It’s crunch time now in the fights for the two iRacing World Championships that are on the line this month. Only two races remain in either series, and both feature incredible points battles among the top competitors.
Wednesday hosts the iRacing Rallycross World Championship Series Presented by Yokohama, this week taking place at Sonoma Raceway. On Thursday, the Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix Championship heads to Suzuka International Racing Course. Both series are coming down to the wire.
IRXWC: CHAMPIONSHIP DOWN TO THREE DRIVERS, TWO RACES
It was both elation and sadness for the 2020 iRacing Rallycross World Champion last week. Yohann Harth has had a tough time defending his crown against the likes of his teammate, Jon Robertson, and the SET Esports duo of Jonne Ollikainen and Tommi Hallman. Entering Phoenix last week, that trio had all the wins and Harth had none.
Harth would have needed divine intervention to stay mathematically in the hunt for the title leaving Phoenix. He entered needing to pray that Robertson wouldn’t score more than 14 points for the remainder of the 2021 season. With how good Robertson’s been in the qualifying game, it was slim to no chance.
As Harth finally scored his victory on the season, the points battle closed in between the three front runners, all separated by 13 points. Robertson has it while Ollikainen and Hallman both have a decently equal chance to both strike, 12 and 13 points behind respectively.
Wednesday will be the seventh trip to Sonoma Raceway’s Rallycross circuit. It’s the first time that the series isn’t taking two trips to the virtual Wine Country, but that’s merely because enough Rallycross tracks exist now on the iRacing platform. Harth is a two-time winner at the course, but Ollikainen will be looking to defend his win from the last outing.
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:
As the weather starts to get colder in the Western Hemisphere, the relationships between the Apex Racing Team alliance and the R8G Esports conglomerate is already freezing cold with just two races to go in 2021. Entering Austria, Maarten van Loozenoord looked to be unstoppable, playing the game to perfection as Peter Berryman and the Apex group struggled to counter.
In the closing laps at the Red Bull Ring, Yohann Harth and van Loozenoord made contact and took each other out of contention for a possible win. It was heartbreaking for Harth in the sense that his championships were over after one of his most dominant races. It was damning for van Loozenoord as he went from in control of the championship to chasing once again.
It was a perfect storm for Berryman, however. A few laps prior to van Loozenoord’s catching up, he moved around Harth to take the point. Harth had used up his tires a bit more than his teammate, so he couldn’t pass him back even if he wanted to. Even then, if he made a battle of it, van Loozenoord would have a better shot to pass them both.
Entering Suzuka, the ninth race of the 2021 Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix Championship season, only nine points separate Berryman and van Loozenoord. A scenario exists where van Loozenoord could win out and still lose the title. There’s another where Berryman could finish second both times and also lose.
Can van Loozenoord recover from the Red Bull Ring calamity? Can Berryman hang on for the title in these last two races? 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.
