History

The Early Days (2007)

Vidane Racing began as a school project for founder Steve Luvender. Luvender, a long-time veteran of sim racing, decided he'd try something he'd never done before -- open an online racing series running only superspeedways, his favorite type of track.

Running the 2000 NASCAR Heat simulation, and with a driver base comprised of drivers from NASCAR Heat Racing League (NHRL), Luvender set out to run a successful series.

With the average field size around 12 cars, the standard for the outdated game at the time, the series met Friday evenings to compete at either Talladega or Daytona. The old simulation did not have caution flag support, so races were essentially determined by seeing who could have the best pit stops.

Steve Luvender won four races out of the ten-race series and never finished worse all season for the championship. Craig Malkow, a veteran of the Heat simulation, was runner up.

Luvender decided that his project had been more of a success than he'd hoped. After the NASCAR Heat season concluded, Luvender teamed up with fellow Heat veteran Paul Strickland, Jr. to take the series to NASCAR Racing 2003 Season.

In partnership with Full Throttle Sim Racing, the Vidane Superspeedway Truck Series made its first start at Daytona with just an eight-car field. Bryan Bliss, who had been turned by teammate Bob Coe earlier in the race, brought home the victory. Bliss was later hospitalized for several months and left his #43 ride for a rotation of other drivers to complete the season.

Tom Price had a strong season, winning three races, one in Paul Strickland, Jr.'s machine.

Steve Luvender brought home the title in the end with a pair of victories, keeping Bob Coe at bay.

The partnership with Full Throttle Sim Racing failed as the FTSR administrators abandoned support of Vidane Racing at the end of the season.

Season 2 (2008)

Vidane Racing continued to grow for its second season in the NR2003 simulation. The league teamed up with Good Ole' Boys Racing League for a backup race server.

The first race of the season was the first Vidane Racing broadcast on RLMtv. Adam Edwards brought home the checkered flag at Escondido, his only series victory.

GOBRL drivers Jody Morrison, Benji Bollinger, and Allen Smith paced most of the races in the second season, winning 7 of the 15 races.

Season 2 also started one of the first rivalries -- that of Jody Morrison and Wayne Settle. Morrison and his teammates Benji Bollinger, Allen Smith, Ron Mirabito, Jesse Altman, Dennis Hibbard, and others often found themselves in separate drafting lines from Settle's Insane Motorsports teammates Jack Whitesides and Rusty Grant.

In one memorable moment, Morrison's team and friends commanded one line of the race track at Zen Joltis, while Insane Motorsports and company took the other line. Morrison pushed his long-time friend Paul Strickland, Jr. for his first career victory at the track, proving that teammates are important in superspeedway racing.

Jody Morrison took the Season 2 title by 123 points over Settle. Defending champion Steve Luvender settled for third after a late-season victory at RCC Superspeedway. 50 drivers started a race in Season 2.

During Season 2, Vidane Racing started a second series -- the Dash Cup Series. Designed to run short races to show which driver could get it done at the end of the race, the series only lasted 12 races. Benji Bollinger easily won the most races and locked up the title handily over Steve Luvender before the series was ended at Infineon Raceway in June 2008.

Season 3 (2008)

Vidane's third season could easily be considered the young league's breakout season. With an exciting announcement before the season began that each race would be broadcast on RLMtv, a floodgate of drivers registered for the series, which had moved to its own independent server from NRT Servers.

An unprecedented 48 cars showed up for the first race of the season at Daytona, forcing league founders Steve Luvender and Paul Strickland, Jr. to come up with a fair method of qualifying the cars into the race. The result was Knockout Qualifying -- where drivers split themselves into two servers and the fastest 36 (with provisionals for past champions and the top 5 drivers in points) made the show. Previously, starting lineups were randomized.

Newcomer Nick Phillip managed to win the first race in dominating fashion.

In the second race of the season at Manasas Speedway, another first-time winner emerged. Jeff Blind started on the front row and led a race-high 17 laps to bring home his first victory in his only start to date.

James Gutta took the third checkered flag of the season at Coca-Cola Speedway for the Jesus Saves 200.

Rob Larkin, one of seven members of the Larkin family that compete at Vidane Racing, brought home the victory in the next race at Talladega.

Benji Bollinger won the GoDaddy 175 at Supercell Superspeedway, the first time a NASCAR sponsor had sponsored a Superspeedway Series race.

In the final race of the season, Nick Phillip won his second race, this time at RCC Superspeedway. It wasn't enough, however, to take down points leader James Gutta. Gutta outpaced Jon Doble by 23 points in the end.

Doble, in his first season, finished no worse than 12th. Ron Larkin, Jr. held off Nick Phillip for a podium place in the points standings.

107 drivers attempted a race in Season 3, a significant leap from Vidane Racing's previous seasons.

In the off-season, Vidane held a non-points race at Daytona on RLMtv. Nick Phillip took the checkered flag in the first annual Daytona 250.

Following Season 3, James Gutta joined Vidane Racing's staff as a race official and competition director.

Season 4 (2009)

Vidane Racing looked to continue its success for its fourth season. Once again, the league broadcast each race on RLMtv Friday nights.

The Superspeedway Series changed to the modernized NCTS09 mod. In place of Knockout Qualifying, Open Qualifying was used to determine the starting fields. The top 25 drivers in points were locked into each race, and the other 11 slots were filled through a brief qualifying race the week before the scheduled event.

Justin Brooks, Jon Doble, Steve Luvender, and Ian Plasch led the points much of the season once Tony Perez lost the points lead after the second race of the season.

Brooks broke through for his first career victory at Riki Raceway. Plasch soon followed with a win at SWG Superspeedway. Luvender recovered from a troublesome Season 3 for a win at Manasas. Jon Doble, however, still failed to win a race.

Kevin McAdams, a new driver, impressed drivers, officials, and TV commentators with his dominance in Season 4. McAdams brought home three checkered flags in five starts -- the other two races were second place finishes. McAdams finished 18th in points despite only starting 5 of 9 races.

Season 3 champion James Gutta moved to the iRacing simulation in place of NR2003 and left substitute drivers Jon Adams, TJ Bartel, and Joe Ahlin to pilot his #6 Bacon Salt Ford.

Justin Brooks held on for the Season 4 title by 34 points over Jon Doble to become the final champion using the NR2003 sim.