Mitchell deJong Wins American Red Cross iRX California Classic
April 26th, 2020 by Chris Leone
Former US rallycross Lites champion and X Games gold medalist Mitchell deJong remains a perfect three-for-three in the Subaru iRX All-Star Invitational presented by Yokohama after winning Friday’s American Red Cross iRX California Classic. deJong beat defending iRX World Champion Sami-Matti Trogen and FIA World Rally Championship star Craig Breen after a controversial moment between Breen and deJong during the final cut short an intense battle for the lead.
A new race format saw a full inversion of heat grids from qualifying results, forcing the quickest drivers to carve their way through the pack. However, the fastest drivers still found a way to punch their tickets to the final quickly, with Christian Brooks, deJong, Scott Speed, and Kevin Swindell winning the heats and Yokohama Pole Position Award winner Sami-Matti Trogen and Travis Pastrana among the others to score immediate berths in the final. Breen and Alexander Rossi won the last chance qualifiers and would thus start on the front row in the main, which also featured the inversion.
In the main event, Breen and deJong took immediate Jokers and settled into the first two spots, with the Californian quickly closing on the Irish driver. On Lap 4, trouble struck, as the two drivers looked to set up for the corner before the jump with deJong approaching on a line to the inside of Breen. While the two cars didn’t make contact, Breen’s car ended up spinning in close proximity to deJong’s, and as a result deJong took a lead that he would hold for the rest of the race. Trogen later took his Joker Lap to jump to second, while Breen would recover quickly and hold off Cabot Bigham for the final podium spot.
Final results from the American Red Cross iRX California Classic were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Driver |
Car |
Laps |
Interval |
Led |
Best |
| 1 | 9 | 24 | Mitchell deJong | VW Beetle | 10 | 0 | 7 | 39.559 |
| 2 | 6 | 1 | Sami-Matti Trogen | Subaru WRX STI | 10 | -3.57 | 0 | 39.749 |
| 3 | 2 | 42 | Craig W Breen | Subaru WRX STI | 10 | -10.017 | 2 | 41.098 |
| 4 | 5 | 2 | Cabot Bigham | Subaru WRX STI | 10 | -10.4 | 0 | 40.297 |
| 5 | 8 | 41 | Scott Speed | Subaru WRX STI | 10 | -13.266 | 0 | 40.879 |
| 6 | 7 | 39 | Kevin Swindell | VW Beetle | 10 | -16.464 | 0 | 41.046 |
| 7 | 3 | 199 | Travis Pastrana | Subaru WRX STI | 10 | -23.705 | 1 | 41.884 |
| 8 | 1 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | VW Beetle | 10 | -41.286 | 0 | 42.847 |
| 9 | 4 | 77 | Parker Kligerman | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | 2 | -8 L | 0 | |
| 10 | 10 | 44 | Christian Brooks | Subaru WRX STI | 0 | -10 L | 0 |
Points through three rounds of the Subaru iRX All-Star Invitational presented by Yokohama are as follows:
- Mitchell deJong, 144
- Scott Speed, 87
- Christian Brooks, 63
- Sami-Matti Trogen, 53
- Conner Martell, 51
- Parker Kligerman, 47
- Cabot Bigham, 47
- Craig Breen, 43
- Kevin Swindell, 40
- Andreas Bakkerud, 39
The Subaru iRX All-Star Invitational presented by Yokohama returns next Friday at 6PM ET/3PM PT with a visit to Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. As always, the race will be streamed live on iRacing’s Facebook and Twitch pages, as well as the Facebook pages of competitors and the iRacing eSports Network on YouTube. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.
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