Bergeron goes back-to-back, wins World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Cars at Weedsport

For the second straight week in the iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series, three-time champion Alex Bergeron was victorious. In a caution-free feature at Weedsport Speedway on Monday night, Bergeron was able to pass and hold off Tanner Pettit for 35 laps around the 3/8-mile clay oval in upstate New York.

The 35 top dirt sprint car sim racers on this year’s roster are all competing for the $25,000 purse, but after Bergeron’s second victory in-a-row to start off the year, the rest of the field might be fighting for second place.

The evening kicked off with a quick time set by Pettit in qualifying, besting his previous best qualifying effort of second place at I-55 in his rookie campaign last year. Braden Eyler, defending series champion Tyler Schell, and Tyler Ducharme took the rest of the top four positions and would lead a respective heat race to the green. Bergeron wound up down in 14th, which would mean a fourth place starting spot in the second heat.

Pettit was able to hold off runs from Clayton Davies and Ryan Avila in the first heat, the trio all transferring on with Kenny Miller in fourth. In the second heat, Bergeron hugged the inside like nobody else to take the lead from Eyler at halfway. That’s how they would finish, bringing James Edens and JD Brown to the main as well. Schell rebounded from a tough start last week at Volusia to dominate the third heat, transferring with Aiden Bierlein, Timothy Smith, and Noah Carpenter. In the final heat race, it was the Late Models champion Evan Seay on top, taking it from Ducharme in the closing laps, with Ross Keiser and Tanner Miller also moving on.

Lane Snook, Joey Lingron, Aiden Forster, and Kenny Hoffman would all transfer from the last chance races. Lingron, in particular, made a late dive on Chance Ciskowski on the final lap to take second place in his respective LCQ. Meanwhile, Outlaws who were at the front at Volusia, such as Hayden Cardwell, Shawn English, Logan Rumsey, and Blake Matjoulis, all failed to make the main event this week.

Also unlike last week, the feature race at Weedsport would go completely caution free for all 35 laps. Pettit started on the pole position and led the opening six laps, but Bergeron had that low line working wonders, making the move to the front on Lap 7. For a time, Bergeron was able to pull away, but Pettit was able to close back in. Schell also joined the battle as the laps wound down, with the trio nearly going three-wide for the top spot before Eyler challenged Schell for the podium.

In three previous trips to Weedsport Speedway, Bergeron’s best result was only a sixth in the feature back when it joined the series in the 2020-21 season. His other two results were ninth (2021-22) and 14th (2022-23). The win marks his second of the season and 21st victory of all-time in series competition.

iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series results from Weedsport Speedway were as follows:

iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series points after Race #2 are as follows:

1. Alex A Bergeron, 155
2. Tanner Pettit, 125
3. James Edens, 121
4. Evan Seay, 118
5. Ryan Avila, 115
6. Noah Carpenter, 109
7. Tyler Schell, 101
8. Aiden Forster, 101
9. Aiden Bierlein, 92
10. Lane Snook, 90

Pettit jumps up to second in the championship standings following Weedsport, 30 points behind Bergeron who has won just about everything so far this season. James Edens, who finished 10th at Weedsport, maintains third, just four points behind Pettit and three points ahead of Evan Seay. Defending champion Tyler Schell jumps up to seventh after two races, 54 points back of Bergeron.

Coming up next in the 2023-24 iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series season is a trip to Williams Grove Speedway on November 27. Last season, Hayden Cardwell came away with the victory. The racing action will stream live on DIRTVision and across iRacing social media channels every Monday night through November and December in 2023 and January in 2024, all starting at 9PM ET.

For more information on the series, visit www.iracing.com/woosc. For more information on the World of Outlaws, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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