BRL NSCT S1 R3 Recap

07 October 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 1 | Round 3
National Sprint Car Trail | Limaland Motorsports Park
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Brandyn Proudfoot with Jim Beaver eSports took the checkered flag by 0.019 in a drag race to the line in the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail tonight at Limaland Motorsports Park in the dirt midgets ahead of Stephen Spies and Aiden Young. Proudfoot shared with us after packing up for the night, “Yeah, I did not think I was going to get [Stephen Spies], but I managed to pop a wheel stand and shoot her straight to the line and got him by a hair.”

John Heyn took the pole in qualifying with a 4-lap average lap time of 12.295 and advanced straight to the feature event along with Stephen Spies, Preston Cranmer, Grady Wade, Aiden Young, and Brandyn Proudfoot. Terry Landis and Justin Morton shared the front row to take the green flag for the 12-lap heat event. Landis and Morton started to pull away from the field as they battled over the lead with Landis holding it through the opening laps. Steve Goldner caught the leaders and got to the inside of Morton for 2nd 5 laps into the run.

Morton jerked right to avoid contact with Goldner and couldn’t recover before making contact with the outside wall as Bruce Jones jumped up into 2nd place with Brennon Lacy up to 3rd. Landis continued to control the field going into the final few laps and took the checkered flag with Jones and Lacy rounding out the top 3 finishers. Pole sitter, John Heyn, shared his thoughts going into the feature event, “Passing going to definitely be difficult. I think as the race goes on, I think you’ll see things widen out almost like what we saw earlier towards the end of the heat race.”

Heyn had Spies to his outside as the green flag came out for the 30-lap main feature event. Heyn had a strong jump off the start with Spies crossing over to dive beneath him clearing out into the lead going into lap 4. Spies held the lead with Heyn close behind through the first half of the night with minor incident happening further back in the field as the drivers started to spread out around the track. Proudfoot climbed up to 3rd place and was pressuring Heyn as Young made contact with the outside wall falling back to 4th.

Cranmer was having a rough night falling back to 13th after minor contact with John Wilson sent him around in traffic going into the final 10 laps. Proudfoot was one of the few drivers committed to running the bottom line staying to the inside of Heyn with Spies still out front. A late race caution with 3 laps remaining restacked the leaders single file and Heyn mistimed the jump making contact with the rear of Spies sending himself around and fell back to 11th after running up front all night.

Proudfoot dove beneath Spies as the green came back out but couldn’t clear far enough for a slider. Coming out of the final corner Proudfoot and Spies had a drag race to the line side by side with Brandyn Proudfoot taking the checkered flag by 0.019 over Stephen Spies in the end. Aiden Young, Bruce Jones, and Stevin Goldner round out the top 5 finishers tonight at Limaland Motorsports Park in the 3rd round of the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail.

Stephen Spies leads in the Dirt Midget point standings with 72 points with Brandyn Proudfoot 1 point behind. Justin Morton leads the Silver Crown standings with 76 points over Aiden Young with 72 points and also in the Asphalt Sprints with 76 points ahead of Stephen Spies with 72 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League take a week off before jumping into their non-winged dirt 360 sprints at Eldora Speedway on October 21st with all of the intense action brought to you live at 10:30PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

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!