BRL NSCT S1 R1 Recap

23 September 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 1 | Round 1
National Sprint Car Trail | Iowa Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Justin Morton with Total Downforce Racing took the checkered flag in the inaugural race of the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail at Iowa Speedway ahead of Aiden Young and Stephen Spies. “I can’t really ask for much better of a race there… It’s pretty cool to be able to win the inaugural race of a series in this league.”, Morton commented as the night came to a close, “I’ve been looking forward this series for a while, since it’s been announced. It’s such a cool concept. It’s something I’ve always wanted to run on iRacing, just the whole USAC style of racing.”

Justin Morton sat at the top of the boards after putting down a 4-lap average time of 21.760 in qualifying and advancing straight through to the feature event along with Aiden Young, Bruce Jones, Rory Collins, Matt Hoose, and Jason Menda. Stephen Spies shared the front row with Joe Segalla to take the green flag for the 15-lap heat event. Spies jumped out to a strong lead off the start as Preston Cranmer cleared ahead of Segalla for 2nd. Donny Moore struggled early on making contact with the outside wall on lap 4 sending his car tumbling down the front stretch. Segalla reclaimed 2nd place from Cranmer as Lowell Jewell closed in on the battle and started pressuring Cranmer for 3rd place. Spies took the checkered flag ahead of Joe Segalla and the drivers pulled back out on track for the 50-lap feature event.

Morton and Young shared the front row as the green flag came out over Iowa Speedway to kick off the main event. Morton had a great launch off the start and pulled away from the field while Young and Jones battled over 2nd place. Spies was making strong forward progression clearing ahead of Hoose for 5th and closing up on a battle between Collins and Jones over 3rd with 10 laps completed. Spies looked to the inside of Jones several times but wasn’t able to complete the pass while Jones was using the highline momentum coming out of the corners to pull ahead down the straightaways.

Hoose and Collins stayed close behind the battle for 3rd while Young still struggled to close the gap to Morton in the lead. As the drivers approached the halfway point of the night, Morton had extended his lead out to almost 1.5 seconds over Young. Spies had cleared into 3rd with Hoose running close behind. Jones had fallen back to 6th behind Collins. Collins and Hoose were battling hard over 4th place going into the last 20 laps while Spies pulled away with 3rd and was closing up on the rear of Young. Spies got his nose to the inside of Young but wasn’t able to complete the pass as the lap counted down.

The drivers were starting to push more aggressively going into the final 10 laps. Spies tried several more times to clear beneath Young, but again wasn’t able to match the high line speed down the straights. Hoose and Collins continued to battle side by side with both drivers getting everything they could out of the track. Preston Cranmer quietly moved up into 6th ahead of Jones and was slowly reeling in Hoose and Collins. With 3 laps to go, Spies started setting Young up for another attempt for 2nd place but couldn’t make the move before Justin Morton took the checkered flag in the inaugural race in the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail with Aiden Young, Stephen Spies, Matt Hoose, and Rory Collins rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Iowa Speedway.

Justin Morton showed his skill with the silver crown, but the brilliance of the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail is that next week will be a very different car and a very different track to put each driver’s overall skill to the test. Next week, the drivers will jump into the asphalt sprints at Lucas Oil Raceway on September 30th with the intense action brought to you live at 10:30PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!