BRL NSCT S1 R13 Recap

20 January 2023
Bootleg Racing League | Season 1 | Round 13
National Sprint Car Trail | Richmond Raceway

James Tiernan again dominated the field taking the checkered flag tonight with the silver crowns in the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail at Richmond Raceway ahead of Justin Morton and Aiden Young. “In that initial warmup there I actually found something, and it pretty much was just me limiting my wheel input”, Tiernan shared with us at the end of the night, “Basically I was driving it like a dirt car with more throttle than anything else… Really worked out. [I] was quick in qualifying, quick ever since. I was pretty confident once I kind of figured that out.”

James Tiernan sat on top the timing and scoring boards with his 4-lap average time posted at 19.902 in qualifying securing the pole for the feature event with Justin Morton to his outside on the front row. Tiernan had a good jump off the start as Morton found himself under pressure from Aiden Young and Jason Menda. With 5 laps completed, Young had to run more defensively with Menda challenging him from behind allowing Tiernan and Morton to pull away to battle for the lead amongst themselves.

10 laps into the night, much of the field became spread out into groups of 2 or 3 drivers fighting over positions. Morton was holding pace with Tiernan, but Morton wasn’t able to close in enough to make a move for the lead and Young was slowly reeling Morton back in as Menda dropped back. Bruce Jones and Joe Adams ran side by side for several laps over 5th place with Jones able to secure the position going into lap 16. Going into the 2nd half of the night, Tiernan stretched out the gap ahead of Morton to over 0.5 seconds.

Jones and Adams caught the rear bumper of Menda and the 3 fiercely battled over 4th place with no driver seeming to have the advantage. Menda reclaimed 4th while Jones and Adams continued to fight for 5th running alongside each other. Menda used the battle to pull away tightening his grip on 4th. Tiernan extended his lead out to over 1.5 seconds ahead of Morton who was over 2 seconds ahead of Young in 3rd with 10 laps to go. The laps counted down quickly without pause allowing James Tiernan to control his race and take the checkered flag with Justin Morton, Aiden Young, Jason Menda, and Bruce Jones rounding out the top 5 tonight at Richmond Raceway.

Aiden Young continues to lead the overall point standings with 811 points ahead of Justin Morton with 791 points. Bruce Jones sits in 3rd with 760 points. Justin Morton is the current leader in the silver crown class with 293 points followed by Aiden Young and Bruce Jones. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League next head to Southern National Speedway on January 27th in the asphalt sprints.