Nitrocross got the weekend started with Round 6 on Saturday in Glen Helen and as the sun set on the track, so did most of my expectations. The racing was awesome, as usual, but it was the behind the scenes technical issues that continues to frustrate myself and a multitude of fans who would like to watch the race with no glitches.
The racing kicked off with Robin Larsson snagging the Top Qualifier spot over Oliver Eriksson but his good luck would run out. Gaining the TQ also handed Larsson the championship points lead but in the 2nd Semi Final, he spun in the Joker Lap, forcing him to fight his way in through the LCQ, which ended up being a positioning race for the DRR team.
In Semi Final 1, Oliver Eriksson set the pace and managed to win, giving him that P1 position in the Main. Viktor Vrankx made his much anticipated debut but struggled to keep pace throughout and came to the finish in 4th.
Semi Final 2 went to Kevin Eriksson setting up an all Eriksson front row for the main. Larsson spun in the Joker Lap, citing a dark spot with limited visibility as the issue. Andreas Bakkerud led the race until taking the Joker, giving the lead and the transfer up to Eriksson. Brian Deegan was in the race at the beginning but fell off as did Travis Pastrana, who seemingly struggled with the car all night.
Shortly after the Baja Bugs final, racing had to be halted due to high winds that had terrorized the track all night, causing swirling dust and limited visibility. The reason behind the pause in racing had to do with the Race Control tower, which is constructed of scaffolding. Once the officials were removed from the tower, racing resumed.
When racing continued, the first LCQ got underway and was controlled by Conner Martell, with Pastrana finishing P2 and Deegan P3. Vrankx failed to transfer after spinning and hitting a wall, bringing his Nitrocross debut to an early end. The second LCQ was nothing more than a positioning race for DRR teammates Larsson, Bakkerud and McConnell and was won by Bakkerud.
In the NXT Final, Casper Jansson continued his winning ways scoring his fourth win in a row, managing to hold off a hard charging Lia Block who spent most of the race all over his bumper and scoring her third podium in a row with a P2 before moving seats to Pastrana’s VSC Group E car for round 7.
The Group E Main would be nothing short of chaotic at the start after Kevin Eriksson got into Andreas Bakkerud’s quarter panel enough to cause both to lose control. Bakkerud tagged the wall and spun while Eriksson managed less consequence. Oliver Eriksson proved he has the pace to be a contender, scoring the win. Conner Martell didn’t go down without a fight and battled Eriksson right down to the final corner but couldn’t make a pass and finished P2. New championship points leader Robin Larsson brought home a P3.
After the race there was much controversy surrounding the incident involving Bakkerud and Eriksson. This was the third incident in the last three races between the two and the first two incidents left both parties somewhat heated. This incident would thankfully be viewed by different perspectives and recognized for what it was: Nothing more than a racing incident. I don’t see the rivalry here, other than hard racing and vying for a championship. I think what has been said has been enough on the matter…unless something more blatant happens between the two.
All in all, Round 6 was everything I thought it would be. Including the terrible broadcast, which I would like to take a second to address. I can’t believe, for the life of me, that those in charge at Nitrocross don’t think to test their stream before going live or whatever is necessary to make sure that, when thousands of people are clicking the link on Rumble, the stream works. Everytime I clicked it, my screen went blue and said Error. Yet, I could leave the Nitrocross page up and the thumbnail video played fine. I couldn’t really watch the racing so I had to listen to the commentary to know anything. I went on Facebook to see if there was anything on the Nitrocross page and saw live postings where other fans expressed their discontent with the livestream issues with no response from whoever was doing the posting from the Nitrocross team. I am personally hoping that the livestream issues were due to the storms and wind that wreaked havoc on the track all day.
With that said, on to Round 7.
