SRD International team. Yosh Hughes took the Coors Light Pole Award and lead the field to the green flag under clear skies in 85°F heat.


Hughes leads the pack into turn 1

After a few cautions for minor incidents, the race settled into it's the usual long green flag runs V8Thunder is known for, just past the 100 lap mark green flag stops started, giving plenty of entertainment for the packed grandstands. Championship leader Alex Ballestas was the first to pit, and spin, on the tricky entry, a steady flow of drivers followed, including Chris Hill & Ruben Hornacek who also got caught out with the recently re-profiled pitlane, despite this the race stayed green until Sergey Rebrov crashed into the pitting Erwin Greven to bring out the 9th caution.


Ballestas (#10) passes a backmarker ahead of the battling Hughes (#33) and Keithley (#44) late in the race.

After this the race restarted, with fuel saving needed to get to the finish, Hughes & Ballestas both took turns at the front, but it was Keithley who managed the circumstances best to pass both in the closing laps to take his fifth win of the season, Hughes rolled up second 3 seconds back, narrowly avoiding being pipped to the flag by Chris Hill who took the final podium spot. Colombian Ballestas dropped back to fourth in the closing stages a couple of seconds ahead of Belgium's Mathieu Souphy the only other driver left on the lead lap in fifth. Portugal's Paulo Rocha rounded out the top 6.

Next week the series moves to a short track that thinks it's a super speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

vMaxSR's Martin Buchan took his second Super-speedway win this season when he pipped team mate Alex Ballestas (vMaxSR) at the repaved Daytona International Speedway tonight.


Pack racing at it's best down Daytona's Superstretch.

With only three cautions interrupting the 80 lap race early on, it was looking to become a pit stop race with all the drivers being a handful of laps short on fuel. But right in the middle of the last round of stops the race ended early in bizarre fashion when long time race leader Dariusz Maksajda blew his clutch when returning to the track, this saw him spin through the infield causing the fourth and last caution, with positions now being a lottery on the race back to the line, with some cars still exiting the pits while others were at full racing speed, Ballestas found himself leading only to get pipped on the run to the line by team mate Buchan. Mathieu Souphy rounded out the podium for SRD International with team mate Chris Hill coming home fourth. Andrew Jones (Andrew Jones Inc.) bought his Independent Ford home in fifth, with WTR Motorsports driver Paulo Rocha rounding out the top six.

Next week see's the series first and only visit of the year to the reconfigured Kentucky Speedway.

Jack Keithley became the second drive this season to take back to back victories, the Ipswich driver winning at Michigan on 23rd June and then a week later at Infineon Raceway on the 30th.

Championship leader Alex Ballestas consolodated his lead at the head of the standings with a 4th and 7th. Chris Hill stays in second overall following a 2nd at Michigan and a 5th at Infineon. Mathieu Souphy (4th), Yosh Hughes (5th) and Ian Smythe round out the top six positions in the series standings.

This week see's the first of a run of two night races, with Daytona on 7th July for the Coke Zero 400 followed by the Cup's inaugural visit to Kentucky Speedway on 14th July for the Quaker State 400.

Coors Light Pole Winner Ian Smythe lead to field to the green flag at Pocono Raceway, Smythe lead the early going before relinquishing the lead to Sanjin Haler just before a caution on lap 14. Carlos Caldas briefly led the restarted race before Chris Hill took control at the head of the pack. On lap 24 Daruisz Maksajda took over the lead and held onto it (except during pit stops) until lap 68 when Hill retook the lead just after another restart, the Sussex SRD International driver held on to take his third victory of the season ahead of Maksajda. Russia's Sergey Rebrov was the first vMaxSR driver home in third, while Smythe recovered to fourth after going 2 laps down mid-race due to technical problems. SRD's Mathieu Souphy was fifth, with vMaxSR's Sanjin Haler and Yosh Hughes sixth and seventh respectively.

It was a bad day for Championship leader Alex Ballestas, first the Colombian blew his engine on his qualifying lap, then starting mid pack he got squeezed into the turn 1 wall on the opening lap damaging the car, eventually finishing ninth. However he still holds the overall lead in the championship from SRD's Mathieu Souphy who is 394 points back, Chris Hill is third overall with Yosh Hughes fourth.

In the Teams Championship, it's setting up to be a classic vMaxSR vs SRD International slug match, with vMaxSR holding onto a slender lead over SRD of just 175 points.

In the Independents Cup it's even closer, Ruben Hornacek holds a 35 point lead over Ian Smythe, with Andrew Jones third a further 106 back.

Next week it's onto the high banks of the Michigan International Speedway.

Alex Ballestas (vMaxSR) secured both the Coors Light Pole Award and the race win at the Kansas, Mathieu Souphy (SRD International) led the most laps on route to second with Martin Buchan (vMaxSR) rounded out the podium in third. Yosh Hughes (vMaxSR), Chris Hill (SRD International) and Kevin Orthey (Oversea Motorsports) rounded out the top six. Next race: Pocono.

In keeping with recent trends, Chris 'CJ' Hill came from 13th starting spot to win V8Thunder's longest ever race, the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina. Jack Keithley bounced back from two weeks off to take the Coors Light Pole award, leading the 28 laps of the race too. By the time the first green flag stops came the race had already run caution free for 31 laps, but Paulo Rocha spun entering the pits to bring out the first caution right in the middle of stops. This left all but 11 cars a lap down, including eventual victor CJ Hill.


Hill on route to victory at Charlotte.

