BRL SLM S18 R9 Recap
20 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 9
Super Late Model Series | Martinsville Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took his 4th win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Martinsville Speedway ahead of Kurt Smith and Justin Morton. “Tough race tonight, extremely hard to pass at this track”, Shepherd commented as the night came to a close at Martinsville, “I used up a lot of my stuff trying to make that pass [on Smith], but it’s kind of what you got to do here” Tonight’s win gave Shepherd a 2-point lead over Morton going into the final two rounds of Season 18.
Kurt Smith was in control of the 14-car field as he took the green flag with Austin Boelke to his outside and the track roared to live with the Bootleg Racing League. Smith had a strong launch off the start and Boelke fell back to 3rd behind Donny Moore before being able to slide down to the inside line. Shepherd and Morton were running 4th and 5th respectively close behind Boelke as the drivers put the first 10 laps behind them and the field started to single file out around the track.
Shepherd jumped ahead of Boelke and got his nose to the inside of Moore taking away 2nd place with Boelke following him under into 3rd. Contact between Boelke and Moore when Moore tried to defend his position resulted in Moore getting sent around and he fell back to 10th. Smith was still in control of the field with 20 laps completed under pressure from Shepherd, Boelke, and Morton. Michael Goodman was quietly moving up through the field and closed in on Morton’s rear bumper in 5th.
Smith and Shepherd started to break away from Boelke with Shepherd looking to the inside several times keeping the pressure up with Boelke over 1 second behind in 3rd. The battle for the lead continued going into the second half of the night with Shepherd getting the better run off coming out of the corners, but Smith leaving nothing for Shepherd to take advantage of. Boelke was still holding off Morton and Goodman but had fallen back to over 2 seconds off the leaders.
Shepherd was able to get his nose to the inside of Smith on lap 50 and cleared into the lead. Smith concede the position quickly and fell in line behind Shepherd staying close behind him as the leaders were closing in on the first signs of lap traffic with 45 laps remaining. Boelke was slowly starting to reel the leading drivers in a few tenth of a second each lap with Morton still following close behind and a slight gap started to build between Morton and Goodman just as the caution flag came out and the field was restacked with 34 laps to go.
Shepherd had a strong jump off the green flag going into lap 72 as Smith was able to close the door on Boelke holding onto 2nd place. Moore had climbed back up through the field and was challenging Goodman for 5th as the field single filed back out again with 25 laps remaining. With nothing but wide-open track ahead of him, Shepherd started to run away with the lead stretching the gap between him and Smith to around 0.5 without lap traffic to contend with going forward.
With only 15 laps left, 10 cars were still running on track with Shepherd still in control of the field. Smith was able to match pace with Shepherd, but not able to make an attempt on the lead with the laps dwindling down. Boelke, Morton, and Goodman still ran in 3rd through as they broke away from Moore in 6th. In the final moments, Boelke made contact with the outside wall giving Morton an opening to take away 3rd place, but Boelke battled back from the outside with Goodman waiting to take advantage of whichever driver lost the fight. The two were still running side by side as J R Shepherd took the checkered flag with Kurt Smith coming home in 2nd place. Justin Morton took 3rd place over Austin Boelke by 0.010 at the line and Michael Goodman followed them across in 5th.
J R Shepherd regained the lead over Justin Morton in the point standings tonight with 345 points over Morton’s 343 points. Austin Boelke holds onto 3rd place with 335 points. Donny Moore stays in 4th place with 311 points and Kurt Smith moves up into the top 5 in the points with 296 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now prepare for Langley Speedway on August 27th for Round 10 of Season 18 with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S12 R9 Recap
19 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | Round 9
Dirt Street Stock Series | The Dirt Track at Charlotte
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
William Hargreaves with Dirt Panda claimed his third win of Season 12 tonight with the Bootleg Racing League at The Dirt Track at Charlotte ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot and Zachary Loomis. “We got down to the end there and I just literally went where he didn’t go… he thought I was going to go high and I just braked and dove low”, Hargreaves commented as the night came to a close, “It was a lot of fun racing with all these guys tonight.”
Brandyn Proudfoot held the fastest time in qualifying with a quick lap clocked at 18.792 and took the win in the first heat race of the night over Zachary Loomis securing the pole for the upcoming 40-lap feature later on in the night. J R Shepherd took the second heat win over William Hargreaves and Billy Northcutt took the third and final heat win over Bobby Hayes. Kevin Davis beat Jason Best to the line in the C Main and Thomas Vickers won the B Main consolation over Chris Davis as the night ramped up to the feature event.
