BRL DSS S13 R8 Recap
11 November 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 13 | Round 8
Dirt Street Stock Series | Fairbury Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Jordan Gage with Dirt Panda took the checkered flag tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Fairbury Speedway ahead of William Hargreaves and Adam Carlisle. “I feel really comfortable here on the bottom, but I think it was our third restart it just went away and there’s nothing else down there, so we go to the top and we just hung on”, Gage commented to us as the night came to a close, “I just was trying to counteract and moves they threw at me.”
Billy Northcutt jumped to the top of the boards in qualifying with a 4-lap average time at 14.886 starting on the pole for the first heat of the night. Northcutt and William Hargreaves broke away from the rest of the pack by over 1 second. Hargreaves tried an aggressive slider coming out of the final corner but couldn’t clear ahead as Northcutt took the checkered flag. Jordan Gage shared the front row with Zachary Loomis for the second heat. Gage and Loomis battled hard for the lead, but Gage held him off to take the win.
The third heat was led out by Adam Carlisle and Steve Smiley. Carlisle had a great launch off the jump and pulled away from the rest of the pack in the opening moments. Carlisle continued to extend his lead to take the win 1.7 seconds ahead of Smiley. The fourth and final heat of the night had Beau Brannon and Hunter Hill on the front row. Brannon jumped out to an early lead as Ryan Senneker got to the outside of Hill to take away 2nd place. Brannon help a solid pace taking the win just under 1 second ahead of Senneker.
Neville Ulph and Chris Davis were on the front row for the C Main consolation race taking the green flag. Ulph and Davis pulled away fighting over the lead quickly building up a gap ahead of Michael Menees in 3rd. Davis tried to make the inside work but could match the Ulph’s speed on corner exit. Coming out of the final corner, Davis threw an aggressive slider to take away the win in the last seconds. Chris Hill and J R Shepherd were on the front row as the B Main consolation took the green flag. Hunter Hill moved up into 2nd place and followed Chris Hill to the checkered flag in the end.
Northcutt lined up on the pole to take the green flag for the 18-car field with Gage to his outside. Northcutt quickly cleared ahead of Gage and moved up to the outside line coming out of turn two. Hargreaves was running side by side with Brannon fighting for 3rd place as Northcutt and Gage started to pull away by over 1 second early in the run. Hargreaves cleared ahead of Brannon 7 laps into the night with Loomis starting to look to the inside of Brannon, but unable to close the gap enough to take away the line.
Going into lap 13, Gage was able to take the lead away from Northcutt with Hargreaves diving low to challenge for 2nd pushing Northcutt back to 3rd with 15 laps completed as the leaders reached lap traffic. Loomis went for a crossover on Carlisle but over rotated the car with Brannon close behind unable to avoid contact blocking up the track going into the 2nd half of the night bringing out the first caution. Off the restart, Hargreaves was pressuring Gage for the lead.
Hargreaves tried several sliders but was unable to clear ahead with Gage utilizing the outside momentum to keep a nose ahead. As the laps counted down, the field started more aggressively pushing for positions trying various different lines around the track. On lap 27, another caution came out over the track after contact between Senneker, Davis, and Hunter Hill resulted in Senneker going sideways in the middle of the track sending Senneker to the rear of the field for the restart.
Gage was still in control of the field as the green flag came back out. Carlisle was pressuring for the lead with Hargreaves in 3rd going into the final 10 laps. Carlisle threw a slider for the lead, but Gage answered the move with a crossover to reclaim the position. They repeated the maneuver as the laps counted down with Gage again securing the lead. The two continued to battle going side by side going around the final lap. Coming out of the last corner, Jordan Gage held the lead as William Hargreaves took 2nd place away from Adam Carlisle and Billy Northcutt and Rocky Battenfield rounded out the top 5 tonight at Fairbury Speedway.
William Hargreaves holds onto the points lead with 564 points. Billy Northcutt sits in 2nd with 531 points. Adam Carlisle is in 3rd place with 514 points. J R Shepherd holds on to 4th place with 468 points and Chris Davis moves rounds out the top 5 drivers with 343 points. Going into the next round, the drivers will take on the Kokomo Speedway on November 18th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S3 R12 Recap
08 November 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 12
Premier Series | Phoenix Raceway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Thomas George with Steel Horse Racing took the checkered flag as well as the Season 3 Championship tonight in the MC² Editing Services Leading the Way 250k at Phoenix Raceway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Cody Dempster and Michael Chrobok. “We fricken did it!”, George exclaimed as the official points results were released live. “I just said to myself, you just gotta go out and you have to do what you can do, and you know let stuff play out as it’s supposed to… I can’t believe it!”
