BRL DSS S12 R3 Recap

08 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | Round 3
Dirt Street Stock Series | Volusia Speedway Park
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

William Hargreaves with the Dirt Panda race team took his first checkered flag of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Volusia Speedway Park ahead of Stephen Spies and Brandyn Proudfoot. “I like short track racing. I think it should be a great race.”, Hargreaves commented about the next round of the season at I-55 Speedway, “If it’s anything like the racing here tonight it should really be good.”

William Hargreaves took the pole with a quick lap at 19.780 to start off the third round of the season and lined up alongside Stephen Spies to take the green flag for the first heat race of the night. Hargreaves cleared ahead of Spies while Spies had to battle with Brandyn Proudfoot for 2nd place. Proudfoot to the inside of Spies dropped back into 3rd to defend against Kevin Davis quickly coming up from behind. Spies started to look to the inside of Hargreaves but couldn’t match the pace giving Proudfoot a chance to take the high line away and pushing Spies back into 3rd just as Hargreaves crossed the line to take the checkered flag.

The second heat was led out by Billy Northcutt with Chris Hill to the inside. Northcutt and Chris Hill ran side by side for 4 laps until Chris Hill was able to pull ahead into the lead as Jeffrey Hardin dove below Northcutt. Northcutt closed back up on Chris Hill and dove down beneath him going into the final corner and they crossed the line with Hill barely holding Northcutt off by 0.066 in the end. Bobby Hayes and Hunter Hill shared the front row for the third and final heat of the night. Hayes had a great jump off the start and quickly pulled ahead of the field while J R Shepherd and Hunter Hill battled over 2nd place. Hayes was able to use the battle to extend well out of reach and took the checkered flag with Shepherd holding 2nd place.

Spies led the C Main consolation as the green flag again came out over the field and cleared ahead of H. Hill going into the first corner. John Wilson dove low to challenge for 2nd pushing Hill back to 3rd for a moment before Hill pulled a crossover and went below Wilson. Wilson was able to hold Hill off while also closing the gap to Spies but couldn’t reach the leader before the checkered flag came out and the drivers moved to the B Main consolation event. Hardin took the green flag and jumped out ahead of Kevin Davis. Davis struggled on the start and fell back as Joe Segalla and Brian Lawson cleared into 2nd and 3rd. The top 3 separated themselves from the rest of the pack as Hardin out pacing the field all the way to the checkered flag.

Hargreaves started the main feature event off in the lead to the inside of Chris Hill as the green flag came out to start the final event of the night. Hargreaves quickly cleared ahead of Hill as Proudfoot and Hayes fought over 3rd. Proudfoot struggled to find his way and fell back into the field. Northcutt took advantage of the chaos jumping up into 3rd and diving beneath Hill. Northcutt got a little loose and had to lift giving the position back to Hill before regrouping and trying for 2nd place once again with 10 laps completed.

Again, Northcutt had to fall back behind Hill but found Hayes waiting and found himself fighting to not fall back further into the field. Hargreaves and Hill battled side by side until Hayes lost control coming out of the corner and made hard contact with the outside wall ending his night early as Northcutt moved up to 2nd and pressuring for the lead. Proudfoot climbed his way back up to 3rd and was looking to the inside of Northcutt with Spies running very close behind in 4th. Hargreaves was able to build up a gap ahead of the rest of the field as the battle for 2nd continued and held up several drivers behind them.

With 10 laps remaining, Hargreaves had extended his lead to almost a whole second over Northcutt and Proudfoot, still running side by side. Spies was starting to look impatient forcing a three wide situation several times as the laps counted down. Northcutt was pushed back to 4th as Spies dove low under Proudfoot and cleared ahead into 2nd. Northcutt saw the chance and dove low beneath Proudfoot but didn’t have enough race left as Hargreaves took the checkered flag 1.7 seconds ahead of Stephen Spies with Proudfoot, Northcutt, and Shepherd rounding out the top 5 for the night.

Brandyn Proudfoot still has a solid lead in the point standings with 235 points overall after winning the first two round of the season. J R Shepherd holds onto 2nd place with 198 points with Billy Northcutt only 9 points behind up to 3rd place. Jeffrey Hardin fell back to 4th place with 178 points and Bobby Hayes rounds out the top 5 drivers with 174 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series now prepare for another round at I-55 Speedway on July 15th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!