iRacing Off-Road: Connor Barry claims inaugural 2022 iORCS championship

After eight straight weeks of top level off-road competition, Connor Barry has taken the crown as the 2022 iRacing Off-Road Championship Series Champion on Wednesday night (10th August 2022).

Coming into the doubleheader finale at Crandon International Raceway, Barry held an advantage of 14 points over Keaton Swane after keeping things close at Bark River. After the first race, Barry extended that lead to 27 points. The final tally showed Barry as the champion by 25 points at night’s end.

Neither Barry or Swane would find victory lane in the races though, as Killian Dall’olmo scored his second win in a row in the first race. The second race went to the pole sitter on the night, Cam Pedersen, who beat Jakob Rafoss at the line to score his series-high fourth win of 2022.

The All-Stars also finished up their season on Wednesday night with the Beetles. Zachary Drapkin took the first win and WesTheMess88 scored the final race win of the season. The points lead at the end of the night was tied, however, with Luke Knupp owning a tie-breaker over Drapkin by having more wins.

RACE #15: KILLIAN DALL’OLMO GETS TWO-IN-A-ROW

Pedersen was the fastest in qualifying and took the top prize of five bonus points. Rafoss, Barry, Swane and Josh Edmundson rounded out the Top 5 and also scored points before the racing got underway. The invert wasn’t as big of a downside this week with the land rush start, trucks starting 10 wide up front.

Even so, having the top spot on the grid meant the best position into Turn 1, which allowed Christopher Plumley access to the top spot in the early going. Searching for his first win of the season, Plumley led a pack of other hungry trucks also looking to cap off the season on a high note.

The Dall’olmos were ruthless, Killian looking to take his second win of the season and in a row and Quentin looking for his first career and a boost towards what has been a very rocky season.

Plumley plummeted down the order as the duo Dall’olmos moved into the top two spots. Barry squeezed his way around into the third and final place on the podium.

Barry gave a few looks inside but kept his distance. Quentin kept Killian honest, but at the end of the 10 lap shootout, the Logitech G Altus Esports driver was celebrating a second straight victory.

CRANDON RACE #15 – TOP 10 RESULTS:

POS	TRUCK #	DRIVER NAME	INT.	POINTS	AGG. POINTS
1	18	Killian Dall’olmo	10 LAPS	50	50
2	22	Quentin Dall’olmo	+0.255 sec	48	48
3	2	Connor Barry	+0.763 sec	46	49
4	58	Josh Edmundson	+1.240 sec	44	45
5	36	Christopher Plumley	+1.677 sec	42	42
6	11	Connor Parise	+2.413 sec	40	40
7	48	Cam Pedersen	+2.927 sec	38	43
8	13	Jakob Rafoss	+3.511 sec	36	40
9	21	Keaton Swane	+4.974 sec	34	36
10	91	Félix Roy	+5.034 sec	32	32

RACE #16: PEDERSEN BOOKENDS SEASON WITH FOURTH WIN

It was a season of what-ifs for the most-winningest driver in the series entering the evening. Pedersen had three wins while the most anyone else had was two. Despite the wins lead, Pedersen also owned a number of DNFs and misfortunes that saw him down in eighth in the points entering Crandon.

After the land rush start, Rafoss was able to come out on top with Pedersen in tow. The two pulled away from the field as the battle for the rest was on behind them.

Félix Roy had his hands full with Tommi Hallman for the third position most of the race. The duo of yellow and red trucks went at it enough for the battle for the lead to become insurmountable.

Meanwhile, Barry found a few more issues than he was hoping for in his quest to take the title. He and Swane ran in fifth and sixth with a 13th place or better being the only necessity on Barry’s mind.

Up front, Pedersen was able to take the lead and hold off Rafoss. Pedersen opened the season with a victory at Crandon and bookended it with another win at the same course, his fourth of the season.

CRANDON RACE #16 – TOP 10 RESULTS:

POS	TRUCK #	DRIVER NAME	INT.	POINTS	AGG. POINTS
1	48	Cam Pedersen	10 LAPS	50	93
2	13	Jakob Rafoss	+0.105 secs	48	88
3	91	Félix Roy	+3.465 secs	46	78
4	87	Tommi Hallman	+5.131 secs	44	74
5	21	Keaton Swane	+5.262 secs	42	78
6	2	Connor Barry	+5.587 secs	40	89
7	11	Connor Parise	+7.522 secs	38	78
8	12	Josh Fox	+7.825 secs	36	58
9	58	Josh Edmundson	+8.603 secs	34	79
10	88	Keith Jeffery	+10.334 secs	32	56

CONNOR BARRY BESTS KEATON SWANE FOR 2022 TITLE

While the battles for the wins were intense in both races, all eyes were on the duo of Barry and Swane.

