Yahoo Autos Bakkerud goes back-to-back in Nitrocross Salt Lake City
Andreas Bakkerud became the first driver to sweep both finals of a double-header weekend in Nitrocross at Utah Motorsports Campus on Sunday.
As with Saturday, Dreyer and Reinbold Racing JC driver Bakkerud started the final from pole position, and led teammate Robin Larsson into the first corner. From there, the pair held station for the remainder of the four-lap main.
Larsson, however did face intense pressure from Conner Martell on the final two laps, a duel which resulted in a huge crash for Martell which also collected Lia Block.
Coning into the final corner, Larsson and Martell were door-to-door with the Vermont SportsCar driver going wide and slamming into the pit wall. The resulting dust cloud covered the entire start/finish straight, leaving Block with zero visibility and she slammed into Martell’s sticken machine at full speed.
The crash handed Oliver Eriksson third place, ensuring a repeat of Saturday’s podium. Eriksson prevented a DRR podium sweep by getting by Fraser McConnel on the final lap after Jokering a lap later than the Jamaican to overlap.
Tanner Foust got by the late race crash to finish fourth, while Block was classified fifth after limping across the line, with Kevin Eriksson sixth after being bumped off the track just after the Joker merge on lap 1 following contact with McConnell.
McConnell was seventh after his late race fade, with Martell classified eighth – although he did take the fastest lap before he retired.
Larsson now assumes the points lead with a 12 point advantage over Oliver Eriksson, while Bakkerud-s back-to-back wins means he now sits third in the points, 28 off the top spot.
NITROCROSS SALT LAKE CITY II FINAL RESULTS
Mitchell De Jong dominated Sunday’s Nitrocross NEXT EVO final, after emerging from the first turn on the opening lap in the lead. He and Tommi Hallman entered the corner door-to-door, with De Jong edging past.
Hallman then had to defend from Casper Jansson, with the Finn managing to keep second ahead of the reigning NEXT champion.
Kainan Baker won the second Side-by-Side final of the weekend after getting by Kory Willis by alternating his Joker strategy, leaving it late to take the alternate route. Banks Hovey, another to Joker late, finished second, while Gray Leadbetter finished third.
Oliver Flemente won the second Baja Bugs final of the weekend ahead of Kyle Zirkus and Nick Eisenhouer.