Isaiah Dupre led the 22-car field to the green flag to kick off the last race of 2022. The early stages of the race saw several drivers struggling with loose conditions on cold tires until getting settled in with the first 10 laps behind them. Mike Rasimas took the lead ahead of Thomas George and Woody Mahan as Dupre fell far back into the field. Michael Chrobok, the points leader coming into the night, was up to 7th and quietly climbing up through traffic making the calculated moves we’ve seen from him all season.
George took control of the field away from Rasimas going into lap 16 and started checking off laps as the field started to spread out around the track with very few side by side battles. Scott Eckrich climbed up into the top 10 running behind Jeff Ward making their expected charge to the front with only 25 laps completed. Going into lap 33, Cody Dempster got loose and slid up toward the outside wall catching Eckrich and bringing out the caution flag giving the leaders a safe chance to come down pit road with George still in control of the field as the green flag came back out.
Yaczik stayed close behind George off the restart with Ward quickly closing on the leading battle from 3rd. Chrobok was up to 5th behind Adam Jurski and Eckrich seemed to be out for the night with significant damage from the earlier incident with Dempster. The drivers were settled into a groove with the laps counting down going into the 2nd half of the night. All 3 championship contenders were running up front with George still in the lead followed by Chrobok and Yaczik. Ward had fallen off the pace and was over 2 seconds behind the leaders running in 5th behind Rasimas.
Chrobok made a risky move coming down pit road under the green flag very early in an attempt to undercut George for the lead. Yaczik saw the move and came down pit road on the following lap, but unfortunately for both drivers Jordan Harnish lost his car trying to get slowed for pit entry and brought out the caution flag forcing Chrobok and Yaczik to restart from the tail of the field going into lap 82 with George still in the lead. Off the jump, George quickly started to pull away from the field building up a gap of over 1 second in the first few laps.
Chrobok was again quietly climbing up through the field back up to 7th as Rasimas was closing the gap to George in the lead with 100 laps completed. Dempster had cleared around Greg O’Berry for 3rd with Ward running directly behind them in 5th. Going into the final 50 laps, 13 drivers were still on the lead lap with George still holding a strong pace in the lead. Yaczik seemed to be struggling running in 11th behind a 3-car battle for 8th between Chance Manning, Rich Jette, and Dupre.
Chrobok reeled Ward and Harnish in and tried to split them. Chrobok was able to clear Ward and dove under Harnish moving up into 5th making aggressive moves to make up lost time with the laps quickly counting down. George and Chrobok came down pit road together on lap 117 under green flag conditions handing the race lead over to Rasimas for the moment. The final pit cycle was completed through the field with 20 laps remaining with George in the lead ahead of Dempster and Chrobok. Chrobok was consistently closing on Dempster who was running a few car lengths behind the leader.
Going into the final 10 laps, the top 3 were coming closer together as Dempster and Chrobok continued to put down faster lap times than George with the leaders quickly negotiating through dense lap traffic. As the checkered flag came out, Thomas George was able to hold the lead and take the final win of the season and secure the season championship with Cody Dempster, Michael Chrobok, Mike Rasimas, and Isaiah Dupre rounding out the top 5 tonight at Phoenix Raceway.
Thomas George overtook Michael Chrobok for the points lead tonight by 2 points to take the championship with 418 points overall. Brian Yaczik finished the season out in 3rd with 394 points. Scott Eckrich held onto 4th place with 350 and Cody Dempster moved up into 5th with 338 points as Season 3 came to a close. The drivers of the Pretty Good Racing League now head off into the off season, but you can find them back here for Season 4 next February on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S19 R7 Recap
05 November 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 19 | Round 7
Super Late Model Series | Thompson Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Chris Davis. “Definitely one of the tracks that you just never know what can happen”, Shepherd commented at the end of his run, “You can do everything perfect but still get taken out by someone else’s mess. It’s a really tough track and just fortunate enough that things worked out that we got in that position.”
Donny Moore was in the pole position to take the green flag for the 19-car field with Austin Boelke to his outside. Off the jump, Boelke was able to get around him for the lead as Moore went high and fell back into the field to 6th behind Kenny Kibbey. As drivers shuffled for position, and early caution came out 4 laps into the night when Mark Hertzog, Kurt Smith, and Michael Goodman came together coming down the front stretch battling over 9th. Boelke had a good jump off the restart with Chris Davis slotting into 2nd ahead of J R Shepherd.
Justin Morton and Mathew Thunhorst had climbed up to 4th and 5th respectively while Kibbey struggled to get around Joseph Snyder for 6th. With 10 laps behind them, the field had gone mostly single file around the track all running close behind the car ahead with very few gaps between drivers. Davis made a move to the inside of Boelke for the lead but wasn’t able to hold the momentum which allowed Shepherd to get to his outside. Shepherd cleared into 2nd as Morton tried to follow him through, but contact was made with between himself and Davis sending Morton high up the track falling back to 9th.
