BRL GN S9 R5 Recap

05 Feb 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 9 | Round 5
Grand National Series | South Boston Speedway

Mathew Thunhorst took home his third season victory tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Grand National Series at South Boston Speedway beating J R Shepherd and Justin Morton to the line after a close battle between the top four drivers to include James Lowe, who caught the lead battle two separate times throughout the race. Morton took the lead early on in the race and held off Shepherd and Thunhorst for 94 laps until Thunhorst was able to take advantage of a mistake to jump from 3rd to the lead in a three wide battle.

“That was really intense”, Thunhorst exclaimed after the event. Tonight’s winner says it’s all about knowing when to make moves and when to hold back, “You try to take opportunities when they show and when they don’t show you don’t try to send it and that’s kind of the big lesson I’ve learned over the seasons.” That showed tonight as he patiently waited in 3rd behind Shepherd to take advantage late in the race.

Thunhorst holds the points lead with his win tonight with 198 points, now 2 points over Shepherd and 9 points over Kenny Kibbey, who finished in 5th. Morton holds onto 4th place with 183 points and Austin Boelke, who came away with a 6th place finish, slides back to 5th in the standings 3 points behind. With a very close call between Shepherd, Thunhorst, and Lowe almost taking all of them out of the race near the end, we’ve seen how quickly any of these drivers could potentially fall out of championship contention with one mistake.