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!

BRL SLM S18 R2 Recap

25 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 2
Super Late Model Series | Hickory Motor Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Austin Boelke with Different Path Motorsports took his first checkered flag of the season under yellow flag conditions tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Hickory Motor Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and Bryan Dehn. “To do it here, I’ve come so close to so many wins here… this is a rough track for me so to finally get the monkey off my back for this series and this track is pretty astounding”, an ecstatic Boelke exclaimed after taking his win, “I was just running the race I felt like I could and if I could get close to somebody, it’s just take advantage when you can.”

Joe Segalla led the field to the green flag to start off the night’s excitement with Kurt Smith alongside him to the outside. Segalla had a good jump off the start and quickly cleared ahead of Smith while the 19-car field struggled to get sorted out. Bryan Dehn moved up ahead of Smith and trailed close behind Segalla pressuring for the lead as Segalla held the inside line careful to keep the door closed with 10 laps completed. Austin Boelke was up to 4th ahead of Justin Morton and dove low beneath Smith to challenge for 3rd.

Dehn took the inside away from Segalla as Morton followed Boelke around Smith into 3rd and 4th place respectively. J R Shepherd was in 5th 20 laps into the night and had Mathew Thunhorst on his rear bumper as the two drivers cautiously negotiated through traffic making their way to the front of the field. Boelke started to pressure Segalla for 2nd place with Morton, Shepherd, and Thunhorst following single file while Dehn was able to put some distance between himself and Segalla.

By lap 30, the drivers settled in to put some laps behind them running single file around the track patiently waiting for opportunities to present themselves rather than forcing situations. Segalla was slowly reeling Dehn back in as the drivers approached the halfway point of the night. Going into lap 46, Boelke saw an opening beneath Segalla and dove low to keep the door open. Segalla was forced up the track as he got shuffled back to 6th with Morton, Shepherd, and Thunhorst following Boelke around. Boelke quickly closed the gap to Dehn and aggressively started pressuring for the lead.

The top five pulled away from the rest of the field as Boelke took the inside line away from Dehn on lap 56 and cleared for the lead. Dehn was pushed back to 5th behind Thunhorst who still couldn’t find the momentum to get to the inside of Shepherd as patience was wearing thin throughout the field. Morton was staying very close on Boelke’s rear bumper and keeping his car in a position to take advantage of any mistake Boelke might make as the drivers entered the final 30 laps and started reaching the rear of the field complicating matters for the leaders.

With only 22 laps remaining, the caution came out in an incredible upset as Shepherd and Thunhorst made contact on the entry of turn one sending Shepherd hard into the outside wall and Thunhorst off into the grass inside of the track. Thunhorst recovered in 9th place, but Shepherd was sent to the rear of the field in 16th place with severe damage to the front of his car. Boelke cleared for the lead off the restart ahead of Morton and Thunhorst aggressively started climbing back through the field. Thunhorst struggled to find a way around Jason Menda for 5th place as Shepherd worked back up to 11th behind Ryan Senneker.

With 6 laps remaining, another caution came out when Menda tried to close the door on Thunhorst a second too late and the two drivers came together in turn three sending Menda around on track. Boelke was running in the lead as the flag was thrown and crossed the line for the win under yellow flag conditions with Morton, Dehn, Donny Moore, and Thunhorst rounding out the top 5 drivers tonight around the always challenging Hickory Motor Speedway.

Austin Boelke is now tied with Justin Morton for the lead in the point standings with 77 points each going into the holiday weekend. Mathew Thunhorst fell back to 3rd place with 76 points after the incident tonight. Bryan Dehn jumped up to 4th place with 73 points and J R Shepherd fell back to 5th with 70 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head up to Indiana to Lucas Oil Raceway on July 9th for the 3rd round of the season with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S18 R1 Recap

18 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 1
Super Late Model Series | Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Mathew Thunhorst took the first win of the new season in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway ahead of J R Shepherd and Justin Morton. “That was really good hard racing”, Thunhorst commented at the end of the night about the intense battle against Shepherd, “I was struggling to get around [Shepherd]. You know, just trying to get enough of a run to do anything with him. That’s why I was trying different things and then I’d get the tires heated up a little bit and I backed off a little bit and they’d come back to me.”

