McConnell Becomes Fourth Nitro RX Winner in Four Rounds at Glen Helen
The first repeat winner in the history of Nitro Rallycross’ Group E class will have to wait at least two more weeks after Sunday’s final at Glen Helen Raceway, as Dreyer & Reinbold Racing driver Fraser McConnell led the second podium sweep for his team of the season with a checkered flag in the six-lap feature. McConnell, points leader Robin Larsson, and Andreas Bakkerud were split by under two seconds as they repeated their feat from Strangnas Motorstadion earlier this summer, albeit with a different winner atop the box.
McConnell’s win was the ultimate result of a perfect weekend, in which he started with a perfect battle bracket Saturday and top qualifier trophy. McConnell survived battles with Xite Energy Racing’s Oliver Bennett and Olsbergs MSE’s Kevin and Oliver Eriksson to come out on top of that group, before joining Larsson as a Sunday heat winner and taking his front row final starting spot to victory.
For Vermont SportsCar’s Travis Pastrana and Bennett’s teammate Jenson Button, though, it was a weekend to forget. Button was withdrawn from the weekend early after taking heavy damage in early weekend practice, leaving just eight entries in the field and no pressure for anyone to make the main event—provided they could survive that far. But after multiple incidents on Sunday, last year’s Supercar winner Pastrana missed the green light for the last chance qualifier and pulled off immediately after attempting to start after the rest of the field. The result was a seven-car final, with Pastrana not able to compete and falling to sixth in points.
On the side-by-side front, Pastrana’s results were slightly more encouraging. Finishes of second to Brian Deegan on Saturday and first ahead of Gregoire Michaud on Sunday gave him a 12-point lead over Michaud in the standings. While Deegan and Pastrana are tied with two wins apiece, only Pastrana and Michaud have been on the podium in each of the four SxS rounds so far. Lia Block’s SxS debut, meanwhile, ended with finishes of seventh and fifth.
With this year’s dominant NRX Next driver Tommi Hallman not on the grid for Glen Helen, since the European Championship had already wrapped up, a pair of different drivers were finally able to crack the top spot this year. George Megennis and Casper Jansson, both of whom had taken race wins in the 2021 season, each got back onto the top step of the podium once over the weekend. Megennis’ 1-2 finishes gave him a 16-point lead on Jansson coming out of the event, 128-112.
While the gap between the previous event at ERX Motor Park in Minnesota and Glen Helen was almost a month, Nitro Rallycross fans will only have two weeks to wait for the series to run its next event, a return to Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Arizona on November 12-13. Former NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott will return to the series and make his Group E debut as part of the event, just days after trying to win his second title in three years at Phoenix Raceway this coming weekend, while Larsson will look to extend his 23-point gap on Bakkerud in the championship.