BRL SLM S19 R1 Recap

24 September 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 19 | Round 1
Super Late Model Series | New Smyrna Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Mathew Thunhorst took the first checkered flag of the new season in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at New Smyrna Speedway ahead of J R Shepherd and Kevin Moody. “I was working hard every lap… The worst feeling you can have as a leader is you just watch the guy behind you just slowing taking tenths out”, Thunhorst commented as the night came to a close, “Even though I might not have been pushing real hard I was working hard in the car.”

Justin Morton sat on top of the timing and scoring boards in qualifying with a fast 4-lap average clocked at 17.665 beating J R Shepherd by 0.035 and, with the new invert system this season, Morton started in 10th place in the grid as the drivers went out on track for the 100-lap feature event. Lowell Jewell secured the pole position with Joe Segalla to his outside as the green flag came out over New Smyrna Speedway and the 15-car field raced into turn one. Jewell cleared out to a strong lead off the jump with Segalla close behind while Donny Moore and Todd Liston battled over 3rd place.

Mathew Thunhorst was quickly starting to push up through the track with Shepherd following him through the traffic as Morton struggled in the opening laps getting caught in an incident on lap 4 and sliding back to the rear of the field. Segalla got to the outside of Jewell with 10 laps completed and tried to challenge for the lead but wasn’t able to complete the pass as Liston got to the inside taking away 2nd place. Thunhorst and Shepherd took advantage of the hole Liston created as they held the inside line pushing Segalla back further into the pack. Thunhorst and Shepherd wasted no time getting beneath Liston and moving up into 2nd and 3rd respectively tight on Jewell’s rear bumper with 20 laps behind them.

Lap 22 saw the first lead chance as Thunhorst got around Jewell for the position and Jewell fell back to 3rd behind Shepherd. Morton was pushing up through the field again making up some of the lost positions from the earlier incident but struggled to get through the dense traffic with several side-by-side battles between him and the leaders. Segalla continued to struggle finding himself stranded on the outside as a tightly packed group of drivers cleared ahead of him before he was able to rejoin the preferred line.

As the drivers crossed the halfway point of the night, Thunhorst continued to lead over Shepherd and Morton was quickly climbing through the field up to 6th place. Donny Moore took 3rd away from Jewell with Kevin Moody following him through into 4th. Moody saw an opportunity and dove deep to the inside of Moore clearing into 3rd on lap 57 with Morton closing quickly. Matt Hoose started last in the field as was up 8 positions into 7th place with 40 laps remaining pressuring Adam Schoen for 6th.

With 33 laps to go, Morton got his nose beneath Moore and quickly took 4th place away before pulling away for the pack while Thunhorst had reached the first signs of lap traffic. Shepherd was struggling to find speed with the gap to Thunhorst growing larger as the laps counted down. Moody was still holding 3rd almost 4 seconds behind Shepherd. Morton was closing the 2 second gap to Moody, but not quick enough to contend for 3rd with only 20 laps remaining in the evening. Going into the final stretch, Mathew Thunhorst has a commanding 2 second lead over Shepherd when he took the checkered flag at New Smyrna Speedway with J R Shepherd, Kevin Moody, Justin Morton, and Matt Hoose rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series.

After the first round, J R Shepherd and Justin Morton are tied for the lead in the point standings with 47 points each and Mathew Thunhorst sits in 3rd place only 1 point behind them with the new qualifying points this season already shaking things up. Next week, the drivers of the Bootleg Racing League head to The Bullring at Las Vegas for the 2nd round of Season 19 on October 1st with all of the action broadcast live at 9PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S18 R11 Recap

10 September 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 11
Super Late Model Series | Myrtle Beach Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming passed nearly the entire field on his way to the front to take the checkered flag tonight in his return to the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Myrtle Beach Speedway ahead of J R Shepherd and Justin Morton. “It’s tough when you’re racing against championship guys like that”, Kibbey commented after his impressive win tonight, “Hopefully we can just keep putting together runs… Yeah, looking forward to coming back and racing just about every week.”

