BRL DSS S12 R3 Recap
08 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | Round 3
Dirt Street Stock Series | Volusia Speedway Park
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
William Hargreaves with the Dirt Panda race team took his first checkered flag of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Volusia Speedway Park ahead of Stephen Spies and Brandyn Proudfoot. “I like short track racing. I think it should be a great race.”, Hargreaves commented about the next round of the season at I-55 Speedway, “If it’s anything like the racing here tonight it should really be good.”
William Hargreaves took the pole with a quick lap at 19.780 to start off the third round of the season and lined up alongside Stephen Spies to take the green flag for the first heat race of the night. Hargreaves cleared ahead of Spies while Spies had to battle with Brandyn Proudfoot for 2nd place. Proudfoot to the inside of Spies dropped back into 3rd to defend against Kevin Davis quickly coming up from behind. Spies started to look to the inside of Hargreaves but couldn’t match the pace giving Proudfoot a chance to take the high line away and pushing Spies back into 3rd just as Hargreaves crossed the line to take the checkered flag.
The second heat was led out by Billy Northcutt with Chris Hill to the inside. Northcutt and Chris Hill ran side by side for 4 laps until Chris Hill was able to pull ahead into the lead as Jeffrey Hardin dove below Northcutt. Northcutt closed back up on Chris Hill and dove down beneath him going into the final corner and they crossed the line with Hill barely holding Northcutt off by 0.066 in the end. Bobby Hayes and Hunter Hill shared the front row for the third and final heat of the night. Hayes had a great jump off the start and quickly pulled ahead of the field while J R Shepherd and Hunter Hill battled over 2nd place. Hayes was able to use the battle to extend well out of reach and took the checkered flag with Shepherd holding 2nd place.
Spies led the C Main consolation as the green flag again came out over the field and cleared ahead of H. Hill going into the first corner. John Wilson dove low to challenge for 2nd pushing Hill back to 3rd for a moment before Hill pulled a crossover and went below Wilson. Wilson was able to hold Hill off while also closing the gap to Spies but couldn’t reach the leader before the checkered flag came out and the drivers moved to the B Main consolation event. Hardin took the green flag and jumped out ahead of Kevin Davis. Davis struggled on the start and fell back as Joe Segalla and Brian Lawson cleared into 2nd and 3rd. The top 3 separated themselves from the rest of the pack as Hardin out pacing the field all the way to the checkered flag.
Hargreaves started the main feature event off in the lead to the inside of Chris Hill as the green flag came out to start the final event of the night. Hargreaves quickly cleared ahead of Hill as Proudfoot and Hayes fought over 3rd. Proudfoot struggled to find his way and fell back into the field. Northcutt took advantage of the chaos jumping up into 3rd and diving beneath Hill. Northcutt got a little loose and had to lift giving the position back to Hill before regrouping and trying for 2nd place once again with 10 laps completed.
Again, Northcutt had to fall back behind Hill but found Hayes waiting and found himself fighting to not fall back further into the field. Hargreaves and Hill battled side by side until Hayes lost control coming out of the corner and made hard contact with the outside wall ending his night early as Northcutt moved up to 2nd and pressuring for the lead. Proudfoot climbed his way back up to 3rd and was looking to the inside of Northcutt with Spies running very close behind in 4th. Hargreaves was able to build up a gap ahead of the rest of the field as the battle for 2nd continued and held up several drivers behind them.
With 10 laps remaining, Hargreaves had extended his lead to almost a whole second over Northcutt and Proudfoot, still running side by side. Spies was starting to look impatient forcing a three wide situation several times as the laps counted down. Northcutt was pushed back to 4th as Spies dove low under Proudfoot and cleared ahead into 2nd. Northcutt saw the chance and dove low beneath Proudfoot but didn’t have enough race left as Hargreaves took the checkered flag 1.7 seconds ahead of Stephen Spies with Proudfoot, Northcutt, and Shepherd rounding out the top 5 for the night.
Brandyn Proudfoot still has a solid lead in the point standings with 235 points overall after winning the first two round of the season. J R Shepherd holds onto 2nd place with 198 points with Billy Northcutt only 9 points behind up to 3rd place. Jeffrey Hardin fell back to 4th place with 178 points and Bobby Hayes rounds out the top 5 drivers with 174 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series now prepare for another round at I-55 Speedway on July 15th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S2 R6 Recap
05 July 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 6
Premier Series | Road America
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Brian Yaczik with Loud Pedal Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight in the Grand Brie of Road ‘Merica benefiting Dog McStacks presented by Scott MacKenzie of Clipping That Apex with the Pretty Good Racing League at Road America ahead of Scott Eckrich and Jeff Ward. “We were just doing what we had to do to keep this #55 machine pointed forward and, in the lead,”, Yaczik commented after taking the win, “We learned some stuff the hard way [at Sonoma Raceway] and were able to apply that to Road America tonight.”