Proudfoot led the 18-car field to the green flag running to the inside of Shepherd. Hargreaves quickly jumped ahead into 2nd place around the first lap and wasted no time going after Proudfoot. Shepherd and Loomis battled over 3rd while Kevin Davis struggled to hold off Best directly behind them. Proudfoot was still in control of the field as the drivers completed the first 10 laps of the night with Hargreaves still challenging for the lead and the leaders started trading sliders.
Proudfoot regained the lead as they passed the halfway mark ahead by a nose running the inside with Loomis, Shepherd and Best almost going 5 wide with the leaders running through the corners. Proudfoot and Hargreaves started trading sliders until Loomis caught the battle and went for the lead himself pinning Proudfoot behind Hargreaves with 10 laps remaining. Loomis couldn’t hold the pace and dropped back as the leaders resumed trading sliders aggressively with the laps counting down.
A late race caution brought the field back together with 7 laps remaining. Proudfoot held the lead for the single file restart ahead of Hargreaves gaining a strong advantage. Proudfoot had a strong launch, but Hargreaves stayed close behind trying several slider attempts that he wasn’t able to clear until the final corner where William Hargreaves cleared ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot to take the checkered flag with Zachary Loomis, J R Shepherd, and Jason Best rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at The Dirt Track at Charlottle.
Brandyn Proudfoot further extends his lead in the point standings with 697 points becoming the unofficial season champion. William Hargreaves moves up to 2nd place after tonight’s win with 608 points with Billy Northcutt close behind in 3rd with 589 points. J R Shepherd holds onto 4th place with 545 points as Hunter Hill takes 5th away from Jeffrey Hardin with 488 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series now head to Limaland Motorsports Park for race 10 of season 12 on August 26th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S2 R12 Recap
16 August 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 12
Premier Series | Richmond Raceway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Brian Yaczik with Loud Pedal Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight in the Todd Kirkwood Memorial 200 at Richmond Raceway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Scott Eckrich and Mike Rasimas. “The car looks good, drove fantastic tonight. I don’t know if I necessarily did anything amazing but I just kind of stuck to what’s been kind of working for me lately and having to unlearn a lot of bad habits”, Yaczik commented as the commotion around track started to subside. Jeff Ward took the title of Season 2 Champion after dominating in the points over the past 12 weeks.
James Krahula led the field to the green flag to start off the final round of season 2 tonight at Richmond Raceway with Isaiah Dupre alongside him on the front row. Scott Eckrich started in the rear of the 24-car field with Jeff Ward starting inside of the top 10 after a rough race last week at Michigan. Ward quickly moved up through the pack getting up to 4th within the first few laps to ensure he would be clear of any potential incidents early on. Mike Rasimas was also moving toward the front quickly jumping several spots and running in 7th with only 10 laps completed.
Krahula continued to control the field approaching the 20-lap mark as Ward climbed up to 3rd behind Greg O’Berry and Eckrich broke into the top 10 running in 8th place. O’Berry overtook Krahula for the lead on lap 26 and started to pull away as Eckrich and Ward were both caught up in an incident within the front of the field involving many drivers and bringing out the caution. Ward’s resulting damage was minor enough that he was able to stay out on track and only fell back to 4th while Eckrich dropping back to 20th after running down pit road to take repairs.
O’Berry took the green flag as racing resumed going into lap 34 as Brian Yaczik battled Krahula for 2nd place. Eckrich again pushed up through the field as he broke back into the top 10 with 50 laps completed while Yaczik was being pressured by Ward for 2nd place up ahead. O’Berry got out of shape and that allowed Yaczik to take the lead away with Ward following him around and Mike Rasimas was close behind working on closing the gap to the leaders. O’Berry continued to fall back through the field to 6th place and under pressure from Michael Chrobok.
Yaczik continued to control the field ahead of Ward as the drivers crossed the halfway point of the night as the two leaders built up over a 2 second lead over Woody Mahan in 3rd place. Eckrich was back up to 6th and closing on Chrobok ahead. The second half of the race was plagued with cautions while the drivers struggled to get through a clean restart and many drivers had their nights ended early before the race got back underway going into lap 125 with Yaczik still in control of the field and Eckrich up to 2nd place with 13 cars still on the lead lap.
Ward was up to 3rd behind Eckrich with Adam Jurski trying to get a nose beneath him as the field tried to single file out. Ward was looking to the outside of Eckrich as Rasimas took 4th place away from Jurski with Drew Carroll close behind keeping the pressure up. Yaczik was able to maintain a strong lead over Eckrich as the 24-car field started to spread out around the track with 65 laps remaining. Jurski fell back to 7th slowly being overtaken by Carroll and O’Berry.
Ward was starting to fall off from Eckrich’s pace going into the last 50 laps of the night and was falling back within reach of Rasimas while Yaczik held his lead over Eckrich with a consistent 0.4 second gap between them. The gap between Eckrich and Ward had stretched out to over 2 seconds as Rasimas overtook for 3rd and O’Berry closed up close on Ward’s rear bumper clearing for the position a lap later. Ward seemed to be running cautiously and wasn’t putting up much of a fight for position also allowing Carroll to go by with 40 laps to go.
With 20 laps remaining, only 9 drivers were still on the lead lap and Yaczik had stretched his lead over Eckrich out to almost 1 second as the two drivers were preparing to potentially make a green flag pit stop for fuel in the final moments. Eckrich fell far off the pace trying save fuel with Yaczik over 3 seconds ahead still in control of the field with only 6 laps to go. Brian Yaczik took the white flag and coasted around the final lap on fumes to take the checkered flag with Scott Eckrich, Mike Rasimas, Greg O’Berry and Jeff Ward rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight in the Todd Kirkwood Memorial 200.
Jeff Ward with GRAAFix LC Motorsports took the championship for season 2 with the Pretty Good Racing League with 406 points. “All year we were just focusing on consistency”, Ward shared with us as he celebrated the championship, “Race wins are cool, but this is what it’s all about right here. Big picture and we got it done.” Brian Yaczik finished the season in 2nd only 15 points behind Ward. Drew Carroll took 3rd place with 368 points ahead of Scott Eckrich by only 1 point. Thomas George rounds out the top 5 in the points with 336 points as season 2 comes to a close tonight at Richmond. Season 3 kicks off next Tuesday on August 23rd at Watkins Glen with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S18 R8 Recap
13 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 8
Super Late Model Series | Lanier National Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming took the checkered flag tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series presented by Gargamel’s Kitchen at Lanier National Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and J R Shepherd. “I just really like Lanier so expectations were decently high coming in here”, Kibbey commented before announcing a potential return to the series in the future, “I should expect to be racing full time or at least really close to it next season.”
Joe Segalla was in control of the 17-car field at the top of the night with Michael Goodman to his outside on the front row and took the green flag starting off the 100-lap event around Lanier National Speedway. J R Shepherd struggled early after being involved in an early race incident and falling back in the field while Chris Davis was up to 4th, 9 positions up from where he started the night after only 15 laps. Segalla continued to hold the lead under pressure from Donny Moore.
Justin Morton was quietly moving up to the front following a wide wake left by Kenny Kibbey’s charge through traffic. Kibbey got a nose to the inside of Davis pushing him far back in the field as he found himself stranded on the outside, finally sliding down behind Shepherd in 7th. Going into lap 35, Kibbey dove deep beneath Segalla clearing into the lead with Morton following him forward into 2nd place. Shepherd had climbed up to 4th and started pressuring Segalla for the final podium spot as Kibbey and Morton started to pull away from the rest of the field.
Coming up on the halfway point, Shepherd made his move overtaking Segalla for 3rd almost 1 second behind Morton on track. Shepherd was able to build up a gap ahead of Segalla but struggled to match the pace of the leaders with 40 laps remaining as Kibbey held the lead over Morton by 0.6 seconds. Lap 65 saw Kibbey reaching the first signs of lap traffic as he continued to outpace the field while negotiating through the rear of the pack. Austin Boelke, who was caught up in an early incident and had to restart from the back of the field, had climbed up to 7th going into the last 25 laps aggressively pushing back toward the front of the pack.
Morton had fallen off the pace from Kibbey and had been caught by Shepherd over 2 seconds behind the leader. Shepherd stayed on the rear bumper of Morton, but Morton was cautious to not leave an opening for Shepherd to take advantage of while Kenny Kibbey crossed the finish line to take the checkered flag with a 2.6 second lead tonight at Lanier National Speedway with Justin Morton, J R Shepherd, James Lowe, and Joe Segalla rounding out the top 5 finishers.
J R Shepherd is again tied for the lead with Justin Morton in the point standings tonight with 305 points each. Austin Boelke holds onto 3rd place with 298 points. Donny Moore stays in 4th place with 276 points and Michael Goodman rounds out the top 5 in the points with 259 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now set their sights on Martinsville Speedway August 20th for round 9 of season 18 with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S12 R8 Recap
12 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | Round 8
Dirt Street Stock Series | Lanier National Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Billy Northcutt with Dirt Panda took the checkered flag tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Lanier National Speedway ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot and Johnny Ratley. “That right there, that’s how it’s done.”, Northcutt commented as the exciting night came to a close, “[Proudfoot] got up beside me and I was pinching him down quite a bit, giving him barely enough room to race me clean and he still did. I mean, so that says a lot.”
Billy Northcutt jumped to the top of the timing board with a fast lap at 16.256 in qualifying to start the night off strong. Northcutt held off Brandyn Proudfoot in the first heat to take the win while Johnny Ratley led every lap to the checkered flag in the second heat event and Zachary Loomis took the third and final heat win of the night. Northcutt and Ratley shared the front row of the 18-car field as the drivers lined up on track for the 40-lap feature event ahead of Loomis and Proudfoot.
Northcutt held the lead off the start as Ratley, Proudfoot and Loomis went three wide over 2nd place going around the first lap. Loomis was the first to back off as Proudfoot and Ratley continued to battle side by side with Proudfoot holding the inside line. The battle gave Northcutt an opportunity to pull away with the lead slightly before Ratley cleared ahead of Proudfoot. J R Shepherd got to the inside of Loomis challenging for 4th place as the field put the first 10 laps behind them.
Northcutt continued to control the field as Ratley struggled to close up on the leader. William Hargreaves was quietly moving up through the field, up 5 spots into 6th place and reeling Shepherd in ahead. Proudfoot stayed within a car length behind Ratley who was falling off the pace of Northcutt as the first caution came out on lap 17 bringing the drivers back together and undoing Northcutt’s gap ahead. Northcutt again jumped out ahead of the field as racing resumed and Ratley was again battling side by side with Proudfoot for 2nd place.
Hargreaves was up to 4th and got his nose into the battle between Proudfoot and Ratley allowing Proudfoot to clear in 2nd as Ratley found himself fighting Hargreaves for 3rd. Proudfoot was quickly cutting down the gap that Northcutt had over the field closing in on his rear bump with 15 laps remaining. Hargreaves and Ratley were still running side by side over 3rd as the battle for the lead ran away from them and Loomis was battling to the outside of Shepherd for 5th.
Proudfoot was aggressively looking for an opening around Northcutt in the lead going into the final 10 laps of the night. Ratley cleared Hargreaves briefly just for Hargreaves to send his car back beneath him to challenge for 3rd again with Shepherd securely holding 5th place. Proudfoot got to the inside of Northcutt going into the last laps, but momentum was favoring Northcutt coming out of the corners. The two drivers came out of the final corner side by side with Billy Northcutt taking the checkered flag ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot by 0.023 at the line with Johnny Ratley, J R Shepherd, and William Hargreaves rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Lanier National Speedway.
Brandyn Proudfoot now has a commanding lead in the point standings with 616 points as the season championship. Billy Northcutt moves up to 2nd place after tonight’s win with 539 points with William Hargreaves close behind in 3rd with 531 points. J R Shepherd holds onto 4th place with 471 points as Jeffrey Hardin sits in 5th with 451 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series now head to The Dirt Track at Charlotte for race 9 of season 12 on August 19th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S2 R11 Recap
09 August 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 11
Premier Series | Michigan International Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Brian Yaczik with Loud Pedal Motorsports took his 3rd win of the season under caution flag conditions tonight in the “Yaz’s Sandwiches & More 200” at Michigan International Speedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Scott Eckrich and Chance Manning. “I’ve been to plenty of races at [Michigan International Speedway]. I love that facility, love the area”, Yaczik shared with us as the action came to a close, “Every time we get to come down to race here it’s always a little special to me.”
Chance Manning started on the pole tonight alongside James Krahula as the green flag was thrown out over the field. Manning had a good launch off the start, but soon found himself under pressure from Thomas George after the first few laps. Jeff Ward, the points leader going into the evening, had his race ended only 10 laps in with technical issues putting his hard-earned lead at risk late in the season. Manning continued to control the field with George pushing him from behind with the first 20 laps were completed as Scott Eckrich broke into the top 10.
George made a move around the inside of Manning for the lead on lap 25 taking control of the field as Eckrich’s charge to the front continued moving up to 5th and quickly closing on the leaders. Manning got alongside George and the two leaders started trading crossovers back and forth with neither driver wanting to give up the lead. The battling allowed Mike Rasimas to close in on the leading battle pressuring for position forcing Manning to concede for the moment falling back in line behind George.
Only 30 laps into the run, Manning, George, and Rasimas were three wide over the lead with Eckrich up to only 1.5 seconds behind them in 4th. The field started cycling through green flag pit stops throughout the leading battle with Manning and George coming down on lap 35 while Rasimas and Eckrich came down pit road on the following lap. George was the leading driver as the running order finished shuffling from the pit cycle with Manning in 2nd and Eckrich in 5th 2.8 seconds behind the leader.
As the drivers approached the second half of the night, Eckrich was making an aggressive charge back to the leaders overtaking Rasimas and George and closing in on Manning only a few laps after rejoining the track from pit road. A caution at the halfway point gave the field an opportune chance to make another pit stop with Eckrich winning the race off pit road and taking control of the field for the restart going into lap 52. The aggression was high with George and Manning banging doors over 2nd and making several attempts for the lead.
Cautions plagued the next 20 laps while feuds erupted between drivers throughout the field delaying the race further. The green flag came out as racing resumed on lap 73 with Rasimas jumping out in front taking control of the field with George and Manning again battling each other aggressively, this time over 2nd place. Brian Yaczik found himself position between the two while Eckrich cautiously maintained distance, back in 8th place, between himself and the battles ahead.
Going into the final 15 laps, Rasimas was still in lead with Manning close behind looking to the inside. George got to the outside of Manning and the two were again battling amongst themselves allowing Rasmias to pull away out front. Yaczik got between them pushing George to 5th back behind Eckrich as Yaczik and Manning closed back in on Rasimas overtaking the leader and battling each other for the lead with Eckrich running behind Yaczik in 3rd with 10 laps remaining. Eckrich pushed Yaczik into the lead as Manning fell back to 3rd. George, Carroll, and Rasimas went three wide over 4th place with Michael Chrobok getting his nose into the fight.
Manning got alongside Eckrich and started aggressively battling over 2nd place behind Yaczik with 6 laps remaining. Manning cleared ahead of Eckrich and quickly pushed for the lead again diving below Yaczik. Yaczik pulled a crossover taking the lead back with Eckrich pushing him. Eckrich continued to push Yaczik trying to move the lead battle away from Manning as the laps counted down. As they ran into the final 2 laps, the caution flag again came out over the field bringing the action to an end prematurely with Brian Yaczik taking the checkered flag under yellow flag conditions with Scott Eckrich, Chance Manning, Drew Carroll, and Mike Rasimas rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Michigan International Speedway.
Jeff Ward leads in the point standings the 10th straight week in a row with 370 points. Brian Yaczik holds onto 2nd place now 32 points behind the leader. Scott Eckrich moves up two spots into 3rd with 328 points with Drew Carroll and Thomas George rounding out the top 5 in the standings going into the final round next week. Next week, the drivers of the Pretty Good Racing League head down to Virgina for the “We Flex Our Muscles on Track 200 presented by #TeamLaps4MD” at Richmond Raceway on August 16th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S18 R7 Recap
06 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 7
Super Late Model Series | Oxford Plains Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports claimed his 3rd win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Oxford Plains Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and Austin Boelke. “Every race can have its own trouble and a lot can happen during one of these races so just try to do the best you can in each and every one of them”, Shepherd commented as the night came to a close, “It was as an okay night I guess as far as the championship goes for everybody that’s involved in that.”
Joe Segalla had control of the field as the green flag came out over Oxford Plains Speedway. Segalla cleared ahead of Ruben Altice going into the first corner as Altice found himself stranded on the outside with Jason Menda leading a charge to the inside with Austin Boelke close behind. Altice fell back to 4th before dropping into line ahead of Michael Goodman. Menda looked to the inside of Segalla several times for the lead, but Segalla didn’t leave an opening for Menda to get his nose into as the drivers put the first 20 laps behind them.
Justin Morton and J R Shepherd, both drivers tied for the points lead going into the night, were running 6th and 7th respectively waiting patiently for an opportunity to present itself to move forward through the field. Segalla and Menda had started to pull away from Boelke when Boelke got loose and checked up the field behind him. Menda then slid up the track on lap 28 and got shuffled back to 7th alongside James Lowe with Segalla still in control of the field.
Lap 34 saw trouble for Morton after contact with Chris Wolfson broke both drivers loose and sent Morton back to 12th while Shepherd moved up to 5th. Boelke found himself to the outside of Altice who cleared into 2nd behind Segalla. Boelke continued to fall back as he struggled to find a gap to drop into dropping back to 7th. Shepherd was up to 3rd running behind Altice while Segalla started to stretch out his lead lap after lap as the drivers crossed the halfway point of the night.
Morton was aggressively pushing up through the field and was up to 9th behind Chris Davis going into the second half. Shepherd struggled to find a way around Altice who was holding the inside line cautiously to prevent being pushed to the outside. Menda started to climb back up toward the front overtaking Todd Liston for 4th and closing in on Shepherd ahead. Segalla had extended his lead over Altice to over 1 second with 35 laps remaining with Shepherd still unable to get his nose under Altice.
Contact between Adam Schoen and Boelke with 25 laps to go brought out the caution flag resetting the field and taking away the 1.5 second lead Segalla had built up over Altice as well as positioning Shepherd directly behind him for the restart. In a shocking upset, with drivers scrambled to get to the inside as the green flag came back out with 20 laps to go, a chain reaction led to Menda pushing Shepherd into Segalla and sent Segalla spinning into the infield along with Altice. No caution came out and Shepherd had control of the field with Morton back up in 2nd place.
Segalla recovered back on track in 10th behind Wolfson. Shepherd was able to stay out ahead of Morton by several car lengths with Boelke and Lowe running behind in 3rd and 4th. Lowe was pressuring Boelke, but Boelke wasn’t leaving any opportunity for Lowe to take advantage of going into the final few laps. Shepherd pulled away in the lead by over 1 second as the white flag came out and J R Shepherd took the checkered flag tonight at Oxford Plains Speedway with Justin Morton, Austin Boelke, James Lowe, and Donny Moore rounding out the top 5 finishers.
J R Shepherd took the lead in the point standings tonight with 267 points. Justin Morton trails Shepherd by only 1 point with Austin Boelke holding onto 3rd place with 264 points. Donny Moore stays in 4th place with 241 points and Michael Goodman rounds out the top 5 in the points with 228 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head up to Maine on August 13th for round 8 of season 18 at Lanier National Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
Hollywood 500 Recap
05 August 2022
Endurance League Events | Hollywood 500
NASCAR Pro Trucks | Auto Club Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Brian Young with Firelight eSports took the checkered flag tonight in the Endurance League Events Hollywood 500 at Auto Club Speedway ahead of Blake Trawick and James McKee. Young joined us after his victory tonight commenting, “It was just really lucky timing right there and the pit stop on that caution before the GWC was just as good as I could possibly ask for and it just put me in a really good position to try and go for the win.” Young came out of the night with $115 in prize winnings.
Justin Anderson was in control of the field as the green flag came out over the Auto Club Speedway and had a good launch off the start clearing ahead of Brian Young. Anderson was under immediate pressure as Young and Dillon Poteet went three wide with Anderson for the lead only a few laps into the night. Anderson maintained the lead as the drivers put the first 10 laps behind them but had spent most of the race to that point with Poteet looking to get alongside him.
Blake Gordon took advantage of the situation and overtook Anderson for the lead shortly thereafter but wasn’t able to run away with it as Anderson stayed close to Gordon’s rear bumper. The lead was handed back and forth between Gordon and Anderson with Katlyn Heydt closing up on the battle with 20 laps completed with Gordon in the lead. Heydt was running in 3rd place already up 6 spots from the start. Heydt and Gordon came together sending both drivers around resulting in severe damage to Heydt’s Toyota and giving the lead back to Anderson going into lap 30.
Much of the field started to single file out while the drivers settled in, biding their time while the laps counted down. Poteet closed back in on the leader and was pushing Anderson trying to separate from the rest of the field as the two drivers started to pull away from Cody Smith in 3rd. As they passed the 50 laps mark, Anderson and Poteet had built almost a 1 second gap over the rest of the field with Brian Young running in 3rd ahead of Jacob Fyfe and Todd Thomas. The 33 cars on track were still showing a lot of patience and made only fairly calculated moves throughout the field.
The field closed back in on the leaders and Poteet was overtaken by Young who set his sights to Anderson as he actively looked for a way around for the lead. Fyfe continued his forward progression battling over 3rd place side by side with Poteet for several laps. The battle allowed Anderson and Young to again break away from the pack before Fyfe cleared into the position. During lap 65 Poteet pulled down pit road ahead of the rest of the field under green flag conditions setting up to overtake the leaders through pit strategy.
Unfortunately for Poteet, the caution flag came out only two laps later ruining his plan completely as the rest of the drivers came down pit road safely under the caution leaving Poteet one lap behind the leaders. Anderson held the lead off the restart ahead of Young going into lap 74 after a brief side by side battle that Young conceded from. The field again quickly single filed out as drivers were actively pacing themselves with almost 200 laps left in the night. Dannis Faircloth was up an impressive 28 spots from where he started the race and was running in 6th.
Young continued to pressure Anderson for the lead with 90 laps completed but had yet to make an attempt for the lead seemingly bidding his time. Fyfe was leading the secondary pack behind the leaders and had closed the gap up to Young bring Joe Yakes and Smith with him as the top 5 drivers had over a 1 second lead ahead of Shaun Pechin in 6th. Anderson continued to control the field as they crossed the 100-lap mark with the top 5 running single file behind him with Smith taking up the rear of the lead pack.
Coming out of lap 106, Anderson was the first to run down pit road under the green flag but lost a few seconds when he slid through his pit box and had to reposition before the crew was allowed to provide service to his Chevrolet. As the rest of the field went through their pit cycles, Anderson regained the lead on lap 114 with over a 3 second gap ahead of Young. Young was consistently reeling the leader back in however with his fresher tires closing by several tenths of a second each lap.
As the field approached the halfway point, Young had completely closed the gap to Anderson and overtook for the lead and quickly started to pull away. The early pit stop seemed to be a mistake as Anderson fell back further as more drivers caught him sending him back to 6th showing the falloff of his tires with only a handful a laps more on them than the drivers who pitted later with Young. 26 of the 41-car field were still on track with Kevin McGarvey in 23rd being the last truck on the lead lap.
Yakes caught Young and was able to take the lead away with Chad Mikosz following him up into 2nd while Young found himself under pressure from Fyfe as he tried to hold onto 3rd. Michael Strohl found his way into the battle for the lead getting alongside Smith and the two drivers battled side by side for several laps before Strohl was able to use the momentum from the outside line to move up to the outside of Yakes and challenge for the lead. Young and Smith ran alongside each other directly behind them battling over 3rd.
On lap 144, Strohl cleared ahead for the lead with Young pulling around to the outside of Yakes filling the hole that Strohl left behind and pushing Yakes back to 3rd ahead of Smith. Strohl maintained control of the field followed closely by the top 6 with Blake Trawick running in the rear of that pack with 100 laps remaining in the night. Young and Yakes battled back and forth over 2nd place with Young to the inside with Smith pushing from behind. That battle didn’t take any pressure off Strohl as he wasn’t able to pull away before Young cleared into 2nd the pack stayed with the leader.
Smith took back 2nd place from Young and made a move for the lead but couldn’t complete the pass falling back behind Strohl. Trawick started moving forward up into 4th and closed up on Smith’s rear bumper. Much of the field had closed back up into one long single file line as drivers were looking at saving their equipment with the green flag run stretching out with only a handful of quick battles throughout. Strohl started aggressively weaving his truck down the straights trying to break the draft with Young behind him to make any attempt for the lead more difficult.
With 80 laps remaining, Strohl started to break away with Young and Trawick in tow. Fyfe was running in 4th and led the secondary pack almost a second behind the lead pack. The lead pack came down pit road coming out of lap 176 under green flag conditions with Trawick beating Strohl down the pit exit and taking control of the field for the first time tonight. Young fell back to 5th behind Fyfe while Trawick and Strohl had a strong 3 second lead over James McKee in 3rd.
Going into the last 50 laps of the night, Trawick and Strohl extended the gap ahead of the field to almost 4 seconds working together to get as far ahead as possible with the laps counting down. Aggression throughout the field was picking up with every position becoming more important with the end of the night closely approaching. Trawick started to pull away from Strohl with a gap between them growing to over 2 seconds as Strohl fell off the leading pace.
Trawick came down pit road on lap 214 giving control of the field back to Strohl who stayed out on track. The rest of the field came down pit road over the next several laps while Strohl stayed out, possibly hoping for a caution, until lap 217. Young and Trawick were running in 2nd and 3rd respectively when Strohl pulled off track and quickly took the lead away. Strohl rejoined the track in 9th behind McKee and Trawick took control of the field with 30 laps remaining.
A late race caution in the final moments restacked the field for a GWC finish with Young in control of the field ahead of Trawick in 2nd and Strohl back up to 3rd. Trawick looked to the inside of Young but couldn’t complete the move while McKee moved up into 3rd. Trawick took another look coming out of the final corner but Brian Young maintained the lead taking the checkered flag after a long, hard fought battle with Blake Trawick, James McKee, Michael Chrobok, and David Grantham rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Auto Club Speedway.
BRL DSS S12 R7 Recap
05 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | Round 7
Dirt Street Stock Series | Kokomo Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Brandyn Proudfoot with Jim Beaver eSports claimed his 5th win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Kokomo Speedway ahead of Zachary Loomis and J R Shepherd. “It’s definitely a momentum boost and a little bit of a confidence boost too.”, Proudfoot commented after dominating the track tonight, “The multi-lane track condition made it interesting. At the beginning of the race, I honestly wasn’t sure if I made the right choice, but I just tried to stick it out and see what happened and luck was in my favor tonight
Brandyn Proudfoot put down the fastest lap at the top of the evening with a 14.838 during qualifying and beat out J R Shepherd for the first heat race win securing the pole position for the feature event. Zachary Loomis took the second heat and started alongside Proudfoot on the front row. William Hargreaves won the third and final heat of the night and started 3rd in the feature. Proudfoot led the field around turn four and had a strong launch out ahead of the field as the green flag came out over Kokomo Speedway.
Proudfoot ran a very high line around the track while Loomis was committing to the inside trying to match Proudfoot’s pace. Shepherd and Billy Northcutt battled side by side over 3rd place with Hargreaves waiting behind for an opening to take advantage of. Proudfoot maintained control of the field ahead of Loomis as the drivers put the first 10 laps behind them as Northcutt started to fall back to 6th behind Jason Menda. Shepherd started look to the outside of Loomis looking to take away 2nd place with Menda following him along the wall.
