BRL SLM S17 R7 Recap

07 May 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 7
Super Late Model Series | The Bullring at Las Vegas
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Justin Morton with Total Downforce Racing claimed his 2nd win in a row tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at The Bullring at Las Vegas ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Kenny Kibbey. “The car was actually really good tonight probably the best driving car we’ve had all season.”, Morton commented. With his second win in a row Morton is within reach of contesting for the championship, and he shared his thoughts on that, “Kicking myself at the start of the season for having a bad start, but it is what it is, and I’ll see what I can do to make the best out of it.”

Kurt Smith took the green flag for the field with Michael LeMieux to his outside. Austin Boelke wasted no time from 3rd taking the inside line to overtake LeMieux for 2nd. Mathew Thunhorst and Kenny Kibbey went three wide forcing Lemieux to the far outside to get positions where they could with the track being very difficult to pass around. Kibbey found himself in position to get to the inside of Boelke and quickly took 2nd place away with Justin Morton and Thunhorst tucking in behind shuffling Boelke back to 5th ahead of Joe Segalla as the front runners then set their focus on Smith still holding the lead.

Kibbey was able to dive below Smith and Smith was shuffled back as Kibbey, Morton, Thunhorst, and Boelke quickly overtook pushing Smith back to 5th. Kibbey tried to pull away from the field, but Morton and Thunhorst kept pace staying close behind with Boelke choosing to save early in 4th to attack later on in the race. Morton got under Kibbey taking away the lead 20 laps into the race leaving a gap for Thunhorst to follow knocking Kibbey back to 3rd.

40 laps into the race Kibbey got back to the inside of Thunhorst reclaiming 2nd position as Boelke slid going through the corner after contact with Smith sending Boelke to the rear of the field. The caution flag came out from the incident placing Kibbey on the outside line with Thunhorst in the position to take 2nd place back to his inside. This also placed James Lowe behind Thunhorst in position to get himself in the battle for the lead. Thunhorst retook the position, but Kibbey slid down in time to hold onto 3rd ahead of Lowe with Donny Moore rounding out the top 5 as the drivers crossed into the second half of the race.

The leading battle split with Morton and Thunhorst battling while pulling away from the battle between Kibbey and Lowe as the drivers settled into a groove with the laps counting down. Jason Menda was trying to get inside of the top five and started pressuring Moore who was leading the majority of the field over 3 seconds behind the leaders. With 30 laps remaining, Menda was able to take away the inside line overtaking Moore and running away with 5th place. Boelke had climbed back into the top 10 working over car after car trying to recover what he could before the end.

Coming up on 20 laps to go, another caution was thrown out over the field bringing Kibbey back into a good place to take 2nd place away from Thunhorst. Morton continued to lead as the green flag came out and racing resumed. Thunhorst cleared ahead of Kibbey holding 2nd. Boelke fought from the outside getting into 7th before finding an opening on the inside line and aggressively continued his climb through the field going into the final 10 laps. Boelke overtook into 5th place as Thunhorst chased Morton across the line with Morton taking the checkered flag by a mere 0.202 ahead of Thunhorst at the line.

Kenny Kibbey still leads in the point standings with 268 points. Justin Morton closed the gap to the lead to only 10 points with Austin Boelke close behind with 249 points. Mathew Thunhorst and Joe Segalla round out the top 5 drivers of the season going into the final 4 rounds. The Bootleg Racing League now heads over to Lanier National Speedway on May 14th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!