PGRL S4 R5 Recap
21 March 2023
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 4 | Round 5
Premier Series | Atlanta Motor Speedway
Scott Eckrich with Loud Pedal Motorsports claimed his first win of the season tonight in the Everything Gets Better with Age 250 presented by GamingGuyL with the Pretty Good Racing League at Atlanta Motor Speedway ahead of Jeff Ward and Adam Jurski “This is one of those tracks where you can definitely undercut but with the aero the way it is if you get stuck behind somebody if you try to over cut it you just you don’t really get a lot of gains so you gotta get kind of luck on that front”, Eckrich shared with us regarding his pitting strategy “It’s a super fine line you gotta run to not blow the right rear off and also, you know, maintain the lead for those guys ripping the lip on the restarts and stuff”
Creighton Carter started off on the pole to take the green flag with Kevin Bartelt to his outside. Alex Graetz didn’t waste any time jumping out ahead to take the lead away from Carter going into the 2nd lap. Cody Dempster was aggressively pushing up through the field on his way to the front up 2 spots from his 6th place starting position and closing on Cosmin Ioanesiu. Graetz had extended his lead out to almost 2 seconds with the first 10 laps completed when he lost his car in the corner and went sliding across the infield handing the lead of the race over to Ioanesiu.
Saif Faires was making a hard charge through the field battling Bartelt for 3rd from his starting position back in 13th. Dempster continued his strong pace and had slowly reeled the leader in 30 laps into the run and was able to clear around Ioanesiu after several intense laps. The first driver to come down pit road was Thomas George on lap 40 trying to undercut the field as the rest of the field came down for their stops a few cars at a time over the next 10 laps as differing strategies split the field up.
George inherited the lead up 32 spots from his 33rd place starting position when the pit cycle was complete with Michael Chrobok in 2nd place almost 2 seconds behind him. Eckrich had cleared around Chrobok and was quickly closing on George with the fresher tires between the two drivers taking the lead away fairly effortlessly on lap 58. Eckrich was pushing his equipment trying to break away from Chrobok behind him building up a large gap between them to secure the bonus stage points going into the 2nd half of the night.
Chrobok and Jeff Ward battled over 2nd place as George was again the first to come down pit road looking to undercut the field again. The first caution of the night came out as Dempster lost control of his car going 90 laps into the run giving Eckrich, and many other drivers, an opportune chance to come down pit road while holding onto the lead for the restart. Racing resumed with 64 laps remaining with Eckrich jumping out to a strong lead ahead of Ward.
Ward was pressuring Eckrich for the lead with Ioanesiu close behind as the top 3 broke away from the rest of the field. Ward got to the inside of Eckrich but couldn’t complete the move with the laps quickly counting down. Going into the last 30 laps, the drivers started working through their last pit cycle. Eckrich was again one of the last cars to come down pit road rejoining the track in 12th. George’s early stop strategy that he’s been running all night put him up into 7th for the last stretch.
Eckrich was making quick work of traffic on his way back up to the front. Eckrich cleared around Adam Jurski into 2nd place and was closing on the rear bumper of Ward for the lead. Going into lap 151, Eckrich dove low to get under Ward to take away the lead and started pulling away from Ward. Coming out of the final corner, Scott Eckrich took the checkered flag 1.9 seconds ahead of Jeff Ward. Adam Jurski, Michael Chrobok, and Will Farmer Jr round out the top 5 tonight at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Vincent Crow holds onto the lead in the point standings with 312 points with Michael Chrobok in 2nd place trailing 17 points behind. Scott Eckrich moves up 2 spots into 3rd with 294 points, Thomas George sits in 4th with 278, and Adam Jusrki rounds out the top 5 with 276 points. The Pretty Good Racing League next heads to Circuit of the Americas for the “It’ll Be Something Grand Prix presented by Brian Yaczik” on March 28th with all the action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL LM S21 R11 Recap
18 March 2023
Bootleg Racing League | Season 21 | Round 11
Late Model Series | Five Flags Speedway
Joseph Snyder with Rougarou Racing took his first win in the series and the final checkered flag of the season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Late Model Series presented by Gargamel’s Kitchen at Five Flags Speedway ahead of Mike Holloway and Michael Goodman. “All I worked on this week was saving tires and I guess it paid off there because the guys I let by early, they kind of lost their tires and I got back into it”, Snyder shared with us as drivers were putting their cars on the trailers.
