MC MOTORSPORTS: NEWS

MC Motorsports looking for a good start to 2024
January 2nd, 2024 | 4:18 PM CT

MC Motorsports will kick off their 2024 of iRacing Fun with hopes to run 6 races with 3 different drivers for tonight's NR Night in America events. MC Motorsports did 265 total races with 8 different drivers in 2023 scoring 1 win.

Last year's 2023 started out on January 6th with Daytona International Speedway, similar to tonight. Last year's race was with the Xfinity cars (before they got the new damage model). Tonight's race with be with the COT, a sunset-to-night race (Daytona has lights). The 2023 race was known as the beginning of the "Monitor Blackout Problems" era, which is still highly possible as no fix has been found since. Cmejla early on had his monitor blackout on the backstretch.

He didn't know where he was going obviously. He was slowly drifting into the bottom lane. His LR tire connected with Vincent Gueci's RF tire. Cmejla was sent with his tail up into the air and spinning through the grass. The race would stay green. The race was a clean one and wouldn't get a caution until late, after Cmejla went a lap down. The track position had been lost, and Cmejla would finish 17th.

Cmejla airborne after his montor blacks out. (NR Night in America - 01/06/23).

Having your monitor is incredibly scary, and to make it worse, the problem still hasn't been solved since the first instance of it during the 2023 opener. Cmejla has been lucky that it hasn't happened since. It still does blackout during races, but luckily enough during caution flags. Will history repeat itself this year? We hope not.

Tonight is a "reasonable" schedule for the team, Cmejla says. The night kicks off with Daytona International Speedway - Oval with the [Legacy] NASCAR Cup Chevrolet Impala COT - 2009 car. Marty Cmejla, choked one of the most free wins the last time they did this car-track-combo on December 6th. It was his first ever Superspeedway race with the COT, and he had taken the lead for the first time ever with this car at a SS on the last lap. All h e had to do was keep the bottom because the COT is too fast to hold the top, and he won. Instead he tried to block Daniel Mosteller's move to the high side. Dmos crossed him over and took the bottom and cruised to a win.

Cmejla surviving crash during COT Daytona race. (NR Night in America - 12/06/2023).

"It was frustrating and disappointing. I didn't know any better," Cmejla said. Cmejla then 2 weeks later would do numerous Draft Master - Fixed series races with the COT at Daytona to learn. In 9 races, he finished no worse than 3rd and scored 3 wins. "I fully understand the cars at Superspeedways now."

With this race, Marty Cmejla will drive the #39 MC Motorsports / mcmiracing.com plain-white scheme. "The COT cars are my favorite on the service ever since the new blowover physics and new damage model were implemented." Statistically, the COT is one of Cmejla's best cars. He recently scored a 2nd place finish at the Indianapolis Oval in December.

Cmejla navigates last lap crash to finish 2nd at Indy Oval with the COT. (NR Night in America - 12/08/2023).

In addition to this race, Patrick Connell is looking to turn things around for NR Night this year after a challenging 2023. He will drive the #46 MC Motorsports / mcmiracing.com custom Chevrolet Impala. Connell has done 1 COT race in NR Night, the "Night-shortened" race (another MCM chokeshow) where Connell crashed just 5 laps before the race was stopped due to the darkness. He finished 35th.

Patrick Connell's scheme for tonight's Daytona race

Finally, the biggest surprise for this race is that Bradley Cmejla will attempt an NR Night in America race for the first time since November 22nd, 2022 where he was ready to go, but Jonathan Ramos found a session-error late. Marty Cmejla failed to realize this and both of the Cmejla cars couldn't register in time for the new session. Brad has done only 2 NR Night in America races, both in November of 2022. He finished 27th and 38th in these starts. He will drive the #83 MC Motorsports / mcmiracing.com plain-white Chevrolet Impala.

Bradley Cmejla's scheme for tonight's Daytona race

After the Round 1 fun, we head to the 2009 version of Texas Motor Speedway with the Gen 4 Cup car. Marty Cmejla says its one of his favorite car-track-combos. He has had good success here as well finishing in the Top 5 in 2 out of the 3 attempts he's done with the car-track-combo. He will drive the #39 MC Motorsports / mcmiracing.com plain-white scheme.

Cmejla (#39) battling William Schmitt (#79) for 4th late at Texas.
(NR Night in America - 09/22/2023).

After this race, we wrap the night up with road course fun from the Charlotte Roval. Marty Cmejla will be in the #39 Gen-6 Camaro for this race with Patrick Connell in the #46 Gen-6 Camry.

"We are just hoping for a good start to the year," team owner Marty Cmejla says. "Last year was a really terrible opening night for us, one of my least favorite nights ever in NR. We hope to change this."

UPDATE (5:08 PM CT): Marty Cmejla has bought New Hampshire Motor Speedway and will race Round 4 with the Super Late Model for his 2nd ever NR Night race with the Super Late Models.