Austin Boelke led the 18-car field to the green flag with Justin Morton to his outside. J R Shepherd started in 3rd and quickly dove beneath Morton off the jump. The two drivers ran side by side while Morton tried to utilize the outside line but was eventually forced to concede the position to Shepherd after 3 intense laps. As the field single filed out around the track, Shepherd and Morton closed back in on Boelke in the lead with Joseph Snyder directly behind them as the top 4 started to pull away from the rest of the pack.

20 laps into the night, Kenny Kibbey was making a hard charge to the front already up to 5th, from a 15th place starting position, and was closing on the leaders quickly. Shepherd saw his opportunity on lap 25 getting his nose to the inside of Boelke and started battling for the lead over several laps before clearing ahead of Boelke on lap 27. Morton dove his car in behind Shepherd before Boelke could close the door as Kibbey ran close behind in 4th. Kibbey was able to get to the inside of Boelke before Morton cleared to ensure that the door remained open as Boelke was pushed back to 4th place.

Shepherd continued to hold the lead ahead of Morton and Kibbey as the top 3 broke away from the field as the drivers approached the halfway point of the night. Kibbey was pressuring Morton for 2nd place trying to force a mistake out of Morton while Shepherd wasn’t able to build a gap behind him as we’ve seen him do in previous rounds this season. Boelke dropped further back, still running in 4th, defending his position from Adam Schoen and Snyder closing on his bumper. Lap 52 saw Kibbey aggressively dive beneath Morton forcing an opening allowing him to quickly overtake for 2nd place.

Kibbey wasted no time going after the lead again aggressively throwing his car to the inside and getting a nose ahead of Shepherd before clearing into the lead with 43 laps remaining. Shepherd looked to the inside of Kibbey to pull off a crossover but couldn’t close in on Kibbey enough to complete the move settling into 2nd ahead of Morton. Kibbey took full advantage of the open track ahead of him stretching out his lead. In the final 30 laps, Kibbey had built up a commanding gap ahead of Shepherd and was negotiating through lap traffic with the drivers respectfully clearing the preferred line for the approaching leaders.

Going into the final 10 laps, Morton continued to pressure Shepherd for 2nd place, but Shepherd was defensively holding the inside line tight while Kibbey had completely checked out and was well over 1 second ahead of the rest of the field. Morton made a few peaks to the inside of Shepherd to have the door slammed shut again and again as Kenny Kibbey took the checkered flag tonight in the final round of Season 18 ahead of J R Shepherd, Justin Morton, Austin Boelke, and Jeffrey Hardin rounding out the top 5 finishers at Myrtle Beach Speedway.

J R Shepherd took the season championship tonight with 424 points overall over Justin Morton with 415 points. “It was a tough season for sure”, Shepherd commented on the championship before giving his competitor praise, “[Morton’s] one heck of a driver. Very, very clean and there’s several times tonight he could’ve just shoved it to the inside and he chose not to, so it shows the type of driver he is. That’s a person you want to see succeed and I promise you, you will.” Austin Boelke finished the season out in 3rd place with 400 points while Michael Goodman and Kurt Smith finished in 4th and 5th place respectively with only 8 points between them. Next week, on September 17th, is the 7th Annual Stone River Shootout where the race winners from the past year in the Bootleg Racing League will pilot the ARCA stock cars around Hickory Motor Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 9PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S18 R10 Recap

27 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 10
Super Late Model Series | Langley Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took his 5th checkered flag of Season 18 in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Langley Speedway ahead of Michael Goodman and Kurt Smith. “That was a tough race, at the beginning at least, having to start on the outside but had some things work out for sure”, Shepherd shared with us as the track settled down at the end of the night, “Once I got the lead it was just about running a line to try to conserve the tire temperature and try not to let it get too hot.”

Todd Liston with Indy Autosports was in control of the 18-car field as the green flag came out over Langley Speedway and racing commenced. There was a lot of shuffling throughout the field as drivers scrambled to take advantage in the early stages of the night. Justin Morton and Austin Boelke, both championship contenders, essentially started from the back of the field. Morton dropped back because of technical issues around the first lap and Boelke received an EOL penalty from the previous race at Martinsville Speedway. This gave J R Shepherd a strong advantage in the points race already running up in the top 5 with 10 laps completed.