Kibbey moved up to 5th directly behind Thunhorst who was still searching for a way around Davis ahead. 30 laps into the run, Shepherd was keeping the pressure high on Boelke in the lead and Thunhorst and Kibbey were still looking for an opportunity to get around Davis who was falling off the lead pace. Thunhorst became impatient and dove below Davis on lap 33, but again wasn’t able to complete the pass allowing Kibbey to clear ahead into 4th. Boelke and Shepherd had extended the gap between themselves and Davis to over 1 second and Shepherd started looking to the inside of Boelke.
Going into lap 45, Davis and Kibbey had door-to-door contact down the front stretch sending Davis wildly low across the grass and sliding back up the track in turn one narrowly avoiding contact with Thunhorst. The field shuffled while Davis recovered from the slide and continued running from 5th. Boelke continued to lead as the top 4 quickly started to pull away from the field with Davis holding onto 5th ahead of Goodman. The pace difference again separated the lead battle by over 1 second ahead of the rest of the field going into the second half of the night.
With 40 laps remaining, Boelke reached the first signs of lap traffic with Shepherd, Kibbey, and Thunhorst still tight on his bumper. The field started to spread out around the track into several smaller groups as the green flag run stretched out. With 28 laps remaining, Kibbey went high coming out of turn four making hard contact with the outside wall and spinning into the infield ending his night early. The race stayed under the green flag for another lap until Davis had contact while trying to get around lap traffic. Davis was able to continue running in 4th, but Chris Wolfson had to stop his car on the track to avoid further contact bringing out the caution flag.
Boelke took the green with 21 laps remaining, but Shepherd was able to use the highline to clear ahead into the lead. Thunhorst and Davis followed him around and Boelke dropped back to 4th slotting in ahead of Jeffrey Hardin. The battle for the lead was now between two drivers as Shepherd and Thunhorst quickly pulled away from the rest of the field. As the laps counted down, J R Shepherd was able to hold off Mathew Thunhorst to take the checkered flag with Chris Davis, Austin Boelke, and Jeffrey Hardin rounding out the top 5 tonight at Thompson Speedway.
J R Shepherd holds onto the lead in the point standings tonight with 319 points. Mathew Thunhorst sits in 2nd place with 318 points over Justin Morton with 300 points. Joseph Snyder moved up to 4th with 237 points and Donny Moore rounds out the top 5 with 225 points. Next week, the drivers of the Bootleg Racing League head out to Southern National Speedway for the 8th round of Season 19 on November 12th with all of the action broadcast live at 9PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL NSCT S1 R6 Recap
04 November 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 1 | Round 6
National Sprint Car Trail | North Wilkesboro Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
James Tiernan took his third checkered flag in a row tonight, this week in his asphalt sprint, in the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail at North Wilkesboro Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and Aiden Young. “I was trying to kind of haul, make sure I got in front of [Morton] early”, Tiernan shared with us at the end of his run, “Making sure you have tires underneath you when you’re trying to make those passes is super important in like the asphalt sprint cars and the silver crowns.”
Todd Liston started off the night taking the green flag for the 7-car field in the only heat with Joe Segalla to his outside. Liston had a great jump off the start pulling away to almost 0.5 as the drivers quickly single filed out. Liston continued to stretch out his lead to over 1 second as the laps quickly counted down taking the checkered flag in the end. Soon thereafter Justin Morton lined up on the pole to lead the field around to take the green flag in the 50-lap feature event.
James Tiernan stayed with Morton off the start and the two drivers quickly put almost 1.5 seconds between the lead battle and Jason Menda back in 3rd. Aiden Young was aggressively pushing up through the field up to 5th with 10 laps completed as Bruce Jones slowly closed the gap to Menda for 3rd. Tiernan dove to the inside of Morton to claim the lead for himself on lap 12 completing the move, but Morton stayed tight on Tiernan’s rear bumper keeping the pressure high going forward. Young cleared around Jones and reached the rear of Menda diving low to take away 3rd. Going into the 2nd half of the night, Menda got loose trying to get everything he could out of the car and came together with Jones spinning both drivers into the outside wall.
The drivers restacked to once again take the green flag after that incident with Tiernan still in control of the field. Off the jump, Tiernan and Morton again pulled away from the field. Young may have sacrificed too much getting up into 3rd as he was not able to maintain the same pace as the leaders and started fall back. John Wilson caught Segalla and made a move for 4th place but couldn’t complete it when he got loose coming out of the corner and chose to back out of it for the moment to save the car.
Wilson closed back in on Segalla after recovering and started pressuring him again with 16 laps remaining. Tiernan had built up over 0.5 seconds between himself and Morton and Young had fallen back to over 1.6 seconds. Wilson, Segalla, Jones, and Rory Collins were all tightly paced together and fighting over 4th place with Wilson holding the position going into the final 10 laps. Segalla continued to battle back from the outside and reclaimed 4th when Wilson got loose in turns three and four sliding down into the pit wall bringing out a late race caution.
Tiernan again pulled away as the green came back out. This time around, Morton was not able to stay with the leader and fell back several car lengths going into the final laps. Coming out of the last corner, James Tiernan took the checkered flag for the third week in a row with Justin Morton, Aiden Young, Joe Segalla, and Bruce Jones rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Aiden Young holds onto the lead in the overall point standings with 387 points. Justin Morton jumped sits in 2nd with 373 points. Bruce Jones holds onto 3rd with 357 points. Rory Collins moved up into 4th with 304 points and Stephen Spies rounds out the top 5 drivers with 299 points. Justin Morton holds onto the Asphalt Sprint points lead with 149 points ahead of Aiden Young and Bruce Jones. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League head over to Fairbury Speedway on November 11th in the midgets with all of the intense action brought to you live at 10:30PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S13 R7 Recap
04 November 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 13 | Round 7
Dirt Street Stock Series | Thompson Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Billy Northcutt with Dirt Panda led flag to flag tonight to take the checkered flag in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Cedar Lake Speedway ahead of his teammates Jordan Gage and William Hargreaves as the Dirt Panda drivers dominated the podium. “I thought [Gage] was going to get me. He raced me extra clean though and I was able to hold on there”, Northcutt commented at the end of the night, “I did block him a couple of times, but it wasn’t really intentional… I was trying to find the fast line and it was moving throughout the race so every once in a while, I’d slide right in front of him.”
Billy Northcutt started off the night dominating the first heat to take the win while Adam Carlisle won the second heat of the night with J R Shepherd close behind. William Hargreaves took the third heat win while Brandyn Proudfoot and Beau Brannon battled over 2nd place with Proudfoot taking it in the end. For the fourth and final heat, Jordan gage dominated the field claiming an easy win 1.5 seconds ahead of Thomas Vickers. Brannon took the C Main consolation win ahead of Chris Davis after an intense battle between them and Bobby Hayes won the B Main.
Northcutt lined up on the pole as the drivers lined up for the 40-lap feature event opting to start from the outside with Carlisle to his inside. Northcutt had a good jump off the green as the battle for 2nd went almost 4-wide with Carlisle, Hargreaves, Gages and Cody Shaw all going for the position early. Shaw backed out as Gage dove low beneath Carlisle and Hargreaves was pinched out of the battle dropping back to 4th. As the front runner finally single filed out 10 laps into the night, the mid pack was a flurry of activity.
Brannon and Proudfoot were battling with John Heyn over 8th place. Davis caught the battle and started looking to force a 3-wide situation as Vickers made hard contact with the outside wall from 11th and spun into the infield grass ending his night. Shepherd had slowly reeled the leaders in and was pressuring Shaw for 5th while Gage and Carlisle started battling again over 2nd place as the caution came out from contact between Heyn and Brannon over 8th place 18 laps into the run.
Gage took advantage of the restart getting a strong hold on 2nd place off the restart as Hargreaves tucked in behind Northcutt along the high side. Gage started trading sliders with Northcutt for the lead with Northcutt holding the position with 15 laps remaining. Hargreaves then looked to the inside of Gage but wasn’t able to the make anything of the move falling back into the field as Shepherd and Shaw split around him moving up to 3rd and 4th respectively. As Hargreaves continued to fall through the field, the checkup caused by it resulted in a lot of confusion within the pack and Hargreaves was sent around collecting several other cars in the process on lap 27 bringing the caution back out.
Northcutt had another great launch off the start. Proudfoot was up to 5th riding the high side quickly pushing through traffic. Hargreaves was back up to 3rd but was under pressure from Carlisle going into the final laps. Coming out of the final corner, Billy Northcutt was absolutely dominating the field tonight taking the checkered flag with Jordan Gage, William Hargreaves, Brandyn Proudfoot, and John Heyn rounding out the top 5 finishers at Cedar Lake Speedway.
William Hargreaves holds onto the points lead with 488 points. Billy Northcutt jumped up two spots into 2nd with 456 points. Adam Carlisle sits in 3rd place with 438 points. J R Shepherd fell back to 4th place with 429 points and Thomas Vickers rounds out the top 5 drivers with 334 points. Going into the next round, the drivers will take on the Fairbury Speedway on November 11th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S3 R11 Recap
01 November 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 11
Premier Series | Martinsville Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Michael Chrobok with Loud Pedal Motorsports took the checkered flag in a very chaotic run at Martinsville Speedway in the The Joy of Driving Martinsville 500 with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Adam Jurski and Greg O’Berry. “The strategy just kind of worked out for and fell into our cards with the timing of the cautions and stuff”, Chrobok shared with us as the night came to a close, “I kind of just tried to run a pace… at the end and kind of hold a track position.”
Greg O’Berry was in control of the 19-car field as the green flag came out to kick off the night’s action with Christopher Dewald to his outside. The front 3 drivers quickly went single file off the jump with James Moore quickly looking to advance up into 2nd around Dewald. In the opening laps, many drivers were struggling through the corners over driving on entry and running up high before recovering as well as losing the rear end of the car on corner exit sliding sideways down the straights.
Thomas George was quietly pushing up through the field up into 3rd with Scott Eckrich directly behind him while the field still struggled to get sorted out. Brian Yaczik ran into trouble early on being sent around after making contact with the inside curb and getting his car high centered only 15 laps into the run. Frequent cautions and restarts plagued the early race causing more problems as the field was not able to get settled in and space themselves out around the track.
27 laps into the night, George was sent around after contact with Tim Winecoff. Luckily for George, the approaching traffic was able to avoid making further contact and George was able to rejoin the track from 14th with minor damage. Winecoff ran into troubles of his own a few laps later making hard contact with the inside wall receiving significant damage as James Moore made a move for the lead holding it briefly before O’Berry took it back a lap later with Eckrich running in 3rd.
Yaczik and George came together after Yaczik got loose coming out of turn 2 also making contact with Adam Jurski 40 laps in with O’Berry still holding the lead. Michael Chrobok was the first driver to come down pit road so far in the race under the latest caution without being involved in an incident. As racing resumed, Mike Rasimas was up to 4th as Eckrich made a quick move to the inside of Moore for 2nd place. Yaczik was able to get back into the top 10 with George up to 8th with 60 laps completed with the field being able to get mostly single filed out for the first time of the night.
With 100 laps completed, the drivers were over 30 laps into the first long green flag run of the night. Chrobok was holding the lead with O’Berry and Eckrich following almost 1 second behind on gap on fresher tires. George was running in 4th and Yaczik in 6th behind Norm Pelletier. Yaczik was able to move up into 5th putting pressure on George going forward as the drivers all seemed to find their grooves with the laps continuing to count down approaching the halfway point of the night.
Eckrich cleared around O’Berry into 2nd and immediately closed on Chrobok in the lead. A few moments later, George was also able to get around O’Berry putting some distance between himself and Yaczik going into lap 128. 2 laps later, Eckrich got under Chrobok taking away the lead with George following him around into 2nd. Yaczik had cleared around O’Berry and soon overtook Chrobok for 3rd running the outside line. With 100 laps remaining, Eckrich was able to stretch his lead out to over 3 seconds as Yaczik closed the gap to George and cleared into 2nd place.
As the laps counted down, the field was mostly single file spread out around the track with Eckrich still in the lead. Yaczik held onto 2nd place with O’Berry holding off George for 3rd. After going through the final pit cycle under a caution, George took the lead ahead of Adam Jurski and Chrobok. Yaczik was back in 5th with Eckrich running in 7th with 50 laps remaining. The field was again shuffled after several chaotic restarts giving the lead over to Chrobok with Jurski directly behind him with 20 laps to go.
Eckrich was aggressively pushing back up through the field running in 4th and pressuring O’Berry hard for 3rd. Yaczik was back in 6th ahead of George with Rasimas consistently pushing up through the field in 8th. On lap 238, Eckrich made a move to the inside of O’Berry but contact was made as Eckrich tried to clear ahead putting Eckrich hard into the outside wall with race ending damage. The race stayed green from the incident and Michael Chrobok maintained the lead to take the checkered flag with Adam Jurski, Greg O’Berry, Brian yaczik, and Thomas George rounding out the top 5 tonight at Martinsville Speedway.
Michael Chrobok jumped up two spots into the lead with 378 points over Thomas George with 369 points. Brian Yaczik fell back to 3rd place with 360 points. Scott Eckrich holds onto 4th with 327 points and Woody Mahan rounds out the top 5 with 299 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Phoenix Raceway on November 8th for the season finale in the MC2 Editing Services Leading the Way 250K with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S19 R6 Recap
29 October 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 19 | Round 6
Super Late Model Series | Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Mathew Thunhorst with Forge Racing took the checkered flag under caution flag conditions tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway ahead of J R Shepherd and Justin Morton. “That like first 30, 40 laps when we were trying to come up through, me and [Shepherd], that was extremely chaotic”, Thunhorst commented at the end of the night, “My heart went in my throat a couple of time in this race and still came out alright on the other side though.”
Mathew Thunhorst had the fastest qualifying time with a 4-lap average of 18.028 earning 10 extra points for the night and starting the feature event in 10th with the field invert. Kevin Moody started on the pole with Adam Schoen to his outside as the green flag came out for the Whiteriver 100. Moody cleared out front off the jump as Kurt Smith got beneath Schoen challenging for 2nd but got loose coming out of turn 2 and slid to the inside wall falling far back in the field giving 3rd place to Stephen Spies.
