2025-26 eNASCAR College iRacing Series | Old Dominion Classic | Tournament 5, Week 1 Recap

Since it is the month of March, there was certainly some expected "madness" at Martinsville Speedway on Wednesday night. The fifth Tournament of the 2025-26 eNASCAR College iRacing Series powered by PlayVS College League, dubbed the Old Dominion Classic, saw 120 students enter, but only 39 survive and advance after the first week's activities at the paperclip located in the southern area of Virginia.

120 entries were snake split into three groups of 40 drivers. Each group went through their First and Second Rounds, which included two Heat races and a Last Chance Qualifier for Round 1, and a longer feature race for Round 2, where 13 drivers in each advanced.

With this Tournament format, however, winning the Second Round feature meant the same as finishing in 13th place. All 39 drivers will have to re-qualify in Week 2, and run the gauntlet of the Semifinal Heats and LCQ to make the Final Round. Winning, in any case on Wednesday night, was mostly for bragging rights, and as there's been in all three Tournaments so far, there were some tense moments, even when an advancing spot was all but guaranteed.

We had our regular Tournament standouts, the No. 1 seeds, if you will, up front as per usual. There were plenty of Cinderella stories scattered throughout the groups, and a ton of upsets to go along with those.

Martinsville, making its eNASCAR return for the first time since the 2020 eNASCAR Saturday Night Thunder series—an offshoot series of the eNASCAR Pro Invitational Series—and making its College Series debut, not only invited close quarters racing and upset feelings, but also an incredible display of iRacing's Dynamic Track in action, at least mostly during the second Group's Round 2 race.

The first Group saw California State University, Fullerton's Logan Clampitt remind everyone why he's the defending series champion, outlasting a late race charge by Sacramento State's Dylan Ault, winning in a photo finish at the line, the difference being 0.013 seconds. In the second Group, the University of Michigan's Matthew Zwack held the point until the current points leader, the University of Calgary's Connor Yeroschak, caught and made the pass for the win on the outside lane.

How about winning the race from the HIGH LINE at Martinsville?!?

The University of Calgary's Connor Yeroschak did just that, passing the University of Michigan's Matthew Zwack in the closing laps by utilizing that higher groove.

One group still to go! https://t.co/tOOewu5kqQ pic.twitter.com/yO4VfrNAkD

— iRacing (@iRacing) March 19, 2026

While there were definitely moments of chaos throughout the night, including in the opening two Groups, the third Group had to be the messiest, with a number of incidents throughout the Round 2 main event. The chaos included contact between the leader, Arizona State University's Bradley Erickson, and the lapped truck of the University of Northwestern Ohio's Joey Cruz.

Cruz wrecked off of the wall in such a way that it collected the second place truck, the most-recent Tournament winner, the University of Maine at Machias' Daniel Faulkingham. The damage was significant, but Faulkingham was not only able to continue wheeling it, but due to the attrition throughout the field he managed to recover to sixth as Erickson went on to take the win.

Coming into this Tournament, 74 drivers and 65 different schools had made it to the Semifinal Round. Tournament 5 adds eight new schools to that list, and 11 new drivers, six of which made their Tournament debut on Wednesday night.

The new schools and their respective drivers include Augusta University with Trey McCrickard, Cal Poly Pomona with Joe Huerta, Cégep Beauce-Appalaches with Olivier Racine, Chattahoochee Technical College with Chase Swank, Ontario Tech University with Liam Loisel, the University of Pittsburgh with Caleb Gordon, the University of Saskatchewan with Zach Michaelis, and Valencia College with Eugenio Acosta.

Three drivers making their Semifinal debut as well are Peyton Wilson with Wilson Community College, Brandon Hudson with UNC Charlotte, and Jalen Atkins with Belmont Abbey. Those three schools have all made tournaments before with other drivers.

The Semifinal Round for the Old Dominion Classic will feature 34 different schools among the 39 drivers. Four schools are bringing more than one driver this time around, including Belmont Abbey with Atkins and Jake Innes, UNC Charlotte with Hudson and Connor Trifari, and Wilson Community College with Wilson and Wyatt Thompson.

Continuing to speak about Belmont Abbey, their program opted to send all six of their trucks into the opening round of the Old Dominion Classic driving the new NASCAR Ram Truck that was released in the 2026 iRacing Season 2 build last week. There were other drivers throughout the field taking on the challenge in the Ram, and it is entirely up to each driver as to which manufacturer they decide to race in, as their College Series paints are available every week on all four Trucks.

The school with the most in the Semis is the University of Northwestern Ohio, the only school to make the Semifinals every round with different drivers. Next week, they'll have Isaac Shelley, Matteo Mitchell, and Tyler Skoczen all going for the Tournament title.

Besides UNOH, 13 other schools have made it to the Semifinals every single Tournament with the same driver. They include Erickson (ASU), Daniel Nanney (Ball State), Clampitt (CSU Fullerton), Timothy Holmes (Horry Georgetown), Maverick Davis (Kettering), Jacob Bradley (Purdue Indy), Ault (Sac State), Matthew Morton (The Ohio State University), Adam Garza (Triton), Yeroschak (Calgary), Jose Solis Jr (UCONN), Faulkingham (UMaine Machias), and Zwack (Michigan).

It should be no surprise that 11 of those drivers occupy the top-11 spots in the Driver's Standings after four Tournaments. Yeroschak leads Clampitt by 15 points entering the penultimate battle. There exists a world where Yeroschak could clinch the trophy a month early, but he'll need bad days from the list above, and perhaps a third Tournament victory to do so.

OLD DOMINION CLASSIC | WEEK 2 ADVANCING DRIVERS

Next week, the Old Dominion Classic will conclude with the Semifinal Round Heats, Semifinal Round LCQ, and the Final Round. Points will be awarded to all 39 drivers, with drivers not advancing out of the LCQ earning points for 26th on back. The top-25 that make the Final Round will earn points based on the results, and the Tournament winner will also collect $3,000 in scholarship prizes.

Tune in on Wednesday, March 25th, at 7:00 p.m. ET for the conclusion. Races will be streamed live at eNASCAR.com/live and across all of iRacing’s social media channels.

eNASCAR College iRacing Series | Old Dominion Classic | Week 1 | Martinsville Speedway

For more information on the eNASCAR College iRacing Series, visit https://pcl.gg/pages/enascar.
For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.