Donny Moore briefly took the lead away from Liston until minor contact between them sent Moore spinning into the infield grass. Liston voluntarily ran a passthrough down pit road taking responsibility for the incident and handing the race lead over to Michael Goodman. Shepherd saw his opportunity and aggressively dove from 3rd place to get beneath Goodman and took control of the field going into lap 18. Morton and Boelke had climbed up through the field together into the top 10.

As the drivers crossed the halfway mark of the night, Morton and Boelke were up to 6th and 7th respectively while Shepherd continued to lead ahead of Goodman and Kurt Smith. Jammes Lowe was holding 8th place and kept the pressure up on Boelke while the top 8 drivers started to break away from the rest of the field. Shepherd was running away with the lead taking advantage of the open track ahead of him as Smith was struggling to find a way to get under Goodman for 2nd.

With 30 laps remaining, Shepherd had reached the first signs of lap traffic cautiously negotiating around them while maintaining the gap between himself and Goodman. Morton was up to 5th with Boelke still following closely behind him. With 15 laps to go, a checkup in the pack caused Smith to make contact with Goodman forcing several drivers to scramble around the front stretch trying to avoid. Goodman and Smith were able to recover but Jeffrey Hardin was caught up in it and sent into the outside wall bringing out the caution late in the night.

Shepherd quickly cleared back into the lead off the restart with 10 laps remaining. Goodman held onto 2nd ahead of Smith with James Lowe up to 4th as Morton and Boelke slipped back to 7th and 8th behind Bryan Dehn. Another caution was thrown going into lap 95 when Chris Davis and Bruce Pearson had minor contact and Pearson ended up sideways on the track and, since the Bootleg Racing League does not do GWC finishes, the driver again restacked for a one lap shootout to the checkered flag. As the green flag came out for the final time, Shepherd jumped out ahead of the field again and took the win with Michael Good, Kurt Smith, Joseph Snyder, and James Lowe rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Langley Speedway.

J R Shepherd holds the lead over Justin Morton in the point standings tonight with 385 points over Morton’s 377 points. Austin Boelke holds onto 3rd place with 363 points. Donny Moore stays in 4th place with 340 points and Kurt Smith rounds out the top 5 in the points with 334 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now set their sights to Myrtle Beach Speedway for the final round of Season 18 on September 11th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S18 R9 Recap

20 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 9
Super Late Model Series | Martinsville Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took his 4th win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Martinsville Speedway ahead of Kurt Smith and Justin Morton. “Tough race tonight, extremely hard to pass at this track”, Shepherd commented as the night came to a close at Martinsville, “I used up a lot of my stuff trying to make that pass [on Smith], but it’s kind of what you got to do here” Tonight’s win gave Shepherd a 2-point lead over Morton going into the final two rounds of Season 18.

Kurt Smith was in control of the 14-car field as he took the green flag with Austin Boelke to his outside and the track roared to live with the Bootleg Racing League. Smith had a strong launch off the start and Boelke fell back to 3rd behind Donny Moore before being able to slide down to the inside line. Shepherd and Morton were running 4th and 5th respectively close behind Boelke as the drivers put the first 10 laps behind them and the field started to single file out around the track.

Shepherd jumped ahead of Boelke and got his nose to the inside of Moore taking away 2nd place with Boelke following him under into 3rd. Contact between Boelke and Moore when Moore tried to defend his position resulted in Moore getting sent around and he fell back to 10th. Smith was still in control of the field with 20 laps completed under pressure from Shepherd, Boelke, and Morton. Michael Goodman was quietly moving up through the field and closed in on Morton’s rear bumper in 5th.

Smith and Shepherd started to break away from Boelke with Shepherd looking to the inside several times keeping the pressure up with Boelke over 1 second behind in 3rd. The battle for the lead continued going into the second half of the night with Shepherd getting the better run off coming out of the corners, but Smith leaving nothing for Shepherd to take advantage of. Boelke was still holding off Morton and Goodman but had fallen back to over 2 seconds off the leaders.