Mike Rasimas led the field to the green flag as the racing action began and the 26-car field streaked across the line. Rasimas had a great jump out ahead of the rest of the drivers with Mark Hertzog and Isaiah Dupre running in 2nd and 3rd place. Rasimas extended the gap between himself and Hertzog to over 1 second as drivers were still getting heat into their tires around the first lap as Brian Yaczik was already up into 5th place from 8th and closing on Drew Carroll ahead. Jeff Ward and Scott Eckrich were making a quick dash through the field as Ward moved up 6 places into the top 10 and Eckrich up 12 places to 14th going into the second lap.
Eckrich came down pit road very early on the 5th lap for fuel while Carroll closed in on the leader and cleared ahead of Rasimas and quickly put some distance between them. Ward was up to 5th and running around 4 seconds behind Yaczik. Eckrich rejoined the track in 14th with a large gap between himself and Thomas George ahead of him. Yaczik caught the rear bumper of Dupre and was able to overtake him for 3rd place and was quickly closing in on Rasimas. Yaczik came down pit road with 23 laps to go for fuel and dropped back to 11th place and Carroll continued to control the field as drivers were settling in the put some laps behind them as they became spread out around the course.
Eckrich was back up to 9th and was closing the 26 second gap to the leader quickly as Ward was up into 3rd as the running order was shuffled with many drivers opting to make a fuel stop with 21 laps remaining. Going into the late stages of the race, Eckrich had made his final stop with 18 laps to go and came back onto the track in 11th with fresh tires. Rasimas ran his fuel out as far as it would go before pitting and giving the lead to Yaczik. Fresh tires were causing problems around the track with several drivers overshooting corners and making hard contact into the wall ending their races early as 17 drivers were still running on track going into the final 15 laps.
Yaczik maintained the lead with Ward and Eckrich charging back through the field. Ward was up to 4th behind Carroll while Eckrich was up to 6th and running some of the fastest laps of any driver to that point in the race. Yaczik took his final pit stop with 11 laps to go and came back out on track in 5th with Shane Parish running close behind him. Rasimas took the lead with Ward 1 second behind him and Eckrich up to 4th. Ward made his final fuel stop with 8 laps remaining allowing Yaczik to jump back up to 3rd behind Eckrich. Rasimas went down pit road on the next lap giving the lead to Eckrich who still would need one more fuel stop before the end.
In the final 5 laps, Eckrich had to pit for a splash of fuel and fell back to 2nd place over 8 seconds behind Yaczik. Rasimas was running in 3rd with Ward pressuring from behind. 14 drivers were still on track with Cody Erdmann being the last driver on the lead lap in 9th place. A slight mistake from Rasimas gave Ward the opening he needed to take the last podium position away while Eckrich was putting down the fastest laps of the race chipping away at the gap to Yaczik in the lead. With 3 laps left in the race, Yaczik still had a 6 second lead over Eckrich. Going into the final stretch, Yaczik’s consistency was enough to maintain the lead as he took the checkered flag 1 second ahead of Eckrich with Ward, Rasimas, and Carroll rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Road America.
Jeff Ward leads in the point standings for the fifth straight week with 242 points overall. Brian Yaczik moved up into 2nd place after tonight’s win now 25 points behind the leader. Shane Parish and Thomas George are tied for 3rd place with 199 points each and Scott Eckrich moved into 5th place with 189 points. Next week, the drivers of the Pretty Good Racing League head down to Georgia for the Chuckles I’m in Danger 200 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on July 12th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S2 R5 Recap
28 June 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 5
Premier Series | Nashville Superspeedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Tommy Rhyne with Unacceptable Racing claimed his first victory of the season tonight in the BeefJurski’s Cheesecake Emporium & Banana Breadery 200 with the Pretty Good Racing League at Nashville Superspeedway ahead of Jeff Ward and Scott Eckrich. “I just gave it everything I had from there and in the end probably as soon as I got around [Eckrich] I was full on”, Rhyne commented on running the last stretch of the race after pulling off a risky pit strategy by stretching his fuel as far as it would go, “I don’t know if we were going to win otherwise so we took the gamble and hey, here we are!”
Cody Erdmann led the 30-car field to the green flag alongside Michael Chrobok on the front row. Chrobok stayed to the outside of Erdmann off the start for a lap before conceding to drop back single file ahead of Woody Mahan in 3rd. Brian Yaczik moved up into the top 10 early on with Jeff Ward up to 13th and Thomas George running in 16th. Mike Rasimas and Joe Hassert were battling hard over 12th place going into the 10th lap while the field started to spread out with drivers settling in to put some laps behind them.
