User blog:Ajaxcupseries/2022 Ajax Cup Quarterly Report - Post Arris 200 Edition

The Fallon Corner - March 2022

Its hard to believe after all of the anticipation, buildup, and hype for this season we are already now four races into the 2022 Ajax Cup campaign!

We’re starting to figure out some drivers who might just breakout this season and become serious title contenders, as well as seeing the potential regression of some drivers who have dominated the Cup scene for the past half decade.

This has led to four different drivers leading the points standings the opening four weeks, and what is shaping up to be one of the best championship battle in Cup history if this keeps up.

In this first quarterly report of the new season, we’ll take a look at some of the biggest surprises and disappointments so far in 2022, and preview some storylines to keep an eye on during the final three quarters of the year.

Pleasant Surprises of 2022
Current Top 2 in Points - Norm Lester/Ryan Dixon

While I did indeed predict that Norm Lester would win the championship this season, I don’t think many other people did, and I don’t think many people expected him to be leading the points at any point this season with a victory already in his back pocket!

Fans and pundits may have referred to Lester’s Windows 300 as a fluke due to Randle Woods’ engine expiring after he clearly had the dominant car, but Lester put those notions to bed in last Saturday’s Arris 200 when he passed Woods for the race lead with 25 laps to go and drove away for his first win of the new season.

Now leading the points for the first time in his Ajax Cup career, Lester has asserted himself as a true title contender amongst these young guns and with that veteran experience, might just be the favorite at this point.

However, a driver that’s even surprised me in how well he’s preformed in the first quarter of the new season is Ryan Dixon.

After the incredibly disappointing season he had last season where he was basically invisible on a weekly basis besides the Ajax 200 and at Blu-Ray, Dixon has struck back with a vengeance in 2022.

His last to first come from behind effort to capture the Ajax 200 kicked his new year off with a bang, and despite quiet outings at West Virginia and Advocare, a top 5 finish last Saturday and being one of only three drivers to not have recorded a DNF this year have him back up to 2nd in the standings, two markers back of Norm Lester.

While I’m not 100% sold that the 27 year old Australian will be a full on title contender throughout the final 12 races, I think it’d be foolish to write him off as a championship pretender though.

The next four points paying races at Denver, Belltown, the Streets of Computerville, and the Windows 300 will go a LONG way in figuring out if Dixon will be in the title hunt for the long haul. If he can score another victory at one of his better tracks in the AutoZone 200 or the Subway Grand Prix….it might be time to take Dixon seriously as an elite Ajax Cup talent again.

Chris Barrymore - 6th in Points

Don’t be fooled by his current spot in the standings, Chris Barrymore should ABSOLUTELY be leading the points right now.

The 24 year old’s West Virginia weekend sweep showed that his “choking” ways are seemingly a thing of the distant past, and his 7th place effort at Advocare Speedpark show that even at tracks he isn’t the greatest at, Barrymore can still pull out decent results.

The problem is he has a 16th place DNF from the Ajax 200, and now a 13th place DNF at The Stoneyard, which both were not Barrymore’s fault and both came while he was battling for the race lead.

Folks, its time to start taking Chris Barrymore seriously as an Ajax Cup star, and that’s not just because of the massive 4 year contract extension he signed a couple weeks ago.

If Barrymore’s bad luck can sort itself out and he can continue to string together top 10 finishes instead of completely disappearing at his worst tracks….you can best believe he’ll be a serious threat to take home the 2022 Ajax Cup Championship.

Derek Lewis - 7th in Points

You may barely see him or hear about him on a weekly basis, but make no mistake about it - Derek Lewis is currently quietly putting together a breakout sophomore campaign.

With three top 10 finishes and being one of only three drivers to still not have recorded a DNF this season, Lewis currently sits 7th in points, only six points behind 3rd place point man Todd Kidd in a Dexter Andrews Motorsports car!

Just let that sink in for a second.

I know its very early in the season and there’s still 12 races left. I know that Henry Brady is currently 10th in the standings and the highest Orkedi Bros Racing car in points right now so you have to take these early points with a grain of salt.

But if there’s any Dexter Andrews Motorsports car we expected to be ahead of big names such as defending champion Randle Woods and Nick Orkedi, it was certainly Laquon Scransen and not Lewis.

Just like in his Craftsman days, people continue to sleep on the Colorado native. And while he will most likely fall back to the bottom half of the top 15 once these big names get rolling in the next few weeks, I’ve taken notice to what he’s been able to do and so should ASCA team owners at this point.

Shocking Disappointments of 2022
Diego Orkedi - 20th in Points

Where do we even begin with this one.

Its rather hard to believe Diego Orkedi is a 31 year old with 11 seasons of experience, 20 career Ajax Cup victories, three Windows 300 wins, and three Ajax Cup championships under his belt that’s currently in the first season of an 8 year, 96 million dollar contract.

Because right now, he’s driving like the 19 year old rookie version of himself he was back in 2010.

SEVEN DNF’s in his last 16 starts, all due to crash damage show that clearly something is amiss right now with Orkedi’s normally incredibly successful aggressive driving style. Especially after rewatching the film and seeing that five of those seven accidents were Orkedi’s fault and incredibly avoidable.

Last season, despite all the off track shenanigans he was involved in Orkedi looked like he was at the top of his game. Scoring a career high four victories in the first 10 races of the season, outside of his run-in’s with Jared Ayers he wasn’t really involved in any weekly on track drama besides that.