Shepherd was able to get his nose to the inside of Smith on lap 50 and cleared into the lead. Smith concede the position quickly and fell in line behind Shepherd staying close behind him as the leaders were closing in on the first signs of lap traffic with 45 laps remaining. Boelke was slowly starting to reel the leading drivers in a few tenth of a second each lap with Morton still following close behind and a slight gap started to build between Morton and Goodman just as the caution flag came out and the field was restacked with 34 laps to go.

Shepherd had a strong jump off the green flag going into lap 72 as Smith was able to close the door on Boelke holding onto 2nd place. Moore had climbed back up through the field and was challenging Goodman for 5th as the field single filed back out again with 25 laps remaining. With nothing but wide-open track ahead of him, Shepherd started to run away with the lead stretching the gap between him and Smith to around 0.5 without lap traffic to contend with going forward.

With only 15 laps left, 10 cars were still running on track with Shepherd still in control of the field. Smith was able to match pace with Shepherd, but not able to make an attempt on the lead with the laps dwindling down. Boelke, Morton, and Goodman still ran in 3rd through as they broke away from Moore in 6th. In the final moments, Boelke made contact with the outside wall giving Morton an opening to take away 3rd place, but Boelke battled back from the outside with Goodman waiting to take advantage of whichever driver lost the fight. The two were still running side by side as J R Shepherd took the checkered flag with Kurt Smith coming home in 2nd place. Justin Morton took 3rd place over Austin Boelke by 0.010 at the line and Michael Goodman followed them across in 5th.

J R Shepherd regained the lead over Justin Morton in the point standings tonight with 345 points over Morton’s 343 points. Austin Boelke holds onto 3rd place with 335 points. Donny Moore stays in 4th place with 311 points and Kurt Smith moves up into the top 5 in the points with 296 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now prepare for Langley Speedway on August 27th for Round 10 of Season 18 with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S18 R8 Recap

13 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 8
Super Late Model Series | Lanier National Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming took the checkered flag tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series presented by Gargamel’s Kitchen at Lanier National Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and J R Shepherd. “I just really like Lanier so expectations were decently high coming in here”, Kibbey commented before announcing a potential return to the series in the future, “I should expect to be racing full time or at least really close to it next season.”

Joe Segalla was in control of the 17-car field at the top of the night with Michael Goodman to his outside on the front row and took the green flag starting off the 100-lap event around Lanier National Speedway. J R Shepherd struggled early after being involved in an early race incident and falling back in the field while Chris Davis was up to 4th, 9 positions up from where he started the night after only 15 laps. Segalla continued to hold the lead under pressure from Donny Moore.

Justin Morton was quietly moving up to the front following a wide wake left by Kenny Kibbey’s charge through traffic. Kibbey got a nose to the inside of Davis pushing him far back in the field as he found himself stranded on the outside, finally sliding down behind Shepherd in 7th. Going into lap 35, Kibbey dove deep beneath Segalla clearing into the lead with Morton following him forward into 2nd place. Shepherd had climbed up to 4th and started pressuring Segalla for the final podium spot as Kibbey and Morton started to pull away from the rest of the field.

Coming up on the halfway point, Shepherd made his move overtaking Segalla for 3rd almost 1 second behind Morton on track. Shepherd was able to build up a gap ahead of Segalla but struggled to match the pace of the leaders with 40 laps remaining as Kibbey held the lead over Morton by 0.6 seconds. Lap 65 saw Kibbey reaching the first signs of lap traffic as he continued to outpace the field while negotiating through the rear of the pack. Austin Boelke, who was caught up in an early incident and had to restart from the back of the field, had climbed up to 7th going into the last 25 laps aggressively pushing back toward the front of the pack.

Morton had fallen off the pace from Kibbey and had been caught by Shepherd over 2 seconds behind the leader. Shepherd stayed on the rear bumper of Morton, but Morton was cautious to not leave an opening for Shepherd to take advantage of while Kenny Kibbey crossed the finish line to take the checkered flag with a 2.6 second lead tonight at Lanier National Speedway with Justin Morton, J R Shepherd, James Lowe, and Joe Segalla rounding out the top 5 finishers.