Erdmann, Chrobok, and Mahan continued to run single file in the front and had built a gap of around 2 seconds between them and Danny Gutierrez in 4th place. Ward had jumped several positions running in 6th making a strong charge to the front as Rasimas climbed into the top 10. Scott Eckrich was up to 18th from his 30th place starting position and was consistently moving up through the field. Ward overtook for 4th place going into lap 18 and went to work reeling the leaders in.
Chrobok had control of the lead ahead of Mahan with Erdmann dropping back to 3rd with 20 laps completed. Chrobok started to stretch out his lead pulling away from Mahan while Ward was closing up on Erdmann’s rear bumper and moving up into 3rd on lap 27. Eckrich using the outside line to complete passes through the field trying to get into the top 10 while Ward caught and overtook Mahan for 2nd place now up 17 positions from where he started the night. Chrobok had over a 1 second lead ahead of Ward over 30 laps into the night.
Lap 34 saw Eckrich getting into 10th place and diving beneath Adam Jurski to quickly move up to 9th behind George and Yaczik. Lap 38 saw a lead change as Ward forced Chrobok to the outside and quickly put distance between them. George and Gutierrez were battling side by side for 6th place with Eckrich closing in quickly as Drew Carroll came down the track to take his first pit stop of the night. George was forced to check up and almost drove up into Gutierrez in an attempt to avoid Carroll. This caused a chain reaction sending Eckrich hard into the outside wall as the drivers coming up from behind scattered to avoid and sending Yaczik sliding into the infield bringing out the caution flag.
As racing resumed on lap 46, Ward still controlled the field and Eckrich had fallen back to 20th place. Yaczik was working his way back up through the field running in 23rd after the incident. George was up to 4th and running close behind Chrobok and Mahan who were battling for 2nd place 1.5 seconds behind the leader. Eckrich had gotten back into the top 10 running behind Rasimas and Ward had stretched his lead ahead of Chrobok to over 2.5 seconds as the drivers approached the halfway point of the race.
Shane Parish was making a strong charge through the field and was able to close the gap to George on lap 78 and cleared for 2nd place running strong pace and gradually closing the 3.5 second gap to Ward. Coming up to lap 90, the drivers began sporadically pulling off track to begin their pit cycles shuffling the running order. Eckrich stayed out until lap 95 trying to stretch out his next stint as fall as he could in an attempt to reach the checkered flag without another stop.
With 50 laps remaining, Ward had reclaimed the lead ahead of Chrobok and Parish. Eckrich was back up to 8th place with Mark Hertzog rounding out the top 10. Ward had over a 6 second lead over Chrobok as the pit cycle spread the field out around the track and the top 19 drivers were still running on the lead lap. Eckrich was up to 4th and advancing quickly out pacing Ward lap for lap going into the last 40 laps. Parish moved up into 2nd place as Eckrich reached the rear of Chrobok and started pressuring for 3rd.
Ward, Parish, and Chrobok chose to make another fuel stop on lap 117 putting Eckrich in the lead of the race for the first time of the night. Ward rejoined the track in 15th with a 28 second gap between himself and the leader. Chrobok was in 17th and 1 lap off the leader with Parish falling back 2 laps after a pit road violation. Ward was running a strong pace and closing on the leader at a rate of 1.5 seconds per lap putting him near Eckrich before the end if he could maintain as they went into the final 25 laps.
Tommy Rhyne, who was running in 2nd place, was closing on the leader which was making it more difficult for Eckrich to try to save fuel in the final stretch. With 15 laps to go, Ward was still closing on the leader already up to 7th place with a strong pace. Thomas George was still battling in the front clearing Ricky Hardin for 4th place and gaining on Mahan in 3rd. Ward was close behind as he also overtook Hardin and George jumping up to 4th and 4.5 seconds behind Eckrich and still closing.
With 10 laps remaining, Rhyne overtook Eckrich for the lead as Ward moved up into 3rd with 3 seconds to make up. Ward got within 1 second of Eckrich going into the last 5 laps as Rhyne ran away with the lead. Ward was pressuring Eckrich as the white flag came out. Rhyne crossed the line 2.6 seconds ahead of Ward and Eckrich and took the checkered flag while coming out of the final corner Eckrich ran out of fuel allowing Ward to taking 2nd place in the final moments. Eckrich was able to cross the line in 3rd with Mahan and Hardin rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Nashville Superspeedway.
Jeff Ward continues to lead in the points standings with 204 points overall. Danny Gutierrez moved up to 2nd place with 172 points, now 1 point ahead of Brian Yaczik. Shane Parish maintains his 4th place with 167 points and Thomas George moved up into 5th place with 165 points. The drivers of the Pretty Good Racing League now head over to Wisconsin for the Grand Brie of Road ‘Merica presented by PGRL’s Big Cheese on July 5th with all of the racing action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S18 R2 Recap
25 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 2
Super Late Model Series | Hickory Motor Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Austin Boelke with Different Path Motorsports took his first checkered flag of the season under yellow flag conditions tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Hickory Motor Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and Bryan Dehn. “To do it here, I’ve come so close to so many wins here… this is a rough track for me so to finally get the monkey off my back for this series and this track is pretty astounding”, an ecstatic Boelke exclaimed after taking his win, “I was just running the race I felt like I could and if I could get close to somebody, it’s just take advantage when you can.”
