I've been meaning to post this for a few weeks now, but better late than never.  Recently the very popular and highly respected SimHQ.com Site released an excellent article on getting around a Virtual Lemans in a Sim Racing Car and Environment.  By itself the article and videos are very well worth the read and watch, and you can gain some excellent information on getting around perhaps the most famous racing circut in the world.  To make the article even cooler for those of us here at Champion Motorsports, the Carpe Noctem ILMS Series Prototypes are Featured in the article.  We'd like to congratulate Tim Collier, Mike Tyler, John Basara and all of the members of the BETA team as well as the drivers of CMS in general for helping make the ILMS mod so special for rFactor!  To read the article and see our prototypes in action Click HERE

In related news to the ILMS mod, we are now taking applications for drivers to join us in the 2009 Season of ILMS racing action here at Champion Motorsports.  To get involved and race with us simply visit the following thread on our forums and post to introduce yourself. 

We are pleased to present the start of the 2009 Champion Motorsports Racing Calendar with a Special Event courtesy of our Fun Series!  We will be running the rFactor Fabcar Mod from Team Players at Daytona Road Course for a special 2.4 hours race!  This is going to be an incredible event that is sure to be a lot of fun.  We currently are nearing 30 entrants for the race.  All members and visitors of our community are welcome to participate in this special fun series event.  Simply post in this THREAD ... on our forums to get started.  We will have a special event night practice on Tuesday December 30th, then the actual race will be on Tuesday January 6th, 2009!  Goodluck Everyone and have fun and we hope you have all been enjoying a great holiday and new year!

What a fitting end to a great Championship Season in the ILMS 4 Class Series here at Champion Motorsports.  The overall Championship in the LMP1 Class would go down to the final race at Lemans to cap off what has been a very memorable year here at CMS and saw some fantastic racing!  In the final race Greg Veres went into the event with a slim lead over Drew McLean for the LMP1 title.  Greg would have a solid finish and Drew would do everything he could by winning the race, but Greg was able to hold him off and take the crown as the LMP1 and overall Champion in the Series!  Congratulations Greg.

Greg Veres Pictured Above at Lemans in the Season Finale

James Goldston would be the class winner at Lemans in the P2 class his first class win of the year in the Prototypes.  Stephen Bailey had a fantastic finish in the GT1 Class by winning there as well as a very impressive 5th place overall, ahead of all of the LMP2 class finishers and many of the P1's.  Troy Dalton would cap off a fantastic year with the GT2 class win. 

Here are the Complete Results from Lemans

We would again like to congratulate everyone that participated in the ILMS racing series this year for both our GT Challenge and 4 Class Competitions.  It was a very fun year.  Our Champions are as follows:

GT Challenge

Don Fryman (Overall and GT1), Drew McLean (GT2)

ILMS 4 Class

Greg Veres (Overall and LMP1), Kevin Cinnamon (LMP2), Don Fryman (GT1), and David Anderson (GT2)

Our Season for 2009 will be starting in the late part of January/Early February.  In between now and then we hope everyone is able to enjoy a fantastic holiday season with family and friends and to keep things moving along here we have several fun events scheduled this winter, so be sure to check in on the forums for those racing opportunities!  As always we'll Cya on the Track!

Congratulations to Tim Collier for winning our latest Champion Fun Series Special event in the GRID Challenge Stock Cars at Joesville.  We had a lot of fun with this mod that was recently converted from the GRID arcade game to rFactor and the models look great and some fun physics were created with them.  We decided to take them out for a 150 lap shootout at Joesville for some rubbin racin, and we were certainly happy with the results as it was a great race with a lot of close action up front. 

In the End Tim Collier would outlast Jason Small for the win.  Jason and Tim had a great battle, but Tim was able to be most consistent at the end of the race when it mattered most and leverage his extensive oval racing background to hold on for the win -- despite Jason making a final few laps charge.  Stephen Bailey who had qualified on the pole for the race would finish in 3rd place.  A total of 11 cars competed in the race and we had a lot of fun ...

