Mitchell DeJong won the first round of the Subaru iRacing All-Star invitational series, beating Scott Speed and Conner Martell at World RX venue Hell.
American DeJong, the 2018 iRacing rallycross world champion and 2014 Global Rallycross Lites champion in the real world, dominated the 10-car, 10-lap final, having qualified by winning his six-lap heat race.
He made a clean getaway to lead into Turn 1, while fellow front-row starter Speed opted for the joker. The early joker for Speed meant he had to contend with traffic for much of the rest of the race, allowing DeJong to make a clean break out in front.
Ex-Formula 1 driver Speed’s second place was settled on the final lap of the race after Martell, who had been holding up the four-time US rallycross champion, took the joker. That let his fellow Subaru driver by, but Martell held on for the final podium position.
Martell’s podium came despite almost spinning after contact with World Rallycross star Andreas Bakkerud on lap three. Both drivers emerged from the skirmish unscathed and Bakkerud went on to take fourth behind the 2018 ARX2 champion.
Travis PeCoy completed the top five, ahead of four-time Chili Bowl winner Kevin Swindell, sometime GRC Lites and ARX2 frontrunner Christian Brooks, and ARX podium finisher Cabot Bigham, who had won the second heat race earlier on.
Sami-Matti Trogen, the 2019 iRX champion, was classified ninth after making contact with Bigham on lap two as the American emerged from the joker, while IndyCar race winner Alexander Rossi – who made it to the main event after winning one of the two ‘Last Chance Qualifiers’ along with PeCoy – failed to make it past the first lap after rolling at Turn 1.