Joe Segalla led the field to the green flag to start off the night’s excitement with Kurt Smith alongside him to the outside. Segalla had a good jump off the start and quickly cleared ahead of Smith while the 19-car field struggled to get sorted out. Bryan Dehn moved up ahead of Smith and trailed close behind Segalla pressuring for the lead as Segalla held the inside line careful to keep the door closed with 10 laps completed. Austin Boelke was up to 4th ahead of Justin Morton and dove low beneath Smith to challenge for 3rd.
Dehn took the inside away from Segalla as Morton followed Boelke around Smith into 3rd and 4th place respectively. J R Shepherd was in 5th 20 laps into the night and had Mathew Thunhorst on his rear bumper as the two drivers cautiously negotiated through traffic making their way to the front of the field. Boelke started to pressure Segalla for 2nd place with Morton, Shepherd, and Thunhorst following single file while Dehn was able to put some distance between himself and Segalla.
By lap 30, the drivers settled in to put some laps behind them running single file around the track patiently waiting for opportunities to present themselves rather than forcing situations. Segalla was slowly reeling Dehn back in as the drivers approached the halfway point of the night. Going into lap 46, Boelke saw an opening beneath Segalla and dove low to keep the door open. Segalla was forced up the track as he got shuffled back to 6th with Morton, Shepherd, and Thunhorst following Boelke around. Boelke quickly closed the gap to Dehn and aggressively started pressuring for the lead.
The top five pulled away from the rest of the field as Boelke took the inside line away from Dehn on lap 56 and cleared for the lead. Dehn was pushed back to 5th behind Thunhorst who still couldn’t find the momentum to get to the inside of Shepherd as patience was wearing thin throughout the field. Morton was staying very close on Boelke’s rear bumper and keeping his car in a position to take advantage of any mistake Boelke might make as the drivers entered the final 30 laps and started reaching the rear of the field complicating matters for the leaders.
With only 22 laps remaining, the caution came out in an incredible upset as Shepherd and Thunhorst made contact on the entry of turn one sending Shepherd hard into the outside wall and Thunhorst off into the grass inside of the track. Thunhorst recovered in 9th place, but Shepherd was sent to the rear of the field in 16th place with severe damage to the front of his car. Boelke cleared for the lead off the restart ahead of Morton and Thunhorst aggressively started climbing back through the field. Thunhorst struggled to find a way around Jason Menda for 5th place as Shepherd worked back up to 11th behind Ryan Senneker.
With 6 laps remaining, another caution came out when Menda tried to close the door on Thunhorst a second too late and the two drivers came together in turn three sending Menda around on track. Boelke was running in the lead as the flag was thrown and crossed the line for the win under yellow flag conditions with Morton, Dehn, Donny Moore, and Thunhorst rounding out the top 5 drivers tonight around the always challenging Hickory Motor Speedway.
Austin Boelke is now tied with Justin Morton for the lead in the point standings with 77 points each going into the holiday weekend. Mathew Thunhorst fell back to 3rd place with 76 points after the incident tonight. Bryan Dehn jumped up to 4th place with 73 points and J R Shepherd fell back to 5th with 70 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head up to Indiana to Lucas Oil Raceway on July 9th for the 3rd round of the season with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S12 R2 Recap
24 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | Round 2
Dirt Street Stock Series | Weedsport Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Brandyn Proudfoot with Jim Beaver eSports took the checkered flag tonight after struggling earlier in the evening with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Weedsport Speedway ahead of Jeffrey Hardin and Hunter Hill. “I went to turn into the corner and I turned too far and effectively I just started power sliding going into the corner and it got to the point to where I just had to start running the top because I wasn’t sure if I was going to hit the wall or not because I couldn’t feel a thing”, Proudfoot explained on his earlier mistakes that lost him the lead early in the race.
Brandyn Proudfoot started the evening off by jumping to the top of the timing and scoring boards taking the pole with a fast time at 17.672 in the final moments of qualifying and leading the first heat race to the green flag alongside Chris Davis. The field quickly went single file behind Proudfoot who led every lap to take the win ahead of Davis. The second heat of the night was led out by Neville Ulph with J R Shepherd to his outside. Ulph cleared for the lead after a shaky start as Shepherd and Northcutt battled over 2nd place. Ulph took the checkered flag while Shepherd was able to clear for 2nd place in the end.
