A first-time winner emerged from the smoke on Wednesday night in the opening Tournament of the 2026-27 eNASCAR College iRacing Series presented by Logitech G. Tarrant County College District’s Jacob Wilkerson was the first to the finish line, in a three-wide finish featuring Wilkerson, DeSales University’s Brian Mercurio, Western Connecticut State University’s Jonathan Evans, and Triton College’s Adam Garza tucked up behind Mercurio.
On the final lap in eNASCAR Overtime, Wilkerson crossed the white flag racing for third against Georgia State College & University’s Miles Bagley and the University of Calgary’s Connor Yeroschak, the defending champion of the series. Ahead of them, Mercurio was embattled against California State University, Sacramento’s Dylan Ault for the top spot. A whole lot of contact ensued, and the result left just Mercurio, Wilkerson, and Evans in a three-man battle for the win. Garza and Wichita State University’s Layne Graves were just a ways back trying to stay latched on.
Wilkerson, with help from Evans, cleared Mercurio and pulled away. On the backstretch, Evans dove low as Mercurio was picked up by Garza. Evans low, Wilkerson high, and the Mercurio-Garza tandem coming strong, the leaders rounded Turn 4 and fanned out. Wilkerson had momentum over Evans from the top, and had just enough to hold off the Mercurio charge for the victory.
“That was a crazy green-white-checkered there,” Wilkerson said post-race. “Me and Adam Garza, we were working together the whole race, even though I wasn’t up front most of the race. I had to drive from the back all the way to the front multiple times. That green-white-checkered, though, we just worked together to perfection. He stayed loyal to me, he pushed me… It feels great to finally win for the first time in my eNASCAR career, especially in the College Series.”
Wilkerson had to do it from the 31st starting spot, and after scoring no points in the Semifinal round last week. The Tarrant County student leaves Atlanta as the points leader by 13 points over Evans, who did score points last week and jumps ahead of Mercurio. Garza and Graves round out the top-five.
A STANDARD NIGHT OF RACING
There have been some changes since last season and the introduction of Tournament racing to the eNASCAR College iRacing Series presented by Logitech G. As opposed to last year, which still featured multiple races and more eliminations on Week 2, this year’s format gives a spotlight to the 40 drivers that transfer from Week 1 and the Semifinals in just one long race at standard length. These races are about the same length as an eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series event.
For the 100 lap Final round feature, Ball State’s Daniel Nanney put it on the pole position, just edging UNC Charlotte’s Connor Trifari for the top spot.
For the first 28 laps, things were great for the most part. The field kept it together mostly, with just a few trucks getting into trouble, but without triggering a caution. The first caution did fly on Lap 29, and it involved UCONN’s Martin Roberg and St. Johns River’s AJ Heider. Heider would continue, but Roberg would have too much damage. The field settled in once again and ran another solid stint, even making it past halfway.
On Lap 52, however, the field flew apart, and multiple incidents all at the same time forced a second caution on the night, where it would start getting slightly messy. Caution after caution, the field of college competitors was finally forced into a single file restart, and that allowed for some green flag racing once more. Calgary’s Connor Yeroschak was one of the drivers who opted to pit before the chaos ensued, and was mired in the back. The single file start did not help his case.
LATE RACE DRAMA SHAKES UP THE ORDER
Sacramento State’s Dylan Ault was the dominant force through the night. He shared the lead with Garza and Yeroschak before he ended up pitting. Before the first caution, Nanney and Trifari were also in the mix. But, it seemed that Ault had a lock on the field, running the top lane, managing the lanes. Yeroschak struggled to get back into the picture, getting back to the top-five just before a late caution set the field up for some chaos.
On the next-to-last restart, Mercurio, who ran second, knew this was his chance to make a move. As the field exploded behind them, Mercurio looked inside on Ault for the lead. At the time of the caution, Mercurio had pipped the lead and was in control for the eNASCAR Overtime restart. As they took the white flag, another explosion, this time collecting Ault, Yeroschak, and many others. Mercurio did what he could to keep the win he had put himself in position for, but Wilkerson wound up taking his maiden win.