J R Shepherd is again tied for the lead with Justin Morton in the point standings tonight with 305 points each. Austin Boelke holds onto 3rd place with 298 points. Donny Moore stays in 4th place with 276 points and Michael Goodman rounds out the top 5 in the points with 259 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now set their sights on Martinsville Speedway August 20th for round 9 of season 18 with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S18 R7 Recap

06 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 7
Super Late Model Series | Oxford Plains Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports claimed his 3rd win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Oxford Plains Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and Austin Boelke. “Every race can have its own trouble and a lot can happen during one of these races so just try to do the best you can in each and every one of them”, Shepherd commented as the night came to a close, “It was as an okay night I guess as far as the championship goes for everybody that’s involved in that.”

Joe Segalla had control of the field as the green flag came out over Oxford Plains Speedway. Segalla cleared ahead of Ruben Altice going into the first corner as Altice found himself stranded on the outside with Jason Menda leading a charge to the inside with Austin Boelke close behind. Altice fell back to 4th before dropping into line ahead of Michael Goodman. Menda looked to the inside of Segalla several times for the lead, but Segalla didn’t leave an opening for Menda to get his nose into as the drivers put the first 20 laps behind them.

Justin Morton and J R Shepherd, both drivers tied for the points lead going into the night, were running 6th and 7th respectively waiting patiently for an opportunity to present itself to move forward through the field. Segalla and Menda had started to pull away from Boelke when Boelke got loose and checked up the field behind him. Menda then slid up the track on lap 28 and got shuffled back to 7th alongside James Lowe with Segalla still in control of the field.

Lap 34 saw trouble for Morton after contact with Chris Wolfson broke both drivers loose and sent Morton back to 12th while Shepherd moved up to 5th. Boelke found himself to the outside of Altice who cleared into 2nd behind Segalla. Boelke continued to fall back as he struggled to find a gap to drop into dropping back to 7th. Shepherd was up to 3rd running behind Altice while Segalla started to stretch out his lead lap after lap as the drivers crossed the halfway point of the night.

Morton was aggressively pushing up through the field and was up to 9th behind Chris Davis going into the second half. Shepherd struggled to find a way around Altice who was holding the inside line cautiously to prevent being pushed to the outside. Menda started to climb back up toward the front overtaking Todd Liston for 4th and closing in on Shepherd ahead. Segalla had extended his lead over Altice to over 1 second with 35 laps remaining with Shepherd still unable to get his nose under Altice.

Contact between Adam Schoen and Boelke with 25 laps to go brought out the caution flag resetting the field and taking away the 1.5 second lead Segalla had built up over Altice as well as positioning Shepherd directly behind him for the restart. In a shocking upset, with drivers scrambled to get to the inside as the green flag came back out with 20 laps to go, a chain reaction led to Menda pushing Shepherd into Segalla and sent Segalla spinning into the infield along with Altice. No caution came out and Shepherd had control of the field with Morton back up in 2nd place.

Segalla recovered back on track in 10th behind Wolfson. Shepherd was able to stay out ahead of Morton by several car lengths with Boelke and Lowe running behind in 3rd and 4th. Lowe was pressuring Boelke, but Boelke wasn’t leaving any opportunity for Lowe to take advantage of going into the final few laps. Shepherd pulled away in the lead by over 1 second as the white flag came out and J R Shepherd took the checkered flag tonight at Oxford Plains Speedway with Justin Morton, Austin Boelke, James Lowe, and Donny Moore rounding out the top 5 finishers.

J R Shepherd took the lead in the point standings tonight with 267 points. Justin Morton trails Shepherd by only 1 point with Austin Boelke holding onto 3rd place with 264 points. Donny Moore stays in 4th place with 241 points and Michael Goodman rounds out the top 5 in the points with 228 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head up to Maine on August 13th for round 8 of season 18 at Lanier National Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S18 R6 Recap

30 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 6
Super Late Model Series | Southern National Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took the checkered flag for the 2nd time of the season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Southern National Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and Michael Goodman. “This is a tough place to run… it’s just really easy to overdrive whether you’re on the bottom or on the top”, Shepherd commented after claiming his big win tonight, “Just tried to be really patient and had some things fall out way.”