In the first race, Barry got away clean while Swane struggled in the midpack. At one point, Swane wasn’t even in the top half of the field after the land rush start saw him struggle for real estate.

Swane was able to recover to a ninth place finish, but Barry was well ahead and banking points for the finale. Every position is two points, and Barry found himself crossing the line in third. The gap had already swung a point in qualifying. After the penultimate race, the gap was up to 27 points.

The second race of the night, the finale to the entire season, was not as clean as Barry would have hoped. All he needed for a clinch, no matter what Swane did, was a 13th place finish or better.

Swane got the clean start on this land rush. Barry was mired in traffic, bouncing off of other competitors left and right on the opening turns of the first lap. Eventually, Barry’s battered Pro 4 found his way to Swane’s back bumper. They finished fifth and sixth, and that was more than enough for Barry to win.

2022 IRACING OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES FINAL TOP 12 STANDINGS:

POS	TRUCK #	DRIVER NAME	POINTS	WINS	T5’s	T10’s
1	2	Connor Barry	722 (—)	2	14	15
2	21	Keaton Swane	697 (-25)	2	11	16
3	91	Félix Roy	629 (-93)	2	7	14
4	58	Josh Edmundson	619 (-103)	0	9	13
5	18	Killian Dall’olmo	610 (-112)	2	7	13
6	11	Connor Parise	568 (-154)	0	2	12
7	48	Cameron Pedersen	533 (-189)	4	7	11
8	36	Christopher Plumley	491 (-231)	0	2	11
9	112	Alex A Bergeron	459 (-263)	2	5	10
10	13	Jakob Rafoss	458 (-264)	1	4	8
11	6	Brandyn Proudfoot	456 (-266)	0	1	7
12	12	Josh Fox	431 (-291)	1	2	7

ALL STARS: LUKE KNUPP, ZACHARY DRAPKIN TIE FOR TITLE

The All-Stars wrapped up their season on Wednesday with a Beetle battle at Crandon before the Championship stars went to war.

Land rush starts were also in play for the All-Stars, and while there are a ton of talented drivers in the All-Star field, for most of them, dirt off-road racing isn’t their strong suit.

Zach Knowles was able to get a clean start and took the lead early as Zachary Drapkin followed closely behind. On the final lap, the two made contact, allowing Drapkin to take his fifth win of the season, two shy of Luke Knupp should the two tie after the finale.

They did in fact tie, but not before another crazy land rush start that completely shook up the standings early on.

Both Drapkin and Knupp found themselves spinning uncontrollably in the first turn, Knupp recovering first as Drapkin struggled to get pointed the right way.

Up front, RynoGT4 and Tyler Maxson found themselves side-by-side for the lead for a few laps before coming together and spinning out.

This allowed WesTheMess88 to take the lead and ultimately score his first win in the series to cap off the exciting season. Knupp managed to recover to third while Drapkin wound up seventh.

After factoring in the drops, the points were finalized as a tie for the top spot between Knupp and Drapkin. After messaging with Series Director Chris Leone post-race, the tie breaker will go to the driver with more wins on the season. Knupp had seven of the 16 races won while Drapkin scores five.

ALL-STARS FINAL STANDINGS AFTER CRANDON RACE #16:

POS	CAR #	DRIVER NAME	WINS	POINTS	R15	R16
T-1	29	Luke Knupp	7	578	4th	3rd
T-1	56	Zachary Drapkin	5	578	1st	7th
3	66	Blake Reynolds	2	484	DNS	DNS
4	03	Keenan Kusan (Aeroteq)	0	456	14th	15th
5	85	Mikey Lawrence	0	454	17th	6th
T-6	72	Trever Teal	0	434	10th	10th
T-6	91	Ryan Burton (RynoGT4)	0	434	9th	5th
8	777	Adam Briggs	0	428	2nd	12th
9	3	Eliott Watson	0	426	DNS	DNS
10	10	Brendan Lichtenberg	0	400	8th	17th
11	88	Wes Graham (WesTheMess88)	1	392	6th	1st
12	99	Michael Cosey Jr (WindVOW8820)	0	368	5th	11th

RELEGATION AND LOOK AHEAD AT 2023

With Barry scoring the title in thrilling fashion, now the series will look ahead towards getting ready for a possible 2023 season. Should it happen, the Top 12 drivers in the final standings will be kept and the bottom 12 will move into relegation.

The relegated drivers will then face off against the up-and-coming off-road racers looking to take a spot in the next season.

This inaugural season came and went in a flash, completing 16 races in eight weeks in less than two months time. We may not hear about the next season for quite a while, but it is hoped to return as the series provided top-notch action all season long.

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