iRacing World Championships Preview: Week of 26th October

It’s time for another preview of the esports taking place on the iRacing service this week. While the eNASCAR Contender iRacing Series is still a week away, and the PESC Contender Series is in full swing on the weekends, the only two current top-level title series running are on Wednesday and Thursday.

First up this week, the iRacing Rallycross World Championship Series Presented by Yokohama will go to Hell. Lånkebanen Hell Rallycross, to be precise, for their sixth race on the 2021 season.

The seventh race of the Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix Championship will follow up with a Thursday appearance at Road America. It’s the second trip to the states, the first since the season opener at Watkins Glen.

Both series will end in three weeks time as the respective series’ wind down. Here’s what to look forward to in this week’s preview:

IRXWC: ROBERTSON VS SET ESPORTS IN THE STRETCH

It’s not looking good for the defending iRacing Rallycross World Championship Series Presented by Yokohama champion, Yohann Harth, to defend the title this season. His Subaru Motorsports USA teammate Jon Robertson is the class of the field so far through five races. Entering the sixth race of the season, however, Robertson is dealing with his longest losing streak of the season – two races – as the series goes to Hell.

Lånkebanen Hell Rallycross is up next for the first and only time this season. Hell has two previous appearances in the series, both from last season’s calendar. The 1.02-kilometer, or 0.63-mile configuration takes drivers on a rollercoaster of a lap. The course might not look intimidating from above, but with the elevation changes, the surface mix, and the tight racing groove, Hell can really be a hellish adventure for these World Championship drivers.

Last year in the second race, Tommi Hallman was able to score his first career series victory, outlasting 2018 series champion Mitchell deJong in order to do so. It was the only race that Harth did not qualify for on his quest for a title last season, and it was a race that Ollikainen did not participate in. Robertson finished seventh in the main event, so this could be a sign for Hallman to get even closer towards a title after this race concludes.

As it stands, Robertson holds a 13 point advantage over Ollikainen after last week’s race at Barcelona. Hallman sits third, 33 points out of first place. Harth (-49) sits in fourth and will need a near-perfect finish to the season to stand a chance at repeating as the champion.

The race feed will be available with multiple options for different languages. The English broadcast will go off on the iRacing Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube pages. The Finnish feed can be viewed on Finnish Sim Racing Association (FISRA). A French version will be on BenjxMotors, and a Norwegian cast can be found on the Norwegian SimRacing Channel.

Tune in at 4:00 p.m. ET / 9:00 p.m. BST to catch the action.

FDDIGPC: CONSISTENT WINNING TAKES MVL TO THE TOP

For the last three weeks of the 2021 Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix Championship season, it’s been the Maarten van Loozenoord show. There’s also been the supporting cast members from the Apex Racing Team. While this week saw more of an R8G Esports presence towards the top of the field with Florian Lebigre and Valentin Mandernach on the front row, the Apex group still managed to get all of their drivers in decent points positions leaving Hockenheim.

Now with van Loozenoord on top of the standings, he’ll have to fight off Yohann Harth and Peter Berryman almost equivocally. Harth is now in second in the points, seven points back. Meanwhile, the former points leader Berryman is just one further point back than that.

Road America is one of the staple tracks on any open-wheel World Championship iRacing Series. Run every year since 2010 on the iRacing World Championship Grand Prix Series schedule, this year will be the first to feature the Dallara IR-01. It wasn’t a venue on the calendar of the qualifying series this year, but will likely play into the hands of the same five drivers that these races have favored in 2021.

Two weeks ago, a new rule was implemented involving qualifying and the tires that drivers must start on. If a driver opts for a softer compound tire in qualifying, they must also start on that tire. Marcos Núñez got the Silverstone pole by choosing the soft reds. The R8G Esports duo both went with yellow mediums last week at Hockenheim to lockout the front row.

Will there be another tire strategy for track position in qualifying this week? Will anyone defeat van Loozenoord as he attempts to win a fourth straight? Tune in live on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. BST to watch and find out. Every race will be live on the iRacing social channels.