BRL DSS S11 R11 Recap
10 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 11
Dirt Street Stock Series | Knoxville Raceway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
William Hargreaves with the Dirt Panda race team took the championship in tonight’s season finale event with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Knoxville Raceway while Billy Northcutt took the checkered flag ahead of Hargreaves and J R Shepherd. “We never said a word the whole race both of us we were just locked in and going for it”, Northcutt commented about the intense battle for the lead against his teammate, “You could’ve barely put a piece of paper between us a bunch of different times and we both backed off when we needed to and just made that the most fun.”
J R Shepherd jumped to the top of the boards to start off the night in qualifying with a quick lap clocked at 22.437 and taking the pole for the first heat race to the inside of William Hargreaves. Hargreaves was able to get beneath Shepherd as the drivers ran side by side for two laps until Hargreaves was able to clear for the lead. Shepherd stayed close behind Hargreaves peeking to the inside but wasn’t able to make an attempt for a pass before Hargreaves took the checkered flag. Billy Northcutt led the second heat to the green flag with Joe Segalla to his inside.
Northcutt had a great launch off the start pulling ahead of the field by more than a car length. Chris Davis and John Wilson battled over 3rd place while keeping the pressure on Segalla. Segalla ran a defensive line down the middle of the track making it difficult for either driver to get alongside him. Davis got a nose to Segalla’s inside as the white flag came out but couldn’t match pace as Segalla crossed the line in 2nd place behind Northcutt.
Jeffrey Hardin and Chris Davis were lined up on the front row for the consolation race as the green flag was thrown out over the field. Hardin opted to start from the high line which gave Davis an opportunity to stay alongside him off the start. After some contact between the drivers, Davis was able to clear into the lead with Hardin running tight on his rear bumper looking to return the favor. Robby Robinson caught the battle for the lead and started to put pressure on Hardin while Brennen Myers also caught the fight and tried to get beneath Robinson.
More contact between Davis and Hardin gave Myers the chance to get around Robinson as the white flag was thrown. Again, contact was made between Davis and Hardin that resulted in contact with several other drivers and Hardin was sent hard into the wall and turned around on the track as Davis crossed the line for the win with Hunter Hill sneaking through the chaos to take away 2nd place only 0.002 behind the leader.
William Hargreaves led the field to the green flag for the feature event alongside Billy Northcutt on the front row. Hargreaves cleared for the lead with Northcutt close behind off the start. Shepherd stayed with the leaders in 3rd place looking to get to the inside of Northcutt. Segalla was leading the rest of the field from 4th place ahead of Hunter Hill and Brennen Myers running side by side. Hill was able to take 4th away with an aggressive slider. Hardin had climbed through the field and was running in 6th with 10 laps completed.
Segalla and Hill continued to battle over 4th trading sliders back and forth with Hardin looking to split the drivers. Davis caught the battle and dove beneath Hardin and moved immediately on Segalla. Northcutt and Hargreaves were still battling hard over the lead trading sliders with neither driver willing to hold back as Shepherd watched them from 3rd place as the drivers crossed the halfway point in the race. Davis had moved up to 5th ahead of Segalla and was closing on Hill ahead of him.
Northcutt and Hargreaves showed no sign of letting up as the Dirt Panda teammates continued to fight over the lead. Segalla got alongside Robinson fighting for 6th place when the group quickly caught and overtook Davis who had damaged his car and was falling off the pace. With 10 laps remaining, Hargreaves was holding the lead as Northcutt kept the pressure up. The leaders were trading sliders back and forth all the way to the finish line as Northcutt held the lead when the white flag came out.
Hargreaves threw a slider coming out of the final corner but didn’t have the momentum to clear for the lead as Billy Northcutt crossed the line to take the win and Hargreaves claimed the season championship from 2nd place. “When we took the white flag… I went in high with him and [tried] to get as much of a run on him as I could to try to be able to set him up or do something there on the last corner, but I just didn’t get enough. He had too much of that cushion and nailed it too good to be able to do anything with him really.”, Hargreaves shared with us about battling his teammate around the final lap as well as winning the season championship, “[Proudfoot]’s one tough cookie to beat and he’s definitely proved he’s the top dog so I’m happy for sure. To beat him is a task in itself.”