Jeffrey Hardin and John Wilson started on the front row for the C Main consolation race as the green flag came out. Wilson tried to stay alongside Hardin off the launch but couldn’t maintain the pace and fell back as Joe Segalla took advantage going below Wilson to take away 2nd place. Segalla struggled to close to the gap to Hardin while Wilson started to pressure Segalla for 2nd place going into the final lap and Hardin extended the lead out to over 1 second to take the win.
Billy Northcutt and Kenny Kibbey sat on the front row for the B Main consolation. Northcutt had a great launch as the green flag was thrown out over the field. Jason Menda got beneath Kibbey on the start and battled for 2nd as Northcutt pulled away from the field. Menda and Kibbey continued to battle back and forth as Hunter Hill closed up on the battle waiting to take advantage. Menda made contact with the inside wall and fell back to 4th as he recovered giving 2nd place to Kibbey as Northcutt took the checkered flag.
Proudfoot led the field to the green flag for the feature event with Ulph to his outside. Proudfoot had a great jump on the start and quickly pulled away from the rest of the field. Davis stayed with him as they extended the gap between them as Proudfoot misjudged the cushion high in turn 3 allowing Davis to get beneath him and take away the lead. Davis jumped out to over a 1 second lead on Northcutt, who also was able to overtake Proudfoot, as the drivers completed the first 10 laps.
Davis, Northcutt, and Proudfoot chased each other around the track going into the 2nd half of the race as Davis and Northcutt came together in turn three bringing out the caution and giving the lead back to Proudfoot going forward with Hardin to his outside. Davis struggled to climb back up through the field from his 7th place starting position on the restart. Hardin and Hunter Hill stayed tight on Proudfoot who was running more conservatively after his earlier mistakes. Davis had gotten back into 5th after clearing around Shepherd and Menda.
With 10 laps remaining, Hardin got to the inside of Proudfoot and tried to take the lead away but couldn’t find the speed out of the corners to finish the move. Davis found an opening beneath Kibbey, and the two drivers ran side by side around the final laps battling for 4th place. Proudfoot started to build up a gap between himself and Hardin as the white flag came out. Proudfoot maintained around the final lap to take the win with Hardin, Hill, Davis, and Kibbey rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Weedsport Speedway.
Brandyn Proudfoot extends his lead in the point standings with his second consecutive win this season with 164 points. J R Shepherd jumped up from 5th to 2nd place with 133 points. Jeffrey Hardin moved up into 3rd place with 120 points. Hunter Hill sits in 4th place with 117 points and Billy Northcutt rounds out the top 5 drivers so far this season with 116 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now prepare for another round at Volusia Speedway Park on July 8th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S18 R1 Recap
18 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 1
Super Late Model Series | Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Mathew Thunhorst took the first win of the new season in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway ahead of J R Shepherd and Justin Morton. “That was really good hard racing”, Thunhorst commented at the end of the night about the intense battle against Shepherd, “I was struggling to get around [Shepherd]. You know, just trying to get enough of a run to do anything with him. That’s why I was trying different things and then I’d get the tires heated up a little bit and I backed off a little bit and they’d come back to me.”
Joe Segalla started on the pole with Joseph Snyder to his outside as the green flag came out over the field officially starting the 18th season of the Super Late Model Series. Austin Boelke, J R Shepherd, and Mathew Thunhorst started in 5th through 7th place in the running order. After a chaotic start, Shepherd jumped up to 2nd place and challenged Segalla for the lead. Segalla conceded the position and went single file holding onto 2nd place as Shepherd started to pull away.
Justin Morton, who started back in 16th, was up into the top 10 and continued a hard charge to the front 15 laps into the night. Thunhorst got around the outside of Boelke and moved up to 5th while Segalla and Kurt Smith battled over 2nd place. Thunhorst pushed to close the gap to Shepherd and quickly maneuvered around Smith and Segalla for 2nd place and went to work reeling the leader in. Shepherd and Thunhorst were separated by 0.7 with 30 laps competed as the two drivers pulled away from the rest of the field.
Morton was up to 5th and closing on the battled still going on between Segalla and Smith over 3rd place. Morton was able to overtake Smith and closed on Segalla quickly before taking 3rd place on the following lap with over 3 seconds to make up to the leaders. Thunhorst closed the gap to Shepherd to only 0.2 going into lap 40 as Shepherd ran a defensive line to hold off Thunhorst’s advance. Boelke moved up to 5th and was pressuring Smith while James Lowe challenged Segalla for 6th.
Michael Goodman was back into the top 10 after falling back in the earlier stages of the race and was closing in on Ryan Senneker and Bryan Dehn ahead of him. As the drivers crossed the halfway point, Thunhorst had yet to find a way around Shepherd for the lead with Morton still over 3 seconds behind them. Boelke was still running in 5th very close behind Smith waiting for an opening to take advantage of with Lowe and Dehn closing up behind him as the field became spread out around the track with multiple small packs forming and drivers finally settling in.
