It all comes down to this: the Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix Championship wraps up its inaugural season with the Dallara iR-01 on Thursday with the first-ever iRacing pro series event held at the Hungaroring, and two drivers ready to go head to head for the title and the largest share of a $25,000 prize pool. The race can be seen live starting at 2PM ET/19:00 GMT at iRacing.com/live and across iRacing’s full slate of social media channels.
The championship battle comes down to one of, essentially, checkers-or-wreckers type results versus pure consistency. Up to this point, the latter is winning out by the slimmest of margins; Apex Racing Team’s Peter Berryman holds the two-point lead over R8G Esports’ Maarten van Loozenoord. It’s a small enough margin that, should either of them take the checkered flag, the winner will bring home the championship no matter what.
Berryman’s campaign has only seen him take two checkered flags, but with more podiums than any other driver, he’s been an expert at piling up the points. Only in Hockenheim, where he finished eighth, has Berryman failed to score double-digit points at an event; even then, he still took eight points home for that result.
For van Loozenoord, the season kicked off with a win at Watkins Glen, took a harsh detour with a finish out of the points in Interlagos, and rebounded with four straight victories in the month of October. After an incident-influenced 11th place finish at the Red Bull Ring handed the points lead back to Berryman, he added his sixth win in nine races last week in Suzuka to narrow the gap once again.
The Hungaroring will serve as the stage for them to settle their differences, making its debut at the iRacing pro level in the process. Host of the Hungarian Grand Prix for the last 35 years, the 2.722-mile circuit last underwent revisions to its layout in 2003, and now boasts 16 turns on its twisty and bumpy layout; it was most recently resurfaced in 2016.
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