BRL SLM S19 R6 Recap

29 October 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 19 | Round 6
Super Late Model Series | Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Mathew Thunhorst with Forge Racing took the checkered flag under caution flag conditions tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway ahead of J R Shepherd and Justin Morton. “That like first 30, 40 laps when we were trying to come up through, me and [Shepherd], that was extremely chaotic”, Thunhorst commented at the end of the night, “My heart went in my throat a couple of time in this race and still came out alright on the other side though.”

Mathew Thunhorst had the fastest qualifying time with a 4-lap average of 18.028 earning 10 extra points for the night and starting the feature event in 10th with the field invert. Kevin Moody started on the pole with Adam Schoen to his outside as the green flag came out for the Whiteriver 100. Moody cleared out front off the jump as Kurt Smith got beneath Schoen challenging for 2nd but got loose coming out of turn 2 and slid to the inside wall falling far back in the field giving 3rd place to Stephen Spies.

Spies started looking to the inside of Schoen but wasn’t able to match pace with Jason Menda pressuring him from behind. J R Shepherd was quickly climbing through the field getting into the top 5 within the first 10 laps of the night as Menda got loose similar to Smith’s earlier incident and fell back to 21st in the field. Justin Morton was struggling to follow Thunhorst through traffic and found himself behind Matt Shinoski running in 7th ahead of Austin Boelke.

Schoen looked to the inside of Moody but couldn’t make anything with it as the field continued to aggressively push early in the run. Morton went to the outside of Shinoski getting impatient waiting for an opening. Boelke noticed the move and tried to follow Morton around high as Shepherd dove beneath Spies for 3rd. Thunhorst quickly slotted in behind Shepherd pushing Spies back to 5th with 25 laps completed. Morton and Boelke both cleared around Shinoski who dropped back to 8th.

30 laps into the run, Moody continued to hold the lead with Schoen, Shepherd and Thunhorst close behind as the top 6 started to separate themselves from the rest of the field. Thunhorst soon saw an opportunity getting his nose to the inside of Shepherd who continued to slam the door over and over again while still trying to find a way to get around Schoen. Schoen made contact with the outside wall on lap 43 and Shepherd and Thunhorst both took advantage moving up into 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Going into the 2nd half of the night, Shepherd dove below Moody going down the front stretch to challenge for the lead. Going into turn 1, Moody’s rear slid out toward the outside wall bringing out the caution flag with Shepherd in the lead and Moody restarting from 7th. Off the jump, Morton tried to overtake Schoen from the outside while Thunhorst dove beneath Shepherd to take away the lead. With 40 laps remaining, Morton was up to 3rd running behind Shepherd while Thunhorst started to build up a gap between himself and Shepherd.

With the laps counting down, most of the field had single filed out with only a few side-by-side battles further back in the field. Thunhorst continued to hold the lead with Shepherd and Morton close behind and a gap starting to form between Morton and Schoen in 4th. Boelke dove low to try to take 4th place away from Schoen and the two drivers ran side by side for several corners before Boelke cleared ahead. Going into the final laps contact between Tim Shinoski and Donny Moore battling over 8th place resulting in Mathew Thunhorst taking the checkered flag under caution flag conditions with J R Shepherd, Justin Morton, Austin Boelke, and Adam Schoen rounding out the top 5 tonight at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.

J R Shepherd holds onto the lead in the point standings tonight with 273 points. Mathew Thunhorst sits in 2nd place with 269 points over Justin Morton with 261 points. Joseph Snyder moved up to 4th with 204 points and Donny Moore rounds out the top 5 with 203 points. Next week, the drivers of the Bootleg Racing League head out to Thompson Speedway for the 7th round of Season 19 on November 5th with all of the action broadcast live at 9PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!