Michael Goodman started in control of the 14-car field tonight and took the green flag alongside Donny Moore on the front row. Goodman had a great launch off the start and cleared ahead of Moore going into the first corner wile Austin Boelke and Kurt Smith battled side by side over 3rd place with Justin Morton and J R Shepherd directly behind them. Morton went low behind Smith and Shepherd stayed up high opting to follow his teammate, Boelke, in the battle. Contact between Smith and Boelke sent Boelke sliding high up the bank in turn three putting him in the rear of the field.

Jason Menda was making consistent forward progression maneuvering around Smith and taking 3rd away with Shepherd following him around pushing Smith back to 5th with 20 laps completed. The top 4 started separate themselves from the rest of the field and Menda had to concede the 3rd place to Shepherd shortly thereafter falling to the back of the lead battle. Shepherd got to the inside of Morton and the two drivers ran side by side for several laps before Shepherd cleared for 2nd place going into the second half of the night with Goodman still holding the lead.

Boelke was slowly climbing back up through the field, up to 7th ahead of Joe Segalla with 40 laps remaining, cautiously clearing one car after another. Shepherd closed up on Goodman’s rear bumper but couldn’t find the grip to run the low line around him as Goodman started to drive defensively taking away any opportunity for Shepherd to get to his inside. Shepherd got alongside the outside of Goodman and committed to the move pushing ahead and clearing into the lead with 26 laps to go. Morton repeated the move and was able to push Goodman back to 3rd ahead of Menda.

With the laps counting down, Boelke started pushing more aggressively showing his speed and climbed back into the top 5 as he closed in on Menda. Goodman and Menda battled side by side over 3rd place ahead of Boelke and Moore also battling side by side over going into the final 10 laps. Goodman was able to clear back into 3rd with Boelke following him through into 4th. Morton was looking to the inside of Shepherd around the final lap but couldn’t get there as J R Shepherd crossed the line taking the checkered flag tonight at Southern National with Justin Morton, Michael Goodman, Austin Boelke, and Donny Moore rounding out the top 5 finishers.

J R Shepherd and Justin Morton are now tied for the lead in the point standings each driver with 227 points. Boelke fell back to 3rd place 1 point behind the leaders. Donny Moore moved up to 4th place with 205 points and Michael Goodman moved up into the top 5 in the points with 194 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head up to Maine on August 6th for round 7 of season 18 at Oxford Plains Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S18 R5 Recap

23 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 5
Super Late Model Series | North Wilkesboro Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Mathew Thunhorst claimed his 3rd checkered flag of the season with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at North Wilkesboro Speedway ahead of J R Shepherd and Justin Morton. “That was really intense”, Thunhorst commented about the race long battle against Shepherd adding, “You get maybe a chance maybe every 10 or 15 laps and if you don’t hit it right, you’re not going to get in there.” Thunhorst shared with us that this may be his final race of the season due to personal reasons and will have to step back from the championship battle.

Justin Morton led the field to the green flag with Joseph Snyder to his outside starting off the 100-lap event. Morton jumped out to a strong lead as J R Shepherd and Mathew Thunhorst were aggressively pushing up through the field early on moving up into 3rd and 4th respectively in the first few laps. Thunhorst, Snyder, and Shepherd went 3 wide over 2nd place with Thunhorst high and Shepherd low around Snyder. Thunhorst was able to clear around Snyder into 2nd place as Shepherd held the inside line. Snyder conceded the battle after Austin Boelke got to his inside behind Shepherd and tried to drop down to the inside line, but contact was made with Donny Moore sending him around and collecting several other drivers from behind.

Racing resumed going into lap 22 with Morton still in control of the field. Shepherd stayed to the inside of Thunhorst as the two drivers ran side by side for several laps before Thunhorst dropped back to 3rd ahead of Boelke. Stephen Spies and Kenny Kibbey had climbed up into the top 10 from their starting positions in the rear of the field. Shepherd got a nose beneath Morton going for the lead on lap 30 with Thunhorst following him around pushing Morton back to 3rd as the three drivers pulled away from the rest of the field.

