Trogen Wins the Battle, deJong the War in Feeding America iRX Grand Finale
May 18th, 2020 by Chris Leone
Williams Esports’ Sami-Matti Trogen took his second victory in three weeks, besting the field at Hell Lankebanen to wrap up the Subaru iRX All-Star Invitational presented by Yokohama in the Feeding America iRX Grand Finale. FIA World Rally Championship star Craig Breen finished second, while Loenbro Motorsports’ Travis PeCoy held off four-time US rallycross champion Scott Speed for the final podium position and Mitchell deJong once again celebrated the championship, which he had locked up in the previous week with a victory in Atlanta.
With the largest field of the season at 27 cars, the fight for a spot in the 10-car final was bound to be messy. Trogen earned his fourth consecutive Yokohama Pole Award and won the first heat to punch his ticket to the final, with deJong, Speed, and PeCoy winning the other three. Breen held off IndyCar stars James Hinchcliffe and Conor Daly in the first last chance qualifier, while two-time Supercross champion Chad Reed beat three-time Mint 400 winner Justin Lofton to win the other.
Early contact between deJong and Atlanta runner-up Sage Karam negatively affected both drivers’ chances at winning the feature, with deJong and Christian Brooks each pulling off early with damage. PeCoy took the early lead over Trogen, but the Finnish RX Lites standout made the pass on Lap 5 and never looked back. Breen finally made his move into second on the final lap, while Speed came within half a second of locking out the podium for Subaru drivers.
Results from the Feeding America iRX Grand Finale were as follows:
- Sami-Matti Trogen, #1 Chillblast/Williams Esports, 10 laps
- Craig Breen, #42 VRA Racing, -2.406
- Travis PeCoy, #3 VP Racing Fuels/Loenbro Motorsports, -2.763
- Scott Speed, #41 Subaru Motorsports USA, -3.386
- Cabot Bigham, #02 DirtFish/Jim Beaver eSports, -9.142
- Sage Karam, #24 WIX Filters, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, -14.207
- Kevin Hansen, #71 Red Bull/YellowSquad RX, -14.779
- Chad Reed, #22 cbdMD/Mountain Motorsports/Boost Mobile, -27.721
- Mitchell deJong, #24 VRS Coanda Simsport, DNF
- Christian Brooks, #44 Feeding America, DNF
Final points for the Subaru iRX All-Star Invitational presented by Yokohama were as follows. The top three drivers in the field will see a combined $10,000 of charitable donations made on their behalf to charities of their choice:
- Mitchell deJong, 229
- Sami-Matti Trogen, 171
- Scott Speed, 148
- Craig Breen, 110
- Parker Kligerman, 84
- Travis PeCoy, 81
- Cabot Bigham, 81
- Christian Brooks, 77
- Conner Martell, 71
- Kevin Hansen, 55
- Sage Karam, 53
- Kevin Swindell, 51
- Brandon Semenuk, 49
- Ryan Truex, 48
- Andreas Bakkerud, 39
- Garrett Smithley, 39
- Alexander Rossi, 38
- James Hinchcliffe, 37
- Travis Pastrana, 31
- Nitro Circus Star Car, 31
- Chad Reed, 29
- Ron Capps, 25
- Conor Daly, 22
- Tyler Menninga, 22
- Chris Atkinson, 19
- Justin Lofton, 16
- Blake “Bilko” Williams, 14
- Tim Stevens, 6
- Greg Biffle, 6
- Ceso Bagay, 4
- Oriol Servia, 3
- Travis Okulski, 3
- Mike Krahulik, 2
Plans for future iRX events will be revealed in the coming weeks. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.