January 9, 2014 — Audio and story by Jacob Seelman for Speed77 Radio and Race Chaser Online — Schoenburg Racing photo — MOORPARK, CA — A pair of fives may not be a great poker hand, but they’ve given iRacing veteran Brian Schoenburg a lot of confidence headed into the 2014 season.
Schoenburg, out of Moorpark, California, is just coming off of his most successful NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship (NiSWC) campaign to date, having finished 5th in the final points standings and scoring his highest combined points total (under the 43-1 system) to date in the DWC. Schoenburg capped the season with 5 top five and 8 top ten finishes in 18 races in 2013.
“You know, in the end we had a successful year,” Schoenburg said in a recent sit-down with Race Chaser Online and Speed77 Radio. “About the only goal that we weren’t able to check off was the win, even though we were close several times. All in all though, we were consistent for a large portion of the year.”
“It was almost, our success was a tale of two seasons. Started really good, went — really bad about July, August, and then we ended the year with a couple really good cars. Not quite Jekyll and Hyde-worthy, but it was a good turnaround in the end.”
Schoenburg has been a consistent competitor on the NiSWC circuit since its inception in 2010. While he has yet to visit Victory Lane, the Californian has racked up three straight top-ten points finishes and overall has a pole, 15 top five and 36 top ten finishes in 69 career starts. Schoenburg has only missed two NiSWC races since the series’ inception, and says the last four years have been “a joy” for him in competition.
“Racing the DWC every season is a lot of fun for me; especially this season having great teammates in Michael (Conti) and Danny (Hansen) made getting on track each week worthwhile. And Tom Lewandowski has been a big part of that as well, helping us with the setups that go underneath these JScho Motorsports cars and giving us a lot of speed each week. It just drives me to go out and perform.”
The performance has been solid over the last four years, but the California native singles out one race that got away as the Richmond event this year that he says either he or his teammate Conti should have won.
“That Richmond event was a great run for us, probably our single best race of the season,” Schoenburg said of the event. “Mike had the race won until he got spun late in the race, but we had an awesome car that night too, and we were right there with him for a lot of that one. It got away, but I learned a lot and I feel like it taught us a lot about our program.”
Schoenburg adds that while he’s somewhat on an island (due to the lack of sim-racers) on the West Coast, he’s no less a part of the iRacing inner circles and no less driven to win than any of his competitors who are closer to the NASCAR hub on the east side.
“It changes how we operate just a bit, but it doesn’t mean I’m not still invested in it. If anything, it’s a motivator to prove that I can all that much more.”
For now, Schoenburg is looking towards 2014 with a drive to succeed unlike any he’s had in previous seasons. As his stats have improved every year, the Californian is confident that this coming season will be his best yet, and he’s hoping to finally shake the monkey of “non-winner” off his back.
“2014 is shaping up to be a good year for us. Not everything is in place — yet — but we’re putting the pieces together and we’ll have something to announce here shortly. I will say I’m ready to make something big happen in 2014 and maybe take a few more steps forward.”
And as for that elusive first win?
“I’m ready to make it happen this time around,” Schoenburg says, with an air of confidence about him. “That goose-egg in the W column is going away. Soon.”
Listen in as we talked with Brian on the wrap-up of his 2013 season and his expectations for the coming year:
