Finland’s Greger Huttu survived a first lap challenge to claim the inaugural victory of the 2012 iRacing.com Grand Prix Series World Championship at Watkins Glen on Saturday.   The flag-to-flag win not only maintains Huttu’s 100% winning record at the Glen in World Championship competition, it stakes the ’10 World Champion to an early lead in the iGPWCS standings in his efforts to regain the online racing crown commandeered by Hugo Luis last season.

The only driver to post a sub one-minute fifteen second lap in the solo qualifying session, Huttu held the advantage over second fastest qualifier Luis when the green flag dropped on the Watkins Glen boot configuration. However, by the time the pair negotiated Turn One, My3id’s Luis had taken the lead with an unnerving pass around the outside of Huttu.  But Luis’ lead proved to be short-lived, as Huttu, with equal guile, took advantage of the slip-stream to sweep past the My3id Williams-Toyota FW31 into the ‘Carousel.’  The unfettered Huttu proceded to break away, leaving the Brazilian to deal with his own problems, establishing a margin that would stretch to 12 seconds by the time he headed to the pits on Lap 22.

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The 2012 Drivers World Championship is set the 2011 top 25 drivers from the Drivers World Championship gain automatic entry into the 2012 season. The 2011/12 Pro Series has now been completed with 56 drivers attempting to make it into the 2012 Drivers World Championships. The top 25 from the Pro Series has been decided. Below is your 2012 Drivers World Championship lineup. To be eligible to race in the Pro Series drivers must compete during the 4 season campaigin and finish in the top 10. The bottom 25 Drivers from the prevous year World Championship are also eligible to compete in the Pro Series.

2012 Drivers World Championship Lineup

Top 25 2011 Drivers World Championship
1     Hugo Luis
2     Greger Huttu
3     Klaus Kivekäs
4     Jesse Nieminen
5     Luke McLean
6     Aleksi Elomaa
7     Alberto Baraldi
8     Ilkka Haapala
9     David Williams
10     Ben Cornett
11     Blake Townend
12     Matthias Egger
13     Richard Towler
14     Dion Vergers
15     Ray Alfalla
16     Dom Duhan
17     Darren Marsh
18     Daniel Almeida
19     Derek Wood
20     Brad Davies
21     Marc Payne
22     Andrea Baldi
23     Petteri Kotovaara
24     Joel Guez
25     Jake Stergios

Top 25 2011/12 Pro Series Moving up to Drivers World Championship
1     Atze Kerkhof
2     Martin Krönke
3     Simon Crochart
4     Sebastian Schmalenbach
5     Jeremy Bouteloup
6     Samuel Libeert
7     Roland Ehnström
8     Emil Spindel
9     Alex Arana
10     Jaroslav Honzik
11     Andre Boettcher
12     Pablo López
13     Fulvio Barozzini
14     PJ Stergios
15     Norbert Wolf
16     Dave Gelink
17     Richard Crozier
18     Wes Richards
19     Martti Pietilä
20     Rudy van Buren
21     Klaus Ellenbrand
22     Andrew Slocombe
23     Jason Lovett
24     Daniel López
25     Roy Kolbe

In the final round of the iRacing.com NVIDIA Grand Prix Series, Jesse Nieminen found his way to the top step of the podium for the fifth time this season after a dominating performance at the virtual Silverstone International Circuit. The My3id sim-racer, who was plagued with technical issues early in the season that effectively nullified his championship challenge, showed that with everything running in ship-shape and Bristol fashion the Finn will be a front-running contender for the 2012 title.

Starting from pole-position with a time of 1:18.420, Nieminen moved his Williams-Toyota FW31 into a comfortable lead over Greger Huttu, with help from his team-mate and 2011 World Champion Hugo Luis, who snatched second position from the Team Redline pilot on the drop of the green flag. Whilst Huttu found his way past the newly-crowned iNGPS champion at the first round of pit-stops, Nieminen had settled into a pace that had created a gap of six-seconds, which dwindled to three as he tackled lapped cars.

“I got a perfect start and was happy to see Hugo get Greger into Turn One as I knew it would make my race a bit easier,” shared Nieminen this week. “I just kept pushing for the first stint but somehow my fuel consumption was a bit higher than in practice, so I had to save a bit of fuel before the stop just to be safe. The second stint was a bit more difficult with all the traffic.  I lost my rhythm a bit and Greger managed to close the gap a little, but luckily I was one lap heavier on fuel so I didn’t have to spend the rest of the race pushing like mad like the last time here.”

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The penultimate round of the iRacing.com NVIDIA Grand Prix Series brought the Williams-Toyota FW31s to a virtual-Japan for their first ever visit to the 3.6 mile Suzuka International Circuit.   And it was 2010 World Champion Greger Huttu who claimed the top step of the podium for his fourth victory of the season so far. Alas for Huttu, a second place finish for Hugo Luis saw the Brazilian sim racer secure enough points to be crowned the 2011 online road-racing World Champion.

Starting from pole position, a grid slot Huttu has struggled to reach in 2011, the Team Redline pilot emerged well clear of a huge start-line shunt that saw several cars retire within seconds of the green flag dropping. Whilst Redline’s Luke McLean got off the line cleanly enough, the engine of his FW31 decided it’d had enough before even making it into second gear, and gave way in a huge plume of smoke. What ensued was a scene akin to a Mad Max film, as Petteri Kotovara ploughed into the back of the Australian’s car, causing a chain reaction that ended the race for himself and Sebastian Schmalenbach, Ben Cornett and recently crowned NASCAR iRacing.com World Series champion Ray Alfalla.

With the carnage behind but a speck in his mirrors, Huttu immediately broke away from My3id’s Luis and Jesse Nieminen, to carve-out a 10 second lead by the time he headed to the pits for his first stop on Lap 20.

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In a dominant online racing performance, Hugo Luis powered his way to the chequered flag at the Okayama International Circuit to make it four wins in a row, and further extend his lead in the iRacing.com NVIDIA Grand Prix Series with just two races remaining. Coupled with his success at Sebring earlier in the season, the My3id pilot has now secured five victories in the World Championship and is just a few steps away from taking the accolades of being the globe’s top online road racer and the accompanying cash prize of $10,500.

Luis, who started the 83 lap race in second position, got away from the line ahead of pole-sitter Klaus Kivekäs to pull alongside his team-mate at the opening corner, and subsequently take the lead as the pair headed into Turn Two. In the lead position, Luis worked to carve out a significant margin, but the Brazilian couldn’t shake Kivekas and third-placed Greger Huttu from his tail, who followed in the My3id sim-racer’s wake.

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