However, this seemed to all change at the start of the 2021 Northern 200, when as the pole sitter Orkedi cut off Ryan Braun in turns 1 & 2 and wrecked himself, Braun, his older brother Nick Orkedi, and Jimmy Hood. In typical Diego fashion he blamed the entire incident on Braun and many of us thought nothing of it, but the entanglement seemed to have sparked the downward spiral he has been on ever since.

Orkedi would proceed to be involved in an incident with Norm Lester on a restart in the Apple 225 a couple weeks later, and would rack up his next DNF in the season finale when he made contact with Randle Woods in what seemed like an attempt to wreck him and was promptly pile driven into the turn 4 Belltown wall by Woods’ teammate Jared Ayers.

This season though, Orkedi has reverted back to the late 2010’s version of himself which so far seems to be backfiring massively on him. Maybe karma has finally done its thing?

Notable egregious reckless driving moments include an incident in the Intel Shootout where Orkedi dumped Randle Woods, as well as his involvement in the lap 1 accident with Nick Painter where he clearly came up the track trying to avoid the wreck and turned himself into the wall.

This all culminated in Saturday’s Arris 200, where Orkedi was clearly frustrated from lap 22 onwards about his car, berating his team per usual but also taking out his anger on his competitors.

An uncontrolled tire penalty under a lap 64 pit stop cost Orkedi his 3rd place track position, and for the rest of the afternoon he was a man on a mission to get it back.

Not exactly by passing cars like a normal driver. Nah. Instead, he decided he would use his car as a bulldozer to get back to the front.

On lap 89, while battling for 9th place Orkedi put Jared Ayers into the wall, which led to Ayers cutting a tire down a short while later and bringing out a caution. On the ensuing lap 118 restart, Orkedi decided it’d be a great idea to take Shane Park and Brynn Rennerd THREE WIDE entering turn one. I think you can guess how well that went.

The lap 125 restart after that saw Randle Woods door Orkedi heading into turn 1, which created a tire rub on the three time champion’s left rear.

Instead of pitting to change said tire going down like Orkedi berated Laquon Scransen for not doing in the Ajax 200, the six time Stoneyard winner chose to stay on track and actually caught Chris Barrymore for the race lead. Of course right as he was looking underneath Barrymore for the lead in turn 1, the tire blew and wrecked them both.

I summarize all this to say these are incidents we expect to see ROOKIES involved in.

Laquon Scransen has gotten a lot of flack for his aggressive driving to start this season, but you have to remember he’s a 19 year old rookie with only four Cup starts under his belt.

What exactly is the highest paid driver in the ASCA’s excuse for driving with his head stuck up his you know what like this?

Its incredibly ironic the Orkedi made the post race tweet he did after the Advocare 200 that his competitors don’t know how to drive.

Clearly he needs to look in the mirror and clean up his act himself. Because right now HE’S the danger to the sport that he speaks of on a weekly basis.

If the 31 year old wants ANY chance of seriously competing for his fourth title this season, he needs to clean up his act ASAP and stop letting his anger get the best of him before he does seriously injure somebody out there.

Jimmy Hood - 18th in Points

I think its safe to say that Jimmy Hood’s final Ajax Cup season has certainly not gone to plan so far.

Two DNF’s in the opening four races, a best finish of 9th, and an 18th place current points position have some questioning whether or not the 36 year old used up everything he had left in the tank last season.

While its certainly not too late for him to recover and potentially compete for his third title if this championship battle remains as chaotic as it currently is, the lack of speed this No. 88 camp has shown to start 2022 has to be incredibly concerning.

Hood was expected to be a serious contender for the victory in his final Advocare 200 start especially after starting 4th and running as high as 2nd early, but instead he was a non factor all night long while his young teammate Todd Kidd dominated the race.

If the sport’s four time most popular driver can’t rack up a couple top 10 finishes at two of his better tracks in Denver and most certainly Belltown…..Hood’s farewell tour could quickly become very ugly extremely quickly.

Jared Ayers - 19th in Points

Its rather incredible how quickly 2022 has gone from a fairytale to a complete disaster for Jared Ayers.

Ayers had a historically dominant Speedweeks to kick off the new season with a second place in the Intel Shootout and victories in his Arris Duel and the Craftsman season opener, but things started to head downhill after Ayers was caught up in a crash trying to block Chris Barrymore for the race lead in the Ajax 200 after leading a race high 66 laps.

Since then the 23 year old has found himself in more controversy every single week following this, failing qualifying inspection at West Virginia and having to start from the rear of the field, being involved in a lap 1 incident with Laquon Scransen at Advocare Speedpark, and then of course last week being a victim of another run-in with Diego Orkedi.

Before the season, many pundits speculated that the many rivalries Ayers has developed over the years trying to prove that he will not be “pushed around” might come back to haunt him in 2022, and so far this certainly seems to be the case.

Picking fights with drivers like Diego Orkedi and Laquon Scransen may seem like a good idea in theory to “teach them a lesson”, but not if you have something to lose like Ayers clearly does.

Notice how the young stars that are right up there competing for the championship this season haven’t gotten themselves embroiled in controversy and rivalries with other drivers?

If Ayers wants to salvage what’s left of this season and at least put together a respectable points finish, his best bet is to calm down and start playing nice instead of picking fights with others he’s destined to lose.