BRL DSS S11 R5 Recap

22 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 5
Dirt Street Stock Series | Cedar Lake Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Billy Northcutt with the Dirt Panda Racing Team led flag to flag for the win tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stocks Series at Cedar Lake Speedway ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot and William Hargreaves. “That was a really fun race… I’d give money for [an] all green race tonight so I don’t have to get nervous if I’m up here leading and everybody accomplished that.”, Northcutt commented after his dominating run tonight, “I can’t guarantee that I was the fastest car on the track, but [Hargreaves] and [Proudfoot] were racing clean once they got behind me.”

Billy Northcutt sat on the pole with a fast time at 15.878 in the qualifying session tonight around 0.03 faster than William Hargreaves, Brandyn Proudfoot, and Jason Best behind him. Northcutt and Proudfoot shared the front row as the green flag came out over the first heat of the evening. Northcutt dominated the event taking the win ahead of Proudfoot by over 0.5 crossing the line. Hargreaves had Best to his inside as he took the green in the second heat. Hargreaves had a strong launch off the start pulling ahead and leading every lap to the checkered flag while Best battled with John Wilson holding onto 2nd place in the end.

Stephen Spies started out front for the C-Main consolation race with Bobby Hayes to his outside. Spies cleared Hayes early with Joe Segalla challenging Hayes for 2nd place. Spies and Hayes were able to separate themselves from the rest of the field to battle over the lead as the white flag came out with Spies able to hold the lead for the win. Wilson was leading the field to the inside of J R Shepherd to start off the B-Main consolation. A great launch from Wilson allowed him to clear Shepherd quickly taking control of the field. Running single file, Wilson led Shepherd and Hunter Hill to the checkered flag unchallenged.

Billy Northcutt took the green flag in the 40-lap feature event opting to start from the outside line with Hargreaves to the inside. Northcutt took a very high line jumping out to a strong lead over Hargreaves with Best, Proudfoot, and Spies following single file behind. The top 5 were able to pull away from the rest of the field with Bobby Hayes leading the second group ahead of Wilson and Shepherd. 10 laps down, Proudfoot overtook Best with an aggressive slider and Best wasn’t able to get the crossover completed in time to hold back Proudfoot’s advance.

Northcutt and Hargreaves built a two second gap ahead of Proudfoot as they crossed the halfway mark. Spies, Best, and Hayes battled over 4th as Wilson and Shepherd waited for an opportunity from behind. Wilson stuck his nose in and was able to get around Hayes into 6th with 15 laps remaining as Spies still led the rear pack from 4th place. Northcutt still led the field, but Proudfoot had reeled the leaders back in and overtook Hargreaves now right behind Northcutt.

Going into the final 5 laps over the race, Northcutt had caught up to lap traffic with Proudfoot pressuring for the lead. Negotiating through the rear of the field, Northcutt used the lap traffic to hold Proudfoot at bay and took the checkered flag crossing the line 0.142 ahead of Proudfoot with Hargreaves, Spies, and Best rounding out tonight’s top 5 finishers.

William Hargreaves continues to lead the points standings with 394 points after finishing 3rd tonight. Brandyn Proudfoot closed to gap from 2nd place to only 6 points with Billy Northcutt in 3rd place with 374 points, 20 points off the lead. Bobby Hayes and Johnny Ratley round out the top 5 drivers at this point in the season. The Bootleg Racing League now heads over to Lernerville Speedway on April 29th for the next round with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!