BRL DSS S11 R11 Recap

10 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 11
Dirt Street Stock Series | Knoxville Raceway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

William Hargreaves with the Dirt Panda race team took the championship in tonight’s season finale event with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Knoxville Raceway while Billy Northcutt took the checkered flag ahead of Hargreaves and J R Shepherd. “We never said a word the whole race both of us we were just locked in and going for it”, Northcutt commented about the intense battle for the lead against his teammate, “You could’ve barely put a piece of paper between us a bunch of different times and we both backed off when we needed to and just made that the most fun.”

J R Shepherd jumped to the top of the boards to start off the night in qualifying with a quick lap clocked at 22.437 and taking the pole for the first heat race to the inside of William Hargreaves. Hargreaves was able to get beneath Shepherd as the drivers ran side by side for two laps until Hargreaves was able to clear for the lead. Shepherd stayed close behind Hargreaves peeking to the inside but wasn’t able to make an attempt for a pass before Hargreaves took the checkered flag. Billy Northcutt led the second heat to the green flag with Joe Segalla to his inside.

Northcutt had a great launch off the start pulling ahead of the field by more than a car length. Chris Davis and John Wilson battled over 3rd place while keeping the pressure on Segalla. Segalla ran a defensive line down the middle of the track making it difficult for either driver to get alongside him. Davis got a nose to Segalla’s inside as the white flag came out but couldn’t match pace as Segalla crossed the line in 2nd place behind Northcutt.

Jeffrey Hardin and Chris Davis were lined up on the front row for the consolation race as the green flag was thrown out over the field. Hardin opted to start from the high line which gave Davis an opportunity to stay alongside him off the start. After some contact between the drivers, Davis was able to clear into the lead with Hardin running tight on his rear bumper looking to return the favor. Robby Robinson caught the battle for the lead and started to put pressure on Hardin while Brennen Myers also caught the fight and tried to get beneath Robinson.

More contact between Davis and Hardin gave Myers the chance to get around Robinson as the white flag was thrown. Again, contact was made between Davis and Hardin that resulted in contact with several other drivers and Hardin was sent hard into the wall and turned around on the track as Davis crossed the line for the win with Hunter Hill sneaking through the chaos to take away 2nd place only 0.002 behind the leader.

William Hargreaves led the field to the green flag for the feature event alongside Billy Northcutt on the front row. Hargreaves cleared for the lead with Northcutt close behind off the start. Shepherd stayed with the leaders in 3rd place looking to get to the inside of Northcutt. Segalla was leading the rest of the field from 4th place ahead of Hunter Hill and Brennen Myers running side by side. Hill was able to take 4th away with an aggressive slider. Hardin had climbed through the field and was running in 6th with 10 laps completed.

Segalla and Hill continued to battle over 4th trading sliders back and forth with Hardin looking to split the drivers. Davis caught the battle and dove beneath Hardin and moved immediately on Segalla. Northcutt and Hargreaves were still battling hard over the lead trading sliders with neither driver willing to hold back as Shepherd watched them from 3rd place as the drivers crossed the halfway point in the race. Davis had moved up to 5th ahead of Segalla and was closing on Hill ahead of him.

Northcutt and Hargreaves showed no sign of letting up as the Dirt Panda teammates continued to fight over the lead. Segalla got alongside Robinson fighting for 6th place when the group quickly caught and overtook Davis who had damaged his car and was falling off the pace. With 10 laps remaining, Hargreaves was holding the lead as Northcutt kept the pressure up. The leaders were trading sliders back and forth all the way to the finish line as Northcutt held the lead when the white flag came out.

Hargreaves threw a slider coming out of the final corner but didn’t have the momentum to clear for the lead as Billy Northcutt crossed the line to take the win and Hargreaves claimed the season championship from 2nd place. “When we took the white flag… I went in high with him and [tried] to get as much of a run on him as I could to try to be able to set him up or do something there on the last corner, but I just didn’t get enough. He had too much of that cushion and nailed it too good to be able to do anything with him really.”, Hargreaves shared with us about battling his teammate around the final lap as well as winning the season championship, “[Proudfoot]’s one tough cookie to beat and he’s definitely proved he’s the top dog so I’m happy for sure. To beat him is a task in itself.”