Joe Segalla started on the pole with Joseph Snyder to his outside as the green flag came out over the field officially starting the 18th season of the Super Late Model Series. Austin Boelke, J R Shepherd, and Mathew Thunhorst started in 5th through 7th place in the running order. After a chaotic start, Shepherd jumped up to 2nd place and challenged Segalla for the lead. Segalla conceded the position and went single file holding onto 2nd place as Shepherd started to pull away.

Justin Morton, who started back in 16th, was up into the top 10 and continued a hard charge to the front 15 laps into the night. Thunhorst got around the outside of Boelke and moved up to 5th while Segalla and Kurt Smith battled over 2nd place. Thunhorst pushed to close the gap to Shepherd and quickly maneuvered around Smith and Segalla for 2nd place and went to work reeling the leader in. Shepherd and Thunhorst were separated by 0.7 with 30 laps competed as the two drivers pulled away from the rest of the field.

Morton was up to 5th and closing on the battled still going on between Segalla and Smith over 3rd place. Morton was able to overtake Smith and closed on Segalla quickly before taking 3rd place on the following lap with over 3 seconds to make up to the leaders. Thunhorst closed the gap to Shepherd to only 0.2 going into lap 40 as Shepherd ran a defensive line to hold off Thunhorst’s advance. Boelke moved up to 5th and was pressuring Smith while James Lowe challenged Segalla for 6th.

Michael Goodman was back into the top 10 after falling back in the earlier stages of the race and was closing in on Ryan Senneker and Bryan Dehn ahead of him. As the drivers crossed the halfway point, Thunhorst had yet to find a way around Shepherd for the lead with Morton still over 3 seconds behind them. Boelke was still running in 5th very close behind Smith waiting for an opening to take advantage of with Lowe and Dehn closing up behind him as the field became spread out around the track with multiple small packs forming and drivers finally settling in.

On lap 67, Thunhorst was able to get his nose to the inside of Shepherd and tried to take away the lead. Shepherd stayed alongside him fighting back as the two drivers ran almost identical paces door to door for several laps. Morton used the opportunity to close in on the battle only around 1 second behind and closing quickly. With 25 laps remaining, Thunhorst was able to clear ahead of Shepherd after battling side by side for 8 intense laps. Morton made up even more time and was running close behind Shepherd going into the final stretch.

Thunhorst was able to pull away with the lead quickly building a large gap between himself and Shepherd. Morton was pressuring Shepherd for 2nd place as Shepherd struggled showing definite signs of excessive tire wear after running the battle with Thunhorst. Shepherd ran a tight, defensive line to hold back Morton with the gap to the leader extended out to 2 seconds going into the final 10 laps. Segalla was holding onto 8th place for the pole position in the next round holding off Senneker and Donny Moore behind him rounding out the top 10.

Thunhorst was quickly approaching lap traffic for the first time of the night with 3 laps to go and opted to give up some pace rather than risk negotiating through the traffic so late in the race with over a 2 second lead over Shepherd. Thunhorst took the checkered flag following the lap traffic across the line. Shepherd held onto 2nd place over Morton with Boelke and Lowe rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway for the first round of Season 18 of the Super Late Model Series.

Mathew Thunhorst starts the new season off leading the point standings with 40 points. J R Shepherd has 2nd place over Justin Morton, Austin Boelke, and James Lowe with each driver separated by only 1 point respectively. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now set their sights to Hickory Motor Speedway for the next round on June 25th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S17 R11 Recap

11 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 11
Super Late Model Series | Myrtle Beach Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming took the season championship tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Myrtle Beach Speedway. Mathew Thunhorst took the checkered flag for the night beating Kenny Kibbey and J R Shepherd to the line in the end. “I kind of got lucky breaks, you know, and I just kept taking advantage of them”, Thunhorst commented after taking the final win of the season, “I kind of figured some things out. [I] was trying a new line all night and it worked out here pretty well and I just took care of my tires best I could and when it got down to the end, I had something for [Menda] still.”

Jeffrey Hardin led the 19-car field to the green flag with Kurt Smith alongside him on the front row. Kenny Kibbey, the points leader going into the evening, started in 5th place ahead of Austin Boelke. Jason Menda started from 3rd place and matched Hardin’s jump off the start clearing into 2nd place quickly as the drivers shuffled for position throughout the field. Smith struggled from the outside and fell back to 6th before being able to slide down to the low line. Menda was able to take the inside from Hardin and overtook for the lead going into lap 6.

