iRacing Off-Road Championship Series Race Preview: Bark River 2

The iRacing Off-Road Championship Series heads back to Bark River International Raceway for Rounds 11 and 12 of the 2023 campaign on Wednesday night. Coverage kicks off at 8PM ET across iRacing social media channels with All-Star action featuring top real-world drivers and Twitch streamers, while the 24 top off-road sim racers in the world will take on this week’s showcase race at 9PM ET.

Last Week: The pros returned to points racing at Wild West Motorsports Park after a midseason diversion with the Pro 2 at Crandon, and the results turned the championship around. Factory Simsport’s Keaton Swane entered the night with a small lead over Nitro Circus Sim Racing Team’s Connor Barry, but Barry would retake the red plate with a hard-fought second place finish to Team Rogue rookie Jarrett Liebert in the first race. In the second, Swane fought his way past Team Gold’s Justin Kaye into the lead with five laps to go, but Barry would follow and beat Swane in a drag race to the line by .023 seconds.

Earlier This Season: Bark River has yet to produce a repeat winner in six races since the Off-Road Championship Series was established last summer. The first time around this year, it was a pair of rookie drivers—Team Gold’s Joel Blewitt and Team Rogue’s Parker Retzlaff—who came out on top. Blewitt pulled away from Swane to win the first race by more than five seconds, while Retzlaff led teammate Liebert across the line in the second. Series veterans Killian Dall’olmo and Barry completed the two podiums.

All-Star Series: Luke Knupp of Team Gold is three for four in race wins since the All-Stars switched to Pro 4s after sweeping the races at Wild West. He’s got a 22-point lead in the Pro eSports division over Zachary Drapkin with six races remaining. In the Celebrity division, Trever Teal and Wes Graham split the wins at Wild West, with Teal’s victory helping to put him within six points of Keenan Kusan for the class lead.

Track Facts: If Crandon is short course off-road racing’s answer to Daytona, Bark River International Raceway is its Talladega. Located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the track is owned and operated by the Bark River Lions Club and has hosted racing for nearly half a century. Bark River’s annual August date is usually one of the most consequential in determining series champions, both because it appears late on the schedule and because the track features so many unique corners and high-flying jumps.

Next Up: Following Bark River, the iRacing Off-Road Championship Series takes on its penultimate doubleheader of the season at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park on Wednesday, August 16. Former iRacing World of Outlaws Sprint Car champion Alex Bergeron has won one of the two races in each of the series’ three visits to Wild Horse Pass over the past two years; earlier this season, he split the race wins with Liebert.

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

Image via Justin Melillo

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