On lap 67, Thunhorst was able to get his nose to the inside of Shepherd and tried to take away the lead. Shepherd stayed alongside him fighting back as the two drivers ran almost identical paces door to door for several laps. Morton used the opportunity to close in on the battle only around 1 second behind and closing quickly. With 25 laps remaining, Thunhorst was able to clear ahead of Shepherd after battling side by side for 8 intense laps. Morton made up even more time and was running close behind Shepherd going into the final stretch.
Thunhorst was able to pull away with the lead quickly building a large gap between himself and Shepherd. Morton was pressuring Shepherd for 2nd place as Shepherd struggled showing definite signs of excessive tire wear after running the battle with Thunhorst. Shepherd ran a tight, defensive line to hold back Morton with the gap to the leader extended out to 2 seconds going into the final 10 laps. Segalla was holding onto 8th place for the pole position in the next round holding off Senneker and Donny Moore behind him rounding out the top 10.
Thunhorst was quickly approaching lap traffic for the first time of the night with 3 laps to go and opted to give up some pace rather than risk negotiating through the traffic so late in the race with over a 2 second lead over Shepherd. Thunhorst took the checkered flag following the lap traffic across the line. Shepherd held onto 2nd place over Morton with Boelke and Lowe rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway for the first round of Season 18 of the Super Late Model Series.
Mathew Thunhorst starts the new season off leading the point standings with 40 points. J R Shepherd has 2nd place over Justin Morton, Austin Boelke, and James Lowe with each driver separated by only 1 point respectively. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now set their sights to Hickory Motor Speedway for the next round on June 25th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S12 R1 Recap
17 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | Round 1
Dirt Street Stock Series | Eldora Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Brandyn Proudfoot took the first win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Eldora Speedway ahead of Johnny Ratley and William Hargreaves. “Towards the end [Ratley and Hargreaves] definitely had my number, but I held on there just enough”, Proudfoot commented as the night came to a close, “[The] grip was just starting to go away towards the end, like I said. Used everything up probably in the first I’d say 25 [or] 30. The last 10 it was all [Ratley and Hargreaves] reeling me in. The only reason they didn’t pass me is they were battling each other I do believe.”
William Hargreaves took the pole to start off the season opener event as he put down a fast lap clocked at 19.587 beating Johnny Ratley’s time by 0.001. Hargreaves shared the front row in the first heat race with his teammate Billy Northcutt and had Brandyn Proudfoot directly behind him in 3rd. Hargreaves jumped out ahead of the pack as the green flag came out. Northcutt held onto 2nd running the inside line with Proudfoot running along the outside wall behind Hargreaves. The three drivers stayed stacked tightly together until the final corner where Proudfoot dove low beneath both Hargreaves and Northcutt to jump out ahead and take the win in the final moments with Northcutt coming in 2nd place.
Ratley opted to start the second heat from the outside alongside J R Shepherd as the green flag came out over the field. Ratley cleared for the lead and ran a defensive line trying to prevent Shepherd from being able to throw a slider against him. Ratley held the lead and took the checkered flag, and the drivers came back out on track for the C Main consolation event lead out by William Hargreaves. Hargreaves cleared ahead of Hunter Hill quickly off the start, but Hill stayed close to his bumper running along the outside wall.
Jeffrey Hardin and DV Runkle battled over 3rd place with Cody Jones looking to take advantage of the situation. As the drivers came around the final lap, Hargreaves took the win ahead of Hill and Runkle took 3rd place over Hardin and Jones behind him. The B Main consolation event was led to the green flag by Jason Menda with Chris Hill to his inside. Menda had a great launch off the start as the field went mostly single file along the high side. Menda’s car got upset in the corner and Hill and Hayes closed up on him as they went 3 wide at the halfway point in the race. Hayes had to drop back into 3rd while Hill stayed alongside Menda challenging from the low side. Hayes dove low beneath Hill but couldn’t complete the pass before Menda took the win over Hill.
Proudfoot came back to the track to lead the feature event to the green flag with Ratley to his inside. Proudfoot and Ratley stayed side by side off the start. 4 laps into the run, Proudfoot was finally able to clear ahead of Ratley as Hargreaves and Northcutt were both running low with Shepherd staying high close behind Ratley. Hargreaves got alongside Ratley as they went 3 wide over the lead again, but the momentum from the outside line kept Proudfoot in the lead with 10 laps completed.
A caution came out as the drivers crossed into the second half of the race with Proudfoot still leading over Ratley. Proudfoot had started to pull away and now found himself back alongside Ratley as he took the green flag and racing resumed. Proudfoot had a good jump and cleared for the lead quicker this time around. Hargreaves, Northcutt and Shepherd were battling over 3rd and Joe Segalla dove low trying to take 7th place away from Menda as the field entered the final 10 laps of the night.