Michael Goodman threw down the quickest lap in qualifying clocked at 16.679 starting the night off in 10th from the Bootleg Racing League grid invert with Kevin Nunn sitting on the pole. “It’s a little bit of pressure”, Nunn commented before returning to his car to grid up, “I did learn a lot last week since I had the front tire blow at 82 laps, so I know I’m going to try to conserve a bit more this time around.” Coming out of turn 4, Nunn had a strong launch and quickly went single file ahead of Donny Moore.
Most of the field shuffled to get slotting in single file in the opening laps looks to preserve their equipment with so many laps ahead of them. Mathew Thunhorst was running back in 10th and was patiently taking one position after another as he moved up through the field. Moore took advantage of a mistake made by Nunn on lap 16 to overtake for the lead resulting in Nunn getting stuck on the outside and dropping far down in the running order. Snyder looking under Moore but could make it work allowing Lowell Jewell to take a look under Snyder pushing him back to 8th before slotting back in line behind Michael Goodman.
Thunhorst was up to 5th with the first 30 laps completed as Moore continued to lead the field around with Jewell tight on his bumper. Lowell saw his chance and dove low taking the lead going into lap 35 with Todd Liston following him through. Thunhorst took advantage of the situation to get around into 3rd place. Thunhorst started to turn up the aggression getting around Liston for 2nd and closing on Jewell only 40 laps into the night. Going into lap 42, Thunhorst secured the lead and started to break away from the rest of the field with Jewell and Liston still running 2nd and 3rd.
Matt Hoose was up 5 spots running in 4th and quickly closing on Liston going into the 2nd half of the night with Snyder close behind making a strong recovery. Liston was able to get a nose under Jewell with Hoose following him through pushing Jewell back to 4th with Stephen Spies closing the gap with a group of cars following him as the field merged back together from 2nd place back to 10th. Thunhorst had nearly a 3 second lead going into lap 60 as Hoose overtook Liston for 2nd.
With the laps quickly counting down, Thunhorst had extended his lead out to over 5 seconds with 25 laps remaining. Hoose still held onto 2nd place with Michael Goodman now running in 3rd. Spies was under pressure from Snyder making a strong charge back to front of the pack. Snyder continued his impressive pace making quick work of the drivers ahead clearing into 2nd place with 14 laps to go. Going into the final 10 laps, the gap between Snyder and Thunhorst was shrinking quickly.
Snyder continued to push in the final moments gaining on Thunhorst fast closing by 0.4 seconds each lap. Snyder caught Thunhorst in turn 3 making contact just as the caution flag and white flag came out together when Thunhorst had to check up unexpectedly with his right front tire giving out. Joseph Snyder lead the drivers around the final lap under caution to take the checkered flag with Mike Holloway, Michael Goodman, Kurt Smith, and Mathew Thunhorst round out the top 5 tonight at Five Flags Speedway.
J R Shepherd ran away in the point standings taking the season championship tonight with 471 points. Michael Goodman held onto 2nd place with 419 points. Lowell Jewell secured 3rd place with 377 points over Mathew Thunhorst with 344 points. Joseph Snyder rounds out the top 5 drivers with 342 points going into the final round of the season. Next season for the Bootleg Racing League kicks off at New Smyrna Speedway on March 25th with all of the intense racing action brought to you live at 9PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSLM S1 R11 Recap
17 March 2023
Bootleg Racing League | Season 1 | Round 11
Dirt Super Late Model Series | Lanier National Speedway
Aiden Young with Gambler Motorsports took the final checkered flag tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Super Late Model finale at Lanier National Speedway ahead of teammates John Heyn and Stephen Spies. “I was just having fun, having a blast out there kind of looking at the rear view looking at my teammates battle it out,” Young shared with us as the night came to a close.
Aiden Young threw down the fastest lap in qualifying at 13.178 jumping to the top of the timing and scoring boards ahead of his Gambler Motorsports teammates Stephen Spies and John Heyn. The 3 chased each other through the heat with Young able to take the win securing the pole for the upcoming feature event. Spies followed it up by winning the B Main consolation race to wrap up the preliminary events before the 30-lap feature event began.