Tim Collier Shown in the Grid Stock Car Challenge Race at Joesville Where He would Win! (above)

Here are the Post Race Stories and Final Results ...

Maybe we will be able to do another one of these in the future, it would be great to take these cars out for some road racing at Riverside!  Wow that would be insane.

It's a Wrap for the 2008 ILMS GT Challenge Series in what has been a fantastic year of racing with the GT1 and GT2 cars here at Champion Motorsports.  The season ending race this week was at Lemans and it was a great event.  We had a total of 34 drivers start the field with a mix of about 2/1 on GT2 cars to GT1.  John Basara would qualify on the pole for the race with a blistering lap but would be unable to finish due to an accident.  Typical to Lemans the track was a stern challenge and we had a total of 13 cars unable to finish due to accidents or failures due to mechanical reasons. 

The Start at Lemans Pictured Above

When all was said and done Stephen Bailey would get the overall win in his Corvette and in the GT1 class with a really solid run.  He would finish about a half lap ahead of Tom Cinnamon who had a great run of his own and Scott Bennett finished in 3rd to complete the podium.  The Championship had already been decided for GT1 prior to this race and we'd again like to congratulate Don Fryman fo rhis wonderful season in the GT1 class and the Championship. 

Class Winners Bailey and Drumhiller Pictured Above Racing at Lemans

The GT2 class; which has been fiercly competitive this year saw another fantastic race this week as well.  There were 20+ GT2 cars in the event.  Randy Drumhiller would be the surprise winner with his first ILMS win of any kind here at CMS and it was oh so special for the oval racer, converted road racer earlier this year.  Randy has been a long-timer supporter and member of the Champion Community and we'd like to give him a special congrats for a great and very memorable win this week in his BMW GT2 entry.  James Goldston continued to impress with a very nice 2nd place finish and has definitely shown he will be a driver to contend for the points title next year.  The GT2 Class Champion Drew McLean would finish 3rd in a very clean race in his Porsche GT2. 

Complete Race Results Are Available HERE as well as Post Race Reaction on the Forums ...

Next Week we will conclude our ILMS 4 Class Season at Lemans as well as we come into a very exciting final race with the LMP1 Class Championship Still up for Grabs!  Goodluck Everyone, have fun and Happy Holidays!

Congratulations to Scott Bennett for winning tonight in the ARCA Champion Fun Series Stock Car Event at Montreal.  Scott proved to be the most consistent racer in the group tonight and minimized any on track mistakes to get the victory that had to be pretty special for him on such a challenging circuit in the heavy stock cars.  Behind Scott Jeff Chandler would finish 2nd with another strong run in the ARCA series.  Jeff had won the previous two races at Michigan and Rockingham.  Tim Collier would finish 3rd after qualifying on the pole and leading in the early portion of the race before a problem that would require him to pit for repairs. 

Scott Bennett Pictured Above at ARCA Fun Series Race / Montreal Where He Would Get Win

Complete Results from Montreal and Post Race Reaction

Next Week we will complete the Winter ARCA Series with the final race at Toledo.  We hope to see a large group of racers in the event to end the series with a bang at the little bull-ring short track!  Goodluck Everyone and Happy December and Holidays! :)

We are pleased to announce that the latest public release of the ILMS Mod has been released at rFactor Central .... We have included some information here about the release, but we encourage everyone to download the mod for yourself and check out the great racing it provides.  Also be sure to provide your feedback via the comments and voting system at rFactor Central.  Happy Racing and congratulations to our own Carpe Noctem Design Team and their Beta Testers on the release

The Série Internationale Du Mans mod is a mod loosely based on the European and American Le Mans racing series. This mod includes cars for the LM-P1 and LM-P2 classes as well as the LM-GT1 Corvette C6R. This special public version of the mod is actually part of a larger mod that contains LM-P1, LM-P2, LM-GT1 and LM-GT2 cars and classes. However for reasons which have been thoroughly explained in the ReadMe file, the full version of the mod has been restricted. Nevertheless we think that you’ll still enjoy racing with the LMP-only version of our mod.

