BRL DSS S11 R7 Recap

06 May 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 7
Dirt Street Stock Series | Fairbury Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Billy Northcutt with the Dirt Panda Racing Team claimed his 2nd win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Fairbury Speedway ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot and William Hargreaves. “That caution came out and I noticed that [Proudfoot] was right behind me and I as like well my chances of winning just dropped to at least 50/50”, Northcutt joked with us after battling Proudfoot out of the final turn to the checkered flag, “I just went in and stayed focused on the wall… and when I came off the wall he was right there and he backed out of [his slider] though, he wasn’t going to quite clear it or it was going to be right on the nose.”

Billy Northcutt took the pole with a fast lap at 14.56 on the boards in the qualifying session to start off the evening strong. Taking the green flag in the first heat, Northcutt had Proudfoot instantly pressuring for the lead. Proudfoot wasn’t able to find the speed on the inside line almost allowing Matt Shinoski to overtake for 2nd but slammed the door holding the position as he fell in line over 1.5 seconds behind Northcutt as Northcutt took the checkered flag.

Robby Robinson led the second heat event to the green flag with J R Shepherd to his inside. Shepherd tried to stay alongside but fell back to 4th before he was able to get in line while Robinson found himself under attack from Chris Hill and William Hargreaves. Robinson ran the outside pulling away from Hill while Hargreaves threw a failed slider that let Shepherd take 3rd away while Robinson took the win.

The C Main consolation race had Matt Shinoski and Jason Menda on the front row as the green flag came out. Shinoski took off to a strong start from running the outside line with Stephen Spies getting up into 2nd. Spies threw a slider on Shinoski and was able to overtake for the lead as he pulled away out of reach of retaliation from Shinoski or Menda behind him. Menda made contact with the outside wall giving Bobby Hayes a chance to take away 3rd but Menda defended his position while Spies crossed the line for the win.

The B Main consolation race started with Shepherd and Hargreaves on the front row. Shepherd had a good launch off the start clearing Hargreaves for the lead, but Hargreaves stayed close behind with minor contact going through the corners. Hargreaves and Shepherd traded sliders with 4 laps to go with Hargreaves ending with the lead in the end taking the checkered flag with Shepherd still close behind.

Northcutt starting on the pole for the feature event and opted to started from the outside of Robinson as the green flag flew. Northcutt had a great launch as Hill rode the outside line around Robinson who found himself stranded on the inside falling further back in the field. Robinson found a gap to slide up into in 7th place running behind Brandyn Proudfoot. Northcutt continued to lead as Hill and Hargreaves battled hard over 2nd ending in contact sending Hargreaves far back in the field.

As the drivers crossed the halfway point in the race, Northcutt continued to hold the lead holding off Hill and Spies. Proudfoot had gotten up to 4th place and Hargreaves was back inside the top 10 and climbing trying to salvage what he could before the end. Proudfoot started battling with Spies and Hill which allowed Northcutt to pull away building up a gap of over 1 second ahead of Hill.

Going into the last 10 laps, Proudfoot cleared into 2nd place as Hill and Spies came together with both drivers getting sent around. The caution flag was thrown out with 7 laps remaining from that battle putting Proudfoot to the inside of Northcutt at the disadvantage. Northcutt had a good launch, but Proudfoot stayed right on his bumper as the laps counted down. Proudfoot threw an aggressive slider coming out of turn four on the final lap, but Northcutt got a nose back ahead and took the checkered flag.

William Hargreaves holds onto the lead in the point standings after his amazing recovery tonight finishing in 3rd with 548 points. Brandyn Proudfoot closed the gap now off the lead by a mere 2 points with Billy Northcutt close behind with 523 points. Bobby Hayes and Stepen Spies round out the top 5 drivers so far in the season. The Bootleg Racing League now heads over to Lanier National Speedway for the next round on May 13th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!