Young took the green flag and again found himself being hunted by his teammates as the 3 Gambler Motorsports drivers pulled away from the rest of the field to battle amongst themselves for the lead. Spies looked to the inside of Young several times but wasn’t able to make anything of it before being forced to run defensively as Heyn started looking around him for 2nd.
The battling over 2nd place allowed Young to start to pull away with the lead with Spies and Heyn trying both high and low lines looking for speed. Going into the 2nd half of the night, Heyn and Spies were still battling each other for position as Young took advantage of the situation to run away with the lead… Young was almost 1 second ahead of the rest of the field with 10 laps to go.
On lap 25, Heyn threw a slider to clear ahead of Spies forcing Spies to checkup hard to avoid serious contact. Coming around to take the white flag, Aiden Young completed the final lap unchallenged taking the checkered flag with John Heyn, Stephen Spies, John Wilson, and Michael Smith rounding out the top 5 tonight at Lanier National Speedway.
Jason Dill walks away with the season championship tonight with 725 points after fight through mechanical issues. Aiden Young was able to move up to 2nd place with 697. Thomas Vickers fell back to 3rd with 671 points, Stephen Spies jumped up to 4th with 594 points, and Michael Smith rounds out the top 5 with 592 points. The Bootleg Racing League has closed the doors on dirt racing but is coming back next week on the asphalt for the new Super Late Model Series on March 24th for 200 laps of action at New Smyrna Speedway with all of the action brought to you live at 8:10PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S14 R11 Recap
17 March 2023
Bootleg Racing League | Season 14 | Round 11
Dirt Street Stock Series | Lanier National Speedway
Billy Northcutt with Dirt Panda claimed the final checkered flag in a bittersweet moment for the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Lanier National Speedway at Lanier National Speedway ahead of John Heyn and Jason Best. “Anytime that I can win in here… it’s just a blast for me and for my family and everybody who watches so yeah that was definitely a great way to go out on that”, Northcutt shared with us as the night came to a close, “That track’s always just been probably my best track, the one I’ve run the most laps at… kind of feels like that hometown track, you know.”
“I don’t think anything will compare to the fun and camaraderie that we had here so if I jump right into something else, I feel like I would just hate it… I kind of want to miss it before I start jumping into all that”, Northcutt commented in regards to future plans within sim racing as the finality of the moment started to set in, “When I joined this league to run I told my mom that I was never going to win in here because everyone was too good and she never got to see me race in it, but here we are. I won a lot of races in here and it was really a lot of fun and I’m going to miss it.”
Billy Northcutt came into the evening strong throwing down the fastest lap in qualifying at 16.458 and dominating the first heat to secure the pole in the upcoming feature event. John Heyn showed the field why he’s known as “The Professor” as he took the field to school claiming the checkered flag in the 2nd heat over Chris Hill. Jason Best broke away from the field to take the win in the B Main consolation race wrapping up the preliminary events of the night.
Leading the field out of turn 4, Northcutt took the green flag for the final time as the field roared into the first corner with Northcutt quickly cleared ahead of Heyn. Chris Davis was running side by side with Hill over 3rd place claiming the position going into lap 3 with Best looking to follow him through. Aiden Young and Jeffery Hardin battled hard over 6th place directly behind the battle between Best and Hill.
Best secured 4th and immediately went after Davis in 3rd diving low. Hill fell back further as he found himself in a 3-wide battle for 4th. Best cleared into 3rd as Young moved up into 5th and was looking to challenge Davis ahead of him. Hill cleared Hardin for 6th moving forward as the field crossed the halfway point of the night. Northcutt had more than a 1 second lead over Heyn with another full second from Heyn back to Best with all of the action happening from 4th on back through the field.
Stephen Spies was working on making up for a rough start to the night climbing up from the back of the field trying to working his way around Hunter Hill for 10th. Young closed the gap to Davis and was pressuring looking for a way to get under Davis for 4th but Davis was defending well going into the final laps. Best was slowly reeling Heyn in setting his sights on 2nd place with 5 laps remaining. Taking the white flag, Billy Northcutt had a commanding lead over the field taking the checkered flag 1.3 seconds ahead of John Heyn. Jason Best, Chris Davis, and Aiden Young round out the top 5 tonight at Lanier National Speedway.