Going into the 2nd half of the night, Shepherd maintained control of the lead with Thunhorst following close on his rear bumper. Morton fell off the lead battle while Kibbey and Spies moved up into the top 8 ahead of Michael Goodman and were closing on Kurt Smith ahead in 6th. Smith was in a battle with Moore over 5th place but struggled to find an opening. Goodman battled back against Spies with 40 laps remaining clearing back into 8th as Snyder caught the battle and started pressuring Spies.

With the laps counting down, Shepherd wasn’t able shake Thunhorst and Boelke had closed back in on Morton going for 3rd place with 20 laps remaining. Spies fell back to 10th while Kibbey was still running in 7th behind Moore. Shepherd was negotiating through lap traffic one at a time spread out around the track with Thunhorst taking several looks to the inside getting impatient. Thunhorst got his nose inside with 13 laps to go but Shepherd fought back from the outside. The championship caliber drivers stayed side by side as they went into the final 10 laps.

With 8 laps to go, Thunhorst cleared for the lead with contact between the two drivers as they both went for the inside line. They were able to gather their cars back up and continued to battle as Shepherd looked for an opening beneath Thunhorst. In the final laps, Thunhorst started to pull away from Shepherd by several tenths and took the checkered flag with Morton holding Boelke off for 3rd closing out the night at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Mathew Thunhorst took the lead away from Austin Boelke in the point standings with tonight’s win now with 190 points. Boelke fell back to 2nd place 1 point off the lead. Justin Morton holds third place 2 points off the lead and J R Shepherd still sits in 4th place 3 points off the lead. Donny Moore rounds out the top 5 drivers in the points with 169 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now move across North Carolina on July 30th for round 6 of season 18 at Southern National Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S18 R4 Recap

16 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 4
Super Late Model Series | Five Flags Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Mathew Thunhorst dominated the field claiming his 2nd checkered flag of Season 18 tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Five Flags Speedway ahead of Austin Boelke and J R Shepherd. The early race incident gave Thunhorst what he referred to as an uneventful drive. “All of the guys that were probably going to compete against me got caught up in that”, he commented, “I was able to then jump on that restart there and get to the lead and I didn’t look back and at that point, you know, I was just trying run laps.”

Joe Segalla shared the front row with Austin Boelke as the green flag came out over the track starting off the 100-lap event. Segalla quickly cleared into the lead and the 18-car field went mostly single file as the drivers settled in to log off some laps. A checkup caught many drivers by surprise on lap 9 when Jeffrey Hardin got loose coming out of turn four causing a chain reaction behind him resulting in many front runners getting sent around including Justin Morton and J R Shepherd and bringing out the caution flag.

Segalla lined the field back up for the restart going into lap 15. Segalla had a great jump, but the restack gave Mathew Thunhorst an opportunity who dove below Segalla and took control of the race lead. Shepherd had climbed back through the field and was battling for 6th against Jason Menda with 30 laps completed as Thunhorst took advantage of the open track ahead of him and stretched his gap to over 1.6 seconds. Segalla found himself stuck on the outside line and was falling back to Menda forcing Shepherd to concede the battle for the moment and fall back to in line behind Menda.

Going into the 2nd half of the night, Thunhorst had extended his lead to almost 4 seconds ahead of Boelke while Sheperd continued to work through the field. Shepherd was up to 4th but was struggling to find a way around the #26 of Donny Moore. Shepherd looked to the inside several time as Moore slammed the door shut over and over until Shepherd beat Moore to the corner with 22 laps remaining and took the inside line away clearing ahead into 3rd. Thunhorst had a commanding lead and was safely out of reach of the field while negotiating through lap traffic going into the final 15 laps.

