iRacing Off-Road: Cam Pederson, Connor Barry take inaugural series wins at Crandon

On Wednesday night (22nd June 2022), the opening race of the inaugural season of the new iRacing Off-Road Championship Series took place at the full layout of Crandon International Raceway. Each race week will contain a qualifying session and two races, inverting the Top 8 after each session ends.

After the first pair of races to start the season, Cam Pedersen and Connor Barry can consider themselves the first winners in the new World Championship’s history. Furthermore, Barry winds up leaving Crandon as the first points leader in series history with a four point lead over Quentin Dall’olmo.

The Championship Series was preceded by a pair of All-Star races in which Zachary Drapkin spanked the field of real racers, streamers, and other iRacing invitees. While the Championship Series will utilize the Pro 4 Truck the entire season, the All-Star Series will alternate between the Pro 4 Truck, the Pro 2 Lite Truck and the Beetle Rallycross car.

RACE #1: CAM PEDERSEN HOLDS OFF JOSH EDMUNDSON

The first qualifying session of the season saw Pedersen take the top time and the five bonus points that go with it. The Top 5 qualifiers get points, with the pole sitter getting five and the fifth place qualifier earning a single point. Jakob Rafoss, Keaton Swane, Connor Barry and Alex Bergeron rounded out the Top 5. The server would invert the Top 8 spots, but it wouldn’t be that big of an issue on this night.

At Crandon, the starts are standing, but trucks line up ten-wide as many rows deep that’s needed. Nicknamed a “land rush start”, essentially a cluster of trucks have to figure out how to not only get into a proper order, but also survive through the first few corners.

In the first event, the start was relatively clean as the field filed into line. Josh Edmundson looked to have the initial advantage, but Pedersen fought tough on the outside and was able to take it before the first of 10 laps began.

Pedersen and Edmundson stayed in close contact through the entirety of the race. The Dall’olmos, Quentin and Killian, were within striking distance as well for the first part. Towards the latter, they began to fall off the Top 2.

Edmundson made a move for the lead late, nearly clearing for the lead, but Pedersen was able to counter and take it back. After 10 laps, Pedersen scored the very first win of the series, heading into the second race of the night with a chance at a perfect score to start the season.

CRANDON RACE #1 TOP 10 RESULTS:

POS	CAR #	DRIVER NAME	INTERVAL	POINTS	AGG POINTS
1	48	Cam Pedersen	10 LAPS	50	55
2	58	Josh Edmundson	+0.413 sec	48	48
3	22	Quentin Dall’olmo	+1.831 sec	46	46
4	18	Killian Dall’olmo	+4.071 sec	44	44
5	2	Connor Barry	+7.120 sec	42	44
6	87	Tommi Hallman	+8.742 sec	40	40
7	36	Christopher Plumley	+9.273 sec	38	38
8	21	Keaton Swane	+9.378 sec	36	39
9	12	Josh Fox	+9.741 sec	34	34
10	6	Brandyn Proudfoot	+9.930 sec	32	32

RACE #2: CONNOR BARRY STEALS IT ON THE LAST LAP

Once again, the Top 8 would invert, which would put Keaton Swane in the number one spot for the second ‘land rush start’ of the evening. The field was sent away and this time, it wasn’t as clean.

Pedersen attempted to make the same move to the front on the outside, but there happened to be multiple trucks on the inside, which would push up into him and force him wide and off of the track. Swane and Connor Barry began to pull away as the field continued to figure out how to file out safely.

Unfortunately, the runner-up from the first race ran into bigger issues before the first lap began as well. Edmundson’s troubles would be big enough to kill the truck as he and Tommi Hallman collided, sending Hallman flying away in the process.

Once things settled down, Swane and Barry were gone from the rest of the field. While the battle for the third position was heavily contested among multiple drivers, the Top 2 kept calm for the most part.

Felix Roy wound up taking advantage of the many hairpins and passing zones to take that third place barely over Quentin Dall’olmo. Pedersen fought back and forth, up and down the pylon throughout the race and eventually took home a 10th place finish, preventing his perfect start to the season.

Up front, the battle began with two laps to go. Barry took the lead from Swane but Swane battled back. The elbows were out until the finish. Entering the final corner of the final lap, Barry went low on Swane and the two slid into the corner. Barry moved Swane out of the way to take the lead and the win.

