BRL DSS S10 R8 Recap

25 Feb 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 10 | Round 8
Dirt Street Stock Series | Lanier National Speedway

Carl Kilgore IV of CFM E-Sports took his first win of the season in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Lanier National Speedway beating Brandyn Proudfoot and Lon Franks to the line using the high line to carry him ahead. Kilgore gambled on the outside line in the final laps of the race when most drivers were preferring the midline tonight and it paid off in the end as he tells us, “We knew it would come in sooner or later, or if it would come in at all, but I figured right on that last caution I went up to the top of the racetrack and I kind of felt the cushion up there. So, I done made my mind up that if someone got under me that I would go ahead and try it and [Franks] got under me coming out of [turn] 4 so we said what the hell, we’ll send it.”

As the clock ran down for qualifying, Carl Kilgore ran a fast lap of 16.273 at the last moment taking the pole away from Brandyn Proudfoot, who was on top of the boards with a 16.291, for the evening. Kilgore was able to hold the lead and pull away from the field in the first heat while Jason Best and Stephen Spies battled over 2nd place behind him with Spies taking the 2nd position in the end when Best went wide in turn four and got shuffled to the back of the pack. Brandyn Proudfoot took the green in the evening’s second heat race and was under immediate pressure from Jim Reavis from behind who stayed within a car length all the way to the checkered but wasn’t able to get around Proudfoot in the end.

Billy Northcutt had a good jump for the lead in the final heat of the evening ahead of Jackie Whaley with J R Shepherd just behind them and led all 6 laps without incident. J R Shepherd lead the field in the C Main but was under pressure from Hunter Hill to his outside and Jason Best close behind. In the end, Shepherd wasn’t able to make the inside line work as Hill beat him to the line by 0.021 for the win. Christopher Hill had a strong launch off the start in the B Main event with Chris Davis to his outside. Justin Simmons and Lon Franks battled side by side over 3rd place for the first two laps with Franks taking the position while Davis was able to use the outside to work around Hill on lap 5 as Franks tried to split the middle going 3-wide. Hill relented letting Franks by who then put Davis under pressure for the lead trying to use the inside line but wasn’t able to take the win as Davis came across the line only 0.015 ahead of him.

Carl Kilgore led the field as the green flag came out in the 40-lap feature event with Proudfoot immediately diving deep to the inside trying to get between Kilgore and the inside wall but wasn’t able to make the line work as Kilgore continued to lead lap after lap holding off the series’ previous season champion. As they crossed the line on lap 10, Proudfoot tucked in behind Kilgore to bid his time and wait for an opportunity to present itself.

As the battle for the lead continued past lap 20, Northcutt started to put pressure on Proudfoot for 2nd place with Stephen Spies waiting only a car length behind Northcutt ready to take advantage of the situation. The front six drivers were all lined up nose to bumper waiting to see who would move first when the caution came out for the first time of the night on lap 27 as Spies and Northcutt made contact going into turn 3 sending both drivers around as well as Jim Reavis behind them and dropping them back in the field. On the restart, a second caution came out almost immediately as the field got jammed up in turn two and Reavis was again spun around sending him to the rear.

Off the second restart, Kilgore held the race lead with Proudfoot trying to get around to his outside as Lon Franks dove below him to take away 2nd and then go after Kilgore himself. With only 10 laps to go, the lead pack went 3-wide as each driver tried a different line to gain the advantage which again went in favor of Kilgore to the outside as Proudfoot and Franks again started to battle over 2nd. The battle allowed Kilgore to pull away as he took the win tonight with over a 0.8 second lead over Proudfoot and Franks at Lanier National Speedway.

Brandyn Proudfoot with Jim Beaver eSports still leads in the points standings with 604 points ahead of William Hargreaves, who didn’t compete tonight, by 131 points which makes Proudfoot the unofficial season champion with only three races left in the season not leaving enough time for anyone to possibly unseat him. Lon Franks sits in 3rd with 407 points and Billy Northcutt is just behind him in 4th place with 399 points. Next week, the Bootleg Racing League set their sights to the Dirt Track at Charlotte for the 9th round on March 4th at 7:00PM EST broadcast live only on the Virtual Grip Network.