BRL DSS S11 R6 Recap

29 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 6
Dirt Street Stock Series | Lernerville Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

William Hargreaves with the Dirt Panda Racing Team led every lap and took the checkered flag for the 2nd week in a row in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Lernerville Speedway ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot and J R Shepherd. “That was a good race for sure, tough track to drive”, Hargreaves commented after his strong performance tonight, “You just gotta be real careful about it and not make mistakes and I was fortunate tonight. I really didn’t make any mistake and was able to come home with the win.”

The night started off with William Hargreaves taking the pole with a 17.796 in qualifying beating Brandyn Proudfoot by only 0.001 as the drivers took the track for the first heat. Jason Best started to the inside of Hargreaves as the field took the green flag. Hargreaves had a strong launch off the start and the field quickly single filed out behind him with Best sliding back to 3rd behind Chirs Hill. Hargreaves took the win with a 0.5 second gap over Hill in the end.

Proudfoot and Billy Northcutt started on the front row of the second heat of the night with Proudfoot opting to start from the outside line. Proudfoot quickly pulled away from the field while Northcutt had to defend the 2nd position from John Wilson successfully holding the position across the line. Jason Best took the green flag in the C Main event ahead of J R Shepherd. Best led every lap to the checkered as the field stayed mostly single file with the exception of Robbie Robinson and Stephen Spies battling hard over 3rd place with Spies taking the position on the final lap.

The B Main event started with Wilson in the lead. A great start over Bobby Hayes gave Wilson a strong lead that Wilson continued to build on throughout the race maintaining a gap of around 0.5 over Hayes as they crossed the line. With the conclusion of the consolation events, the drivers lined up on track for the feature event with Hargreaves and Proudfoot on the front row. Hargreaves had a good launch clearing ahead of Proudfoot with Northcutt coming up behind from 3rd and also able to clear Proudfoot into 2nd on the first lap.

Spies made a strong charge sliding in behind Northcutt forcing Proudfoot down low and back to 4th place going into the 10th lap with Wilson close behind looking to take advantage. 14 laps into the race, Northcutt miscalculated and slid over the berm and feel to the rear of the field before rejoining the track. This allowed Spies, Proudfoot, and Wilson to all move up one spot behind Hargreaves still leading the field. Wilson made a similar mistake a few laps later falling to the back and shuffling the leading order again with Shepherd and Joe Segalla rounding out the top 5 behind Hargreaves, Spies, and Proudfoot.

Proudfoot tried running the low line several times to overtake Spies in 2nd place but couldn’t find the speed coming out of the corners to outpace the momentum Spies carried down the straightaways. An unfortunate moment for Spies as his right rear tire hooked the berm in turn three sent him hard into the outside wall. Bobby Hayes moved up into the top 5 after that incident following Segalla as the battle for the lead intensified going into the final 10 laps between Hargreaves and Proudfoot.

In the final laps, Hargreaves managed to pull away and build a 0.8 second gap over Proudfoot as a caution was thrown out with 2 laps remaining. Restarting single file, Hargreaves had the advantage over Proudfoot as he took the green and white flags together. Proudfoot sent an aggressive dive below Hargreaves, but it wasn’t enough in the end as Proudfoot was forced to slide in behind Hargreaves as they crossed the line with Shepherd, Hayes, and Best rounding out the top 5 finishers.

William Hargreaves further extended his lead in the point standings with his win tonight now with 478 points and 10 points ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot. Billy Northcutt sits in 3rd with 439 points after his great recovery in the end and Bobby Hayes and Jason Best round out the top 5 drivers as the drivers now start the second half of the season. The Bootleg Racing League now heads over Fairbury Speedway on May 6th for the next round of Season 11 with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!