Billy Northcutt finished up the final season of the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series as the season champion with 734 points. Jason Best held onto 2nd place with 603 points. Chris Hill moved up into 3rd place with 520 points as Jeffrey Hardin dropped back to 4th with 519 points and Aiden Young rounds out the top 5 with 514 points. The Bootleg Racing League has closed the doors on dirt racing but is coming back next week on the asphalt for the new Super Late Model Series on March 24th for 200 laps of action at New Smyrna Speedway with all of the action brought to you live at 8:10PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S4 R4 Recap
14 March 2023
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 4 | Round 4
Premier Series | Phoenix Raceway
Adam Jurski with Steel Horse Racing takes the checkered flag tonight in the MARSS Properties Vacation Rentals 250k with the Pretty Good Racing League at Phoenix Raceway ahead of Scott Eckrich and Vincent Crow. “I just had to believe there wouldn’t be a caution, which I wasn’t 100% sure there wouldn’t be at the very end there, but things just played out”, Jurski shared with us at the end of the night, “It kind of got strung out single file up front and it was fairly easy to drive to the front, so I can’t complain about that.”
Clarence Bonner with Apex Simsport led the 30-car field around to take the green flag with Alex Graetz to his outside. Bonner was able to clear out ahead of the field off the jump, but Graetz stayed close behind and started challenging for the lead only 4 laps into the run with Ryan Rose closing the gap to the leaders. Cody Dempster was making a hard charge toward the front early up to 4th going into lap 16 with multiple drivers running very aggressively early on.
Many of the rookie drivers were charging up through the field while familiar names from previous seasons were showing restraint patiently running further back in the running order seemingly knowing something that wasn’t apparent to the others. An incident in the middle of the field brought the first caution of the night with 24 laps behind them allowing everyone an early pit stop for tires that most drivers took advantage of. Going back to green on lap 28, Dempster quickly overtook Ryan Rose for the lead off the jump.
Michael Chrobok was pushing up quickly to challenge Dempster for the lead coming up to the halfway point taking control of the field on lap 57. Mike Rasimas was working hard to reel Chrobok back in pressuring the leader but wasn’t able to make anything of it before getting loose and falling back over 1 second behind Chrobok who was able to claim the bonus stage points just in time as a caution came out a few laps later halting the action with the majority of drivers opting to come back through pit road.
Chrobok was still in control of the field to take the green flag starting off the 2nd half of the night going into lap 85 ahead of Thomas George. Chrobok was able to defend the lead going forward as the familiar names decided it was time to go to include Scott Eckrich, Woody Mahan, Jeff Ward, and Mike Rasimas finding themselves running single file in 3rd through 6th place directly behind George and Chrobok. George was starting to struggle a bit as Eckrich, Mahan, and Ward all cleared around George with around 50 laps to go.
Going into the last 30 laps, Ward got out of shape and made hard contact with the outside wall bringing out another caution. Chrobok made a rare error on pit road costing him time and falling back to 4th as he rejoined the track. Eckrich was in control of the field as racing resumed jumping out to a strong lead with Chrobok going 3-wide over 2nd place overtaking both Rasimas and Brian Yaczik for the position.
A late race caution came out when Yaczik lost his car from contact with the apron sending himself around in turn 4. The top 7 drivers stayed out on track with Adam Jurski being the first driver in line with fresh tires running in 8th as the green flag came back out for the final time with 8 laps remaining. Eckrich had another strong start but Jurski was carving through the field quickly closing on the leader. Adam Jurski was able to take the lead away from Scott Eckrich going into final 2 laps and ran away with the lead to take the checkered flag with Vincent Crow, Jordan Harnish, and Mike Rasimas rounding out the top 5 tonight at Phoenix Raceway.