Spies started looking to the inside of Schoen but wasn’t able to match pace with Jason Menda pressuring him from behind. J R Shepherd was quickly climbing through the field getting into the top 5 within the first 10 laps of the night as Menda got loose similar to Smith’s earlier incident and fell back to 21st in the field. Justin Morton was struggling to follow Thunhorst through traffic and found himself behind Matt Shinoski running in 7th ahead of Austin Boelke.
Schoen looked to the inside of Moody but couldn’t make anything with it as the field continued to aggressively push early in the run. Morton went to the outside of Shinoski getting impatient waiting for an opening. Boelke noticed the move and tried to follow Morton around high as Shepherd dove beneath Spies for 3rd. Thunhorst quickly slotted in behind Shepherd pushing Spies back to 5th with 25 laps completed. Morton and Boelke both cleared around Shinoski who dropped back to 8th.
30 laps into the run, Moody continued to hold the lead with Schoen, Shepherd and Thunhorst close behind as the top 6 started to separate themselves from the rest of the field. Thunhorst soon saw an opportunity getting his nose to the inside of Shepherd who continued to slam the door over and over again while still trying to find a way to get around Schoen. Schoen made contact with the outside wall on lap 43 and Shepherd and Thunhorst both took advantage moving up into 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Going into the 2nd half of the night, Shepherd dove below Moody going down the front stretch to challenge for the lead. Going into turn 1, Moody’s rear slid out toward the outside wall bringing out the caution flag with Shepherd in the lead and Moody restarting from 7th. Off the jump, Morton tried to overtake Schoen from the outside while Thunhorst dove beneath Shepherd to take away the lead. With 40 laps remaining, Morton was up to 3rd running behind Shepherd while Thunhorst started to build up a gap between himself and Shepherd.
With the laps counting down, most of the field had single filed out with only a few side-by-side battles further back in the field. Thunhorst continued to hold the lead with Shepherd and Morton close behind and a gap starting to form between Morton and Schoen in 4th. Boelke dove low to try to take 4th place away from Schoen and the two drivers ran side by side for several corners before Boelke cleared ahead. Going into the final laps contact between Tim Shinoski and Donny Moore battling over 8th place resulting in Mathew Thunhorst taking the checkered flag under caution flag conditions with J R Shepherd, Justin Morton, Austin Boelke, and Adam Schoen rounding out the top 5 tonight at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
J R Shepherd holds onto the lead in the point standings tonight with 273 points. Mathew Thunhorst sits in 2nd place with 269 points over Justin Morton with 261 points. Joseph Snyder moved up to 4th with 204 points and Donny Moore rounds out the top 5 with 203 points. Next week, the drivers of the Bootleg Racing League head out to Thompson Speedway for the 7th round of Season 19 on November 5th with all of the action broadcast live at 9PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL NSCT S1 R5 Recap
28 October 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 1 | Round 5
National Sprint Car Trail | Gateway Motorsports Park
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
James Tiernan took his silver crown all the way to Victory Lane tonight in the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail at Gateway Motorsports Park ahead of Justin Morton and Aiden Young. “I tried my best not to look in my rear view mirror much of that race it was just a matter of keeping my head down running my line and making sure I was where I needed to be”, Tiernan shared with us as the night wound down, “It was just a matter of me running my line and making sure I didn’t make any mistakes to kind of let him get a nose in where I didn’t want him.”
James Tiernan took the pole in qualifying with a quick 4-lap average time of 31.259 with Justin Morton only 0.012 seconds behind him in 2nd. As the green flag came out, Tiernan jumped out to a strong lead with Morton slotting in behind him. Bruce Jones secured 3rd as a battle over 5th involving Rory Collins, Jason Menda, and Aiden Young started to heat up. Menda was running the high line as Collins tried to close the door ahead of Young. Young had a good run going along the inside and couldn’t checkup in time to avoid contact. Young was knocking into the infield as Collins was sent up the track into Menda, both drivers make hard contact with the outside wall going into the 2nd lap of the night and bringing out an early caution.
As racing resumed, Jones tried to get to the inside of Morton but wasn’t able to match Morton’s pace along the outside. Young was looking to the inside of Todd Liston for 4th taking away the position going into lap 4. Morton closed the gap back up to Tiernan as the leaders pulled away from the rest of the field with over 1 second between them and Jones in 3rd. Young got the inside of Jones quickly moving up into 3rd but the gap to the leaders continued to stretch out.
Menda was still recovering from the earlier incident and had climbed back up to 6th close behind Liston looking to the inside several times. With 13 laps completed, both Liston and Menda got loose on corner exit forcing Menda down the track to avoid contact and giving him the opening he needed to move up into 5th as the drivers continued to run. Morton was still keeping the pressure high on Tiernan with only 0.1 seconds between the two with Morton looking to the inside but unable to complete the move.