PGRL S2 R3 Recap
07 June 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 3
Premier Series | World Wide Technology Raceway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Scott Eckrich with Graafix LC Motorsports took his first checkered flag of the season tonight in the Muscular Dystrophy Association Fundraiser 200 at the World Wide Technology Raceway presented by Patriot Media & Marketing Services with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Drew Carroll and Danny Gutierrez. “Just wasn’t very confident with the car so I figured I would go with a three stop strategy you know just to kind of keep the fresher tires on it”, Eckrich shared with us after claiming his win, “Somewhere in that second run it just kind of clicked for me and I was able to kind of figure out what I needed to do to start saving the rear grip and that last run I felt like we were as good as we were ever going to be.”
Isaiah Dupre led the 26-car field to the green flag to start off the evening with Adam Jurski to his outside on the front row. Jeff Ward, the points leader and last week’s winner started back in 19th place. Jurski quickly crossed over and dove below Dupre taking the lead away on the first lap. On lap 3, several drivers were caught in an incident going into turn one including Scott Eckrich, Thomas George, and Norm Pellitier bringing out the first caution. With no fast repairs allowed for the season, that could potentially have very serious repercussions for the race.
Jurski took the green flag as racing resumed still running alongside Dupre. Woody Mahan challenged Dupre for 2nd as Jurski was able to pull away from the field off the start. Dupre continued to fall back as he found himself stranded on the outside line around the first lap back under green. Greg O’Berry moved up into 3rd place ahead of Grant Brown and Rick Thompson and Dupre fell out of the top 10 being overtaken by drivers such as Brian Yaczik and Michael Chrobok with 10 laps completed.
O’Berry was able to get around Mahan for 2nd place while Jurski continued to run over 0.8 ahead of the rest of the field but O’Berry was running a faster lap and reeled the leader in over several laps. Drew Carroll and Vincent Crow were running tight behind Mahan in 3rd keeping the pressure up and Marc Cohn rounded out the top 10 running behind Chrobok with 20 laps behind them. Eckrich, who started last in the field and was involved in the early incident, had made his way up to 13th and was making a hard charge toward the top 10.
Carroll and O’Berry battled hard over 2nd place with O’Berry fighting back from the outside but eventually conceding and falling back in line to 3rd place. Jeff Ward was up to 8th place and closing the gap to Thompson as Eckrich closed up on Chrobok to challenge for 9th. Carroll took the lead away from Jurski who fell back in the field similar to Dupre by getting stuck on the outside. Ward jumped several more positions up into 3rd and was running close behind Yaczik in 2nd. Only 30 laps into the race and many expected names were quickly shuffling to the front of the running order.
On lap 30, Ward took the lead away from Carroll with Eckrich up to 7th. Yaczik followed Ward pushing Carroll back to 3rd as Eckrich got around Chrobok and Crow for 5th place. Ward had stretched his lead out running over 2 seconds ahead of Yaczik and Eckrich had caught and cleared ahead of Carroll for 4th running 10 seconds behind Ward as the first few drivers began their first pit cycle under green flag conditions including Brown and Eckrich. Ward was one of the final drivers to pull off to take his pit stop on lap 52.
Eckrich had been back on track for several laps and was up to 5th as Ward rejoined the track in 15th. Eckrich inherited the lead as the last drivers pulled off the track with Ward running almost 30 seconds behind him on track. By lap 60 Ward had made up several positions and was running in 8th with 10 less laps on his tires compared to Eckrich in the lead. With the field spread out around the track, the drivers settled in to put some laps behind them.