Vincent Crow holds onto the lead in the point standings with 276 points. Michael Chrobok jumps up 4 spots into 2nd with 229 poitns after a strong run tonight. Thomas George reclaims 3rd with 222 points, Adam Jurski leaps up 6 spots into 4th with 215 points after tonight’s win and is now tied with Scott Eckrich in the points rounding out the top 5. The Pretty Good Racing League next heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the “Everything Gets Better with Age 250 presented by GamingGuyL” on March 21st with all the action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL LM S21 R10 Recap
11 March 2023
Bootleg Racing League | Season 21 | Round 10
Late Model Series | South Boston Speedway
J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took another win tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Late Model Series at South Boston Speedway ahead of Kenny Kibbey and Matt Hoose. “Definitely a new car, completely different than the old limited late model”, Shepherd commented at the end of the night, “The gameplan from the beginning was just to try to run a decent pace and not abuse that right front.”
J R Shepherd continues his streak of qualifying at the top of the boards with a fast lap put down at 15.173 starting the night off in 10th with the Bootleg Racing League grid invert giving control of the field over to Bryan Dehn to take the green flag. Ruben Altice started alongside Dehn on the outside and was able to slot in behind the leader off the jump, but an opening lap caution took away his strong start as multiple drivers came together going into the first corner blocking the track.
Several drivers were caught up in the incident, but drivers such as Kenny Kibbey and Shepherd slipped through to take the green flag from 4th and 5th going into lap 8 with Dehn still in control of the field. As racing resumed, Altice wasn’t as lucky with Joseph Snyder getting a nose under him off the jump with Shepherd and Donny Moore both lining up to follow him through. Kibbey was able to get down behind Snyder knocking Altice further and further back until Altice was able to drop down in front of Todd Liston in 6th.
Matt Hoose was up to 11th from starting 23rd and was quietly moving up through the field with the first 20 laps completed. Kibbey struggled to get around Moore as Dehn, Snyder, and Shepherd started to pull away with the lead building over 1 second between themselves and Moore. The laps started to quickly count down as the drivers settled into their grooves and got more comfortable with the new Late Model Stock with the field starting to spread out around the track.
Shepherd cleared into 2nd place on lap 33 and set his sights to Dehn as Kibbey worked to slowly reel the leaders in. Dehn was negotiating through dense lap traffic with Shepherd pressuring him going into lap 40. Shepherd was aggressively looking under and was able to eventually get his nose to the inside and take the lead away on lap 43 with Snyder trying to take advantage and get 2nd place away. Kibbey had caught the battle for 2nd and patiently waiting for an opening before clearing around Dehn into 3rd.
Going into the 2nd half of the night, Shepherd was starting to walk away with the lead as Kibbey dove under Snyder for 2nd over 1 second behind the leader. Jeffery Hardin was one of the drivers caught up in the opening incident and was now making his way back up through the field up to 7th showing a strong pace. Shepherd continued to pull away from Kibbey lap after lap with lap traffic at all points around the track. Hardin continued his push to the front climbing up to 6th and pressuring Stephen Spies ahead.
With 20 laps remaining, Hardin was looking to the inside of Spies, but lap traffic forced him to stay single file. Their battle caught the back of Snyder and they both quickly made their way around moving Spies up into 4th going into the final laps. Hardin saw an opportunity on lap 95 and got his nose to the inside pulling ahead of Spies securing 4th. Going into the last 4 laps, contact between Altice and lap traffic resulted in 3rd, 4th, and 5th place getting collected on the front stretch bringing out the caution and ending Hardin’s great charge up through the field.
J R Shepherd had stretched his lead out to over 3 seconds before the caution came out and took the checkered flag under yellow flag conditions with Kenny Kibbey, Matt Hoose, Joseph Snyder, and Lowell Jewell rounding out the top 5 tonight at South Boston Speedway.
J R Shepherd is the unofficial season 21 champion currently with 471 points, 100 points ahead of Michael Goodman in 2nd place. Lowell Jewell holds onto 3rd place with 345 over Mathew Thunhorst with 345 points. Joseph Snyder rounds out the top 5 drivers with 301 points going into the final round of the season. Next week, the Bootleg Racing League is heading to Five Flags Speedway on March 18th to close out the season with all of the intense racing action brought to you live at 9PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSLM S1 R10 Recap
10 March 2023
Bootleg Racing League | Season 1 | Round 10
Dirt Super Late Model Series | Weedsport Speedway
Aiden Young with Gambler Motorsports claimed his 2nd feature win in a row tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Super Late Model Series at Weedsport Speedway ahead of Thomas Vickers and Stephen Spies. “I’m not the best at Weedsport.”, Young shared with us as the night came to a close, “I really hate the track but somehow we made the bottom work better than anyone else and just came through in the end.”