Going into the 2nd half of the night, Tiernan started weaving his line down the straights in an attempt to break the draft for Morton behind him as the lead battle extended out to over 4 seconds ahead of Young. With the laps counting down, the field had become spread out around the track. The only active battles were for the lead between Tiernan and Morton and over 3rd place between Young and Jones with 20 laps remaining.
A late race caution came out with 11 laps to go when Joe Segalla got loose coming out of turn four with Collins behind him. Segalla wasn’t able to recover before making hard contact with the inside wall resulting in significant damage. The field restacked for the restart changing the dynamic of the race placing Young and Jones back with the leaders. Tiernan got another good jump off the restart. Morton cleared into 2nd ahead of Young while Menda got to the inside of Jones.
Jones went wide in the corner and made minor contact with the outside wall allowing Menda to secure the position with Liston in 5th. Tiernan and Morton again pulled away from the field as Menda started closing the gap to Young in 3rd. Coming out of the final corner, James Tiernan took the checkered ahead of Justin Morton with Aiden Young, Jason Menda, and Bruce Jones rounding out the top 5 tonight at Gateway Motorsports Park.
Aiden Young secured the lead in the overall point standings with 323 points. Justin Morton jumped up 2 spots into 2nd with 306 points. Bruce Jones holds onto 3rd with 299 points. Stephen Spies fell back to 4th with 253 points and Rory Collins rounds out the top 5 drivers with 249 points. Justin Morton holds onto the Silver Crown points lead with 148 points ahead of Aiden Young and Bruce Jones. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League head over to North Wilkesboro Speedway on November 4th in the asphalt sprints with all of the intense action brought to you live at 10:30PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S13 R6 Recap
28 October 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 13 | Round 6
Dirt Street Stock Series | Lucas Oil Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Rocky Battenfield took the checkered flag after climbing through the field tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Lucas Oil Speedway ahead of Adam Carlisle and Thomas Vickers. “I’m generally a patient driver, but I know starting 10th you gotta make some moves early and I’m not running for points, I come here to win so I figured hey let’s go as hard as we can go and see what happens.”, Battenfield commented as the night came to a close, “Everything kind of worked out our way tonight.”
As the drivers started lining up for the heat events, Adam Carlisle took the green for the first heat of the night with William Hargreaves to his outside. Hargreaves looked to the inside several times but wasn’t able to make a pass attempt before Carlisle took the checkered flag. John Wilson had J R Shepherd to his outside as he took the green flag for the second heat. Wilson held the lead all the way to the checkered flag while Shepherd was fighting with Kevin Davis over 2nd place. Billy Northcutt took the green flag to the inside of Thomas Vickers in the third and final heat race of the night. Northcutt was able to pull away from the rest of the pack taking the win.
Lining up for the C Main consolation race was Dylan Corey up front with Bobby Hayes to his outside. Davis pushed up through the field and got a nose to the inside of Corey, but the high line prevailed with Corey pulling away to take the checkered flag. Jason Best and Jason Menda shared the front row as the green flag came out for the B Main consolation race. Best took the checkered flag with a 1 second gap between himself and Rocky Battenfield up 3 positions into 2nd place.
Carlisle took the green flag to kick off the night’s 40-lap main feature event with Wilson to his outside. Carlisle had a good jump off the start as Wilson and Shepherd battled side by side over 2nd. Hargreaves caught the drivers and tried to split them going 3-wide for several corners but contact from behind knocked Hargreaves loose and pushed Wilson down into the infield giving 2nd place over to Shepherd. Hargreaves recovered in 3rd while Wilson fell back to 9th from the incident.
10 laps into the run, Carlisle still had a strong hold on the lead while Hargreaves continued to pressure Shepherd for 2nd. Battenfield was aggressively pushing up through the field up to 4th and closing on Hargreaves quickly. Hargreaves dove beneath Shepherd to take away 2nd place but made contact with the back of Carlisle forcing both drivers loose giving the lead to Shepherd with Battenfield challenging Carlisle for 2nd place. Battenfield secured the position going into the 2nd half of the night while Carlisle and Hargreaves battled over 3rd.
Battenfield didn’t waste any time going after the lead diving low under Shepherd and cleared ahead going into lap 25. Carlisle tried to challenge Shepherd for 2nd with Hargreaves and Thomas Vickers fighting over 4th behind them. As the battle continued, Hargreaves and Shepherd made contact sending Shepherd around falling back to 15th as he recovered from the spin with 10 laps remaining. Battenfield took advantage of the open track ahead of him and quickly started to put distance between himself and Carlisle.