Ward had gotten into 2nd place and closed the gap to Eckrich in the lead to under 5 seconds on lap 78 as the caution flag came out restacking the field. Practically every driver opted to take their second pit stop during the caution resetting the field on even footing. Eckrich maintained the lead as he rejoined the track with Ward, Yaczik, Carroll, and Chrobok rounding out the top 5. Eckrich took the green flag going into lap 83 with 23 cars still running on track. Ward was able to get below Eckrich and overtook for the lead with Yaczik challenging for 2nd.
Eckrich was able to pinch Ward down to the inside and retook the lead going into lap 90 but wasn’t able to pull away with Ward staying right on his rear bumper for several lap. Ward and Eckrich again battled side by side over the lead going past lap 100 almost making contact several times before Ward dropped back in line behind the leader. Yaczik was continuing to hold 3rd place ahead of Carroll followed by Shane Parish rounding out the top 5. After the previous battle, Ward had fallen off Eckrich’s pace running 2 seconds behind him on lap 110.
Several drivers such as Thompson opted to pit shortly thereafter but Eckrich stayed out further extending his gap over Ward to 3 seconds. Ward and Carroll both pulled down pit road with 40 laps remaining with Eckrich coming in on the following lap. Yaczik stayed out on track taking the lead ahead of Chrobok. Eckrich rejoined the track in 6th still several seconds ahead of Ward in 9th place. Eckrich retook the lead on lap 130 with over a 5 second lead over Ward who was up to 5th.
With 25 laps remaining, Ward had moved up into 2nd place ahead of Carroll but was still losing ground to Eckrich ahead of him. A caution came out with 7 laps remaining bringing everyone back together. Eckrich maintained the lead after taking a final pit stop, but Ward rejoined the track in 9th place after losing a lot of time on pit road. The green flag was thrown again over the field with 3 laps remaining and Carroll tried for the lead over Eckrich but couldn’t get to the inside line. Ward was trying to push through traffic to recover what positions he could but wasn’t able to make up any ground before Eckrich took the checkered flag.
Jeff Ward still sits in the lead in the point standings with 123 points. Danny Gutierrez closed the gap to the lead now trailing by 7 points. Brian Yaczik is tied for 3rd place with Shane Parish both drivers with 112 points. James Krahula rounds out the top 5 drivers of the season thus far with 95 points. The drivers with the Pretty Good Racing League now head down to California for the 4th round of the season on June 14th in The Joy of Driving without Drinking Sonoma 45 at Sonoma Raceway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
Virtual Spotlight #01 – Mathew Thunhorst
Mathew Thunhorst is a name well known around the virtual short tracks but especially with the drivers in the Bootleg Racing League. With around 175 wins between official series and league races, the 27-year-old sim racer has earned the respect of the other drivers on the track streaking the #8 machine across the line to take the checkered flag over and over again. Oval racing is what he calls his “bread and butter” but says he’s also fairly skilled at off-road dirt racing as well.
Every driver has a story behind what brought them to sim racing and most revolve around some real-world racing experiences, but with Matt it’s definitely a unique beginning. “Was doing a Spanish project in college and was looking for in-car footage to do voice overs in Spanish”, Matt explained. His search resulted in coming across several iRacing videos which led him to trying the simulator out for himself in 2014. “Ironic how my worst subject led to finding one of my favorite hobbies.”
“Part of the reason I like iRacing so much is because how in depth the oval side is versus what’s out on the market, especially with human competition. When you have a car [or] track figured out and do well it’s like my version of runner’s high.” Running primarily with the Bootleg Racing League, with the occasional Majors Series race, Matt considers Austin Boelke to be his on-track rival with the two drivers often confronting each other at the front of the field while going for the checkered flag in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series on Saturday nights.
Matt has some experience racing in the real world as well. “I found a decent unrestricted Kart complex nearby so actually getting that seat of the pants feel racing and getting to feel all the grip is rather intoxicating.”, he explained noting that he would get more than a simple racing experience from time to time, “The first unrestricted kart race I ever did the front axle broke under braking into a hairpin. Thankfully the brakes worked well so the impact was only a fender bender level accident, but that was still a heart attack and a half.”