Aiden Young put down the fastest lap in qualifying at 14.521 starting the night off, but wasn’t able to hold off Gambler Motorsports teammate, Stephen Spies, who took the checkered flag in the heat event. John Wilson with Team CDR was able to hold of Young through the B Main consolation race wrapping up the preliminary events of the night as the drivers prepared for the 30-lap feature event.
Spies led the field around out of turn 4 with Thomas Vickers to his outside as the green flag was flown, and the field screamed into the first corner. Spies quickly cleared ahead of Vickers with Young running close behind in 3rd. The leaders started to break away from the rest of the field with Vickers trying to get his nose under Spies but unable to get a strong enough run to make it stick. Vickers tried several different lines looking for speed as Young closed in on the battle.
Going into lap 8, Vickers was able to get under Spies taking the lead away allowing Young to get alongside Spies with the first 10 laps behind them. Young was showing the dominate pace clearing around Spies and reeling Vickers back in as the laps quickly counted down. Spies made contact with the outside wall falling out of the leading pack and finding himself under pressure from Jason Dill in 4th place. Going into the 2nd half of the run, Young dove under Vickers challenging for the lead.
After several tense laps, Young was able to clear ahead of Vickers for the lead and was quickly closing on lap traffic with 10 laps remaining. Young was slowly pulling away from Vickers running low through the corners while most drivers were still running high seemingly finding speed the others couldn’t. Coming out of the final corner, Aiden Young took the checkered flag 1.3 seconds ahead of Thomas Vickers with Stephen Spies, Jason Dill, and John Wilson rounding out the top 5 tonight at Weedsport Speedway.
Thomas Vickers holds the lead in the point standings with 671 points, 3 points ahead of Jason Dill in 2nd place. Aiden Young sits in 3rd with 613 points, Michael Smith moves up to 4th with 530 points, and William Hargreaves rounds out the top 5 with 522 points. The Bootleg Racing League next heads to Lanier National Speedway on March 17th with all of the dirt slinging action brought to you live at 8:50PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S14 R10 Recap
10 March 2023
Bootleg Racing League | Season 14 | Round 10
Dirt Street Stock Series | Weedsport Speedway
Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming takes the checkered flag tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Weedsport Speedway ahead of Chris Davis and Aiden Young. “I’ve always loved Weedsport and I decided to make this one kind of my last race in this league here”, Kibbey commented at the end of the night, “I had a feeling the leaders were going to get together. I saw [Davis] looked to be faster than [Best] so it was only a matter of time before they started hitting each other and sure enough… and then everyone just moved up the track and I just squeezed through and just had to live to the end.”
Jason Best came into the night strong putting down the top lap in qualifying at 17.884 and securing the pole by taking claiming the checkered flag in the first heat event over Kenny Kibbey by 1.5 seconds at the line. Stephen Spies took the 2nd heat with and Billy Northcutt winning the B Main to finish up the preliminary events of the night leading up to the 30-lap feature event.
Best led the 15-car field around to take the green flag with Spies challenging for the lead off the jump. Best was able to hold it as Kibbey dove low getting a nose under Spies and taking 2nd place away. Northcutt followed Kibbey around pushing Spies further back under pressure from Aiden Young for 4th place. Kibbey and Northcutt made slight contact forcing Kibbey high resulting in several drivers running under him as he fell back to 6th before he was able to slot back into line behind Young.
Best continued to hold the lead going into lap 10 with Northcutt and Spies running side by side over 2nd place. Chris Davis had made his way up through the field and was looking to the inside of Northcutt as Spies cleared into 2nd. Northcutt stayed committed to the outside line which didn’t seem to be the optimal line as he was losing position as they crossed the halfway point of the race. Davis had closed the gap to Kibbey and was aggressively trying to get around Spies.
Spies made a rare mistake making contact with the inside wall with Davis directly behind him and unable to check up in time sending Spies around falling back to 13th going into the last 10 laps with Best still holding onto the lead. Northcutt and Young were battling over 3rd with Kibbey waiting patiently behind them with the laps quickly counting down. Davis and Best made contact battling for the lead which allowed Young to close up on them trying to split the leaders.
