Hoggan Caps Off MSRA Domination with Championship

By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer

After dominating most of the Midwest Sim Racing Association Premier Series season, Boyd Hoggan put his stamp on the series with the 2021 championship.

The driver of the virtual No. 96 Curb Records Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE earned his 20th win of the season. The Season Finale 225 presented by Fantastic Sams ended with Hoggan leading a staggering 215 of the 225 laps. The only playoff driver that challenged the Bobby Dale Earnhardt Legacy eSports driver was Klayton Hoffman. 

Hoffman briefly led the race during a round of green flag pit stops midway into the final Stage of the season. The virtual No. 12 Rocket Racing Setups Chevrolet cycled back to second. However, Hoggan’s speed was unmatched. The Canadian took the checkered flag with just shy of 10 seconds to spare. Hoffman finished second in the race and the championship.

“I’ve got to thank everybody at Legacy (eSports) for the entire season,” admitted Hoggan. “All of these cars have been awesome. It made a lot of the year pretty easy and very fun. I can’t thank them enough for all of the work that they put in every week. Its’ been a long season, and this is probably the longest week that we’ve had. 

“There’s so many things that can go wrong on a championship night, especially with having the season that we did and the expectations everyone had. Coming in here it was like one little mistake from anybody else or one little slip up, but we avoided it all.”

Polesitter Logan Helton finished third. Vincent Arthur finished fourth in the race and third in the championship. Braxton DeWeese completed the top-five. Ralph Hutchison finished sixth in race and fourth in the championship. Joseph McWhorter, Jacob Shorba, John Theodore, and Brandon Davis rounded out the top-10 finishers.

Hoggan only competed in 27 of the 36 races throughout the season. Shorba was the only competitor to run every race. Ryan Strunk competed in 35 races with both Brandon and Steven Davis running 34 races.

In addition to the series-high win total, Hoggan also led the series in top-five and top-10 finishes with 23 each. He also destroyed the competition in Stage wins with 30. By comparison, Hutchison earned the second-most Stage wins with 10.

For 2022, the Midwest Sim Racing Association Premier Series will transition from the Gen 6 NASCAR Cup Series cars to the Next Gen cars.

“I don’t know if the new car will be enjoyable to drive or not,” explained Hoggan. “I’ll wait to see what the plan is. We’ve got to build Cup cars and trucks all year anyway. I started racing in this in the first place because the racing was good, and we get long green flag runs. 

“Tonight was championship night and a lot of people showed up for it and we went green (just about) the entire way. There are a number of guys in this league that are really good. Hopefully Logan (Helton) can get some of the Nexxus guys in. Overall, the more the merrier. It’s a lot of fun to race and I’m glad to be a part of it.”

The results:

1 96-Boyd Hoggan [2], 2. 12-Klayton Hoffman [6], 3. 63-Logan Helton [1], 4. 24-Vincent Arthur [7], 5. 15-Braxton DeWeese [4], 6. 51-Ralph Hutchison [10], 7. 32-Joseph McWhorter [11], 8. 30-Jacob Shorba [16], 9. 27-John Theodore [9], 10. 91-Brandon Davis [5], 11. 92-Steven Davis [13], 12. 49-Zach York [15], 13. 64-John Mullins [12], 14. 62-Chris Civera [8], 15. 99-Christopher Hill [18], 16. 55-Liam Sheen [3], 17. 26-Dylan Hervatin [17], 18. 10-Tommy Gossett [14].

Lead Changes: Four among three drivers.

Lap Leader(s): Logan Helton 0 (Pole), Boyd Hoggan 1-177, Logan Helton 178-181, Klayton Hoffman 182-187, Boyd Hoggan 188-225.

Laps Led: Boyd Hoggan 215, Klayton Hoffman 6, Logan Helton 4.

Hard Charger(s): 30-Jacob Shorba (+8).

Caution Flags: Three for 10 Laps.

Margin of Victory: 9.730 seconds.

Time of Race: One hour, 50 minutes, 40.430 seconds.

Average Speed: 121.980 MPH.

Pole Winner: 63-Logan Helton, 26.069 seconds (138.095 MPH).

Fastest Lap: 96-Boyd Hoggan, Lap 2, 26.514 seconds (135.777 MPH).

Stage 1: 96, 15, 63, 12, 51, 24, 55, 62, 99, 32.

Stage 2: 96, 15, 12, 24, 51, 63, 62, 32, 30, 27.