Blewitt, Barry Split iRacing Off-Road Championship Wins at Bark River as Points Gap Widens

As it has been so many other times this iRacing Off-Road Championship Series season, it was a rookie and a top veteran splitting the victories on offer in Wednesday night’s battle from Bark River International Raceway. Top rookie Joel Blewitt of Team Gold held off fellow first-year racer Jarrett Liebert of Team Rogue in the first race, while defending champion Connor Barry of Nitro Circus Sim Racing Team added to his points lead with a win in the second.

Blewitt and Liebert qualified first and second for the first race and stayed there throughout, avoiding the contact that befell some of the other front-runners. It was a less fruitful experience for Factory Simsport’s Keaton Swane, though, as the former points leader took contact early on that bounced him from fourth all the way back to 21^st; he’d recover to finish 17^th at race’s end. That gave Barry the opportunity to pad the points lead he took over last week at Wild West with a third place finish.

Former iRacing World of Outlaws Sprint Car champion Alex Bergeron started first for the second race after the eight-truck invert and put a gap on Tom Grady after the first two laps, but Barry would climb into second at the end of Lap 3 and set his sights on the lead. He finally made the decisive pass with four laps to go and checked out from there, extending his gap to more than a second and a half at race’s end. Bergeron settled for second as Grady held off Quentin Dall’olmo for third. Swane, meanwhile, had a spirited drive back up to eighth to salvage some points and set up a tie with Blewitt for third in the standings.

iRacing Off-Road Championship Round 11 results from Bark River International Raceway were as follows:

1. Joel Blewitt, 11 laps
2. Jarrett Liebert, -1.044
3. Connor Barry, -3.627
4. Killian Dall’olmo, -5.442
5. Quentin Dall’olmo, -5.727

iRacing Off-Road Championship Round 12 results from Bark River International Raceway were as follows:

1. Connor Barry, 11 laps
2. Alex Bergeron, -1.622
3. Tom Grady, -2.730
4. Quentin Dall’olmo, -3.002
5. Joel Blewitt, -5.780

iRacing Off-Road Championship points after 12 rounds are as follows:

1. Connor Barry, 555
2. Jarrett Liebert, 528
3. Keaton Swane, 502
4. Joel Blewitt, 502
5. Killian Dall’olmo, 443

In the All-Star Pro 4 action, it was another sweep for Team Gold’s Luke Knupp after qualifying first, leading every lap of the first race, and carving his way through the field to win the second. Fellow Pro eSports division drivers Zachary Drapkin and Beau Albert completed the podium in the first race, while Keenan Kusan won the Celebrity division in fifth place. In the second race, Pro eSports driver Scott Kerr and Celebrity winner Mia Rose completed the podium ahead of Adam Briggs, who led the first five laps of the race before Knupp made the winning pass.

iRacing Off-Road All-Star Series Pro 4 Pro eSports division points are as follows:

1. Luke Knupp, 313
2. Zachary Drapkin, 272
3. Scott Kerr, 264

iRacing Off-Road All-Star Series Pro 4 Celebrity division points are as follows:

1. Keenan Kusan, 240
2. Trever Teal, 237
3. Mia Rose, 228

The 2023 iRacing Off-Road Championship Series continues next Wednesday with a return to Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. Coverage will kick off once again at 8PM ET across iRacing social media channels with the All-Star action, followed by the sim racing pros at 9PM ET.

For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

Images via Justin Melillo

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