BRL SLM S18 R6 Recap

30 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 6
Super Late Model Series | Southern National Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took the checkered flag for the 2nd time of the season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Southern National Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and Michael Goodman. “This is a tough place to run… it’s just really easy to overdrive whether you’re on the bottom or on the top”, Shepherd commented after claiming his big win tonight, “Just tried to be really patient and had some things fall out way.”

Michael Goodman started in control of the 14-car field tonight and took the green flag alongside Donny Moore on the front row. Goodman had a great launch off the start and cleared ahead of Moore going into the first corner wile Austin Boelke and Kurt Smith battled side by side over 3rd place with Justin Morton and J R Shepherd directly behind them. Morton went low behind Smith and Shepherd stayed up high opting to follow his teammate, Boelke, in the battle. Contact between Smith and Boelke sent Boelke sliding high up the bank in turn three putting him in the rear of the field.

Jason Menda was making consistent forward progression maneuvering around Smith and taking 3rd away with Shepherd following him around pushing Smith back to 5th with 20 laps completed. The top 4 started separate themselves from the rest of the field and Menda had to concede the 3rd place to Shepherd shortly thereafter falling to the back of the lead battle. Shepherd got to the inside of Morton and the two drivers ran side by side for several laps before Shepherd cleared for 2nd place going into the second half of the night with Goodman still holding the lead.

Boelke was slowly climbing back up through the field, up to 7th ahead of Joe Segalla with 40 laps remaining, cautiously clearing one car after another. Shepherd closed up on Goodman’s rear bumper but couldn’t find the grip to run the low line around him as Goodman started to drive defensively taking away any opportunity for Shepherd to get to his inside. Shepherd got alongside the outside of Goodman and committed to the move pushing ahead and clearing into the lead with 26 laps to go. Morton repeated the move and was able to push Goodman back to 3rd ahead of Menda.

With the laps counting down, Boelke started pushing more aggressively showing his speed and climbed back into the top 5 as he closed in on Menda. Goodman and Menda battled side by side over 3rd place ahead of Boelke and Moore also battling side by side over going into the final 10 laps. Goodman was able to clear back into 3rd with Boelke following him through into 4th. Morton was looking to the inside of Shepherd around the final lap but couldn’t get there as J R Shepherd crossed the line taking the checkered flag tonight at Southern National with Justin Morton, Michael Goodman, Austin Boelke, and Donny Moore rounding out the top 5 finishers.

J R Shepherd and Justin Morton are now tied for the lead in the point standings each driver with 227 points. Boelke fell back to 3rd place 1 point behind the leaders. Donny Moore moved up to 4th place with 205 points and Michael Goodman moved up into the top 5 in the points with 194 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head up to Maine on August 6th for round 7 of season 18 at Oxford Plains Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!