BRL DSS S12 R4 Recap

15 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | Round 4
Dirt Street Stock Series | I-55 Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

William Hargreaves with the Dirt Panda racing team dominated the night taking the pole and leading every lap to his 2nd win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at I-55 Speedway ahead of Chris Davis and J R Shepherd. “Tonight was fairly easy for me but I had open track, I didn’t have to race people.”, Hargreaves commented after tonight’s action, “As the race progressed, I knew [the high line] wasn’t going to come in. I mean, later on in the race obviously, but that middle was definitely the place to be. It was working good there.”

William Hargreaves had the quickest lap in qualifying with a 14.887 and led the first heat race to the green flag with J R Shepherd to his outside. Hargreaves cleared ahead of Shepherd quickly going into the first corner and the rest of the pack went single file. Hargreaves had the superior skill and pulled away from Shepherd who was battling Kevin Davis to hold onto 2nd place in the end. Chris Davis, or Mr. Aggressive as he’s known around the track, started in the lead of the 2nd heat alongside Bobby Hayes on the front row as the green flag came out again. Davis jumped out to a strong lead off the jump and Hayes was overtaken by Butch Baker and Malachi Smith battling over 2nd place. Davis stretched his lead out to over 1.4 seconds as he crossed the line taking the checkered flag with Smith coming in 2nd.

Billy Northcutt and Jeffrey Hardin were sharing the front row for the 3rd and final heat of the night. Northcutt had a good launch on the start and Hunter Hill and Brennen Myers went side by side over 3rd. Northcutt ran away with the lead and took the checkered flag with a 1.7 second lead over Hardin. Kevin Davis and Hunter Hill lined up on the front row of the C Main Consolation race and both drivers had good jumps on the green. Hayes clear beneath Hill taking 2nd place away and moved straight up to the leader. Hayes dove low and cleared Davis with Stephen Spies following him to the front. Spies tried to close the gap to Hayes but couldn’t get there before Hayes took the win.

The B Main Consolation race was led out by Baker and Robby Robinson. Baker cleared Robinson who had Brandyn Proudfoot pressuring from behind. Proudfoot dove beneath Robinson taking 2nd place and went for the lead without ever coming up the track. After a lap of battling, Proudfoot officially took control of the lead of the field as the white flag came out. Baker couldn’t get back up to Proudfoot to challenge and had to settle for 2nd place as Proudfoot took the win.

Hargreaves and Chris Davis shared the front row as the drivers lined up for the 40-lap feature event and led the field to the green flag. Hargreaves had a good jump and cleared ahead of Davis who was under pressure from Northcutt and Shepherd. Proudfoot, who started farther back in the midfield, aggressively went 3 wide running along the outside wall trying to make up as many positions as he could early on. Spies followed Proudfoot along the high line letting Proudfoot clear traffic for him as Hargreaves took advantage of the situation and pulled over 1.3 seconds ahead of Davis with 10 laps completed.

Spies and Proudfoot started battling over 7th place without either driver showing a clear advantage over the other. Proudfoot was able to pull away from Spies after Robinson got alongside Spies and made enough contact to force Spies off his line losing his momentum and falling back to 9th. Hargreaves was leading by almost 2 seconds as they passed the halfway point of the race with Hargreaves trying to put as much distance between himself and the field in anticipation of Proudfoot closing the gap later on. Davis, Northcutt, and Shepherd still ran single file in 2nd through 4th place.

Going into the last 10 laps, Spies and Proudfoot were again battling each other but over 6th place this time around. They closed up to Hayes in 5th and went 3 wide for a corner with Hayes holding the position ahead of Spies. With 5 laps remaining, Hargreaves continued to control the field with Davis, Shepherd, and Northcutt still battling over 2nd. Proudfoot was still running a very high line but was struggling to make up ground falling back to 8th behind Kevin Davis. A few short laps later, Hargreaves took the checkered flag with Chris Davis, Shepherd, Northcutt, and Spies rounding out the top 5 tonight at the I-55 Speedway.

Brandyn Proudfoot maintains the lead in the point standings with 288 points. J R Shepherd closes the gap to the leader after a strong performance tonight and is now 16 points behind the leader. Billy Northcutt still holds onto 3rd with 262 points. William Hargreaves jumped up to 4th place with 244 points and Bobby Hayes with 236 points rounds out the top 5 drivers so far in the season. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series now prepare for the next round at Cedar Lake Speedway on July 22nd with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!