iRacing All-Stars: Event Recap

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30 of the world’s best iRacers went head-to-head with unfamiliar cars and tracks in Saturday’s iRacing All-Stars. Here’s how it all went down, as Jack Sedgwick and Mitchell deJong became the inaugural event champions:

International Round 1: Dirt Street Stock at Lernerville Speedway

iRacing All-Stars kicked off with 12 top drivers from Europe getting behind the wheel of street stocks at iRacing’s newest dirt track, Lernerville Speedway. Although drivers had to acclimate to the unique oval, which doesn’t feature a wall around most of the track length, the racing was still intense as Apex Racing Team drivers Antoine Higelin, Kevin Ellis Jr., and Jamie Fluke battled with Logitech G Altus Esports’ Tuomas Tahtela at the start. In the end, Higelin and Ellis slammed doors to the finish, where Higelin took the win by .016 seconds.

International Round 2: Audi RS 3 LMS TCR at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

The European drivers were a bit more in their element in touring cars, as the TCR Audi headed to Barcelona. ineX Racing’s Jack Sedgwick recovered from a last-place finish in the Dirt Oval portion of the event to score a victory over MSI eSports’ Adria Perez, who inherited the points lead going into the second half of the day.

International Round 3: NASCAR Xfinity Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Although most of the European competitors aren’t oval regulars, they managed to put on an incredible show at Charlotte as they battled searing track temperatures of 127ºF and each other in NASCAR Xfinity Series cars. Red Bull Racing Esports’ Sebastian Job was untouchable at the front of the pack, while Pure Racing Team’s Maximilian Benecke put the bumper to Sedgwick to muscle his way into second place with three laps to go in the 20-lap shootout.

International Round 4: Lucas Oil Off Road Pro 4 at Wild West Motorsports Park

Four drivers—Job at 98 points, Sedgwick at 94, Perez at 91, and Fluke at 90—could all take the International All-Stars championship simply by virtue of winning in the Pro 4 truck at Wild West, but actually taking the checkered flag was much easier said than done. In the end, Sedgwick qualified on the pole to give himself the advantage over Fluke in third and Job in fourth, and hung on to take the checkered flag and the event championship as the day’s only dual race winner.

International Point Standings

Note: iRacing All-Stars used a 50-40-35-30-25-20-18-16-14-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 point system.

North American Round 1: Dirt Street Stock at Lernerville Speedway

An expanded field of 18 cars made it to the grid as the North American portion of the event kicked off with a return to Lernerville, and all 30 laps saw an intense battle at the front of the grid between 2019 World of Outlaws Sprint Car World Champion Alex Bergeron, 2018 iRacing Rallycross World Champion Mitchell deJong, and Swindell SpeedLab Esports teammates Adam Elby and Matthew McKinney. Bergeron fell off the Turn 4 cushion at Lernerville while leading with just a few laps left, opening the door for McKinney and Elby to give the SpeedLab team a strong 1-2 finish to kick off the event.

North American Round 2: Audi RS 3 LMS TCR at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

It was an eNASCAR front row in Barcelona as Loenbro Motorsports’ Garrett Lowe and ineX Racing’s Phil Diaz qualified up front, but Burton Kligerman eSports’ Logan Clampitt used a mega start from fourth to claim an early lead. However, he slid off track on cold tires in Turn 1 to give the top spot right back. Lowe eventually yielded to both deJong and Diaz, but produced an intense show while battling with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bobby Zalenski for third; in the end, Lowe would hang onto the spot for his first of two podiums on the day.

North American Round 3: NASCAR Xfinity Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Racing on their home turf, so to speak, eNASCAR drivers locked out the top five in Charlotte, with Clint Bowyer Racing’s Casey Kirwan returning to the winner’s circle ahead of Clampitt, Lowe, 2019 eNASCAR iRacing World Champion Zack Novak, and Zalenski. Bergeron looked to be the best of the rest in sixth before getting loose off of Turn 2 on the final lap and yielding the spot to deJong. That set up another tight points battle going into Wild West, with Lowe just 10 points back of deJong for the overall lead.

North American Round 4: Lucas Oil Off Road Pro 4 at Wild West Motorsports Park

Pandemonium struck just two corners into the first of 10 laps at Wild West, as many of the event’s biggest names—deJong and Lowe among them—got caught up in a major accident. Most drivers continued, but that left the door wide open for Jim Beaver eSports’ Bobby Sandt Jr. to lay a hurting on the field, producing the largest margin of victory on the day by 8.640 seconds over Diaz. deJong fought back from the first-lap chaos to finish fifth, earning the VRS Coanda Simsport driver the championship by 24 points over Diaz. Lowe rebounded from the wreck to finish eighth in the race, but fell to third in points.

North American Point Standings

Note: iRacing All-Stars used a 50-40-35-30-25-20-18-16-14-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 point system.

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