Hammett Mocks Hubble and Dominates Round #2 of the YesterYear IROC Series

Chris Hammett's Cream-Colored Cadillac CTS-V

Hubble, the YesterYear Racing™ League's in-house AI bot, crunched the numbers for Iowa Speedway prior to Round #2 of YesterYear's International Race of Champions (IROC) Series, and Red Light Racing League's Chris Hammett was nowhere to be found in the pre-race predictions. Even after Hammett ran a great race and finished second in Round #1 back in February at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course, Hubble snubbed him. The AI liked defending IROC Champion J.R. Shepherd for the win and forecasted VLS iRacing League's Greg McDaniel to be runner-up. But when the checkered flag flew Tuesday night at Iowa Speedway, it was Hammett who had the last laugh. What made it more impressive was that in a field of 15 drivers, Hammett started 11th and had to work his way to the front, which was not easy as the race went green the entire 150 laps. "Who would have known that driving a road course car on an oval might be my calling," Hammett said amusingly in his post-race interview.

Round #2 was the short track discipline of the 5-race Series and drivers lined up on the grid in reverse order from how they finished in Round #1 at Daytona. This meant that OBRL driver Andrew Kotska, who was involved in an early crash at Daytona and had to retire, started on pole. He was flanked by Bootleg Racing League driver Chris "Whirlwind" Worrell. When the green flag dropped, it was Worrell who took the lead from Kotska after one lap. Worrell continued out front for 61 laps fighting off threats from Scott Negus and Greg McDaniel. Over the course of the first 62 laps there was some slight separation among the drivers in the field. Multiple racing lines were used over the 0.875-mile oval early on, but as the tires started to wear on the Cadillac CTS-V's, most drivers settled into a steady and consistent racing line.

By lap 60, Hammett had finally worked his way through the field and began to attack Worrell for the race lead. On lap 63, Hammett successfully passed Worrell for the lead. Once passed, Worrell pitted for fuel and gas, but made a critical error by getting loose going into the pits and ultimately receiving a black flag for speeding in the pits. Once Worrell came back around and served his 40-second hold penalty on pit road, his night was effectively over as he re-entered 4 laps down.

The entire field began to pit over the course of the next 6-7 laps after Worrell's mistake. Hammett pitted after most and it proved to be a good strategy as he re-entered the race still leading. Hubble favorite J.R. Shepherd exited pit road in 4th place, but soon caught and passed Matt Watkins to take third place, and eventually caught and passed Greg McDaniel moving Shepherd into 2nd. By that time, however, Hammett was over nine seconds up the road and Shepherd had no chance of catching the cream-colored Cadillac driven by Hammett. "I made some mistakes early in the race and kinda shot myself in the foot. Chris ran a great race and I wish I could have got to him as I think it would have been a good fight," Shepherd said in his post-race interview.

Hammett was clearly the class of the field Tuesday night. Not only did he lead 84 laps of the race and won by 11.141 seconds, only four cars finished on the lead lap meaning Hammett lapped every car except three during the race. In addition to proving Hubble completely wrong, Hammett turned heads with his dominating performance at Iowa. Hammett leaves the Hawkeye state tied for the lead in the standings with J.R. Shepherd.

The Series heads to Mobility Resort Motegi (formerly Twin Ring Motegi) in Japan on Tuesday, June 30 for the Speedway discipline. Drivers will race their Cadillac CTS-V's around the 1.549-mile "egg-shaped" oval for Round #3 of the YesterYear Racing™ League IROC Series. The race will be broadcast and streamed live on the Virtual Grip Network.

Ken Allen Captures Win At Scorching Hot Spring Sizzler

Ken Allen's Tour Modified stock car

It was a scorching hot afternoon in Stafford Springs, Connecticut with the air temperature hovering at 86 degrees Fahrenheit and a track temperature over 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This made for an incredibly slick Stafford Motor Speedway half-mile oval where drivers raced 200 laps with only one extra set of tires at their disposal. Round #5 of the YesterYear Racing™ League Tour Modified series was set to be an interesting one. When the checkered flag flew, it was Kenny Allen winning his first YesterYear Racing™ League event. "I was very careful to save my tires throughout the race as I knew that would be critical. I also have to thank fellow driver Brian Bianchi. I know that he knows this track very well. I noticed a couple of years ago that Brian drove a unique racing line around this track. I wanted to learn it, so I did. I ran into some trouble at last year's race, but was able to stay clean this year and fortunately things worked out," Allen said in his post-race interview. Allen also started from the pole position with a lap time of 18.899. With the victory, Allen moved into fourth place in the overall season standings.

The season standings point leader coming into the Spring Sizzler was the "Iceman," James Lowe. He was 60 points clear of Luke Logan Allen in second place. Lowe had his typical no-fills, no-mistakes run going and looked like a lock to get second place behind Kenny Allen as the checkered flag neared. But a mistake coming out of turn 2 with only a couple of laps remaining got his car loose and allowed Eric Stout to make the pass to claim the second spot on the podium. "I was pretty much resigned to the fact I would get third place in the race. Kenny had checked out and it looked like James was not going to catch him, but was fast enough where I could not get around. But then he suddenly got loose and slid up the track out of turn 2 and I was able to make the pass," said Stout after the race .For his part, Lowe noted the mistake, but said he would gladly take a top three finish here and move on to Irwindale.

