Yokohama iRacing Rallycross Season Finale: Race Preview

Image via Justin Melillo

The iRacing Rallycross presented by Yokohama season wraps up on Wednesday with its long-awaited debut at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Yokohama iRX Season Finale will begin at 4PM ET/1PM PT at iRacing.com/live and across a large slate of Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube channels.

World Championship

With a single race remaining, just six points separate Subaru Motorsports USA’s Jon Robertson from SET Esports’ Jonne Ollikainen in the driver’s championship race, with Ollikainen’s teammate Tommi Hallman lurking at 18 back and within mathematical striking distance of the championship as well. The latter duo, who have combined to give SET a 36-point lead in the teams’ standings over Subaru, finished 1-2 in the All-Star race here in June.

Robertson, meanwhile, will be looking to put the demons from last year’s finale at Sonoma fully behind him. A disastrous heat and LCQ left him on the outside looking in for the final, and helpless as teammate Yohann Harth secured the crown with a fourth place finish in the main event—which was, ironically, also won by Ollikainen. Who will survive the high-pressure situation this time to win the $10,000 championship prize?

Yokohama Pole Award: Scoring his sixth Yokohama Pole Award of the season at Charlotte would go a long way towards helping Robertson score the title, but he’s already locked up the season-long bonus for taking the most poles this season.

DirtFish Rookie of the Year: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Kevin Ellis Jr. has a 22-point gap on Hansen Williams Esports’ Jarno Leskinen to secure top rookie honors for the season; just eight points on Wednesday will secure the honor. The 2021 DirtFish Rookie of the Year will receive a complimentary Three Day course from DirtFish, the Official Rallying School of iRacing Rallycross. To sign up and get behind the wheel yourself, visit drive.dirtfish.com.

Most Improved Driver: With another main event appearance in Sonoma, Elliott Sadler eSports’ Vicente Salas gained two more spots in the Most Improved Driver rankings with one race remaining. Salas is back to 14 positions ahead of his 20^th place points finish in 2020, with a mathematical shot at finishing as high as fifth.

Hard Charger: The Hard Charger points lead changed hands once again in Sonoma, with Loenbro Motorsports’ Tommi Nukarinen back on top once again with 54 positions gained this season. That’s now a six-point advantage on Team Yokohama’s Thomas Wangen, who had been leading Nukarinen by two going into last week.

All-Star Invitational

Charlotte marks the final All-Star Invitational race of the season as well, and there’s a logjam of five drivers within three points of the lead going into the final race. One All-Star regular, though, already has some shiny new hardware heading home with him: Ron Capps scored his second career NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Funny Car title over the weekend in Pomona. The expected/invited entry list for this week’s visit to Charlotte is below; entries are subject to change:

How To Watch

All iRX events will be broadcast in multiple languages for the 2021 season. Here’s where to tune in: