BRL DSS S13 R3 Recap
07 October 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 13 | Round 3
Dirt Street Stock Series | Limaland Motorsports Park
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Brandyn Proudfoot with Jim Beaver eSports claimed him first win of the season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Limaland Motorsports Park ahead of Billy Northcutt and Stephen Spies. “Fun, just downright fun”, Proudfoot described tonight’s racing with the multiple lane options opening up throughout the run, “The middle definitely ran a little bit stronger early on because the marbles were caked up but once they started going away it was a clean slate everybody kind of running wherever they wanted, wherever they were comfortable.”
Zachary Loomis took the pole in qualifying with a 4-lap average time of 15.379 and led the first heat to the green flag with Adam Carlisle to his outside. Carlisle looked to the inside of Loomis a few times but couldn’t get the lead as Loomis took the win. Brandyn Proudfoot took the green flag for the 2nd heat event and quickly jumped out ahead of J R Shepherd before running away with the lead to claim the win. William Hargreaves led every lap taking the checkered flag in the 3rd heat and Billy Northcutt took the 4th and final heat win of the night. John Wilson and Johnny Ratley took the checkered flag in their respective consolation races to finish up the preliminary events before the 40-lap feature.
Loomis had Proudfoot to his outside as the green flag came out and the 18-car field tore into the first turn. The slightest contact between Cody Shaw and J R Shepherd on lap 2 sent Shepherd around to the inside of the track sending him to the rear of the field while Loomis, Proudfoot, and Hargreaves had a 3-car battle over the lead. As multiple lanes became more viable around the track, several side-by-side battle broke out through the field. Carlisle and Chris Davis battled over 5th while Jason Best, Dylan Corey, and John Wilson were tangling over 10th place. Approaching the halfway point of the night, the leaders were coming up on lap traffic as Robby Robinson caught the wall coming out of turn two sending himself around directly in front of the leading battle.
Loomis avoided contact with Robinson, but Hargreaves was not so luck and had an impact to his right front as the caution came out. Hargreaves fell back initially off the restart but regained his momentum staying with Loomis and Proudfoot with 19 laps remaining. Northcutt closed up on the leaders and started looking to the inside of Hargreaves who had cleared ahead of Proudfoot back into 2nd place. In a battle over 6th place, Stephen Spies and Chris Davis came together and Davis was spun around falling to the back of the field and bringing out the caution flag just as Hargraves cleared into the lead with a slider over Loomis that wouldn’t count as the field stacked back up.
Loomis had a good launch as the green flag came out again. Hargreaves was trying to once again clear around Proudfoot for 2nd place. Proudfoot threw a slider clearing Loomis for the lead as Hargreaves also threw a slider on Proudfoot and the drivers went 3-wide over the lead with 10 laps remaining. Proudfoot was running the highline pulling out ahead into the lead for the first time of the night. Loomis had to checkup going through turn four and got tagged from behind going around and falling to the rear of the pack with Proudfoot, Hargreaves and Northcutt still fighting for the lead. Coming out of the final corner, Brandyn Proudfoot took the win with Billy Northcutt and Stephen Spies jumping ahead of William Hargreaves at the last moment and Cody Shaw rounds out the top 5 tonight at Limaland Motorsports Park.
William Hargreaves takes the points lead with 217 points with Billy Northcutt moving up into 2nd place 10 points behind. Zachary Loomis fell back to 3rd with 193 points, J R Shepherd moves up one spot to 4th with 187 points, and Adam Carlisle rounds out the top 5 drivers with 180 points. Going into the next round, the drivers will take on the I-55 Speedway on October 14th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S3 R7 Recap
04 October 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 7
Premier Series | Talladega Superspeedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Thomas George with Steel Horse Racing took the checkered flag tonight under caution flag conditions in the Chuckles, I’m in Danger 250 at Talladega Superspeedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Brian yaczik and Pete Baskins. “Switching to this #6, I think there’s some good luck going on with it right now”, George commented after taking what he considered to be an unexpected win. Going forward in the season, George is competing with Yaczik for the championship with 5 races left on the schedule as he added, “We gotta keep performing well, keep doing what we’re doing”
Pete Baskins sat on the pole as the green flag waved over Talladega and the field tore down the front stretch. Woody Mahan was pushing Baskins along the inside line while Jordan Harnish struggled to get the top line organized and the field quickly split into 3 lines very early in the run leading to trouble as Harnish came together with Greg O’Berry putting both cars hard into the outside wall and bringing out the caution flag 4 laps in. Racing resumed going into lap 7 with Adam Jurski in control of the 34-car field with Thomas George alongside him on the front row.
Jurski dropped down in front of George with Baskins running in 3rd with the inside line again starting off strong. Again, several spots within the field went 3, almost 4, wide as drivers shuffled to stay as far up in the field as possible. Mahan found himself in the lead of the 3rd line along the outside wall being pushed out front by Scott Eckrich. With 15 laps completed, the field broke into two separate group with 17 cars still running in the lead pack. The lead continued to shuffle with Chrisopher Dewald leading the inside line several car lengths out front as the outside line started to fall apart and the leaders were mostly single filed out.
Yaczik and Eckrich continued to work well together, both drivers staying up near the front of the leading group as the pack split back off into multiple lines while the 2nd group of cars ran almost a quarter of the track behind them. Lap 27 saw the first round of drivers coming down pit road under green flag condition to include James Moore and Dewald. The majority of the leaders came down on lap 31 led in by Cody Dempster with Eckrich and Yaczik in the group. As the pit cycles completed, Travis McQuistion was in control of the field with Eckrich and Yaczik running in 2nd and 3rd.
The lead pack consisting of the front 12 drivers were aggressively swapping the leading car around as they battled amongst themselves with the slightest contact in the middle of the group between Jacob Bruff and Tommy Gossett brought the caution flag back out as the pack scattered to avoid further contact approaching the halfway point of the night. When the green flag came out again, 28 drivers were still on the lead lap and 32 drivers still running on track going into lap 45 with Yaczik getting a hard shove out front as another incident in the mid pack collected several drivers.
Racing again resumed on lap 49 with Yaczik out front leading the outside line. Jonathan Cogswell and Michael Chrobok teamed up with Chrobok successfully pushing Cogswell out front taking control of the field while Yaczik fell back outside of the top 5 as the top line started to fall apart for the moment. With 60 laps completed, Mahan was out front being pushed by Mike Rasimas with Eckrich in 3rd. Going into the final 25 laps, Eckrich started positioning himself to be pushed out front moving up to the outside line ahead of George and Yaczik.
Eckrich cleared into the lead by several car length for a brief moment before Chrobok was able to overtake him with Dempster pushing. Chrobok dropped down in front of Eckrich who seemed content to push him further out front away from the field as the laps counted down. With 9 laps remaining, Chrobok and Isaiah Dupre made contact sending Chrobok around into traffic bringing an unfortunate end to his run as the caution flag came out. When racing resumed there were only 5 laps to go.
All of the drivers were scrambling for position with multiple lines forming and falling apart rapidly. With 2 laps remaining, the final caution came out after contact in the middle of the leading pack collected several drivers completing for the win giving the win to Thomas George under caution flag conditions with Brian Yaczik, Pete Baskins, Don Runkle JR, and Scott Eckrich rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Talladega Superspeedway.
Brian Yaczik continues to lead in the point standings with 272 points. Thomas George maintains 2nd place only 2 points behind the leader with Michael Chrobok in 3rd with 231 points. Woody Mahan sits in 4th with 220 points and Code Dempster rounds out the top 5 with 217 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 11th to run the Roval with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S19 R2 Recap
01 October 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 19 | Round 2
Super Late Model Series | The Bullring at Las Vegas
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at The Bullring at Las Vegas ahead of Kenny Kibbey and Mathew Thunhorst. “I’ve not been shy about saying that I’m not fast in these super late models, so I was tire conserving once I got the lead and probably saved tires a little bit too long”, Shepherd commented as the track quieted down, “[I was] just trying to hold those guys off and get a good exit and was just barely able to do it.”
Joeseph Snyder was in control of the 13-car field as the green flag came out over The Bullring and the field piled into the first turn. After a few close calls in the opening laps as drivers struggled to get heat into their tires, Snyder continued to lead the field with Bruce Pearson running in 2nd place with 15 laps completed. J R Shepherd had already jumped up to 4th and was pressuring Matt Shinoski for position while Kenny Kibbey, Mathew Thunhorst, and Justin Morton were still stuck in traffic running in 7th through 9th.
Continuing his forward momentum, Shepherd climbed the rest of the way up and took control of the field away from Snyder going into lap 27 as Kibbey and Thunhorst started working together pushing up through traffic into the top 5 quickly moving forward to challenge Shepherd. Morton was running back in 7th and wasn’t able to find a way around Donny Moore finding himself left behind with Kibbey and Thunhorst clearing around Snyder into 2nd and 3rd closing up the 0.6 second gap to Shepherd.
Going into the second half of the night, the top 3 drivers had pulled away from the rest of the field with Snyder still running in 4th Kibbey and Thunhorst completed closed the gap to the lead and Kibbey was keeping the pressure high trying to force a mistake out of Shepherd. Moore was moving up quietly to 4th with Morton still following close behind him letting Moore do the work of setting up the passes with 35 laps to go. The leaders stretched the gap ahead of the field out to over 3.5 seconds as Shepherd was approaching the first signs of lap traffic in a battle for 11th between Joe Segalla and Todd Liston.
The traffic was considerate of the leaders leaving a wide berth for them to get around quickly without compromising the battle for the lead with Kibbey looking to the inside cautiously but unable to get the runoff speed coming out of the corner to capitalize on it. Going into the final 10 laps, Thunhorst took a look to the inside of Kibbey for 2nd, but Kibbey slammed the door closed while Morton cleared around Moore into 4th as the laps counted down. J R Shepherd held the inside line blocking challengers for the lead to take the checkered flag tonight at The Bullring at Las Vegas with Kenny Kibbey, Mathew Thunhorst, Justin Morton, and Donny Moore rounding out the top 5 finishers.
Justin Morton took the lead in the point standings with 94 points over J R Shepherd 3 points behind. Mathew Thunhorst sits in 3rd place with 90 points while Donny Moore and Joseph Snyder are now tied for 4th each driver having 70 points. Next week, the drivers of the Bootleg Racing League head out to USA Speedway for the 3rd round of Season 19 on October 8th with all of the action broadcast live at 9PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S13 R2 Recap
30 September 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 13 | Round 2
Dirt Street Stock Series | Weedsport Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
William Hargreaves with Dirt Panda took the checkered flag tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Weedsport Speedway ahead of Stephen Spies and Adam Carlisle. “This is one of them tracks where you really gotta be aggressive but you gotta be smart”, Hargreaves commented after the race. When asked about how he intends to carry this momentum forward through the season, he added, “I don’t think we’ll do anything different than we do any other week and just come out and have fun on Friday night and race with the boys.”
Adam Carlisle held the pole position with an average lap time of 17.972 in qualifying and led the first heat to the green flag. William Hargreaves kept the pressure high but couldn’t find a way to take the lead as Carlisle took the checkered flag. Jason Best and Thomas Vickers started on the front row as the green flag came out for the second heat. Stephen Spies was able to get around both drivers and run away with the lead for the win. Billy Northcutt and Zachary Loomis were on the front row as the third and final heat of the night began. Northcutt led every lap to take the checkered flag in the end. J R Shepherd and John Wilson won the consolation races before the drivers rejoined the track to start the 40-lap feature event.
Carlisle took the green flag with Spies to his outside with Carlisle getting a strong launch off the start. Spies had to defend against Hargreaves in the opening laps with Hargreaves looking to his inside several times before slotting in line behind Spies. Hargreaves got his nose back to the inside again and was able to clear into 2nd going into lap 7 forcing Spies to drop in ahead of Loomis for 3rd place. Hargreaves immediately went after Carlisle for the lead running side by side for several laps before taking control of the field with 10 laps completed.
Spies followed Hargreaves around Carlisle into 2nd as Northcutt moved up to 4th ahead of Loomis and Vickers as the two Dirt Panda drivers tried to shake off the bad luck they’ve had going into the new season. Hargreaves stretched his lead out to several car lengths ahead of Spies while Northcutt rode tight against Carlisle’s bumper keeping the pressure high as they crossed the halfway mark of the night. Brandyn Proudfoot was still struggling this season running outside of the top 10 and not able to negotiate through the traffic ahead.
Going into the final 10 laps, Hargreaves had a 0.7 second lead over Spies with Carlisle still holding onto 3rd ahead of Northcutt. Hargreaves came up on the first signs of lap traffic going into the last 5 laps and was able to clear around quickly without losing any pace maintaining the gap ahead of Spies going into the final corners. William Hargreaves completed a flawless run tonight at Weedsport Speedway with Stephen Spies, Adam Carlisle, Billy Northcutt, and Zachary Loomis rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight.
Zachary Loomis holds the lead in the point standings with 150 points with William Hargreaves in 2nd place only 6 points behind. Adam Carlisle sits in 3rd with 136 points, Billy Northcutt holds 4th with 129 points, and J R Shepherd rounds out the top 5 drivers with 127 points. Now the drivers now set their focus to Limaland Motorsports Park on October 7th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S3 R6 Recap
27 September 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 6
Premier Series | Texas Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Thomas George with Steel Horse Racing took the checkered flag in the Almirola By Morning 250 after taking the lead on the final lap with the Pretty Good Racing League at Texas Motor Speedway ahead of Michael Chrobok and Mike Rasimas. “We had good short run speed. The car was good on the short run, fell off a little on the long run”, George commented as the action came to a close, “It’s time to put this Ford Mustang back in Victory Lane.”
Brady Cure was in control of the field as the green flag came out clearing ahead of Matthew Wheeler and leading 24-car line up speeding into turn one. Most of the field single filed out by the completion of the first lap with sporadic battles throughout. Woody Mahan and Brian Yaczik were able to get around Cure with only 5 laps completed with Cody Dempster pressuring Cure from 4th while Mahan and Yaczik pulled away from the rest of the field by over 1 second with 10 laps behind them.
Dempster took the 3rd position and found himself fighting to keep it against Thomas George getting his nose to the inside. George cleared ahead into 3rd with drivers all throughout the field struggling with loose conditions early on in the run. Yaczik took control of the field and built a 0.6 second lead over Mahan showing a strong pace with George slowly closing the gap to Mahan. Mike Rasimas was up into the top 5 going into lap 20 and gaining on Dempster ahead.
Dempster cleared around both Chance Manning and Mahan into 2nd place while Yaczik continued to lead the field. Manning put his nose to the inside of Dempster to take back the position but couldn’t complete the move settling back into 3rd ahead of George and Mahan battling over 4th directly behind him. Mahan slid up the track enough for Michael Chrobok to take advantage diving beneath him and moving up into 5th behind George on lap 47. Yaczik was slowly stretching out his lead running around 0.5 ahead of Dempster by lap 50 as the drivers started to find their grooves and check off some laps.
As the laps counted down, Yaczik showed his speed over the long run pulling further away from the rest of the field by over 1 second. Chrobok cleared into 2nd place ahead of George with Dempster falling back to 4th as the caution came out on lap 72. All drivers came into the pits with Yaczik winning the race off pit road and retaining the lead for the restart with George to his outside on the front row. Manning and Greg O’Berry battled side by side over 5th while the top 4 drivers single filed out quickly as the green flag came back out.
With 90 laps completed, Chrobok closed the gap to George in 2nd and was able to get to George’s inside before quickly clearing into the position and running away with it showing a very strong pace. Manning overtook Yaczik for the lead going into lap 106 after another restart but wasn’t able to hold it as Yaczik quickly took it back and Chrbok closed on the battle pressuring Manning for 2nd and taking the position on lap 109 showing that Manning possibly used up too much of his equipment going for the lead while he continued to fall back behind George.
After a rough start to the night, Mike Rasimas was back into the top 10 with 50 laps to go as drivers started to push more aggressively with the laps counting down to the end. Yaczik maintained control of the field with a gap of 0.7 over Chrobok behind him in 2nd. Lap 128 saw drivers starting to come down pit road under green flag conditions for the first time of the night with Dempster and Rasimas leading the charge. Chrobok came down on lap 131 from 2nd place while Yaczik stayed out in the lead with Tommy Gossett up to 2nd.
Each lap saw another small group of drivers come down pit road while Yaczik and Gossett battled over the lead. Yaczik made his stop on lap 140 as Gossett took the lead and coming down pit road on the following lap. Rasimas was the leading car from the pit cycle ahead of Chrobok going into the final 25 laps. Chrobok closed the gap and took the lead away from Rasimas with Yaczik back in 7th over 12 seconds behind the leader but was climbing through the field quickly.
Gossett lost control of his car spinning sideways down the backstretch with 16 laps remaining and bringing out a race changing caution closing the gap between Yaczik and the leaders. As the drivers stacked back up for the restart, Chrobok control of the field ahead of Rasimas in 2nd and Yaczik in 3rd. The green flag came back out with 11 laps remaining and Chrobok fumbled the start allowing Rasimas to get around him off the jump. Chrobok dove beneath Rasimas and reclaimed the lead with 8 to go.
Yaczik was pressuring George looking for an opening as George sent his car aggressively to the inside of Rasimas and Yaczik used the opportunity to push Rasimas back to 4th as the top 4 drivers pulled away from the rest of the field. George was starting to struggle in the corners going into the final 3 laps while the leaders battled hard for every inch. Thomas George took the lead for the final lap and held of Michael Chrobok to take the checkered flag with Mike Rasimas, Brian Yaczik, and Isaiah Dupre rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Texas Motor Speedway.
Brian Yaczik continues to lead in the point standings with 229 points. Thomas George maintains 2nd place only 5 points behind the leader with Michael Chrobok in 3rd with 213 points behind him. Woody Mahan sits in 4th with 198 points after a rough night and Code Dempster jumps up 2 spots to 5th place with 192 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Talladega Superspeedway on October 4th for the Chuckles I’m in Danger 250 presented by MC2 Editing Services with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
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 NSCT S1 R1 Recap
23 September 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 1 | Round 1
National Sprint Car Trail | Iowa Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Justin Morton with Total Downforce Racing took the checkered flag in the inaugural race of the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail at Iowa Speedway ahead of Aiden Young and Stephen Spies. “I can’t really ask for much better of a race there… It’s pretty cool to be able to win the inaugural race of a series in this league.”, Morton commented as the night came to a close, “I’ve been looking forward this series for a while, since it’s been announced. It’s such a cool concept. It’s something I’ve always wanted to run on iRacing, just the whole USAC style of racing.”
Justin Morton sat at the top of the boards after putting down a 4-lap average time of 21.760 in qualifying and advancing straight through to the feature event along with Aiden Young, Bruce Jones, Rory Collins, Matt Hoose, and Jason Menda. Stephen Spies shared the front row with Joe Segalla to take the green flag for the 15-lap heat event. Spies jumped out to a strong lead off the start as Preston Cranmer cleared ahead of Segalla for 2nd. Donny Moore struggled early on making contact with the outside wall on lap 4 sending his car tumbling down the front stretch. Segalla reclaimed 2nd place from Cranmer as Lowell Jewell closed in on the battle and started pressuring Cranmer for 3rd place. Spies took the checkered flag ahead of Joe Segalla and the drivers pulled back out on track for the 50-lap feature event.
Morton and Young shared the front row as the green flag came out over Iowa Speedway to kick off the main event. Morton had a great launch off the start and pulled away from the field while Young and Jones battled over 2nd place. Spies was making strong forward progression clearing ahead of Hoose for 5th and closing up on a battle between Collins and Jones over 3rd with 10 laps completed. Spies looked to the inside of Jones several times but wasn’t able to complete the pass while Jones was using the highline momentum coming out of the corners to pull ahead down the straightaways.
Hoose and Collins stayed close behind the battle for 3rd while Young still struggled to close the gap to Morton in the lead. As the drivers approached the halfway point of the night, Morton had extended his lead out to almost 1.5 seconds over Young. Spies had cleared into 3rd with Hoose running close behind. Jones had fallen back to 6th behind Collins. Collins and Hoose were battling hard over 4th place going into the last 20 laps while Spies pulled away with 3rd and was closing up on the rear of Young. Spies got his nose to the inside of Young but wasn’t able to complete the pass as the lap counted down.
The drivers were starting to push more aggressively going into the final 10 laps. Spies tried several more times to clear beneath Young, but again wasn’t able to match the high line speed down the straights. Hoose and Collins continued to battle side by side with both drivers getting everything they could out of the track. Preston Cranmer quietly moved up into 6th ahead of Jones and was slowly reeling in Hoose and Collins. With 3 laps to go, Spies started setting Young up for another attempt for 2nd place but couldn’t make the move before Justin Morton took the checkered flag in the inaugural race in the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail with Aiden Young, Stephen Spies, Matt Hoose, and Rory Collins rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Iowa Speedway.
Justin Morton showed his skill with the silver crown, but the brilliance of the Bootleg Racing League National Sprint Car Trail is that next week will be a very different car and a very different track to put each driver’s overall skill to the test. Next week, the drivers will jump into the asphalt sprints at Lucas Oil Raceway on September 30th with the intense action brought to you live at 10:30PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S13 R1 Recap
23 September 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 13 | Round 1
Dirt Street Stock Series | Lanier National Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Zachary Loomis took the first win of the new season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Lanier National Speedway ahead of Jason Best and J R Shepherd. “It was wearing away. My tires were wearing away and I could feel it. Just made the best out of it”, Loomis commented on his late stage run and in regard to going forward in the season, “I’m really excited. Lanier isn’t my strong point so I’m excited for this season.”
Zachary Loomis jumped to the top of the boards with a 4-lap average lap time of 16.487 in qualifying and start on the pole in the first of two heat events. Loomis ran away with the lead to take the win while William Hargreaves started back in 7th and wasn’t able to make up much ground through the field finishing in 6th. Chris Davis led the final heat with Jason Best to his outside as the green flag came back out. Davis and Best battled over the lead with Davis taking the checkered flag in the end as passing again proved difficult for drivers tonight. J R Shepherd and Billy Northcutt won the consolation events, and the drivers came back out on track for the 40-lap feature event.
Zachary Loomis led the 16-car field to the green flag with Chris Davis to his outside as the action kicked off in tonight’s feature event. Loomis jumped out to a strong lead off the start as much of the field went two or three wide fighting over position early in the run. Both Dirt Panda drivers, Billy Northcutt and William Hargreaves, were stuck in the mid-pack finding it difficult to move up through the dense traffic. Davis was battling side by side with Jason Best trying to hold onto 2nd place with J R Shepherd waiting directly behind them in 4th. Adam Carlisle was quietly moving forward clearing around both Dirt Pandas into 5th place as the drivers crossed the halfway point.
With 20 laps remaining, Loomis had stretched his lead out to over 1.5 seconds over Best. Shepherd took 3rd place from Davis and had a safe gap behind him as Hargreaves and Northcutt were battling with each other over 6th place. Hargreaves cleared ahead and got a nose to the outside of Davis in 5th. The two drivers started trading sliders back and forth while Dylan Corey fought Carlisle for 7th place ahead of a battle between Michael Menees and Bobby Hayes over 9th. Going into the final 10 laps, the top 3 drivers had completely checked out and had a commanding lead over the rest of the field.
Hargreaves and Davis started aggressively pushing each other harder as the laps counted down. Shepherd had closed the gap to Best to pressure for 2nd place going into the final stretch. Coming out of the last corner, Zachary Loomis took the checkered flag unchallenged for the most part tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series with Jason Best, J R Shepherd, William Hargreaves, and Chris Davis rounding out the top 5 finishers at Lanier National Speedway.