Bryan Dehn, Boelke, and Kibbey were running 3rd through 5th and kept the pressure on the leaders while Smith in 6th started to fall off the front pack with Mathew Thunhorst, J R Shepherd, and James Lowe running behind him. Kibbey was able to maneuver around Boelke 32 laps into the night and was up to 4th place still running behind Dehn as a caution came out on lap 34 stacking the field back together with Menda still in control of the field. Thunhorst, Shepherd, and Lowe were running in 5th through 7th as the green flag came out over the field and racing resumed.

Menda had a good launch on the start, but Kibbey stayed with him with Thunhorst following close behind. Hardin found himself stranded on the outside and fell back in the running order to 5th behind Boelke. Menda continued to lead the field as the drivers crossed the halfway point in the race with Kibbey still trying to find a way to take the lead for himself. Kibbey made several attempts to take the inside line away from Menda unsuccessfully and started trying to utilize the outside with 30 laps remaining. Thunhorst took advantage of Kibbey looking high and tried to pry 2nd place away, but Kibbey reacted quickly enough to defend the position.

Another caution was thrown out with 25 laps remaining when Hardin and Lowe came together on track. The restack put Thunhorst and Shepherd to the inside line directly behind Menda and Kibbey on the outside line for the restart. Thunhorst quickly jumped out ahead of Kibbey as Kibbey tried to fight back from the outside struggling to stay alongside. Shepherd cleared ahead of Boelke for 4th with Lowe moving in behind him pushing Boelke back another spot. Shepherd tried to get up to Thunhorst’s rear bumper to block Kibbey still on the outside.

Menda’s tires spun coming out of the corner giving Thunhorst the chance he needed inside the final 20 laps as Thunhorst took the lead and started to pull away. Kibbey moved into 2nd ahead Shepherd close behind in 3rd. With 10 laps remaining, Thunhorst had a strong grip on the lead ahead of Kibbey. Thunhorst stretched his lead out to over 0.6 as a late race caution came out bringing the race to a close and Thunhorst took the checkered flag with Kibbey, Shepherd, Boelke, and Michael Goodman rounding out the top 5 finishers in the season finale.

Kenny Kibbey took the season championship with a total of 421 points ahead of Austin Boelke with 384. Justin Morton finished out the season in 3rd with 373 points with Mathew Thunhorst and Michael Goodman rounding out the top 5 drivers as the season comes to a close. “When it came down to like race wins and podiums you know some tracks I kind of had the speed others I didn’t or it might have come down to a restart that either helped me or hurt me, but yeah just to stay clean and just to be in the mix is [going to] usually get me like a top 5 and we managed to do that just about every week”, Kibbey commented after officially claiming the champion title, “Consistency wins championships, I kind of tried to epitomize that.”

Season 18 of the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series kicks off on June 18th at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S17 R10 Recap

04 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 10
Super Late Model Series | Langley Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Justin Morton with Total Downforce Racing took his 3rd win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Langley Speedway ahead of Donny Moore and Austin Boelke. “After that start was a bit messier than I wanted this race to go but, [I] struggled here and it feels pretty good to come away with the win”, Morton commented after claiming the checkered flag, “I was trying to make sure I was clipping that apron every time on exit just so it would help rotate the car so that might have just been where I was picking up those tenths over the laps.”

Joseph Snyder started the night off on the pole with Jeffrey Hardin to his outside as the green falg was thrown out over the field and racing commenced. Kenny Kibbey, the points leader at the beginning of the night, was starting in 4th place directly ahead of Justin Morton who was the only driver in the field close enough in the points to directly compete for the season championship. Snyder cleared ahead of Hardin as Kibbey found himself stranded on the outside line and dropped back to 6th behind Austin Boelke before finding a gap to drop into.

Michael Goodman was running in 3rd place and held the inside line not giving an opportunity to Morton behind him to take away the inside line. Snyder continued to lead and was pulling away with Hardin as the gap between 2nd and 3rd grew to over 1 second with 20 laps completed. Kibbey was the first to find his way beneath Goodman and that opened the door for Boelke and Morton to follow him around pushing Goodman back to 6th ahead of Donny Moore. An incident on restacked the field and took away any advantage Snyder and Hardin had over the rest of the drivers as the green flag again came out going into lap 29.

Kibbey restarted from 3rd place behind Snyder on the inside line giving him a strong advantage over Hardin going into turn one. Hardin fell back quickly on the start causing a big checkup behind him and spinning him to the inside of the track bringing out a second caution immediately putting Kibbey on the outside with Morton running directly behind the lead from 3rd place for the restart. Going into lap 34 racing again resumed. Kibbey tried to beat Snyder into the corner but wasn’t able to make it work forcing Kibbey to fall far back in the running order before sliding into line in 5th behind Boelke.

Morton was able to take away the inside line forcing Snyder high on lap 45 taking the lead which sent Snyder falling back to 6th behind Bryan Dehn. Moore moved up to 2nd followed by Boelke and Kibbey as the drivers passed the halfway point in the night. The field single filed out with the top 9 drivers ending with Kurt Smith started to separate themselves from the rest of the field. Moore, up 11 positions from where he started, was continuing to pressure Morton for the lead as Boelke and Kibbey struggled to close the gap to the leaders.

With 30 laps remaining, Morton started to pull away from Moore and was able to extend the lead to over 1 second as the laps counted down. Boelke had caught the rear bumper of Moore with Kibbey waiting for him to create a path for them to get around Moore. One by one drivers started falling out of the pack with Moore, Boelke, and Kibbey left alone to battle over 2nd place. Morton had further stretched his lead to almost 2 seconds with 15 laps remaining and was reaching the rear of the field.

Going into the final 10 laps, Kibbey started to fall off the pace and wasn’t able to stay with Boelke as the leaders negotiated through lap traffic. Morton was maintaining a dominate pace pulling away while Moore and Boelke still fought over 2nd place. Around the final lap, Boelke wasn’t able to get the speed on corner exit to line up a pass attempt before the checkered flag came out and Morton took his 3rd win of the season with Kibbey and Dehn rounding out the top 5 finishers of the night at Langley Speedway.

Kenny Kibbey holds onto the lead in the point standings with 382 points, but Justin Morton closed the gap with his win tonight now 9 points behind the leader and is the only driver close enough to Kibbey to compete for the championship going into the final round. Austin Boelke still sits in 3rd place with 347 points ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Michael Goodman. The Bootleg Racing League now heads over to Myrtle Beach Speedway for the season finale on June 11th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S17 R9 Recap

21 May 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 9
Super Late Model Series | Martinsville Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Mathew Thunhorst claimed his third win of the season with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Martinsville Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and James Lowe. Thunhorst now has the most wins of any other driver in the series this season. “I hate that he didn’t get second at least out of that”, Thunhorst commented about Kenny Kibbey’s show of sportsmanship during their contact in the final few laps, “He pulled an extremely classy move with letting me try to gather that back up and he kind of paid the price for it.”

James Lowe took the green flag for the field as the drivers thundered past the crowd and into the first turn. The field had a lot of chaos shuffling the running order around as drivers went after position gains early and some unfortunate drivers dropping to the rear of the field such as Donny Moore who started in 3rd. Justin Morton and Mathew Thunhorst got to the inside of Joseph Snyder and knocked him back to 4th as Morton and Thunhorst started to close in on Lowe still in the lead.

20 laps into the night, Morton and Thunhorst had completely close the gap to Lowe. Kenny Kibbey was looking to the inside of Snyder clearing into 4th place. Morton and Thunhorst went side by side battling over 2nd place but Thunhorst had to concede and settled back into 3rd ahead of Kibbey. Morton was caught out and stuck on the outside line as Thunhorst and Kibbey both went underneath him pushing him back to 4th. The top 3 drivers started pull away with Morton leading the rest of the field around 1 second behind the battle for the lead.

Thunhorst got inside of Lowe on lap 38 and quickly cleared for the lead with Kibbey following behind. Lowe settled into 3rd but couldn’t match the pace of Thunhorst and Kibbey and he slowly started to fall back as Morton started reeling him in. Crossing the halfway point in the race, the two leaders had separated themselves from the rest of the field by over 1 second. Morton had pulled away from Snyder in 5th and closed the distance to Lowe to make an attempt for 3rd place.

Michael Goodman was running in 5th place with 40 laps remaining running 2 seconds behind Morton. Kibbey held onto the rear bumper of Thunhorst in the battle over the lead as the leaders started catching the rear of the field. Thunhorst was able to use the lap traffic to build a slight gap between himself and Kibbey, now running 0.4 ahead of Kibbey. Kibbey struggled to close the gap back up while negotiating through more traffic going into the last 20 laps.

With 10 laps remaining, Kibbey completely close the gap to Thunhorst but wasn’t given a good opportunity to take advantage of as Thunhorst was careful to not leave any opening going into the corners. On lap 97, Kibbey took a chance to dive under Thunhorst. Thunhorst closed the door quickly and Kibbey couldn’t checkup quick enough as contact was made. Thunhorst spun to the inside and Kibbey slowed in an amazing show of sportsmanship allowing Thunhorst to reclaim the lead. Morton and Lowe close up in that time and cleared around Kibbey before he got back up to speed and fell back to 4th. Thunhorst took the checkered flag around 1 second ahead of Morton with Goodman rounding out the top 5.

Kenny Kibbey still leads in the point standings with 345 points. Justin Morton sits in 2nd place 12 points behind the lead. Mathew Thunhorst and Austin Boelke are tied for 3rd place both with 309 points. Michael Goodman, a rookie in the series this season, holds onto 5th place with 274 points. The Bootleg Racing League will be back on the track after taking a break for Memorial Day Weekend heading to Langley Speedway on June 4th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S17 R8 Recap

14 May 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 8
Super Late Model Series | Lanier National Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming took the checkered flag tonight for his second win of the season with Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Lanier National Speedway ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Michael Goodman. “I really pushed the limit, but I made sure I never spun my tires. I never really spun my tires the entire race.”, Kibbey explained as to how he was able to pull away from Thunhorst in the final moments, “That was really going to be key to keeping the rear tires underneath me.”

The green flag came out over the track as Michael Goodman jumped out to a strong lead with James Lowe behind him. Austin Boelke had trouble early on sliding into the inside wall coming down the front stretch, but with no caution thrown Boelke was shuffled to the rear of the field. Goodman got loose giving Lowe a chance to get along side of him along the outside, but Goodman was able to correct his car and hold the lead. Kibbey took the opportunity taking 2nd place from Lowe with Justin Morton following through pushing Lowe back to 4th only 12 laps into the night.

Mathew Thunhorst was up to 5th running behind Lowe in the rear of the lead battle as the top 5 drivers pulled away from the rest of the field running single file with Goodman still in the lead. Morton got the inside of Kibbey 30 laps in trying to take away 2nd place, but instead Kibbey took the situation to challenge Goodman for the lead. As Kibbey took the lead, Morton tried to follow on the outside as Thunhorst moved into 4th. Morton was not able to overtake Goodman and Thunhorst closed up the gap forcing Morton to stay on the outside line falling back in the pack.

Going into the second half of the night, Kibbey continued to lead with Thunhorst close behind. Goodman found a gap between Thunhorst and Donny Moore to secure 3rd place. Kibbey and Thunhorst pulled far ahead of the rest of the field with Thunhorst pressuring for the lead. The leaders built a gap of over 2 seconds ahead of Goodman holding 3rd place with Moore, Lowe, Morton, and Boelke following single file behind him. Going into 20 laps remaining, Kibbey had built a gap between himself and Thunhorst of around 0.7.

The gap continued to expand going into the final 10 laps to over 1 second as Kibbey started negotiating through lap traffic. Thunhorst showed signs that his tires were well worn and started dropping off as Kibbey set some of the fastest lap times of the night in the final few laps to take the checkered flag for his first win of the season with Thunhorst, Goodman, Moore, and Morton rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Lanier National Speedway.

Kibbey stretched out his lead in the point standings now at 308. Justin Morton stays in 2nd place 14 points behind the lead. Austin Boelke struggled tonight early on but recovered enough by the end to hold onto 3rd place in the standings now 24 points behind Kibbey. Mathew Thunhorst and Michael Goodman round out the top 5 drivers with three rounds remaining. The Bootleg Racing League now heads to Martinsville Speedway on May 21st with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S17 R6 Recap

30 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 6
Super Late Model Series | Southern National Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Justin Morton with Total Downforce Racing took his first win of the season becoming the 5th different winner in 6 races tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Southern National Speedway ahead of Kenny Kibbey and Mathew Thunhorst. “Feel like I’ve been struggling at the end of these races to put something together and it finally clicked.”, Morton told us after leading 98 out of 100 laps tonight, “It takes a little bit more than skill to win one of these races. You gotta have a little luck on your side and I had that at the start of the race.”

Stephen Spies led the field to the green flag with Kenny Kibbey finding himself stuck to the outside and dropping back from 2nd place quickly before being able to tuck into line in 4th behind Mathew Thunhorst. Justin Morton took advantage moving up into 2nd place and soon took the lead away from Spies. 10 laps into the race, Thunhorst also cleared Spies with Kibbey close behind which forced Spies to stay on the outside line and fell back to 4th. Austin Boelke maneuvered himself into 5th staying close behind the leaders.

20 laps down and the top 3 were able to separate from the rest of the field by over one second pulling away from Spies as Boelke pressured for the position. The drivers were single filed out for the most part as the laps counted down and the field broke up into several smaller 3 to 5 car packs spread out around the track. Kibbey was able to get to the inside of Thunhorst, but Thunhorst fought back from the outside line and cleared holding onto 2nd behind Morton.

Thunhorst and Kibbey followed single file close behind Morton waiting for a mistake to take advantage of approaching the halfway point of the race while Boelke was able to clear around Spies now over 3 seconds behind the leader and falling further back lap after lap. Joe Segalla and Kurt Smith battled hard over 7th place in a pack to themselves as Joe Snyder ran over one second behind them. Positions 9th through 13th led by Todd Liston were more chaotic with the drivers trying to gain any positions they could before the end with 40 laps remaining.

With 30 laps to go, the leaders caught the rear of the field forcing Morton to negotiate through the lap traffic while maintaining speed as Thunhorst and Kibbey were both running close behind. Morton was held up periodically as the lap cars were reluctant to give up the inside line while having their own battles for position keeping the leaders single file while they cautiously maneuvered past. Thunhorst tried to pressure Morton, but the threat from Kibbey from behind kept him conservative as to not open himself up to lose the inside line.

With 15 laps remaining, the leaders had worked up to John Heyn running 9th in the field still carefully weaving through dense traffic single file. Morton was able to time his passes allowing him to build up a gap of over 0.4 ahead of Thunhorst as Kibbey got his bumper to the inside of Thunhorst going into the final 10 laps. Again, Thunhorst was able to clear Kibbey from the outside but with signs of tire wear showing allowing Kibbey to go for another attempt with 6 laps to go.

Kibbey cleared into 2nd and started to work on closing the gap to Morton. With not enough time left, Kibbey wasn’t able to get within reach of Morton as Morton crossed the line taking his first win of the season with Boelke and Spies rounding out the top 5 drivers of the night. “Just didn’t have enough time to catch up to [Morton], but even though if we could’ve caught him it was going to have to take a mistake or something by him to take the win.”, Kibbey commented after his hard charge toward the lead in the final moments.

Kenny Kibbey holds onto his lead in the point standings now with 230 points and 12 points ahead of Justin Morton. Austin Boelke sits in 3rd with 213 points and Mathew Thunhorst moved up into 4th place tonight still 39 points behind the leader. Joseph Segalla moved up into 5th place at 174 points rounding out the top 5 drivers as the Bootleg Racing League starts the second half of the season heading to The Bullring at Las Vegas on May 7th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S17 R4 Recap

16 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 4
Super Late Model Series | Five Flags Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Mathew Thunhorst claimed his first win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Five Flags Speedway ahead of Kenny Kibbey and Justin Morton. “It was quite the eventful race”, Thunhorst commented about his hard charge to the front, “I was able to get up to like 7th or 8th pretty early before the cautions started coming and then I was just able to get to the top five and I kind of felt like once I got there the pieces kind of fell [in place].”

Donny Moore led the field to the green flag starting to start the evening off with Austin Boelke to his outside. Boelke and Moore battled side by side around the first several laps with Boelke being able to clear for the lead going into the 5th lap. Kenny Kibbey stayed close being Boelke trying to get around Moore in the same manner and was able to push Moore back to 3rd. Boelke and Kibbey then immediately started to pull away from the rest of the field.

A caution at the 20-lap mark stacked the field back together and put Justin Morton and James Lowe directly behind the leaders on the restart. Kibbey continued to chase Boelke around the track with Morton and Lowe close behind, but Thunhorst had also climbed up from 13th place through the field throughout the first 30 laps and joined the battle for the lead from 5th. Morton was able to get around Kibbey for 2nd place as Thunhorst moved up into 4th ahead of Lowe. Thunhorst wasted no time challenging for 3rd diving below Kibbey clearing for the position 40 laps into the event.

Going into the second half, Boelke continued to hold the lead. Thunhorst cleared Morton for 2nd place and started reeling Boelke in. Thunhorst’s move gave an opportunity to Kibbey who got around Morton before Morton could get back into line back in 4th ahead of Moore. Thunhorst made several attempts to pass but Boelke held a defensive line tight to the inside not leaving any room for Thunhorst to get beneath him. With 35 laps remaining, the top 3 of Boelke, Thunhorst, and Kibbey started to again pull away from the field.

Boelke slid up the track just enough to give Thunhorst an opening on lap 68 and Thunhorst took the lead away with Kibbey tight on his bumper to push Boelke back to 4th behind Morton. Boelke continued to fall back with 25 laps to go falling back to 6th ahead of Jeffrey Hardin. Kibbey stayed close to Thunhorst waiting for a mistake he could take advantage of, but Thunhorst was slowly starting to build a gap between them running 0.4 apart with 15 laps to go. Continuing to build that gap to over 1 second, Thunhorst took the win mostly uncontested tonight.

Kenny Kibbey leads in the points standings with 154 points, 4 points ahead of James Lowe after tonight’s win. Justin Morton holds onto 3rd with 140 points over Austin Boelke and Michael Goodman rounding out the top 5 drivers so far in the season. Mathew Thunhorst, last season’s champion, currently sits back in 7th place tied with Joe Segalla with 113 points. Now the Bootleg Racing League heads over to North Wilkesboro Speedway for the next round on April 23rd with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!

BRL SLM S17 R3 Recap

09 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 3
Super Late Model Series | Stafford Motor Speedway

Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming took the checkered flag and became the third different winner of the season in the third round of the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Stafford Motor Speedway ahead of James Lowe and Austin Boelke. “It’s always fun to get, well any victory, but the first victory in the new series”, Kibbey commented after his win tonight, “With these [Super Late Models] you almost have to race to halfway or so because it comes to a point where, unless your tires are way better than the guys around you, if you’re pretty even it’s really, really hard to pass when you get into the late goings of these races.”

Bryan Dehn started the evening on the pole with Michael Goodman to his outside as the field took the green flag. After a rocky start to the event the drivers managed to get sorted out after several cautions early on caused frustration within the field. 20 laps into the race, Dehn continued to lead ahead of Kenny Kibbey and James Lowe. The field began to single file out as drivers settled into a rhythm and started putting laps behind them. Seeming to take the early incidents into account, the drivers stayed single file with very few moves being made to advance for several laps thereafter.

Kibbey stayed close behind Dehn staying within reach to take advantage if Dehn made a mistake which happened on lap 38 as Dehn went high enough in a corner for Kibbey to get to his inside and take away the lead. Kibbey quickly started to pull away extending the gap ahead of Dehn as Lowe started to pressure Dehn for 2nd. Going into the second half, Lowe had yet to get around Dehn, but Dehn was showing signs of excessive tire wear and was dropping off the pace as Kibbey continued to extend the gap ahead by more than 1 second.

Out pacing the rest of the field by 0.2 each lap, Kibbey maintained a strong lead over the rest of the drivers with 40 laps remaining. Dehn defended 2nd place against Lowe and Justin Morton, who caught up to the battle, by controlling the inside line. A caution came out on lap 62 stacking the field back together and putting Lowe behind Kibbey for the restart with Dehn to the outside at a significant disadvantage. Kibbey had a strong launch and Lowe stayed with him getting to the inside of Dehn with Austin Boelke trying to close the door before Dehn could get down to the inside.

Dehn fell back to 5th before he tried to dive down low behind Morton but caught the front end of Goodman to his inside and spun sideways before sliding back up the track collecting several other drivers. Kibbey continued to lead now followed by Lowe, Boelke, Morton, and Goodman rounding out the top 5 with 25 laps remaining. Kibbey continued to show a strong pace holding a 0.2 lead over Lowe going into the final 10 laps as Boelke and Morton battled over 3rd. Kibbey crossed the line mostly uncontested followed by Lowe, Boelke, Morton, and Goodman.

Kenny Kibbey and James Lowe are now tied for 1st place in the point standings each with a total of 115 points. Michael Goodman moved up to 3rd place with 107 points followed closely behind by Justin Morton and Austin Boelke rounding out the top 5 drivers. The Bootleg Racing League now moves over to Five Flags Speedway for the next round of the season on April 16th with all of the short track action broadcast live at 8:55PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!