The race saw four cautions for thirteen laps. Numerous drivers got caught with black flags midway through the race which put them a lap or more down. Only nine of the nineteen cars that took the grid finished on the lead lap.

The Series takes a month-long break before coming back on Tuesday, May 26 to race the YesterYear Classic at Irwindale Speedway. The YesterYear Classic was run at Martinsville Speedway in both 2024 and 2025, but heads to the "Golden state" this year for the 225-lap event. That race will be the first time the YesterYear Racing™ League Tour Modifieds will have been to the half-mile oval in California.

When asked about the month-long break, YesterYear Racing™ League Founder and co-owner Allen Wannamaker said, "We have several breaks during our year-long season. Because we essentially re-race an actual NASCAR Whelen Tour Modified schedule, which usually consists of 14-16 races, we have breaks. In reality, the Tour Mods cannot run every week like NASCAR Cup, O'Reilley, or the trucks. They simply do not have the sponsorship money in the series, nor do they have car owners with deep pockets. This is a working man, blue collar series in real life. Most Tour Modified drivers have full-time jobs outside of racing. We usually break for a month around this time of year. We are a third of the way through our 15-race season and I'm pretty optimistic about how the season is going. We have visited a couple of new tracks the Series has not run before, are averaging 24 cars on the grid, and the racing has been good. In addition, we have had four different winners in five races. If you were to have given me those stats prior to the start of the season, I would have taken them."

Stout Wins YesterYear's First Ever Visit To Lanier National Speedway

Eric Stout's Tour Modified

The YesterYear Racing™ League took its first trip to Georgia on Tuesday night to race the Peach Tree 150. A state known for peaches, the Allman Brothers Band, R.E.M., Uga (the World's most famous Bull Dog), and the busiest airport in the world, would play host to Round #4 of YesterYear's Tour Modified Series. A full field of 24 drivers were set to tackle the 0.375-mile bull ring in the second night race of the season. Eric Stout set the tone early by capturing pole with a blistering qualifying lap of 12.916 seconds. Starting beside him on the front row was OBRL driver Roger Hurley, who is a rookie in YesterYear this season, but a long-time veteran of the OBRL racing league. Once the green flag flew, two immediate cautions flew in the first 8 laps as drivers had to deal with changing track conditions due to the track "rubbering up," and the sun going down. From there, the race settled and drivers dealt with two long green flag runs. The first, roughly 36 laps in length, saw the drivers gradually settle into a single-file parade around the tricky Lanier bull ring. The second, a 69-lap marathon, had drivers hanging on as tires began to degrade substantially on most cars. When the caution finally flew around lap 110, almost all drivers who did not pit around lap 45 came onto pit road to change right-side tires, with two exceptions. James Lowe and his teammate Chris Worrell. Lowe, for his part, was tied with Luke "The Kid" Allen in the standings coming into the race and he valued track position over fresh tires. The strategy was to hold onto track position knowing "The Kid" was well back in the pack and would have a rough time working his way to the front with only 38 laps remaining in the race. Worrell, who sat third in points coming onto the night, played a similar strategic card by staying out. When the green flag flew again, Worrell and Lowe battled it out for the lead and even touched at one point. This was uncharacteristic of the two teammates who had worked so well together in prior rounds of the Series. This battling by two cars on old tires allowed the lead pack to stay close, and more importantly, allowed Stout to work his way back close to the front. When a late caution flew with 12 laps remaining in the race, Worrell decided to pit for fresh rubber, but got caught by taking too much time to change his two right-side tires. The result was Worrell going a lap down and falling out of the hunt for the win or a decent result. On the next restart, Lowe was re-starting on the inside, while Stout was on the outside on fresh rubber. The outside had been the preferred re-start position while the inside was the preferred racing line position once drivers began to settle. With the fresh tires, Stout made quick work of Lowe and started to pull away. Soon, Kenny Allen, who also had fresh tires, had worked his way into second and was chasing Stout. It looked like a "two-horse" race until a late caution flew due to contact between Gavin Adams and Jeff LeMire in turn 2. The result created a one-time Green/White Checkered attempt to settle the race.

With Stout starting on the inside, and Kenny Allen starting on the preferred outside lane, the green flag flew. Unfortunately for Allen, he missed a gear shift and caused a stack-up on the high line that collected several cars and once again the caution flew. With the rule package only allowing for one Green/White Checkered attempt, the race was then destined to end under caution with Stout taking the victory and James Lowe getting second. Todd Liston brought his car home in third place to round out the podium. When asked about the inaugural visit to Lanier National Speedway, Allen Wannamaker, Founder and co-owner of the YesterYear Racing™ League said, "I think it was a great race and show for the fans. Any time you get those types of green flag runs on a tight bull ring like Lanier, it is exciting to watch. The track proved tricky as it changed over the course of the night, but given the talent of the field, I was not surprised at all of the quality racing on the track."

The Series moves on to Stafford Motor Speedway for Round #5 on Tuesday, April 28, to race the YesterYear Spring Sizzler.