CRANDON RACE #2 TOP 10 RESULTS:

POS	CAR #	DRIVER NAME	INTERVAL	POINTS	AGG POINTS
1	2	Connor Barry	10 LAPS	50	94
2	21	Keaton Swane	+0.328 sec	48	87
3	91	Felix Roy	+9.915 sec	46	70
4	22	Quentin Dall’olmo	+10.045 sec	44	90
5	13	Jakob Rafoss	+10.415 sec	42	74
6	18	Killian Dall’olmo	+11.472 sec	40	84
7	12	Josh Fox	+11.934 sec	38	72
8	112	Alex A Bergeron	+12.239 sec	36	45
9	36	Christopher Plumley	+12.338 sec	34	72
10	48	Cam Pedersen	+12.672 sec	32	87

POINTS LEAVING CRANDON

With a fourth place qualifying effort, a fifth place finish in the first race and a win in the second, Connor Barry holds the points lead heading to Wild Horse Pass.

Quentin Dall’olmo was the only other driver to score two Top 5 finishes and sits second overall. Swane only lost two points by finishing second instead of first. He sits tied for third with the first race winner on the evening, Pedersen, at 87 points.

With the disaster in the second race, Edmundson won’t find himself in the Top 10. Also, Alex Bergeron had a tough first race but rebounded soundly for a great finish in the second. He also sits outside the Top 10 as a result.

2022 IRACING OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES POINTS THROUGH CRANDON:

POS	CAR #	DRIVER NAME	POINTS	WINS	T5’s	T10’s
1	2	Connor Barry	94	1	2	2
2	22	Quentin Dall’olmo	90	0	2	2
T-3	21	Keaton Swane	87	0	1	2
T-3	48	Cam Pedersen	87	1	1	2
5	18	Killian Dall’olmo	84	0	1	2
6	13	Jakob Rafoss	74	0	1	1
T-7	12	Josh Fox	72	0	0	2
T-7	36	Christopher Plumley	72	0	0	2
9	91	Felix Roy	70	0	1	1
T-10	90	Tyson Miller	56	0	0	0
T-10	11	Connor Parise	56	0	0	0

ALL STARS: PERFECT NIGHT FOR ZACHARY DRAPKIN

To open the night, a pair of seven minute races for the Off-Road All-Stars took place with 15 of the scheduled drivers taking part. In both races, Zachary Drapkin was nearly untouchable.

In the first race, Drapkin’s biggest competition came in the form of Parker Retzlaff. After the full field invert for the second race, Blake Reynolds held the lead for a while before Drapkin eventually went back to the front and on to a second victory in as many races.

Drapkin leaves Crandon with a perfect 100 score as the All-Stars don’t score points for qualifying. Retzlaff sits in second, six points behind, while Reynolds is tied for third with Eliott Watson.

Traxion.GG has two entries in the All-Star ranks once again. While I’ll be piloting these off-road vehicles poorly in the back, Keenan Kusan, A.K.A. our resident drift specialist Aero, will be putting on a better show with the Traxion.GG colors.

Aero grabbed a Top 10 finish in both races tonight as he sits tied for ninth after the first event. Next week, the All-Stars will take on Wild Horse Pass with the Pro 2 Lite Trucks.

2022 IRACING OFF-ROAD ALL-STARS SERIES POINTS THROUGH CRANDON:

POS	CAR #	DRIVER NAME	POINTS	WINS	T5’s	T10’s
1	56	Zachary Drapkin	100	2	2	2
2	42	Parker Retzlaff	94	0	2	2
T-3	66	Blake Reynolds	90	0	2	2
T-3	3	Eliott Watson	90	0	2	2
5	76	Matthew Bisceglia	80	0	1	2
T-6	85	Mikey Lawrence	78	0	1	2
T-6	760	Adam Jones	78	0	0	2
8	777	Adam Briggs	70	0	0	1
T-9	72	Trever Teal	66	0	0	1
T-9	03	Keenan Kusan (Aero)	66	0	0	2

NEXT RACE: WILD HORSE PASS

On paper, the off-road course at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park is a four-turn, 1.5-mile course in the United States. If I didn’t look at a map of the facility, I’d have thought it was a NASCAR cookie-cutter oval. It definitely is not that.

Wild Horse Pass has tons of elevation changes, jumps, and is just small enough to incite chaos throughout the race. 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 Laps	Race #2 Laps
1	22 June	Crandon International Raceway – Full	10	10
2	29 June	Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park	16	16
3	06 July	Wild West Motorsports Park	16	16
4	13 July	Bark River International Raceway	11	11
5	20 July	Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park	16	16
6	27 July	Wild West Motorsports Park	16	16
7	03 August	Bark River International Raceway	11	11
8	10 August	Crandon International Raceway – Full	10	10