BRL SLM S18 R7 Recap

06 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 7
Super Late Model Series | Oxford Plains Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports claimed his 3rd win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Oxford Plains Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and Austin Boelke. “Every race can have its own trouble and a lot can happen during one of these races so just try to do the best you can in each and every one of them”, Shepherd commented as the night came to a close, “It was as an okay night I guess as far as the championship goes for everybody that’s involved in that.”

Joe Segalla had control of the field as the green flag came out over Oxford Plains Speedway. Segalla cleared ahead of Ruben Altice going into the first corner as Altice found himself stranded on the outside with Jason Menda leading a charge to the inside with Austin Boelke close behind. Altice fell back to 4th before dropping into line ahead of Michael Goodman. Menda looked to the inside of Segalla several times for the lead, but Segalla didn’t leave an opening for Menda to get his nose into as the drivers put the first 20 laps behind them.

Justin Morton and J R Shepherd, both drivers tied for the points lead going into the night, were running 6th and 7th respectively waiting patiently for an opportunity to present itself to move forward through the field. Segalla and Menda had started to pull away from Boelke when Boelke got loose and checked up the field behind him. Menda then slid up the track on lap 28 and got shuffled back to 7th alongside James Lowe with Segalla still in control of the field.

Lap 34 saw trouble for Morton after contact with Chris Wolfson broke both drivers loose and sent Morton back to 12th while Shepherd moved up to 5th. Boelke found himself to the outside of Altice who cleared into 2nd behind Segalla. Boelke continued to fall back as he struggled to find a gap to drop into dropping back to 7th. Shepherd was up to 3rd running behind Altice while Segalla started to stretch out his lead lap after lap as the drivers crossed the halfway point of the night.

Morton was aggressively pushing up through the field and was up to 9th behind Chris Davis going into the second half. Shepherd struggled to find a way around Altice who was holding the inside line cautiously to prevent being pushed to the outside. Menda started to climb back up toward the front overtaking Todd Liston for 4th and closing in on Shepherd ahead. Segalla had extended his lead over Altice to over 1 second with 35 laps remaining with Shepherd still unable to get his nose under Altice.

Contact between Adam Schoen and Boelke with 25 laps to go brought out the caution flag resetting the field and taking away the 1.5 second lead Segalla had built up over Altice as well as positioning Shepherd directly behind him for the restart. In a shocking upset, with drivers scrambled to get to the inside as the green flag came back out with 20 laps to go, a chain reaction led to Menda pushing Shepherd into Segalla and sent Segalla spinning into the infield along with Altice. No caution came out and Shepherd had control of the field with Morton back up in 2nd place.

Segalla recovered back on track in 10th behind Wolfson. Shepherd was able to stay out ahead of Morton by several car lengths with Boelke and Lowe running behind in 3rd and 4th. Lowe was pressuring Boelke, but Boelke wasn’t leaving any opportunity for Lowe to take advantage of going into the final few laps. Shepherd pulled away in the lead by over 1 second as the white flag came out and J R Shepherd took the checkered flag tonight at Oxford Plains Speedway with Justin Morton, Austin Boelke, James Lowe, and Donny Moore rounding out the top 5 finishers.

J R Shepherd took the lead in the point standings tonight with 267 points. Justin Morton trails Shepherd by only 1 point with Austin Boelke holding onto 3rd place with 264 points. Donny Moore stays in 4th place with 241 points and Michael Goodman rounds out the top 5 in the points with 228 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head up to Maine on August 13th for round 8 of season 18 at Lanier National Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!