TOURNAMENT 1 | PEACHTREE PURSUIT AT ECHOPARK SPEEDWAY | RESULTS
| POS. | ST. | STUDENT | SCHOOL | LAPS | INTERVAL | LED | BEST | POINTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 | Jacob Wilkerson | Tarrant County | 103 | 0.000 | 1 | 30.622 | 55 |
| 2 | 7 | Brian Mercurio | DeSales | 103 | -0.042 | 5 | 31.060 | 40 |
| 3 | 10 | Jonathan Evans | Western Connecticut | 103 | -0.062 | 3 | 31.100 | 42 |
| 4 | 29 | Adam Garza | Triton | 103 | -0.112 | 10 | 30.890 | 40 |
| 5 | 19 | Layne Graves | Wichita State | 103 | -0.232 | 0 | 30.783 | 34 |
| 6 | 18 | John Babineau | UNC Charlotte | 103 | -1.697 | 0 | 31.078 | 32 |
| 7 | 20 | Blake Wynn | UNC Charlotte | 103 | -1.925 | 0 | 30.886 | 30 |
| 8 | 37 | Nick Luetje | Purdue Indianapolis | 103 | -1.945 | 0 | 30.408 | 29 |
| 9 | 13 | John Mcclear | Rollins | 103 | -2.173 | 0 | 30.642 | 28 |
| 10 | 14 | Bradley Erickson | Arizona State | 103 | -3.835 | 0 | 31.092 | 33 |
| 11 | 15 | Diego Roldan | Mt. San Jacinto | 103 | -5.093 | 0 | 30.844 | 26 |
| 12 | 5 | Timothy Holmes | Horry-Georgetown | 103 | -7.580 | 0 | 31.226 | 32 |
| 13 | 1 | Daniel Nanney | Ball State | 103 | -8.416 | 5 | 30.458 | 28 |
| 14 | 32 | Joonsuh Lim | Michigan | 103 | -9.343 | 0 | 30.861 | 23 |
| 15 | 2 | Connor Trifari | UNC Charlotte | 103 | -9.437 | 6 | 31.099 | 32 |
| 16 | 9 | AJ Heider | St. Johns River | 103 | -9.665 | 0 | 30.513 | 29 |
| 17 | 25 | Nathan Barrows | NC State | 103 | -10.623 | 0 | 31.004 | 20 |
| 18 | 35 | Jayden Browder | Liberty | 103 | -10.693 | 0 | 30.973 | 19 |
| 19 | 22 | Abraham Vela | Houston | 103 | -12.440 | 0 | 30.918 | 27 |
| 20 | 6 | Dylan Ault | Sacramento State | 103 | -12.479 | 61 | 31.081 | 26 |
| 21 | 30 | Jacob Malone | Saint Leo | 103 | -12.913 | 0 | 30.797 | 16 |
| 22 | 28 | Julian O’Neil | Delaware | 103 | -14.006 | 0 | 30.572 | 15 |
| 23 | 17 | Bryan Holland | UNC Charlotte | 103 | -15.722 | 0 | 30.540 | 14 |
| 24 | 24 | Miles Bagley | Georgia CSU | 103 | -17.878 | 0 | 30.961 | 16 |
| 25 | 23 | Connor Birky | Illinois State | 103 | -22.522 | 0 | 30.737 | 12 |
| 26 | 12 | Aidan McFarland | UNC Charlotte | 103 | -23.003 | 0 | 30.900 | 13 |
| 27 | 3 | Jalen Atkins | Belmont Abbey | 103 | -26.388 | 0 | 30.758 | 10 |
| 28 | 21 | Griffin Salyer | Bowling Green | 103 | -28.057 | 0 | 30.776 | 14 |
| 29 | 33 | Shawn Hillkewicz | UNC Charlotte | 103 | -35.499 | 0 | 30.698 | 9 |
| 30 | 4 | Connor Yeroschak | Calgary | 102 | -1 L | 11 | 30.473 | 17 |
| 31 | 38 | Zander McKinney | Bowling Green | 102 | -1 L | 0 | 30.742 | 6 |
| 32 | 34 | Wesley Persson | Fraser Valley | 102 | -1 L | 0 | 30.802 | 5 |
| 33 | 27 | Maverick Davis | Kettering | 102 | -1 L | 1 | 30.791 | 10 |
| 34 | 8 | Arron Brown | Eastern Shore | 102 | -1 L | 0 | 30.848 | 7 |
| 35 | 11 | Matt Blaine | Kent State | 101 | -2 L | 0 | 30.771 | 2 |
| 36 | 16 | Davian Tobin | Richard Bland | 97 | -6 L | 0 | 30.590 | 1 |
| 37 | 36 | Martin Roberg | UCONN | 29 | -74 L | 0 | 30.992 | 1 |
| 38 | 26 | Van Drugmand | Austin Peay State | 2 | -101 L | 0 | ———- | 1 |
| DNS | DNQ | Joseph Joseph | Rutgers | 0 | DNR | 0 | ———- | 0 |
| DNS | DNQ | Jonathan Ocasio | Kentucky | 0 | DNR | 0 | ———- | 0 |
STUDENT STANDINGS FOLLOWING TOURNAMENT 1 | PEACHTREE PURSUIT
