RICHMOND, Va. – On a historic night for the Sim500 eSports Racing League, Adam Gilliland reached a historic milestone with his victory in the Sim500 Transervice Cup Series at Richmond Raceway.

In a caution-free 200-lap affair, Gilliland dominated en route to his 13th career series victory, breaking a tie with inaugural champion Malik Ray for the top spot on the all-time wins list.

Gilliland put together a picture-perfect strategic performance in doing so, utilizing a one-stop strategy where his nearest competition – Daniel Faulkingham – tried to make a two-stop plan work out.

In the end, the extra speed of Faulkingham’s fresher tires down the stretch just wasn’t enough to overcome the additional pit stop he made, leaving Gilliland free to cruise to victory by 11.862 seconds.

Gilliland took the lead from Faulkingham at lap eight and held the top spot all the way until his lone pit stop on lap 103. It took him just 30 laps to race back from a lap down and retake command for good.

Once the 24-year-old reclaimed command on the 133rd round, he paced the final 68 laps around the three-quarter-mile, D-shaped oval for his second win of the year and third in a row at Richmond.

After the race, Gilliland was emphatic about his strategy call, which won him an eNASCAR iRacing Pro Series event in similar fashion at Richmond back in 2012.

“That’s a heck of a way to kick off the relationship between Sim500 and Podium, huh?” Gilliland said in virtual victory lane. “It was really an incredible race. I expected the guys to use their heads and for us to get a long green flag run in … but I certainly didn’t expect 200 laps flag to flag. That’s a testament to all the guys in this league and the talent that’s all throughout this field. I knew that we’d played this card before back in the day and it worked. Just thankful it worked again tonight.”

The historic significance of his win Monday night also wasn’t lost on Gilliland, either.

“That’s pretty cool,” he noted. “I knew going in it would be special if we could do it here, at one of my best tracks, but to pull it off the way we did is really special. It was neat to check several boxes off tonight. I’ve always loved Richmond, even going back to the Pro days, and it seems like I’ve got something for these caution-free races when things settle out into a rhythm with the long green runs.”

Faulkingham got back to second in the end, but once his tires fell off during the middle portion of the final run, he noted that he just didn’t have anything to combat Gilliland’s sheer pace on the long runs.

“I had a plan – I wanted to try and two-stop it, because I had tried it on Saturday in NiS (the NASCAR iRacing Series) and it worked out in my favor – but the only way it was going to work was if it went green all the way,” Faulkingham noted. “This league has had some rough races on short tracks in the past, but I decided to give it a go and it worked out alright. If the track had stayed the way it was early on, I think we might have had a better shot to catch Adam, but once the track gripped up I lost the handle and things evened out.

“He really destroyed us all tonight.”

Another former eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series driver, Josh Parker, crossed third ahead of David Comstock and Trey Eidson. Five cars finished on the lead lap of the 43 that started the event.

Brian Macklin was the first car a lap down in sixth, followed by Nick Silver, who earned his 100th top 10 in Sim500-sanctioned competition with a seventh-place result on Monday night.

Tommy Rhyne, Justin Fuller and Chad Cole filled out the remainder of the top 10.

Defending series champion Anthony DeBaro struggled all night long and ended up a lap down in 13th.

The Sim500 Transervice Cup Series season continues April 27 at Talladega Superspeedway. Cole is the defending spring Talladega winner.

The results:

1. Adam Gilliland, 2. Daniel Faulkingham, 3. Josh Parker, 4. David Comstock, 5. Trey Eidson, 6. Brian Macklin, 7. Nick Silver, 8. Tommy Rhyne, 9. Justin Fuller, 10. Chad Cole, 11. Kyle Taraska, 12. Tyler Overstreet, 13. Anthony DeBaro, 14. Chad Coleman, 15. EJ O’Rourke, 16. Jose Gonzalez, 17. Timothy Johnston, 18. Brenden Koehler, 19. Mike Kelley, 20. Nigel Standish, 21. Steve Ritter, 22. Nelson Rivera, 23. Nick Kohan, 24. Sean Casto, 25. Scott Simley, 26. Scott Stenzel, 27. Randy Yokum, 28. Dwayne Vincent, 29. Kris Gibeau, 30. Mike Montesi, 31. Richard Beasley, 32. Shane Ewing, 33. Gael Brooks, 34. Jon Borst, 35. Norman Pelletier III, 36. Glenn Campbell, 37. Donny Lia, 38. Bryan Boris Cook, 39. Thomas O’Leary IV, 40. Don Runkle Jr., 41. Jimmie Coleman, 42. Steve Gottschalk, 43. Bobby Whetsel.

Lead Changes: Four among three drivers

Lap Leaders: Daniel Faulkingham 1-7, Adam Gilliland 8-102, David Comstock 103, Daniel Faulkingham 104-132, Adam Gilliland 133-200

Laps Led: Adam Gilliland 163, Daniel Faulkingham 36, David Comstock 1

Caution Flags: None

Margin of Victory: 11.862 seconds

Time of Race: One hour, 15 minutes, 37.539 seconds

Average Speed: 119.007 mph

Pole Winner: 39-Daniel Faulkingham, 21.379 seconds (126.292 mph)