It’s On! Martell and VSC Kick off Nitrocross season in Richmond, VA
Vermont SportsCar headed to Richmond, Virginia for the Nitrocross season opener last weekend, with Conner Martell returning to the Group E class once again.
Richmond not only marked Nitrocross’ return east of the Mississippi for the first time since 2021, but a return to a NASCAR track for a US-based rallycross series.
The course at ‘America’s Premier Short Track’ featured a 60;40 split of pavement and dirt, measuring 1.240 miles, and encompassing all four turns of the banked oval, along with an infield dirt section, and the series’ signature gap jump on the start-finish straight.
Martell’s weekend got off to a fine start, with victory in the first qualifying race of the year ahead of Oliver Eriksson, Fraser McConnell, and Lia Block. That propelled him straight into the final qualifying session of Round 1, where he locked in a third row spot in the final. From there, a podium was a real possibility.
Unfortunately, a botched start dropped him to the back of the field early on, but a fine climb back through the field – on a track that proved to be difficult to overtake on, no less – saw him rally back to fourth by the end of Saturday’s final. The result highlighted the doubtless pace Martell had in his pocket, even if he ultimately came away without a medal.
Sunday was different. Overnight track changes brought about a reprofiled Turn 3 after the tabletop jump, along with a new right-left-right chicane ahead of the gap jump to control speeds over the leap. A cautious approach to the revised track in qualifying resulted in a position deep in the field, but Martell proved to be a quick learner, defeating two-time Nitrocross champion and four-time US rallycross champ Tanner Foust.
The pace and the promise remained evident. In the final Martell made a strong start and vaulted to third, early on. The hope was short-lived, however, with contact from Andreas Bakkerud bringing an early end to the VSC driver’s race.
“We had really good pace all weekend, we were definitely one of the top-three quickest cars throughout both days,” said Martell, “but unfortunately in all the important races nothing went our way. In the semi on Saturday we were P2 and got clipped from behind by Viktor [Vranckx] and got third. Went right to the final, which is great – started row 3, not exactly where we wanted to be, then on that first lap I got into Vranckx and finished P4 but got a penalty because of the contact.
“On Sunday we had not a great first qualifying but won our second group, got second place in the heat, started P4 in the semi, and started on the outside in the final. We were P3 by Turn 2 and then got clipped by Bakkerud and got spun around and that gave us a flat tire.
“So it was really unfortunate, we’ll regroup and be ready for Salt Lake City, Utah.”
The Nitrocross season resumes on October 5-6 with a return to Utah Motorsports Campus near Salt Lake City – the spiritual home of Nitrocross and where the discipline began back in 2018. The track is a wider, faster layout than Richmond, and Martell will be looking to build on the promise shown in Virginia to better his seventh and sixth placed finishes there last season.
“Last year I was the quickest by quite a bit on that first day, so we’re hoping to be as quick as we were last year with better luck. I’m just going to hope for the best, forget about Rounds 1 and 2 and move onto Salt Lake City.
“Big shout out to the team, they did a great job keeping the car out there on the track and making that thing seem like it was on rails so we’ll do the same next time out.”
