BRL GN S7 R11 Recap
by Ryan Senneker
18 Sept 2021
Bootleg Racing League | Season 7 | Round 11
Grand National Series | New Smyrna Speedway
With a close points race through the season, J R Shepherd went into New Smyrna feeling the pressure from Justin Morton who was trailing by only 5 points. Shepherd and Morton, starting in 7th and 6th respectively, wasted no time getting to the front and breaking away from the rest of the field to battle it out over the 100 lap event. The two championship competitors stayed within .3 of each other almost the entire way to the checkered flag, but Morton couldn’t manage to get around Shepherd in the end.
Austin Boelke had a rough first half, getting caught up in two separate incidents early in the race, but was still able to fight his way back up to 5th place in the end and 3rd in overall season points. Kenny Kibbey made his return to the BRL Grand National Series with a dominant 3rd place finish, hungry for another championship this winter.
With his 5th win of the season and 50th career win overall, J R Shepherd became the season 7 champion while still staying humble giving a shout out to Morton’s skill on the track, “The biggest thing was just trying to have fun tonight and that one restart had me on the edge of my seat. Justin ran me extremely hard, but extremely clean. It’s hard to run someone that hard and, you know, not have contact and stuff going on so hats off to him.”