Hargreaves tried to get beneath Carlisle, but the drivers came together, and Hargreaves was spun into the infield falling to the back of the field while Shepherd had been quietly climbing back up through the field and was working Bobby Hayes over for 5th. Coming out of the final corner, Rocky Battenfield proved to be too much for the rest of the field to contest with as he took the checkered flag with Adam Carlisle, Thomas Vickers, Jason Best, and J R Shepherd rounding out the top 5 tonight at Lucas Oil Speedway.
William Hargreaves holds onto the points lead with 412 points. Adam Carlisle and J R Shepherd are tied for 2nd place with 384 points each. Billy Northcutt fell back to 4th place with 372 points after having connection issues tonight and Jason best rounds out the top 5 drivers with 314 points. Going into the next round, the drivers will take on the Cedar Lake Speedway on November 4th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S3 R10 Recap
25 October 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 10
Premier Series | Homestead-Miami Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Scott Eckrich with GRAFFix LC Motorsports took the checkered flag by 0.056 seconds tonight in a shootout to the end in the High, Wide, and Handsome 200 presented by The Joy of Driving at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Michael Chrobok and Brian Yaczik. Commenting on the late race caution, Scott shared with us, “You never like to see that especially after such a long green flag run… It’s never fun when a giant saving race turns into a hot lapper because you know you gotta like find the edge immediately or you’re going to lose.”
Woody Mahan took the green flag on the pole of the 20-car field with James Moore to his outside. As Mahan cleared ahead of Moore, Brian Yaczik pushed to the inside overtaking both drivers on the 2nd lap. Moore stayed with Yaczik challenging for the lead knocking Yaczik back to 3rd behind Jonathan Cogswell. With 10 laps behind them, Cogswell became the 4th different leader early in the race with Moore looking to take the position back. Scott Eckrich was quietly climbing up through the field up 8 positions from his 20th place start.
Coming off a restart, Yaczik was able to charge back to the front to battle for the lead with Moore with 20 laps completed. Jordan Harnish took advantage of the restart making up several positions and was pressuring Moore for 2nd place. Yaczik was in control of the field ahead of Cogswell as another caution came out when Moore who was in the lead got loose and spun around 35 laps into the run. The field came down pit road before restacking to again take the green flag.
Yaczik had a good launch off the restart pulling out to a strong lead. Mike Rasimas was up to 3rd with newcomer Barrett Polhemus battling with him. Michael Chrobok climbed up into the top 5 and was looking to challenge both drivers going forward. Yaczik seemed to be relaxing his pace to save his equipment for a longer run as he gave up the lead and fell back to 3rd ahead of Rasimas with 50 laps completed. Cogswell moved up into the lead with Polhemus close behind.
65 laps in the night, Polhemus and Chrobok were running side by side battling for the lead with Chrobok to the inside and Eckrich overtook Rasimas for 3rd as Eckrich started pushing much more aggressively going into the 2nd half of the race. Polhemus reached the first lap traffic on lap 72 with Chrobok and Eckrich single file directly behind him keeping the pressure high. Eckrich was able to overtake Chrobok for 2nd closing in on Polhemus before diving deep to take away the lead with 80 laps completed.
Drivers started coming down pit road under green flag conditions in small groups of few cars at a time going into the final 50 laps as the field settled into a groove and were spreading out around the track. As the pit cycle completed, Polhemus was again in control of the field with almost 1 second between himself and Rasimas in 2nd and Eckrich several seconds back in 3rd. Chrobok and Yaczik were over 3 seconds behind Eckrich and were battling hard over 4th place as the laps counted down.
With 30 laps remaining, Eckrich had completely closed the gap to the leader and was aggressively pressuring Polhemus. Eckrich stayed tight against Polhemus for nearly 20 laps before seeing his opportunity on lap 122 to dive beneath Polhemus to take away the lead with 12 laps to go. A late race caution came out a lap later setting up a sprint to the end. Eckrich was in the lead ahead of Chrobok and Polhemus as the field came back together after the pit cycle to take the green flag once again.
Eckrich had a good jump off the start with Chrobok close behind holding off Thomas George. Yaczik got a nose beneath George to take 3rd place while Chrobok tried to get a good enough run to make a pass attempt with 4 laps remaining. Chrobok clear into the lead but Eckrich was still pushing and reclaimed the position before taking the white flag. Chrobok lined up for another attempt coming out of the final corner, but it wasn’t enough as Scott Eckrich took the checkered flag ahead of Michael Chrobok by 0.056 with Brian Yaczik, Thomas George, and Barrett Polhemus rounding out the top 5 tonight at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Thomas George holds onto the lead with 363 points over Brian Yaczik with 349 points. Michael Chrobok holds onto 3rd place with 339 points. Scott Eckrich moved up 2 spots into 4th with 299 points as Cody Dempster rounds out the top 5 with 296 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Martinsville Speedway on November 1st for the Joy of Driving Martinsville 250 with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
Virtual Grip Network 