| POS. | STUDENT | SCHOOL | POINTS | + / – | WINS | POLES | TOP 5’S | TOP 10’S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacob Wilkerson | Tarrant County | 55 | Ldr. | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Jonathan Evans | Western Connecticut | 42 | -13 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| T-3 | Brian Mercurio | DeSales | 40 | -15 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| T-3 | Adam Garza | Triton | 40 | -15 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| T-4 | Layne Graves | Wichita State | 34 | -21 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | Bradley Erickson | Arizona State | 33 | -22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| T-7 | John Babineau | UNC Charlotte | 32 | -23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| T-7 | Timothy Holmes | Horry-Georgetown | 32 | -23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T-7 | Connor Trifari | UNC Charlotte | 32 | -23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Blake Wynn | UNC Charlotte | 30 | -25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
SCHOOL STANDINGS FOLLOWING TOURNAMENT 1 | PEACHTREE PURSUIT
| POS. | SCHOOL | POINTS | WINS | ELIGIBLE STUDENT | FINISH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of North Carolina at Charlotte | 40 | 1 | John Babineau | 6th |
| 2 | Purdue University in Indianapolis | 39 | 0 | Nick Luetje | 8th |
| 3 | Arizona State University | 38 | 0 | Bradley Erickson | 10th |
| 4 | Ball State University | 37 | 0 | Daniel Nanney | 13th |
| 5 | Liberty University | 36 | 0 | Jayden Browder | 18th |
| 6 | Belmont Abbey College | 35 | 0 | Jalen Atkins | 27th |
| 7 | Bowling Green State University | 34 | 0 | Griffin Salyer | 28th |
| 8 | University of Calgary | 33 | 0 | Connor Yeroschak | 30th |
| 9 | Eastern Shore Community College | 32 | 0 | Arron Brown | 34th |
| 10 | Kent State University | 31 | 0 | Matt Blaine | 35th |
For the first time in series history, an official School Championship joins the fold of the eNASCAR College iRacing Series. In order for each school to score points towards the championship, each Tournament will require that at least two drivers from the school partake in that particular Time Attack. As long as one driver makes it to Week 2 and the Final Round, the school that driver represents will be eligible to receive points.
Each school will get one amount of points based on their highest finishing driver among the other eligible schools. The top school gets 40 points, then the next school gets 39, all the way down to potentially 1 point if all 40 drivers in the Final Round represent eligible schools in the School Championship.
On the flip side, if an eligible school sends 10 drivers to the Final Round, only their top finishing driver will earn those points for the school based on how they rank among other drivers finishes from other eligible schools. School Championship points will accumulate throughout the season, and the school with the highest total points at the conclusion of the final tournament will be crowned the School Champion.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte sent six drivers to the Final Round in the Peachtree Pursuit, and they were awarded with an opening round win in the School Championship. John Babineau was the highest finisher of the group, finishing in sixth, and finished ahead of all of the other eligible schools and their students to claim 40 points.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: QUEEN CITY CROWN
Next up on the calendar is the Queen City Crown at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Time Attack is open now and will end on October 4th. Week 1 of the second Tournament starts on Wednesday, October 7th, at 7:00 p.m. ET. Week 2 will take place one week later, on Wednesday, October 14th. Last year, Pasco-Hernando’s Dylan Basen scored his first win in the opening round Tournament.
For more information on the eNASCAR College iRacing Series presented by Logitech G, visit pcl.gg/pages/enascar.
For more information about eNASCAR, visit eNASCAR.com.
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