On Wednesday night (6th July 2022), the third race event of the new iRacing Off-Road Championship Series took to Wild West Motorsports Park for the fifth and sixth races of the inaugural 2022 season.
Following four different winners in the first four races, a fifth was found in the form of Keaton Swane in the first race of the night. Swane was able to take it from the grasp of Josh Edmundson with a bump-and-run maneuver on the final corner of the final lap.
In the second race of the night, Cam Pedersen broke the streak, becoming the first two-time winner of the season and of the series in it’s first year of competition. Pedersen fought to pass Jakob Rafoss in the closing stages for the win, rebounding from a week ago where he faced computer issues the entire night.
Now with three events and six races completed, the inaugural season is only one week away from making it to halfway. Of the four short courses, Bark River is the only one remaining before the return trips begin in two weeks, where last week’s track Wild Horse Pass will once again be used.
Despite Pedersen’s second win, its the Connor Barry show at the top of the rankings after six races. Barry is the only driver with six Top 5 finishes, the absolute model of consistency so far. With his win and a seventh place finish, Swane still wound up losing five points to Barry, as the gap is now at 17 points.
RACE #5: SWANE MOVES EDMUNSON IN FINAL CORNER TO WIN
Qualifying would set the order for the field from ninth on back, as it has all season. Qualifying eighth would mean a start on the pole position in the first race, inverted from first to eighth.
However, Pedersen would get five bonus points for setting the fastest lap time, with Quentin Dall’olmo, Barry, Edmundson and Rafoss also scoring qualifying points.
The invert would put Keith Jeffery on the pole position with Swane and Edmundson challenging early on. Jeffery held on to the lead for as long as he could, but eventually Edmundson wanted to take control.
As Edmundson and Swane made their move around to the Top 2 spots, Jeffery’s race came unraveled. A tight line in the second corner, the only right handed turn, ended up too good as Jeffery clipped the wall and subsequently flipped over, requiring a tow.
This separated the Top 2 from the others just enough to allow the pair to duke it out for the rest of the race. Swane tried a few times to get around, but Edmundson was able to hold on at every challenge.
On the final corner of the final lap, Swane sent it just enough to force Edmundson sideways, allowing for the pass to be completed and the win to be secured.
WILD WEST RACE #5 – TOP 10 RESULTS:
| POS | TRUCK # | DRIVER NAME | INTERVAL | POINTS | AGG POINTS |
| 1 | 21 | Keaton Swane | 16 LAPS | 50 | 50 |
| 2 | 58 | Josh Edmundson | +0.255 sec | 48 | 50 |
| 3 | 2 | Connor Barry | +1.098 sec | 46 | 49 |
| 4 | 48 | Cam Pedersen | +2.003 sec | 44 | 49 |
| 5 | 18 | Killian Dall’olmo | +4.438 sec | 42 | 42 |
| 6 | 91 | Felix Roy | +5.167 sec | 40 | 40 |
| 7 | 11 | Connor Parise | +6.193 sec | 38 | 38 |
| 8 | 13 | Jakob Rafoss | +7.350 sec | 36 | 37 |
| 9 | 6 | Brandyn Proudfoot | +8.113 sec | 34 | 34 |
| 10 | 112 | Alex A Bergeron | +8.181 sec | 32 | 32 |
RACE #6: CAM PEDERSEN BECOMES FIRST MULTI-TIME WINNER
In the second race of the night, once again, the field would invert the Top 8 finishers from the first race. With that, Rafoss was credited with a pole position start alongside Connor Parise and a winner from last week, Felix Roy.
Pedersen, who finished fourth in the first race after having to invert to eighth after qualifying, would start fifth in the final race of the night. As Rafoss and Roy pulled out to a lead over the rest, it was Pedersen who cut through, around Parise and Killian Dall’olmo to take over the third spot.
Eventually, Pedersen was able to move into the second spot, and his sights were locked on Rafoss in the lead.
In the back, Edmundson wound up wrecked in a Dall’olmo sandwich while Swane was never able to get back towards the front of the field. This left Rafoss versus Pedersen as the main title card of the race.
Lap after lap, Pedersen was able to throw down faster and faster laps, despite being caught behind Rafoss who was anywhere from a tenth to three tenths slower ahead. It was no match once they got side-by-side, and that allowed Pedersen to score his second win on the season.
