iRacing Rallycross Race Preview: Phoenix

Image via Justin Melillo

The iRacing Rallycross presented by Yokohama season heads back to American soil on Wednesday, visiting Phoenix Raceway for the seventh of nine rounds in the 2021 season. Races will begin at 4PM ET/1PM PT at iRacing.com/live and across a large slate of Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube channels.

World Championship

SET Esports’ Tommi Hallman scored his third win of the season last week at Hell Lankebanen, continuing his effort to climb back into the title hunt behind teammate Jonne Ollikainen and points leader Jon Robertson of Subaru Motorsports USA. Ollikainen and Robertson each had to race their way through the last chance qualifier last week to get into the final, but maintained the top two spots in the standings with three races remaining.

Hell saw multiple drivers, including Loenbro Motorsports’ Tommi Nukarinen and Kligerman Sport’s Marcos Matamoros, make their first finals of the year, while Hansen Williams Esports’ Jarno Leskinen and Elliott Sadler Esports’ Garrett Manes earned their first podiums of the season. The shake-up now sees Robertson, Ollikainen, and Hallman more than 40 points clear of any other driver.

Yokohama Pole Award: Robertson is guaranteed a share of the season-long Yokohama Pole Award after last week, thanks to Hallman becoming the third different pole winner of the season in Hell.

DirtFish Rookie of the Year: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Kevin Ellis Jr. has entrenched himself at seventh in points, but Leskinen closed the gap with a runner-up finish in Hell. The 2021 DirtFish Rookie of the Year will receive a complimentary Three Day course from DirtFish, the Official Rallying School of iRacing Rallycross. To sign up and get behind the wheel yourself, visit drive.dirtfish.com.

Most Improved Driver: Elliott Sadler eSports’ Vicente Salas and SET Esports Team GRX’s Killian Dall’olmo are the top two gainers from last year’s standings, but Salas’ 14-spot gain from 2020 remains the largest jump in the 2021 standings.

Hard Charger: Thanks to the 14 spots he gained from Hell qualifying to the feature, Nukarinen has taken over the lead in the Hard Charger standings from Team Yokohama’s Thomas Wangen. Nukarinen has gained 50 positions over six weeks of racing, including more than 10 spots on three separate occasions.

All-Star Invitational

After becoming the sixth different All-Star race winner in six weeks last week, 2020 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion Nick Ottinger will attempt to go back-to-back in Phoenix. Team Fordzilla’s Pablo Lopez remains the points leader by seven over ARCA Menards Series driver Parker Retzlaff. The expected/invited entry list for this week’s visit to Phoenix is below; entries are subject to change:

How To Watch

All iRX events will be broadcast in multiple languages for the 2021 season. Here’s where to tune in:

• English: iRacing Facebook, Twitch, YouTube
• Finnish: Finnish Sim Racing Association ry (FISRA)
• French: BenjxMotors
• Norwegian: Norwegian SimRacing Channel