Matt says his greatest accomplishment is getting to the level his is at today, “Just the accomplishment of how good I’ve become over the years. When I started out, I was about a 2.5K to 3k oval driver and to see how much I’ve improved over the years. I wasn’t this good to start out, but all the studying, practice, and trying to prove myself over the years only honed my ability, but I’d be lying if I said there weren’t plenty of times I’ve stalled out and [was] left confused on what I’m missing. Being 6k is kind of like that. You know you’re good but compared to the Coke Series guys it’s like MLB being AA or A ball trying to figure out what separates you from the guys in The Show.”
We’d like to thank Mathew Thunhorst for taking the time to speak with us giving us a chance to get to know him a little better and we here at the Virtual Grip Network wish him luck in his sim racing career. His racing talent is out there for everyone to see every Saturday night with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at 8:55PM ET broadcast live only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S17 R10 Recap
04 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 10
Super Late Model Series | Langley Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Justin Morton with Total Downforce Racing took his 3rd win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Langley Speedway ahead of Donny Moore and Austin Boelke. “After that start was a bit messier than I wanted this race to go but, [I] struggled here and it feels pretty good to come away with the win”, Morton commented after claiming the checkered flag, “I was trying to make sure I was clipping that apron every time on exit just so it would help rotate the car so that might have just been where I was picking up those tenths over the laps.”
Joseph Snyder started the night off on the pole with Jeffrey Hardin to his outside as the green falg was thrown out over the field and racing commenced. Kenny Kibbey, the points leader at the beginning of the night, was starting in 4th place directly ahead of Justin Morton who was the only driver in the field close enough in the points to directly compete for the season championship. Snyder cleared ahead of Hardin as Kibbey found himself stranded on the outside line and dropped back to 6th behind Austin Boelke before finding a gap to drop into.
Michael Goodman was running in 3rd place and held the inside line not giving an opportunity to Morton behind him to take away the inside line. Snyder continued to lead and was pulling away with Hardin as the gap between 2nd and 3rd grew to over 1 second with 20 laps completed. Kibbey was the first to find his way beneath Goodman and that opened the door for Boelke and Morton to follow him around pushing Goodman back to 6th ahead of Donny Moore. An incident on restacked the field and took away any advantage Snyder and Hardin had over the rest of the drivers as the green flag again came out going into lap 29.
Kibbey restarted from 3rd place behind Snyder on the inside line giving him a strong advantage over Hardin going into turn one. Hardin fell back quickly on the start causing a big checkup behind him and spinning him to the inside of the track bringing out a second caution immediately putting Kibbey on the outside with Morton running directly behind the lead from 3rd place for the restart. Going into lap 34 racing again resumed. Kibbey tried to beat Snyder into the corner but wasn’t able to make it work forcing Kibbey to fall far back in the running order before sliding into line in 5th behind Boelke.
Morton was able to take away the inside line forcing Snyder high on lap 45 taking the lead which sent Snyder falling back to 6th behind Bryan Dehn. Moore moved up to 2nd followed by Boelke and Kibbey as the drivers passed the halfway point in the night. The field single filed out with the top 9 drivers ending with Kurt Smith started to separate themselves from the rest of the field. Moore, up 11 positions from where he started, was continuing to pressure Morton for the lead as Boelke and Kibbey struggled to close the gap to the leaders.
With 30 laps remaining, Morton started to pull away from Moore and was able to extend the lead to over 1 second as the laps counted down. Boelke had caught the rear bumper of Moore with Kibbey waiting for him to create a path for them to get around Moore. One by one drivers started falling out of the pack with Moore, Boelke, and Kibbey left alone to battle over 2nd place. Morton had further stretched his lead to almost 2 seconds with 15 laps remaining and was reaching the rear of the field.