Contact between all 3 drivers slowed their momentum enough for Kibbey to sling past taking the lead with 4 laps to go. Davis recovered quickly and was going hard trying to get under Kibbey, but it was too little, too late as Kenny Kibbey came out of the final corner to take the checkered flag with Chris Davis, Aiden Young, Billy Northcutt, and Jeffery Hardin rounding out the top 5 tonight at Weedsport Speedway.
Billy Northcutt is well out of reach in the point standings going into the final round with 650 points, now 119 points ahead of Jason Best in 2nd place. Jeffery Hardin moves up to 3rd place with 563 points as William Hargreaves dropped another spot back to 4th after another no-show with 461 points and Chris Hill rounds out the top 5 with 457 points. The Bootleg Racing League next heads to Lanier National Speedway on March 17th with all of the dirt slinging action brought to you live at 7:10PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S4 R3 Recap
07 March 2023
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 4 | Round 3
Premier Series | Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Vincent Crow with Team Watson Racing claimed his 2nd win of the new season tonight in the MARSS Properties Vacation Rentals 200 with the Pretty Good Racing League at Las Vegas Motor Speedway ahead of Scott Eckrich and Cosmin Ioanesiu. “Stage win and the race win, I feel like I proved I’m not a hack. This race should’ve been called the ‘Vincent Crow’s not a Hack 500′”, Crow joked with us as the night came to a close, “It’s a really good feel-good win. Daytona was, I was blown out of my mind I won the race and now this race is like ‘Cool, I’m ready for Phoenix’.”
Tyler Graaf with GRAAFix eSports led the 42-car field around to take the green flag with Angel Jaime to his outside. Graaf jumped out to an early lead with much of the field spreading out using multiple lines around the corners. Scott Eckrich was making an unexpected push to the front, up to 7th in the first few laps, as he has been known for patiently moving up through the field last season. Only 10 laps into the run, Graff had pulled away from the rest of the field by 2.5 seconds with Creighton Carter running in 2nd place clearly saving his equipment for a longer run.
Cody Dempster was aggressively maneuvering around traffic up into 3rd with a large pack of drivers battling hard from 8th back past 30th place all running 2 and 3-wide as the drivers started to feel more comfortable. With the first 15 laps behind them, the front runners were quickly closing on Graaf up front who was quickly falling off the pace. Carter dove under Graaf and was able to clear into the lead with Dempster running close behind. Eckrich was up to 4th and broke away from the large pack of drivers as he started reeling in the leaders.
Dempster wasted no time going after the lead as the caution came out on lap 23 from contact between Will Farmer and Saif Faries resulted in a several drivers getting caught out. Dempster maintained the lead after completing his pit cycle with Eckrich in 2nd. Racing resumed with Eckrich staying alongside Dempster off the jump taking the lead away going into lap 27. Jaime was able to close in on Eckrich taking the lead for himself a few laps later with much of the field shuffling for position.
Vincent Crow was moving up toward the front on the field clearing around Dempster into 3rd and looking to challenge Eckrich for 2nd place. Cosmin Ioanesiu, last week’s winner at Auto Club Speedway, was quietly moving up through the field into 6th place as Eckrich was starting to drop back giving up positions to Crow and Dempster. The field continued making aggressive moves throughout to close out the first half of the night with Crow and Jaime battling hard over the lead.
Crow was holding the lead over Dempster as they crossed the halfway point in the race to secure the bonus stage points before handing the lead over to Dempster. Ioanesiu was maintaining a strong pace running up to 3rd and looking under Crow for 2nd with Colton Salek close behind. Cautions plagued the 2nd half of the race with drivers making more aggressive moves resulting in shuffling the running order around as differing pit strategies staggered the field. Crow was in control of the field over Ioanesiu with 30 laps remaining.