Ratley and Hargreaves continued to battle for 2nd while Proudfoot again pulled away from the field. Shepherd was challenging Northcutt for 4th but couldn’t find the speed to complete the pass. Ratley and Hargreaves slowly started to reel Proudfoot back in and Ratley was able to get alongside Proudfoot in a few failed pass attempts going around the final laps. Ratley threw the car low in the final corner but wasn’t able to clear Proudfoot before Proudfoot took the checkered flag with Ratley, Hargreaves, Northcutt, and Shepherd rounding out the top 5 drivers tonight at Eldora Speedway.
Brandyn Proudfoot and Johnny Ratley come out of the first round of the season tied for the lead in the point standings both with 80 points. William Hargreaves has 76 points at the end of the night followed by Billy Northcutt with 72 points and J R Shepherd with 68 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now set their sights to Weedsport Speedway for the next round on June 24th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S2 R4 Recap
14 June 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 4
Premier Series | Sonoma Raceway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Scott Eckrich with Graafix LC Motorsports took the checkered flag in the Joy of Driving Without Drinking 45 at Sonoma Raceway with the Pretty Good Racing League presented by The Joy of Driving ahead of Thomas George and Vincent Crow. “I don’t know what I did to my tires, but I didn’t make them happy apparently in the second run there… [George] was just doing a great job too, keeping the pace up”, Eckrich commented about taking the win by 0.005 after a drag race to the line with Thomas George, “Coming into that last lap, I figured he had me.”
Pete Baskins led the 32-car field to the green flag to start off the night’s action with Thomas George alongside him on the front row. George had the better launch and cleared for the lead as the field shuffled positions very early. Baskins slid back to 3rd behind Greg O’Berry and Norm Pellitier started to climb up into the top 5. Jeff Ward and Scott Eckrich were both making a hard change through the rest of the field with both drivers getting into the top 10 on lap 4.
O’Berry challenged for the lead but George was able to defend against an aggressive dive to his inside and continued to control the field with 5 laps completed. Eckrich was running in 10th, 22 positions up from where he started the race and Jeff Ward had moved up into 5th behind Woody Mahan and Adam Jurski. O’Berry was able to overtake for the lead on the 7th lap and quickly started to put as much distance between himself and the rest of the field as he could to prepare for the upcoming pit cycle.
Ward closed the gap to Mahan and Jurski on lap 10 with Eckrich running behind them in 7th and gaining time quickly. O’Berry and George had separated themselves from the field both running together over 5 seconds ahead of Jurski. O’Berry misjudged a corner entry and opened the door giving George the chance he was waiting for to retake the lead and George was able to pull almost 2 seconds ahead as O’Berry struggled to build his momentum back up. Mahan made contact with the left side wall causing critical damage to his left rear and ended his night early.
16 laps into the race, Ward was up to 3rd place and running 5 seconds behind O’Berry. Eckrich moved up to 5th and was closing on Vincent Crow quickly ahead in 4th. O’Berry chose to pit very early going down put road on lap 18 and rejoining the track in 14th place. That moved Ward up into 2nd place ahead of Crow and Eckrich. Crow intentionally opened a lane for Eckrich letting him take 3rd place with 26 laps remaining. Drivers were sporadically going down pit road two or three cars at a time while George, Ward, and Eckrich were still running on track.
The leaders were aggressively negotiating through lap traffic trying to not give the driver behind them any favors. While George and Ward were losing time lap after lap, Eckrich had maintained a strong pace and was still closing on Ward as they approached the halfway point of the night and Eckrich took that moment to go down pit road with 23 laps remaining essentially cutting the race in half. George and Ward chose to pit on the following lap while Eckrich was already back on track and making up time.
Eckrich was able to overtake Ward as the leaders rejoined the track and was running within 5 seconds of George who rejoined in 4th. Crow was leading the field ahead of James Moore and Jurski with 20 laps left to go. Crow was the last of the leading cars to pit giving the lead back to George with 16 laps remaining. Eckrich had overtaken Ward for 2nd place and had closed the gap to George down to almost 2 seconds. Moore and Crow had stayed inside of the top 5 and were close behind Ward as Moore was pressuring for 3rd place going into the final 15 laps.
Inside the final 10 laps, Eckrich was running under 1.5 seconds behind George. Moore took 3rd place away from Ward after Ward slid wide going around a corner, but Ward stayed tight on his rear bumper keeping the pressure up on Moore. Eckrich kept George within sight, but his pace seemed to falter as the race stretched on. Ward and Moore ran side by side for a moment as their battle came to a head before making contact. Crow overtook both drivers for 3rd place as they recovered and resumed racing with Moore in 4th ahead of Ward.
