BRL SLM S19 R2 Recap

01 October 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 19 | Round 2
Super Late Model Series | The Bullring at Las Vegas
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at The Bullring at Las Vegas ahead of Kenny Kibbey and Mathew Thunhorst. “I’ve not been shy about saying that I’m not fast in these super late models, so I was tire conserving once I got the lead and probably saved tires a little bit too long”, Shepherd commented as the track quieted down, “[I was] just trying to hold those guys off and get a good exit and was just barely able to do it.”

Joeseph Snyder was in control of the 13-car field as the green flag came out over The Bullring and the field piled into the first turn. After a few close calls in the opening laps as drivers struggled to get heat into their tires, Snyder continued to lead the field with Bruce Pearson running in 2nd place with 15 laps completed. J R Shepherd had already jumped up to 4th and was pressuring Matt Shinoski for position while Kenny Kibbey, Mathew Thunhorst, and Justin Morton were still stuck in traffic running in 7th through 9th.

Continuing his forward momentum, Shepherd climbed the rest of the way up and took control of the field away from Snyder going into lap 27 as Kibbey and Thunhorst started working together pushing up through traffic into the top 5 quickly moving forward to challenge Shepherd. Morton was running back in 7th and wasn’t able to find a way around Donny Moore finding himself left behind with Kibbey and Thunhorst clearing around Snyder into 2nd and 3rd closing up the 0.6 second gap to Shepherd.

Going into the second half of the night, the top 3 drivers had pulled away from the rest of the field with Snyder still running in 4th Kibbey and Thunhorst completed closed the gap to the lead and Kibbey was keeping the pressure high trying to force a mistake out of Shepherd. Moore was moving up quietly to 4th with Morton still following close behind him letting Moore do the work of setting up the passes with 35 laps to go. The leaders stretched the gap ahead of the field out to over 3.5 seconds as Shepherd was approaching the first signs of lap traffic in a battle for 11th between Joe Segalla and Todd Liston.

The traffic was considerate of the leaders leaving a wide berth for them to get around quickly without compromising the battle for the lead with Kibbey looking to the inside cautiously but unable to get the runoff speed coming out of the corner to capitalize on it. Going into the final 10 laps, Thunhorst took a look to the inside of Kibbey for 2nd, but Kibbey slammed the door closed while Morton cleared around Moore into 4th as the laps counted down. J R Shepherd held the inside line blocking challengers for the lead to take the checkered flag tonight at The Bullring at Las Vegas with Kenny Kibbey, Mathew Thunhorst, Justin Morton, and Donny Moore rounding out the top 5 finishers.

Justin Morton took the lead in the point standings with 94 points over J R Shepherd 3 points behind. Mathew Thunhorst sits in 3rd place with 90 points while Donny Moore and Joseph Snyder are now tied for 4th each driver having 70 points. Next week, the drivers of the Bootleg Racing League head out to USA Speedway for the 3rd round of Season 19 on October 8th with all of the action broadcast live at 9PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!