Hargreaves found himself stranded to the inside and struggled to get ahead of Shepherd, but Loomis moved up to the high side and closing any gap Hargreaves could’ve moved up into. Menda tried to get his nose beneath Shepherd and, with Hargreaves still running low, he caused a three wide battle over 3rd before Menda was forced to fall back and Hargreaves cleared ahead of him on the high side for 4th. Proudfoot had stretched his lead out to over 1.5 seconds ahead of Loomis and was catching the first signs of lap traffic with 15 laps remaining.
Loomis continued to push down low, but Shepherd stayed within a few car lengths keeping the pressure up from the high side with Hargreaves and Menda running very close behind. Going into the final 5 laps, Proudfoot had extended his lead out to 2.5 seconds as he cautiously negotiated through the rear of the field. Proudfoot maintained his pace all the way to the checkered flag with Zachary Loomis, J R Shepherd, William Hargreaves and Jason Menda rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Kokomo Speedway.
Brandyn Proudfoot is running away with the lead in the point standings with 539 points as the season championship begins to look like a shutout. William Hargreaves holds onto 2nd place with 469 points with Billy Northcutt close behind in 3rd with 455 points. J R Shepherd moved up into 4th place with 405 points as Jeffrey Hardin slid back to 5th with 400 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series now set their sights toward Lanier National Speedway for race 8 of season 12 on August 12th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S2 R10 Recap
02 August 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 10
Premier Series | Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Drew Carroll with Loud Pedal Motorsports took the checkered flag by 0.003 in a drag race to the line tonight in the We Got a Partial Track Update; It Only Took 84 Years 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Scott Eckrich and Jeff Ward. “I was driving the race of my life right there”, Carroll commented as the night came to a close, “I feel like we’ve been running really, really solid, and we just haven’t had the finishes to show for it… We just had some luck tonight”
Adam Jurski was in control of the 23-car field as the green flag came out with James Krahula alongside him on the front row. Jurski launched far out in front of the rest of the pack going to the first turn while several drivers were caught up in an incident off the start that Scott Eckrich was able to avoid altogether bypassing half of the field and moving up to 11th place. Jeff Ward also survived the green flag collisions and was inside of the top 10 as the field started to single file out around the course.
5 laps into the night, Jurski maintained the lead and had stretch out over 3 seconds ahead of Drew Carroll as Eckrich had maneuvered up to 6th and was closing in on Brian Yaczik ahead of him. Ward overshot a corner on a previous lap and was running in 8th behind Mike Rasimas. Carroll was closing the distance to Jurski after putting down the fastest laps on track for 2 laps in a row and was within 1 second of the leader with 8 laps completed. As the first quarter of the race was behind them, a lot of the expected names were making their way into the top 10.
Carroll had closed up on Jurski’s bumper and was aggressively looking for an opportunity to take the lead away but struggled to find the drive off speed coming out of the corners to beat Jurski into the next corner. Eckrich had made up 2 seconds on the leaders from 5th place as the lead battle continued and Jurski had reached the first signs of lap traffic on lap 13. Jurski was forced to checkup for a lap car and that gave Carroll the opportunity to get alongside the leader and Carroll was able to clear ahead of Jurski going into turn one.
Carroll started pulling away from Jurski while Eckrich was up to 4th place and continued to close the gap. Ward was up into 7th place behind Rasimas and Yaczik. In the second half of the night, with 21 laps remaining, Eckrich was the first driver to go down pit road after climbing up to 2nd place and within 3 seconds of the leader. Eckrich rejoined in 11th, but several drivers opted to run their pit cycles on the following lap to include the leader, Carroll. As Carroll rejoined the track in 7th, Eckrich was only a few car lengths behind him.
As the last of the drivers completed their pit stops, Carroll had regained control of the field with Eckrich running close on his rear bumper with 18 laps to go. As the laps counted down, Eckrich made many failed pass attempts for the lead but wasn’t able to complete the move around Carroll going into the final 10 laps. As the white flag came out, Eckrich started pushing much more aggressively for the lead but wasn’t able to make the pass and Drew Carroll crossed the line 0.003 ahead of Scott Eckrich in a drag race to the checkered flag with Jeff Ward, Brian Yaczik and Adam Jurski rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Jeff Ward leads in the point standings the 9th week in a row with 370 points. Brian Yaczik holds onto 2nd place now 50 points behind the leader. Drew Carroll moves up three spots into 3rd with 316 points after tonight’s win, only 4 points behind Yaczik. Thomas George fell back to 4th place with 300 points and Shane Parish holds onto 5th with 299 points. Next week, the drivers of the Pretty Good Racing League head up to Michigan for the “Yaz’s Sandwiches & More 200” at Michigan International Speedway on August 9th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
Virtual Grip Network 