Going into the final 10 laps, Kibbey started to fall off the pace and wasn’t able to stay with Boelke as the leaders negotiated through lap traffic. Morton was maintaining a dominate pace pulling away while Moore and Boelke still fought over 2nd place. Around the final lap, Boelke wasn’t able to get the speed on corner exit to line up a pass attempt before the checkered flag came out and Morton took his 3rd win of the season with Kibbey and Dehn rounding out the top 5 finishers of the night at Langley Speedway.
Kenny Kibbey holds onto the lead in the point standings with 382 points, but Justin Morton closed the gap with his win tonight now 9 points behind the leader and is the only driver close enough to Kibbey to compete for the championship going into the final round. Austin Boelke still sits in 3rd place with 347 points ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Michael Goodman. The Bootleg Racing League now heads over to Myrtle Beach Speedway for the season finale on June 11th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
World 600 Recap
03 June 2022
Special Event | World 600
NASCAR Xfinity | Charlotte Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Michael Strohl out of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania driving with Domination Intimidation Racing took the checkered flag after an action packed 600 miles around Charlotte Motor Speedway ahead of DJ Stagner with Swamp Motorsports and Seth Noell with Nexxus eSports. “Once I knew [Bressi] was out of the race it was mine to lose, and I wasn’t sure if I could catch [Noell]. I thought he might save enough [fuel].”, Strohl shared with us after his dominating performance tonight, “Just a great, great race.”
Seth Noell with Nexxus eSports started the night off on the pole with Michael Dewell to his outside as the 39-car field took the green flag and racing began. The mostly single filed out behind Noell as the drivers settled in for the long endurance event. The first hour of the evening was more or less calm with only a few minor incidents as most drivers were content for the moment to simply run in the pack while the laps counted down. Michael Strohl was leading the field ahead of Thomas Bressi and Jacob Fyfe. Seth Noell and Michael Dewell dropped back to 4th and 5th respectively but were still running up close to the leaders with roughly 60 laps behind them.
Dewell maneuvered his way back up to the leader and he and Strohl traded positions back and forth across several laps for the lead. Nicholas Starling moved up into the front of the pack in 4th place with Bressi challenging Strohl for the lead as Dewell dropped back to 5th ahead of Noell. Jaxson Hartman started in 15th place and was up to 3rd trying to reel in the leaders. Bressi got to the inside of Strohl and cleared into the lead after around 90 minutes of racing and seemed to hold a strong pace over Strohl stretching out the gap between them. Bressi extended the gap ahead of the rest of the field to over 1 second shortly after crossing the 100-lap mark.
Just shy of 2 hours of racing, many drivers were starting to cycle through the pits under green flag conditions. Bressi stayed out longer trying to get as far ahead as possible before making his stop. Strohl was one of the first of the lead pack to taking his stop pulling off the racing line on lap 123. Bressi took his stop one lap later with Noell and several others. As the field started to divide between drivers with fresh tires and drivers with worn tires the large difference in lap times led to several near misses as drivers coming out of the pits were aggressively weaving through the field to regain as many positions as they could.
As the field sorted itself back out going into lap 133, Starling held the lead briefly until Bressi overtook a few laps later. The majority of the main field had splintered into several 3 to 5 car packs with the drivers again settling in to put some laps behind them. Cody Smith was up 15 positions from where he started hours before as he ran in 4th. Bressi held the lead running consistent faster laps than the vast majority of the field. Daniel Shirley and Larry Patrick came together going down the front stretch on lap 169 ending the over 100-lap green flag run forcing drivers to pit earlier than they may have wanted to since most had pitted under the green flag only 30 laps prior.
Bressi and Strohl were on the front row as the green flag came back out and the drivers resumed racing 27 laps shy of the halfway point. Strohl took the lead from Bressi quickly off the launch. DJ Stagner and Hayden Pastorius were running in 3rd and 4th ahead of David Grantham as Noell and Dewell, who started the race on the front row, stayed in the lead pack running in 6th and 7th. Bressi had control of the field after taking the lead back from Strohl as the drivers crossed into the second half of the night. Stagner was consistently reeling in the leaders lap after lap showing patience as Bressi and Strohl battled each other.