With 4 laps remaining, Ward cleared ahead of Moore into 4th and, as Ward did before, Moore stayed with him going forward making his intentions clear. George was still controlling the field ahead of Eckrich with the gap down to only 0.4 between them. The gap stayed the same as the white flag came out and Eckrich started aggressively looking for a chance to take the lead away. George got loose coming out of the final corner and Eckrich beat him to the line by 0.005 in a drag race to the finish ending an incredible night of racing.
Jeff Ward continues to lead in the point standings with 160 points. Brian Yaczik moves up to 2nd with 145 points and Danny Gutierrez dropped back to 3rd tied with Shane Parish with 143 points. Vincent Crow moved up one spot into 5th place after tonight’s podium finish now with 133 points. The drivers of the Pretty Good Racing League now head over to Tennessee for the Beef Jurski’s Cheesecake Emporium and Banana Breadery 200 at Nashville Superspeedway for the 5th round of the season on June 28th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S17 R11 Recap
11 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 11
Super Late Model Series | Myrtle Beach Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming took the season championship tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Myrtle Beach Speedway. Mathew Thunhorst took the checkered flag for the night beating Kenny Kibbey and J R Shepherd to the line in the end. “I kind of got lucky breaks, you know, and I just kept taking advantage of them”, Thunhorst commented after taking the final win of the season, “I kind of figured some things out. [I] was trying a new line all night and it worked out here pretty well and I just took care of my tires best I could and when it got down to the end, I had something for [Menda] still.”
Jeffrey Hardin led the 19-car field to the green flag with Kurt Smith alongside him on the front row. Kenny Kibbey, the points leader going into the evening, started in 5th place ahead of Austin Boelke. Jason Menda started from 3rd place and matched Hardin’s jump off the start clearing into 2nd place quickly as the drivers shuffled for position throughout the field. Smith struggled from the outside and fell back to 6th before being able to slide down to the low line. Menda was able to take the inside from Hardin and overtook for the lead going into lap 6.
Bryan Dehn, Boelke, and Kibbey were running 3rd through 5th and kept the pressure on the leaders while Smith in 6th started to fall off the front pack with Mathew Thunhorst, J R Shepherd, and James Lowe running behind him. Kibbey was able to maneuver around Boelke 32 laps into the night and was up to 4th place still running behind Dehn as a caution came out on lap 34 stacking the field back together with Menda still in control of the field. Thunhorst, Shepherd, and Lowe were running in 5th through 7th as the green flag came out over the field and racing resumed.
Menda had a good launch on the start, but Kibbey stayed with him with Thunhorst following close behind. Hardin found himself stranded on the outside and fell back in the running order to 5th behind Boelke. Menda continued to lead the field as the drivers crossed the halfway point in the race with Kibbey still trying to find a way to take the lead for himself. Kibbey made several attempts to take the inside line away from Menda unsuccessfully and started trying to utilize the outside with 30 laps remaining. Thunhorst took advantage of Kibbey looking high and tried to pry 2nd place away, but Kibbey reacted quickly enough to defend the position.
Another caution was thrown out with 25 laps remaining when Hardin and Lowe came together on track. The restack put Thunhorst and Shepherd to the inside line directly behind Menda and Kibbey on the outside line for the restart. Thunhorst quickly jumped out ahead of Kibbey as Kibbey tried to fight back from the outside struggling to stay alongside. Shepherd cleared ahead of Boelke for 4th with Lowe moving in behind him pushing Boelke back another spot. Shepherd tried to get up to Thunhorst’s rear bumper to block Kibbey still on the outside.
Menda’s tires spun coming out of the corner giving Thunhorst the chance he needed inside the final 20 laps as Thunhorst took the lead and started to pull away. Kibbey moved into 2nd ahead Shepherd close behind in 3rd. With 10 laps remaining, Thunhorst had a strong grip on the lead ahead of Kibbey. Thunhorst stretched his lead out to over 0.6 as a late race caution came out bringing the race to a close and Thunhorst took the checkered flag with Kibbey, Shepherd, Boelke, and Michael Goodman rounding out the top 5 finishers in the season finale.
Kenny Kibbey took the season championship with a total of 421 points ahead of Austin Boelke with 384. Justin Morton finished out the season in 3rd with 373 points with Mathew Thunhorst and Michael Goodman rounding out the top 5 drivers as the season comes to a close. “When it came down to like race wins and podiums you know some tracks I kind of had the speed others I didn’t or it might have come down to a restart that either helped me or hurt me, but yeah just to stay clean and just to be in the mix is [going to] usually get me like a top 5 and we managed to do that just about every week”, Kibbey commented after officially claiming the champion title, “Consistency wins championships, I kind of tried to epitomize that.”
Season 18 of the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series kicks off on June 18th at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
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