With drivers running into more problems, cautions helped Eckrich get back within reach of the lead with Mike Rasimas breaking into the top 5 going into the last 10 laps. Crow still had a strong hold on the race lead and broke away from the field with Ioanesiu in tow as Eckrich and Rasimas went side by side over 3rd place. One last caution came out restacking the field for a 3-lap shootout with Crow still in the lead. Vincent Crow held the lead unchallenged to take the checkered flag with Scott Eckrich taking 2nd place away from Cosmin Ioanesiu in the end. Colton Salek and Mike Rasimas round out the top 5 tonight at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Vincent Crow further extends his lead with 215 points with Jake Silvia now 36 points behind him. Cosmin Ioanesiu jumps up 5 spots into 3rd with 166 points, Thomas George drops back to 4th with 165 points, and Jeff Ward rounds out the top 5 with 163 points. The Pretty Good Racing League next heads to Phoenix Raceway for the “MARSS Properties Vacation Rentals 250K” on March 14th with all the action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL LM S21 R9 Recap
04 March 2023
Bootleg Racing League | Season 21 | Round 9
Late Model Series | Hickory Motor Speedway
J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports claimed his 2nd win of the season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Late Model Series at Hickory Motor Speedway ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Michael Goodman. “I was hoping we’d have a lot more green flag racing… A little bit lucky after last week not being able to finish the race for sure this is a better week”, Shepherd shared with us. When asked about the car change coming next week, he commented, “I’m excited that we’re getting the new body, the new car it’s got a few different specs on it a little bit more power. We’ll have to see how it is, I’m optimistic about it for sure but this has been a great car at least for league racing.”
J R Shepherd continued his streak taking the top spot again in qualifying putting down a 14.567 taking the 10 bonus points and starting in 10th place with Joe Segalla of Segalla Motorsports taking the pole from the Bootleg Racing League grid invert. Segalla came out of turn 4 to take the green flag and quickly cleared ahead of Stephen Spies who started to his outside. Spies was able to slot in behind Segalla off the jump with Joseph Snyder holding onto 3rd.
Lowell Jewell was on the outside trying under pressure from Jeffery Hardin running side by side for 4th as the two drivers came together bringing out an early caution and collecting several other drivers in the chaos to include Shepherd, Kenny Kibbey, and Aiden Young while Donny Moore and Mathew Thunhorst were able to weave through mostly untouched jumping far up through the running order. As racing resumed, the leaders again quickly single filed out with Segalla still in control of the field with the first 10 laps completed.
Spies was pressuring Segalla for the lead and similar to the earlier incident, the two made contact sending both drivers around giving control of the field to Snyder. The green flag came back out going into lap 17 with both Shepherd and Thunhorst closing in on the front of the field. Moore was up into 3rd with Jason Menda running in 2nd behind Snyder as the drivers started to get spread out for the first time of the night. Shepherd continued his charge to the front quickly overtaking Moore and set his sights on Menda with the first 25 laps behind them.
Shepherd made short work of Menda and Snyder taking the lead and running away with it as they came up on lap traffic while Thunhorst was back in 5th feeling the pressure with Shepherd having open track ahead of him to stretch out his lead going into the 2nd half of the night. The laps were quickly counting down with everyone spaced out around the track as Shepherd extended the gap ahead of Hoose to over 2 seconds with Thunhorst running in 3rd. A caution came out with 32 laps to go giving Thunhorst exactly what he needed closing the gap to Shepherd and giving him a perfect chance to get around Hoose into 2nd off the restart.
“[Shepherd’s] going to have to make a mistake which, well, I’d rather get a lottery number and see how that goes instead.”, Thunhorst shared with us briefly under the caution regarding how to get to the lead. As the race went back green, Thunhorst cleared around Hoose, but Shepherd had a great jump off the start and pulled out to a strong lead. Going into the final stretch, Shepherd was outpacing the rest of the field pulling away from Thunhorst as a late race caution came out on lap 98 bringing the race to an early end. J R Shepherd paced the field around to take the checkered flag with Mathew Thunhorst, Michael Goodman, Matt Shinoski, and Lowell Jewell rounding out the top 5 tonight at Hickory Motor Speedway.
J R Shepherd seems to have to the season championship locked in currently with 421 points, now 85 points ahead of Michael Goodman in 2nd place. Lowell Jewell holds onto 3rd place with 309 over Mathew Thunhorst 1 point behind. Donny Moore rounds out the top 5 drivers going into the final 2 rounds of the season. Next week, the Bootleg Racing League is going to tackle South Boston Speedway in the all-new Late Model Stock with all of the intense racing action brought to you live at 9PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
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