We would like to offer a special thanks to Jpbs for his permission to use the Audi R8, Pescarolo C60 and Dome S101 models for our conversion. The Lola was converted from the Sports Car Challenge mod for GTR which was given a free pass for conversion and use by it’s original creators, RSDG as long as they are mentioned in the credits, which we have done in the ReadMe file. And the Porsche RS Spyder was converted from GTR2 with the permission of it’s original modeler, Ibne.

With this release, version 2.52, several adjustments have been made to the mod with regards to the tire wear and heat/grip levels, the brake heating and cooling variables including duct openings becoming a very integral part of the setup, pit stop refueling and tire change timings, and a few other changes that add even more to the strategy of endurance racing, even if you’re not running a real 24-hour race! More can be read about the changes in this update at the Carpe Noctem website, which a link to can be found below.

Also with this release, we have been given permission by Klaas van Houten and Arnold Wong of Team RMT to use their Chevrolet Corvette C6-R model, along with completely original physics and additional graphics work. The addition of the Corvette C6R, representing the LM-GT1 class, to this mod forms the foundation for three classes of cars! This piece of racing history has the power to outrun prototypes on long straights, but handling is at a premium with the additional weight of this class. But it’s a excellent example of the GT class of cars that can be found in the full version of the ILMS mod.

With the launch of iRacing Season 4 we decided it would be fun to track progress and results of the CMS community members that are actively racing.  We are having our own Champion Motorsports Competition open to all eligible drivers in our community.  We are tracking progress and Championship Points in the Chevrolet Silverado Craftsman Truck Series as well as the Star Mazda Road Racing Series. 

Early on Kris Hudson who has always been fast in about anything he drives; in a variety of sims, leads the way in both of the series.  Kris is out front in the Trucks ahead of David Anderson in 2nd and Jacques Richard in 3rd.  Kris has been consistent and in the top 5 with minimal on track incidents to gain quite a bit of points so far in the trucks. 

CMS iRacing Action Pictured Above (Truck Series)

Kris finds himself in front in the Star Mazdas as well albeit by a narrower margin over Wes Tribble.  Devin O'Brien is in 3rd.  Thusfar in the Star Mazda Series the CMS racers have been very competitive with 2 wins already.  We are tracking the points and progress in the following thread .... and here is a direct link to the points so far.  Also it is not too late to get in on the action, for any member of our community that we are not currently tracking all you need to do is post in the sign-up thread that you want to be included and we will add you to the results.  From there you simply continue racing and having fun on iRacing as you normally would -- and we will handle the rest.

We will be back as the Challenge Evolves to Report Progress on the Races!  Goodluck to all of the competitors the rest of Season 4 and we'll cya on the Track! :)

We had another great race in the ARCA fun Series last night and Jeff Chandler continued his winning ways with another strong performance.  We were at Michigan and Jeff was certainly the man to beat qualifying on the pole and winning the race.  He was however challenged on several ocassions through the night by Randy Drumhiller, Robert Harrison, David Anderson and Scott Bennett.  Michigan always makes for some exciting racing and high speeds and last night was no exception.

After a late race caution we had a Green, White Checkered Finish and Chandler would just hold off Drumhiller on the restart to claim his victory.  Jeff saw exactly what he needed on the last lap as well when Anderson and Drumhiller began to battle for the 2nd position allowing Jeff to seal the victory.  Going into turn 3 Drumhiller drove in a bit deep and Anderson hit the mark and was able to pull along side Randy on the front stretch and make the pass for 2nd.  It was a great side by side finish to the end. 

Philip Brown would finish in 4th with a great run of his own after overcoming some early damage in the race -- and Scott Bennett rounded out the top 5. 

Complete Race Results are available HERE

Next week we will be going to Montreal for ARCA Stock Car Racing on the Road Course!  This one should be very challenging yet very fun.  We want to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving holiday and we will see you on the track next week! :)  Be safe and enjoy your families!