Morton and Hardin battled over 8th place, the coveted inversion spot for next week, while Thunhorst was leading by over 7 seconds ahead of Boelke. Hardin dove beneath Morton for 8th, but Morton pushed ahead going around the outside of Michael Goodman forcing Hardin to do the same. Morton was looking to the outside of Menda in 6th going into the last 3 laps and was able to clear into that position, but Hardin couldn’t complete the move this time holding onto 8th. Thunhorst came out of the final corner 7.8 seconds ahead of the rest of the field to take the checkered flag tonight as Five Flags Speedway.

Austin Boelke reclaimed the lead with 152 points in the point standings but is leading by a very narrow margin as Mathew Thunhorst closed the gap and is now 2 points behind the leader. Justin Morton dropped back from the lead to 3rd place after a disappointing night with 150 points. J R Shepherd fell back to 4th place with 148 points and Donny Moore rounds out the top 5 drivers with 135 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head to North Carolina on July 23rd for the next round of the season at the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S18 R3 Recap

09 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 3
Super Late Model Series | Lucas Oil Raceway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

J R Sheperd with Different Path Motorsports claimed his first win of Season 18 tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Lucas Oil Raceway ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Justin Morton. “This was definitely a nice chance of pace. Usually, this track is just the outside groove, and it doesn’t give you a whole lot of options but tonight the car had a little bit of freeness into it at least on throttle so that gave us more options than we normally have here.”, Shepherd commented about the racing and state of the track tonight.

Michael Goodman led the field to the green flag as the action was kicked off with Jeffrey Hardin to his outside. Goodman cleared ahead of Hardin and the front half of the field started to single file out with the first 10 laps completed. J R Shepherd and Justin Morton went side by side as Shepherd tried to take 3rd place from the outside line with Austin Boelke following close behind. Morton struggled to keep his momentum up on corner exit and was slowly dropping back little by little with each lap before conceding the position to Shepherd. Shepherd then made an aggressive dive below the leaders as Goodman got loose and was able to jump from 3rd and take control of the field ahead of Hardin. Goodman fell back far in the running order as drivers spilt around him to try to avoid contact.

Shepherd continued to lead as Justin Morton and Jeffrey Hardin fought over 2nd place. Mathew Thunhorst was up to 7th behind Stephen Spies with 30 laps completed. Morton cleared for 2nd and Thunhorst made contact with Kurt Smith almost sending both drivers around, however they both reacted incredibly quickly and straightened themselves back out to carry on with Thunhorst dropping back to 8th to regroup behind Smith. Spies was still making moves forward clearing around Austin Boelke into 4th and looking to the inside of Hardin. Thunhorst again challenged Smith and was able to complete the move as well as clear ahead of Donny Moore into 6th 45 laps into the night.

Approaching the second half of the race, Spies took 3rd place away from Hardin and went to work reeling Morton in over 2 seconds ahead of him. Thunhorst had caught the rear bumper of Boelke as Boelke as Boelke was trying to overtake Hardin from the inside. Thunhorst followed him low and cleared into 5th. Shepherd continued to stretch out the gap ahead of the field while Thunhorst was still negotiating through traffic and unable to directly challenge him for the lead. Spies had closed up on the leaders and but struggled to get around Morton as Thunhorst overtook Boelke for 4th and quickly went high above Spies and took away 3rd with only 30 laps remaining.

Shepherd still led ahead of Morton, who was feeling the pressure from a quickly approaching Thunhorst. Thunhorst closed up tight behind Morton and was starting to look around the inside but didn’t yet have the momentum to beat Morton’s pace out of the corners. Going into the final 10 laps, Thunhorst had closed up on Shepherd’s bumper but didn’t have a chance to make an attempt on the lead before a large wreck in the middle of the field brough out a late race caution end brought the action to an end with Shepherd leading the field across the line with Thunhorst, Morton, Spies, and Boelke rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Lucas Oil Raceway.

Justin Morton holds the lead in the point standings with 115 points as Austin Boelke fell back to 2nd only 2 points behind the leader. Mathew Thunhorst and J R Shepherd are tied for 3rd place with 110 points each and Bryan Dehn sits in 5th place with 104 points after the first 3 rounds of the season. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head down to Pensacola, Florida on July 16th for the 4th round of the season at Five Flags Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!