BRL SLM S17 R3 Recap

09 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 3
Super Late Model Series | Stafford Motor Speedway

Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming took the checkered flag and became the third different winner of the season in the third round of the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Stafford Motor Speedway ahead of James Lowe and Austin Boelke. “It’s always fun to get, well any victory, but the first victory in the new series”, Kibbey commented after his win tonight, “With these [Super Late Models] you almost have to race to halfway or so because it comes to a point where, unless your tires are way better than the guys around you, if you’re pretty even it’s really, really hard to pass when you get into the late goings of these races.”

Bryan Dehn started the evening on the pole with Michael Goodman to his outside as the field took the green flag. After a rocky start to the event the drivers managed to get sorted out after several cautions early on caused frustration within the field. 20 laps into the race, Dehn continued to lead ahead of Kenny Kibbey and James Lowe. The field began to single file out as drivers settled into a rhythm and started putting laps behind them. Seeming to take the early incidents into account, the drivers stayed single file with very few moves being made to advance for several laps thereafter.

Kibbey stayed close behind Dehn staying within reach to take advantage if Dehn made a mistake which happened on lap 38 as Dehn went high enough in a corner for Kibbey to get to his inside and take away the lead. Kibbey quickly started to pull away extending the gap ahead of Dehn as Lowe started to pressure Dehn for 2nd. Going into the second half, Lowe had yet to get around Dehn, but Dehn was showing signs of excessive tire wear and was dropping off the pace as Kibbey continued to extend the gap ahead by more than 1 second.

Out pacing the rest of the field by 0.2 each lap, Kibbey maintained a strong lead over the rest of the drivers with 40 laps remaining. Dehn defended 2nd place against Lowe and Justin Morton, who caught up to the battle, by controlling the inside line. A caution came out on lap 62 stacking the field back together and putting Lowe behind Kibbey for the restart with Dehn to the outside at a significant disadvantage. Kibbey had a strong launch and Lowe stayed with him getting to the inside of Dehn with Austin Boelke trying to close the door before Dehn could get down to the inside.

Dehn fell back to 5th before he tried to dive down low behind Morton but caught the front end of Goodman to his inside and spun sideways before sliding back up the track collecting several other drivers. Kibbey continued to lead now followed by Lowe, Boelke, Morton, and Goodman rounding out the top 5 with 25 laps remaining. Kibbey continued to show a strong pace holding a 0.2 lead over Lowe going into the final 10 laps as Boelke and Morton battled over 3rd. Kibbey crossed the line mostly uncontested followed by Lowe, Boelke, Morton, and Goodman.

Kenny Kibbey and James Lowe are now tied for 1st place in the point standings each with a total of 115 points. Michael Goodman moved up to 3rd place with 107 points followed closely behind by Justin Morton and Austin Boelke rounding out the top 5 drivers. The Bootleg Racing League now moves over to Five Flags Speedway for the next round of the season on April 16th with all of the short track action broadcast live at 8:55PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!