Zachary Loomis made a strong statement to start off Season 13 while the Dirt Panda drivers struggled all night and had a poor showing compared to what we’ve come to expect from previous seasons. Now the drivers now set their focus to Weedsport Speedway on September 30th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 710PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S3 R5 Recap
20 September 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 5
Premier Series | Bristol Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Scott Eckrich with GRAAFix LC Motorsports came away with the checkered flag in the Muscular Dystrophy Awareness Month 250 after a long, hard-fought night at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Thomas George and Mike Rasimas. “Just really happy to get a win here”, Eckrich commented as the night came to a close, “It’s been a little bit of bad luck, so it feels good to get one to go my way.”
Jonathan Cogswell led the field to the green flag to kick off the 250-lap night race around Bristol with Greg O’Berry to his outside. Cogswell cleared ahead into the lead as O’Berry battled Seif Faries for 2nd. 5 laps into the night, Faires overtook Cogswell and started to pull away from the field running a very high line along the outside wall. By lap 14, Faires had already caught the rear of the field and was putting drivers a lap down as he extended his lead out to over 1 second over Cogswell and O’Berry.
Cody Dempster was quickly pushing up through the field and was running in 2nd with Thomas George following him through traffic before making an attempt on 2nd place himself 30 laps into the night getting his nose to the inside of Dempster and able to clear into the position several laps later using lap traffic to block Dempster’s path. George closed in on the leader and overtook Faries soon thereafter taking control of the field while Scott Eckrich was quietly moving up through the field and running in 7th, from a 27th place starting position, behind Michael Chrobok going into lap 43.
Faries cleared back around George into the lead with Dempster following him into 2nd place, but in a shocking upset, Faries had a hardware malfunction that ended his night on lap 64 giving the lead to Dempster with Cogswell in 2nd. O’Berry closed the gap to the leaders and overtook Cogswell before running to the outside of Dempster to battle for the lead. Dempster stayed low and the two drivers fought over the lead for lap after lap slowing both of their paces overall and allowed the top 7 to close up on the battle with Mike Rasimas running in the back of the lead pack before Dempster was finally able to clear into the lead for the moment before Chrobok took advantage of the situation to take away the lead as they crossed the 100-lap mark.
Eckrich has caught the back of the lead pack and started pushing through running the low line and quickly moving up to 3rd behind Jette. O’Berry and Dempster were showing signs of excessive wear as they fell back into the field far off the leading pace after running side by side for so long. Rasimas and George closed up on the leaders making a 5-car pack for the lead as Jette cleared around the outside of Chrobok. Eckrich took control of the field going into lap 127 with Rasimas challenging him from the outside. Brian Yaczik joined the battle up front battling with Jette for 3rd place.
Rasimas cleared ahead of Eckrich with Jette moving up and trying to take the lead for himself running the inside line. Chase Manning and Cogswell caught the battle and Manning wasted no time getting his nose to the inside of Rasimas going after 2nd place. Manning was able to hold the position for a few laps before Rasimas reclaimed 2nd running up along the outside wall. Jette was able to stretch his lead out to over 3 seconds as he seemed to be aggressively pushing his pace to get as far out front as possible while others were running more conservatively saving their stuff expecting a long green flag run.
With 100 laps remaining, Eckrich was leading a long train of cars from 5th place running a very consistent pace lap after lap and Jette was showing the first signs of wear as his pace started to fall off with Rasimas closing the gap quickly. Eckrich’s group of cars had reached the rear of the lead pack and started pushing past Cogswell and Manning. Rasimas caught the leader and quickly cleared ahead of Jette on lap 169 with Eckrich and Yaczik running in 3rd and 4th respectively and closing on the leaders quickly. Rasimas was aggressively negotiating through lap traffic putting as many cars between himself and Eckrich as possible while Eckrich and Yaczik continued to gain lap after lap.
Eckrich was in control of the field going into the final 50 laps of the night with Rasimas in 2nd place ahead of Yaczik and Chrobok battling over 3rd. The drivers were being much more aggressive as the laps counted down pushing their cars to the limit with several drivers having close calls getting loose coming out of the corners. Rasimas got a nose to the outside of Eckrich challenging for the lead as Manning moved up to 3rd with George directly behind him. Eckrich was holding to the inside and stayed side by side with Rasimas for several laps before clearing back into the lead with 27 laps remaining.
