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The Michigan Circle Track Sim-Racing League’s most recent stop, Salem Speedway, was like no other place we have run. When the guy that won the race jokes, “It would be fine with me if we didn’t come back here next season,” you know that it is a tough track. Whether in the virtual world of Sim-Racing or in the real world, with 33 degrees of banking in the corners “tough” is the perfect word to describe the 62 year old, half-mile, asphalt track at Salem Indiana.

The night got off to a bit of a rough start when there were problems loading the nighttime version of the track. As a result, the decision was made to switch over to the daytime version of the track. Doing so proved challenging as the set-up provided for the event wasn’t tuned for the daylight hours. The set-up was so different that after running a few laps during practice, a couple of drivers opted out of the show as a result.

One benefit that Sim-Racing has over the real thing is that if a major catastrophe occurs shortly after the start, the race can (if the drivers agree) be reset. After two such resets, the consensus was to go with a lottery start and shortening the race length from 70 to 60 laps due to time constraints. In a lottery start, the computer assigns grid positions in random order. In this case the field pretty much became a Friday night inverted grid event. The faster cars were in the rear and the slower cars were up front. I was sitting on the pole in my No.73 Ultra-Tuff Safety Coatings Dodge, with Tom TerMeer in the No.61 Miller Lite Chevy sitting next to me. Upon seeing this, my comment over the Teamspeak voice channel was, “Well, this can’t be good.” TerMeer laughed and seconded the motion.

The first lap of the race was quite eventful. The green flag dropped and the drivers quickly went up through the gears down the straightaway and into turn one. TerMeer in the outside line (the preferred grove) made quick work of me in the first turn. David Herrin, who was making his first start since the Kalamazoo Pre-Season event in April, executed a pass on TerMeer in turn four, when the TerMeer’s No. 61 got up a little too high on the track. While Herrin was taking the first position away from TerMeer, in the back of the field the No. 7 Chevy of Lansing, Michigan’s Brad Mahar was getting batted around like a pinball. Logically, turn two should have been calamity corner, as the track narrows from 65 feet wide, down to a 48 foot wide backstretch. Instead, most of the night’s trouble came from the other end of the track in turn four. It was there on the first lap that Mahar got into the back of Ken Shook, in the Howe Racing No. 34. After that initial contact, Mahar slid down the track into the No. 3 of Craig Bristol, back up the track into Shook and down the track again into John Hernly’s No. 64. After repeated contact with Hernly’s car, Mahar spun a complete 360, before bouncing off the side of Shook’s car one last time. The final contact with Shook set Mahar’s car back on the proper trajectory. Still under green, Shook and Mahar continued on, battered and bruised, at the tail end of the field.

The caution flag waved for the first of four times on lap 6, when Shook in the No. 34 got loose on the exit of turn four and he mixed it up with Mahar once again. The two made contact, which caused both cars to spin down the 55 foot wide frontstretch just as they were about to be over taken by the leaders. Herrin, running in the first position, made it through without a scratch. Josh Walker in the No. 83, my No.73, Hernly in the No. 64, the No. 36 of Dan Smillie and the No.3 of Craig Bristol, running second through sixth respectively, weren’t as lucky. All sustained various levels of damage in the ensuing melee. Smillie was forced to retire a little while later as a result of the damage to his car.

TerMeer spun trying to hold off Walker for the fourth position on lap 26 which brought out the second caution. Herrin pitted for tires from first place, handing the lead over to Hernly. Herrin restarted fourth. On lap 34 Herrin was attempting to pass Walker’s No. 83 when Herrin clipped the apron. Herrin spun and continued, after making hard contact with the inside guardrail. The race stayed under green, however, the incident upset the handling of his car significantly. After striking the outside wall repeatedly over the next couple of circuits, Herrin became the second driver to retire for the night on lap 38.

I was the reason for the third caution which occurred on lap 47. Tires too hot, I had a non-contact, self spin exiting turn two. The incident resulted in generating a lot of tire smoke and setting up an 8 lap sprint to the finish. Hernly in the No. 64 was first with the badly damaged, but still very drivable No. 7 car of Mahar right behind. Mahar, last week’s winner at Concord, put considerable pressure on Hernly for the next four laps. Mahar lost it trying to get underneath Hernly on lap 56, bringing out the final yellow and handing the win over to Hernly.

MCT-SRL Salem Speedway Race Results

MCT-SRL Standings after 7 Races