Alex Bergeron goes back to World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Cars victory lane at Knoxville

The 35 top iRacing Sprint Car competitors in the 2023-24 iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series season took on “The Sprint Car Capital of the World” on Monday night. Once again, Alex Bergeron was untouchable at Knoxville Raceway, winning his third straight on the half-mile oval in Iowa, his fifth of all-time at the track, and the 22nd win of his storied iRacing Sprint Car career.

From the fifth qualifying spot, Bergeron bested Dirt Late Model champion, Blake Matjoulis, in the opening heat to take the pole position in the Feature. From the drop of the Feature green, Bergeron pulled away from the intense battle for second on both the opening start and final restart with seven laps to go. Aiden Forster picked up the runner-up spot, defeating Logan Rumsey, who finished third, current points leader Ryan Avila, in fourth, and Aiden Bierlein, who rounded out the top 5.

Bergeron’s biggest battle came in the opening heat, as he and Matjoulis traded the lead lap after lap. Eventually, after a bit of contact, Matjoulis slipped back and finished fourth, still good enough to advance, but essentially turning a pole run into a 13th place Feature start. Heat 2 was the most controversial as on the final lap, the winner of the previous two Feature races, Kenny Miller, collided with Hayden Cardwell. Both were knocked out of a transfer spot as Shawn English pulled through to the win. Heat 3 and Heat 4 were more spread out, with the track being worn in, as those were both won by Tyler Ducharme and Rumsey, respectively.

For the Last Chance races, Williams Grove winner Timothy Smith, who finished fifth in a stacked first heat, was able to cruise to a transfer along with Braden Eyler. The final LCQ saw Clayton Davies win and advance with Chance Ciskowski, who qualified for his first Feature of the season.

As Bergeron bolted away in the Feature, the race for second was insane, with racing sometimes four-wide across the many lanes at Knoxville. Rumsey, Forster, Avila and Ross Keiser were the first quartet to duke it out early in the show, Keiser racing up all the way from the 12th starting spot to get there, but eventually he fell out of the running. Matjoulis was the only driver to retire after 14 completed laps, but the only caution flew with eight laps remaining as Tanner Pettit and Eyler got together, sending Eyler for a spin cycle.

On the final restart, Bierlein threw his name into the fight for the second spot, as did Noah Carpenter, but Forster would prevail as Bergeron took another checkered flag. The results bring the championship down to eight points between Avila and Forster, both drivers still searching for their first wins of the season. Rumsey jumps up to third, 32 points behind, as defending champion Tyler Schell falls to fourth and Carpenter rounds out the top 5. Bergeron, despite having half the wins this season, only sits in sixth, 62 points behind the lead with four races to go until a champion is crowned.

iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series results from Knoxville Raceway were as follows:

iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series points after Race #6 are as follows:

1. Ryan Avila, 373
2. Aiden Forster, 365
3. Logan Rumsey, 341
4. Tyler Schell, 330
5. Noah Carpenter, 317
6. Alex A Bergeron, 311
7. Tanner Pettit, 270
8. Evan Seay, 268
9. James Edens, 264
10. Timothy S Smith, 262

The 2023-24 iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series takes two weeks off for the holidays, returning on January 8th for the seventh race of the season at Fairbury Speedway. James Edens was victorious there a season ago.

The virtual Sprint Car racing action from Fairbury will stream live on that Monday night, at 9PM ET, on both DIRTVision and across iRacing social media channels.

For more information on the series, visit www.iracing.com/woosc. For more information on the World of Outlaws, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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