iRacing Off-Road: Barry wins, takes back point lead as Rafoss scores first win at Wild West

The battle for the inaugural title of the iRacing Off-Road Championship Series took another turn on Wednesday night (27th July 2022). After a win and a third place finish, Connor Barry is back on top of the points standings, now seven points ahead of the former leader Keaton Swane.

Barry was able to score the first win on the night. In the second race, Jakob Rafoss was victorious, holding off Swane in the closing laps to win his first career Off-Road Championship event. Swane, who finished sixth in the first race and received no qualifying points, is back on offense with only two events left.

In the All-Stars, Luke Knupp took the field to school, winning both races easily in the Pro 2 Lite trucks. Both series took on the Wild West Motorsports Park. Next week, the series heads back to Bark River. In two weeks, the series will conclude with two events at Crandon.

RACE #11: BARRY BEATS SWANE FOR WIN, TAKES POINTS LEAD

Cam Pedersen took the fastest time on Wednesday night, grabbing an extra five points towards his championship run. Alex Bergeron, Killian Dall’olmo, Barry and Josh Edmundson rounded out the Top 5 and all scored qualifying points. Swane just missed out, qualifying in sixth.

After the invert, Quentin Dall’olmo led the field to green alongside Josh Fox and Swane just behind. After a few laps, Swane was able to take control following door-to-door racing with Quentin Dall’olmo and Edmundson.

Barry was also able to fight his way through the field, eventually finding his way to second and on the chase towards Swane and the lead.

As this series has led to throughout the previous five weeks, things got physical up front. Barry was able to make his way around Swane with some standard contact, but Swane wasn’t giving up that easily. As the duo raced into the second corner, Swane attempted a crossover as Barry was starting to set up his exit.

The two made contact and Swane managed to bank off of the inside wall. The resulting contact allowed Barry to pull to an insurmountable advantage as Swane struggled home to finish in sixth with heavy damage.

WILD WEST RACE #11 – TOP 10 RESULTS:

POS	TRUCK #	DRIVER NAME	INTERVAL	POINTS	AGG POINTS
1	2	Connor Barry	16 LAPS	50	52
2	112	Alex A Bergeron	+5.393 sec	48	52
3	58	Josh Edmundson	+6.026 sec	46	47
4	48	Cam Pedersen	+6.569 sec	44	49
5	18	Killian Dall’olmo	+8.766 sec	42	45
6	21	Keaton Swane	+9.236 sec	40	40
7	11	Connor Parise	+10.181 sec	38	38
8	13	Jakob Rafoss	+10.788 sec	36	36
9	91	Felix Roy	+11.426 sec	34	34
10	22	Quentin Dall’olmo	+13.019 sec	32	32

RACE #12: RAFOSS HANGS ON FOR FIRST CAREER WIN

The result of the first race essentially placed Barry back in control of the series, but once again, Swane would have a great starting spot due to the invert of the Top 8 finishers.

Just like the previous visit, inverting to the lead was Rafoss, seeking his first win after a close loss earlier in the season at the same track. Back in that race, Pedersen was able to get by for another win as Rafoss came home second. This time, Rafoss has other plans.

Looking to bounce back from the misfortunes of the first race, Swane was all over the front runners of Rafoss and Connor Parise. Once Parise was out of the question, Swane made it his job to try and get the lead and gain as much back on Barry.

While Barry was able to move his way up into third place, he was too far back to do anything with Rafoss and Swane. Just barely taking the lead in the points over Swane, Barry needed Rafoss to hang on for the victory.

Swane gave it everything he had, but Rafoss held on for the win, the first of his career.

WILD WEST RACE #12 – TOP 10 RESULTS:

POS	TRUCK #	DRIVER NAME	INTERVAL	POINTS	AGG POINTS
1	13	Jakob Rafoss	16 LAPS	50	86
2	21	Keaton Swane	+0.490 sec	48	88
3	2	Connor Barry	+2.709 sec	46	98
4	11	Connor Parise	+6.187 sec	44	82
5	18	Killian Dall’olmo	+6.388 sec	42	87
6	58	Josh Edmundson	+7.508 sec	40	87
7	91	Felix Roy	+7.994 sec	38	72
8	48	Cam Pedersen	+9.423 sec	36	85
9	112	Alex A Bergeron	+9.512 sec	34	86
10	36	Christopher Plumley	+11.865 sec	32	58

POINTS LEAVING WILD WEST

Besides the top two in the standings, the remainder of the Top 10 all stayed the same. Entering Wild West, Swane had a three point advantage over Barry. With two points from qualifying, a win in the first race of the night and a third place in the second, Barry now holds on to the lead but barely over Swane.

Swane is seven points behind now, and there are only four races in the final two events to catch back up. The pair have left behind the rest of the front runners, with Edmundson more than a full race behind. Rafoss, despite the win and eighth place finish in the first race, still sits in tenth despite that gap closing.

2022 IRACING OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES POINTS THRU WILD WEST:

POS	TRUCK #	DRIVER NAME	POINTS	WINS	T5’s	T10’s
1	2	Connor Barry	540 (–)	2	11	11
2	21	Keaton Swane	533 (-7)	2	8	12
3	58	Josh Edmundson	478 (-62)	0	8	10
4	91	Felix Roy	457 (-83)	1	4	10
5	18	Killian Dall’olmo	454 (-86)	0	5	10
6	48	Cam Pedersen	425 (-115)	3	6	9
7	112	Alex A Bergeron	422 (-118)	2	5	10
8	11	Connor Parise	416 (-124)	0	2	8
9	36	Christopher Plumley	375 (-165)	0	1	9
10	13	Jakob Rafoss	370 (-170)	1	3	6

ALL STARS: LUKE KNUPP DOUBLES UP AT WILD WEST

A shorter field than normal made no difference, for better or worse, for the All-Stars on Wednesday nights. Luke Knupp and Zachary Drapkin found themselves as the top runners, as usual. The battle for the overall win came down to the wire as Knupp barely edged Drapkin for the top spot.

The second race for the All-Stars also went to Knupp who was able to get through the field much easier than Drapkin. Trever Teal led the majority of the way after the invert, but Knupp caught and passed him and made it a perfect night once again.

Here are the top scorers in All-Stars this week at Wild West:

WILD WEST – TOP POINT SCORERS IN RACES 11 & 12:

POS	TRUCK #	DRIVER NAME	POINTS	RACE 11 FINISH	RACE 12 FINISH
1	29	Luke Knupp	100	1st	1st
2	56	Zachary Drapkin	92	2nd	4th
T-3	03	Keenan Kusan	82	4th	7th
T-3	85	Mikey Lawrence	82	8th	3rd
T-5	72	Trever Teal	72	14th	2nd
T-5	91	Ryan Burton	72	3rd	13th
T-5	3	Eliott Watson	72	5th	11th
T-8	66	Blake Reynolds	70	7th	10th
T-8	10	Brendan Lichtenberg	70	12th	5th

NEXT RACE: BARK RIVER REDUX

Only two race weeks remain in this inaugural off-road championship season. Bark River will be the venue for the penultimate round of the schedule.

The All-Stars will be up first with a pair of seven minute races, back in the Pro 4 Trucks. Both the Championship Series and the All-Stars will be on display starting at 8:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 a.m. BST on iRacing.com/live or the iRacing social channels.

2022 iRACING OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES SCHEDULE

Week	Date	Track	Race 1	Race 2	ALL STARS
1	22 June	Crandon International Raceway – Full	10	10	PRO 4
2	29 June	Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park	16	16	PRO 2 LITE
3	06 July	Wild West Motorsports Park	16	16	PRO 4
4	13 July	Bark River International Raceway	11	11	PRO 2 LITE
5	20 July	Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park	16	16	BEETLE LITE
6	27 July	Wild West Motorsports Park	16	16	PRO 2 LITE
7	03 August	Bark River International Raceway	11	11	PRO 4
8	10 August	Crandon International Raceway – Full	10	10	BEETLE LITE