BRL DSS S14 R7 Recap

17 February 2023
Bootleg Racing League | Season 14 | Round 7
Dirt Street Stock Series | Fairbury Speedway

Blaise Rachels claimed his first win of the season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Fairbury Speedway ahead of Neville Ulph and Chris Hill. “I just kept running it [and] kept running it and finally started pulling away so I went back to the top.”, Rachels commented to us regarding trying to run against the dominate line on the outside tonight.

Brady Thompson set down the fast laps in qualifying at 15.103 taking the pole in the first heat of the night to the inside of Neville Ulph. Thompson forced a checkup out of Ulph clearing into the lead causing a stack up further back allowing Jason Best to get alongside Jeffery Hardin for 3rd. Hardin was able to defend the position as Best slotted back into line in 4th. Thompson took the checkered flag wrapping up the first heat with Blaise Rachels taking the win in the 2nd heat. Hardin battled Bobby Hayes to take the win in the B Main consolation race leading up to the 30-lap feature event.

Thompson took the green flag to kick off the feature with Rachels to his inside. John Wilson battled Ulph for 3rd as Hardin found himself stuck on the inside line falling back in the field before slotting into line back in 7th. Wilson successfully held onto 3rd with the first 5 laps behind them. Several drivers throughout the field were aggressively trying to find speed down low but unable to as the high line was the dominate path around the track. Wilson fell back to 5th with Ulph and Hill got around him while he was experimenting down low.

Rachels was running out front on the rear bumper of Thompson over 2 seconds ahead of Ulph going into the 2nd half of the night. Going into the final 10 laps, Billy Northcutt was doing what he could to recover from a rough start to the night up to 6th behind Wilson. In the final laps, the leaders had caught lap traffic allowing Ulph to start to close the gap but there wasn’t enough time for Ulph to join the battle for the lead as Thompson and Rachels came out of the final corner side by side to take the checkered flag. Brady Thompson was disqualified for a rule violation officially awarding tonight’s win to Blaise Rachels with Neville Ulph, Chris Hill, John Wilson, and Billy Northcutt rounding out the top 5 tonight at Fairbury Speedway.

Billy Northcutt takes the lead in the point standings away from teammate William Hargreaves with 497 points, now 36 points ahead of Hargreaves. Jason Best sits in 3rd place with 382 points as Chris Hill moves up to 4th at 296 points. John Wilson rounds out the top 5 in the point standings going into the next round of the season. The Bootleg Racing League next heads to Volusia Speedway Park on February 24th with all of the dirt slinging action brought to you live at 7:10PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!