With 15 laps remaining, George cleared around the outside of Rasimas into 2nd place. George was able to close up on Eckrich and tried to get to his inside but couldn’t get complete the move with Eckrich running along the outside wall using the corner exit momentum to maintain the lead. Extending his lead out to 0.6 seconds, Scott Eckrich took the checkered flag tonight in the Muscular Dystrophy Awareness month 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway with Thomas George, Mike Rasimas, Chance Manning, and Michael Chrobok rounding out the top 5 finishers.
Brian Yaczik continues to lead in the point standings with 187 points. Thomas George moved up to 2nd place with 175 points with Michael Chrobok moving up into 3rd only 2 points behind him. Woody Mahan fell back to 4th with 172 points after a rough night and Adam Jurski holds onto 5th place with 160 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Texas Motor Speedway on September 27th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL Asphalt Shootout Recap
17 September 2022
Bootleg Racing League | 7th Annual Asphalt Shootout
ARCA Stock Car | Hickory Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight in the 7th Annual Bootleg Racing League Asphalt Shootout presented by Stone River Outfitters at Hickory Motor Speedway ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Kenny Kibbey. “Knew it was going to be a big track position race tonight so to get that pole was extremely important”, Shepherd shared with us as the night came to a close, “This is a place that’s really hard to pass, these cars are extremely hard to drive with the horsepower that they have so being able to get that track position to save tires was a huge deal.”
J R Shepherd came into the night strong securing the pole with a fast time of 14.587 in qualifying and taking the green flag for the main event alongside Kenny Kibbey on the front row. Shepherd quickly cleared ahead of Kibbey with Mathew Thunhorst battling with Brandyn Proudfoot for 3rd. Proudfoot was able to tuck in behind Thunhorst for 4th place but unfortunately took a hit from behind by Chris Davis sending Proudfoot around and to the back of the field in 17th as racing resumed going into lap 24 with Shepherd still leading ahead of Thunhorst and Kibbey.
The field stretched out running single file as Davis found himself stranded to the outside and was quickly falling back. Jason Menda cleared ahead of Jeffrey Hardin and Donny Moore for 4th place but wasn’t able to match the pace coming out of the three leaders who had started to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. With 50 laps completed, the front of the pack was still Shepherd, Thunhorst, Kibbey as they chased each other around the track waiting for any mistake to take advantage of.
Going into the second half of the night, contact between Joe Segalla and Todd Liston brought out the caution with 50 laps remaining giving the field the opportune time to come down pit road for tires. Bryan Dehn and Chris Davis stayed out on track taking control of the field for the restart with Shepherd, Kibbey, and Thunhorst directly behind them with fresh tires. Shepherd dove beneath Dehn coming out of turn two and took the lead back with Thunhorst and Kibbey following him through as they resumed battling over the lead between themselves.
Davis was holding onto 5th behind Hardin as the race stretched out getting what he could out of his older tires as the caution flag came out with 20 laps remaining showing the gamble Davis and Dehn were going for as they came down pit road going into the final stretch taking the green with the freshest tires in the field running in 7th and 8th for the restart. Proudfoot was the last car on the lead lap in 8th place as the green flag came back out and racing resumed. Davis wasted no time using his tire advantage to jump up to 5th off the jump and dove beneath Hardin for 4th. As he closed in on Kibbey’s bumper, Davis was too confident and spun his tires coming out of the corner sending himself around on track and back to 8th.
Thunhorst had yet to make an attempt on the lead, running tight on the back of Shepherd with the laps counting down hoping to pressure the leader into making a mistake. Kibbey took a quick look to the inside of Thunhorst, but checked up instead to avoid contact with Thunhorst’s inside rear fender as contact between Adam Schoen and Lowell Jewell in the middle of the field brought the caution back out and J R Shepherd took the checkered flag under caution flag conditions with Mathew Thunhorst, Kenny Kibbey, Bryan Dehn, and Jeffrey Hardin rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Hickory Motor Speedway in the 7th Annual Bootleg Racing League Asphalt Shootout presented by Stone River Outfitters.
Virtual Grip Network 