Eventually Hill and a number of other drivers got themselves back onto the leap lap and a long battle ensued between the SRD duo of Hill and Keithley for the win, but after a 110 lap green flag run, a late race caution flew with just 10 laps remaining when Steve Pearce crashed in the trioval which saw Hill, Keithley and vMaxSR's Yosh Hughes the only cars left in contention for the win.

In the final few laps remaining after the restart, Keithley was unable to get around Hill leaving the Eastbourne driver to take victory by 1.7 seconds from team mate Keithley, with Yosh Hughes rounding out the podium a further 3 seconds back. Mathieu Souphy came home 4th, with Sanjin Haler 5th, and championship leader Alex Ballestas in 6th. Next week see's the series move to the first of two races this season at the Kansas Speedway.

Ian Smythe took back to back victories at the Dover International Speedway, Thursday evening following his win a week previous at Darlington. Starting 18th the English driver slowly moved to the front, leading 65 laps en route to victory lane. Coors Light Pole winner Martin Buchan lead the early running before vMaxSR team mate Alex Ballestas took over the lead, but like many of the front runners, Ballestas got trapped a lap down early due to a caution hindering his advances back to the front.

A mid-race pileup on a restart which involved nearly every car was an interesting highlight, but when it came down to the closing stages the race was between Smythe and Buchan, the latter lead away for the final restart but wobbled enough exiting turn 2 for Smythe to stick his car under entering turn 3, the two touched leaving Smythe to cruise to the victory while Buchan took a wall ride dropping him back to third behind Sanjin Haler in second.

SRD's Mathieu Souphy headed home 4th, with the recovering Ballestas 5th, and Yosh Hughes rounded out the top 6 despite finding himself on his roof in the mid-race big one.

Alex Ballestas holds onto his Championship lead by a two race advantage of 398 points over team mate Sergey Rebrov in 2nd, SRD duo Jack Keithley (3rd) and Mathieu Souphy (4th) follow next with Ian Smythe's two victories vaulting him to 5th overall ahead of Yosh Hughes in 6th. Drivers not racing in the Indy 500 next week get a week off to refresh ahead of the series longest race of the year on 2nd June, the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Darlington Raceway (aka The Lady in Black) has a vicious reputation for wrecking tyres, cars and friendships, but after 184 grueling laps Thursday Ian Smythe came from last place on the grid to take the first victory for an Independent driver in a V8Thunder Cup Series event, holding off Portugal's Paulo Rocha by 11.873 seconds at the flag followed by Championship leader Alex Ballestas 20 seconds back in third at the Showtime Southern 500.


Smythe celebrates the win with some burnouts.

Such was the pace from the leaders, and a surprising lack of caution periods (just 6 quick ones at the start of the race), that only four of the eighteen drivers finished on the lead lap with Chris Hill being the last lead lap finisher after being involved in an early caution. Coors Light Pole winner and early race leader Yosh Hughes came in sixth behind team mate Sanjin Haler in fifth, with Andrew Jones seventh. A 76 lap caution free run in the latter half of the race allowed Smythe to play the strategy game and split the remaining laps equally, while others went onto different strategies of running a short middle stint, it paid off for the Englishman in the long run. Ballestas had effectively taken himself out of contention, having received a stop/go penalty for a pitting infraction, but the Colombian managed to work his strategy into getting himself back onto the lead lap at the end to take a well recovered podium spot. Rocha was both happy and unhappy with his result commenting that being held up by a lapped car late in the race cost him a shot at victory.

The Lady in Black wasn't so nice to some though, with usual front runners Sergey Rebrov, Steve Pearce and Mathieu Souphy (among others) all being involved in incidents early in the race leaving them out of the running. As normal, just about every car had a Darlington stripe though.

Next week the series moves to another track with a fearsome reputation - The Monster Mile at Dover, Delaware.

Yosh Hughes picked up the Coors Light Pole Award at Richmond, but it was rookie team mate Alex Ballestas who kept his cool to take the spoils of victory on the 0.75 miles Virginia Oval.

The race was littered with 15 cautions which left many drivers frustrated with events, many seemingly struggling on the short oval, but after an initial spate of early interruptions, the last 80 laps were only slowed twice leaving Ballestas and Hughes to fight it out for the win taking a vMaxSR team 1-2. SRD Team mates Chris Hill and Mathieu Souphy came home third and fourth respectively, with Ian Smythe fifth and Filipe Caldas rounding out the top 6.

With the real #48 winning on Sunday by the smallest of margins, it came as no surprise to anybody to see the same car piloted by Peter Hillesheim take the Coors Light Pole award for the V8Thunder Cup Series outing at the Talladega Superspeedway. But just like about every other race this season, it wasn't the pole winner who took the victory spoils. After 25 lead changes between 13 drivers, Martin "Bucket" Buchan left it to the last lap to pip team mate Alex Ballestas to victory by 00.668s, Ruben Hornacek rounded out the podium in 3rd, while Ian Smythe picked up the Hard Charger award again by coming home 4th from 22nd on the grid. Pole man Hillesheim came home 5th, with Yosh Hughes backing up the top 6. Heartbreak of the race award went to Andrew Jones, who ran out of fuel in sight of the finish and dropped from the lead to 10th.

Ballestas leads Keithley & Hughes.

Dariusz Maksajda took the Coors Light Pole Award at the Texas Motor Speedway, but after 167 laps of racing, and a high attrition rate, it was the usual suspects at the front by the time the sun rolled down at the Lone Star State. Alex Ballestas took victory from vMaxSR team mate Yosh Hughes. Despite leading the most laps, Jack Keithley could only manage third, running second coming to the flag he found himself sideways over the finish line after contact with Hughes, Sergey Rebrov, Andrew Jones and Alex Pab rounded out the top six.