WILD WEST RACE #6 – TOP 10 RESULTS:
| POS | TRUCK # | DRIVER NAME | INTERVAL | POINTS | AGG POINTS |
| 1 | 48 | Cam Pedersen | 16 LAPS | 50 | 99 |
| 2 | 13 | Jakob Rafoss | +0.967 sec | 48 | 85 |
| 3 | 91 | Felix Roy | +2.079 sec | 46 | 86 |
| 4 | 2 | Connor Barry | +3.374 sec | 44 | 93 |
| 5 | 11 | Connor Parise | +6.963 sec | 42 | 80 |
| 6 | 18 | Killian Dall’olmo | +7.231 sec | 40 | 82 |
| 7 | 21 | Keaton Swane | +7.815 sec | 38 | 88 |
| 8 | 112 | Alex A Bergeron | +9.588 sec | 36 | 68 |
| 9 | 6 | Brandyn Proudfoot | +10.846 sec | 34 | 68 |
| 10 | 9 | Terry Miller | +12.432 sec | 32 | 48 |
POINTS LEAVING WILD WEST
With a third and fourth place finish wrapped up without any issues, Barry continues to lead the Driver’s Standings after six races. Although Swane won the first race of the night, the gap between the two grew to 17 points with 10 races to go. Roy finds himself third, 35 points out of the lead.
After that, everyone else is at least one race or more behind the points lead. Granted, two good events and a pair of bad ones from Barry could bring most drivers back into the fold fairly quickly with 105 points available between the two races and qualifying session every week.
Pedersen, who had computer issues last week, jumps back into the Top 10, 84 points out of the lead in eighth. He’s only four points behind the other winner on the season, Alex Bergeron.
2022 IRACING OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES POINTS THRU WILD WEST:
| POS | TRUCK # | DRIVER NAME | POINTS | WINS | T5’s | T10’s |
| 1 | 2 | Connor Barry | 284 | 1 | 6 | 6 |
| 2 | 21 | Keaton Swane | 267 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 3 | 91 | Felix Roy | 249 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 4 | 18 | Killian Dall’olmo | 220 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| 5 | 58 | Josh Edmundson | 210 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| 6 | 13 | Jakob Rafoss | 209 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 7 | 112 | Alex A Bergeron | 204 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| T-8 | 48 | Cam Pedersen | 200 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| T-8 | 11 | Connor Parise | 200 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 10 | 6 | Brandyn Proudfoot | 194 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
ALL STARS: LUKE KNUPP DOUBLES UP AT WILD WEST
As for the All-Stars, it was Luke Knupp’s playground and we were all playing in it on Tuesday night. 20 All-Stars showed up to take on the 1.5-mile jumpy truck venue, which, funny enough, has a doppelgänger in one of my favorite racing games, Wreckfest.
Knowing the track didn’t make it any easier, as guys like Knupp and Zachary Drapkin were just too good for the rest of us. Even after the pair were inverted to the rear for the second race, they were both able to cut through fairly quickly to run for the race lead again.
Knupp was unstoppable, scoring a perfect score on the night as the points enter a somewhat funky position for the next few weeks. Trying to factor in drop weeks will be a pain, maybe even more of a pain than I was on the track tonight. Sorry to everyone I ran into, especially my Traxion.GG teammate RynoGT4 and my eNASCAR buddy Blake Reynolds.
Here’s who scored the most points in All-Stars this week:
WILD WEST MOTORSPORTS PARK – TOP POINT SCORERS IN RACES 5 & 6:
| POS | TRUCK # | DRIVER NAME | POINTS | RACE 5 FINISH | RACE 6 FINISH |
| 1 | 29 | Luke Knupp | 100 | 1st | 1st |
| 2 | 56 | Zachary Drapkin | 96 | 2nd | 2nd |
| 3 | 91 | Ryan Burton (RynoGT4) | 88 | 4th | 4th |
| 4 | 72 | Trever Teal | 84 | 3rd | 7th |
| 5 | 03 | Keenan Kusan (Aero) | 82 | 5th | 6th |
| 6 | 85 | Mikey Lawrence | 76 | 6th | 8th |
| 7 | 99 | Michael Cosey Jr | 68 | 9th | 9th |
| 8 | 66 | Blake Reynolds | 66 | 8th | 11th |
| T-9 | 760 | Adam Jones | 62 | 18th | 3rd |
| T-9 | 28 | Ron Capps | 62 | 16th | 5th |
NEXT RACE: BARK RIVER
The very first iRacing Off-Road Championship Series season will hit the halfway point following next week’s festivities at Bark River International Raceway. This Michigan short course is the same length as the other three, but it has 12 corners on the premises, which each corner adds loads of time to the laps.
Each race in the Championship Series will be 11 laps in length as a result. The All-Stars will still get a pair of seven minute races. 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 |
| 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 |