Bressi had started to break away from Strohl as Stagner caught Strohl’s rear bumper going into lap 230. Stagner patiently followed Strohl without making any aggressive attempts on an overtake waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of. Bressi had extended his gap further out to over 1 second over Strohl while Strohl and Stagner seemed to be falling off lead pace. With 150 laps remaining in the race and the sun slowly setting in the distance, mental and physical fatigue was becoming a legitimate concern for many of the drivers going forward as track conditions continued to evolve with the temperatures and sight distance both dropping rapidly.
Around lap 250, several drivers chose to pit for fuel and tires under green flag conditions to include Bressi, Strohl, and Stagner all coming in on lap 254. Stagner was able to overtake Strohl on pit entry by braking later and held the position ahead of Strohl as they rejoined the track moments later, but Strohl was able to take the position back soon thereafter with the three drivers back into the podium positions. Adam Wood was running in 5th place behind Pastorius and up 30 positions from where he started. Stagner started to drop off as the battle for the lead seemed to be between only Bressi and Strohl with 120 laps remaining.
Bressi held the lead with a strong lead going into the final 100 laps of the race. Drivers had started going through another pit cycle including Strohl. Bressi went down pit road 2 laps later and came back out on track behind Strohl. Bressi managed to get back onto the lead lap but made contact with a lap car that lost control ahead of him causing front end damage and bringing out the caution flag. Strohl the lead as the field stacked back together with Noell to his outside and Bressi running in 3rd. Strohl had a good launch of the start, but Noell stayed with him as the field spread back out with 85 laps remaining.
Noell was able to overtake for the lead with fresher tires than Strohl with Bressi doing the same pushing Strohl back to 3rd. The top three pulled away from the rest of the pack while Bressi went beneath Noell trying to take the lead away. He cleared Noell on lap 321 but wasn’t able to run away as easily as he had previously after gaining damage from the earlier contact to his front end. Strohl continued to fall back as Stagner and Grantham both passed him rather easily and Strohl struggled to stay with the lead pack as the top 4 pulled away. With 70 laps remaining, Stagner had caught the rear of Bressi and was pressuring for the lead with an aggressive dive to the inside line.
Contact between Bressi and Stagner resulted with Bressi spinning hard into the outside wall and collecting several cars behind them. The last thing Bressi wanted but the exact situation Strohl needed to get back into the race with fresh tires. Noell took control of the field as the green flag came back out over the field and racing again resumed. Grantham stayed tight on Noell’s rear bumper with Strohl following close behind running single file. Grantham cleared for the lead running along the outside with Strohl following him around knocking Noell back to 3rd and under pressure from Adam Wood. Strohl overtook Grantham for the lead with 56 laps remaining and trying to separate himself from Grantham.
Stagner, Wood, and Fyfe had an intense three-way battle for 3rd place building as the end of the race was coming within reach with Stagner holding a strong pace. Going into the final 50 laps, Strohl hadn’t been able to get away from Grantham who was staying very tight behind him. The top 9 drivers will still on the lead lap with Kendall Kerr running in the last lead lap position. Stagner had caught the rear of Grantham as Strohl was able to break away slightly. The lead lap drivers were all pushing trying to make up as much time as possible with a minimum of one more fuel stop sitting between them and the checkered flag. Stagner was the first to go pulling down pit road on lap 364.
With 30 laps remaining, most of the drivers had completed their final pit stop with the exception of Noell and Brandon Bernhardt. Stagner was running in 3rd with Strohl in 4th 2 seconds behind him on track. Strohl went to work closing the gap to Stagner running consistently faster laps. Stagner caught Bernhardt and made the pass for 2nd place easily with Strohl closing on him quickly. Stagner was forced to block defensively against Strohl as the two drivers started battling hard with 20 laps remaining. Strohl got to the inside and the drivers raced side by side with neither driver getting the advantage over the other. After several laps battling from the outside line, Stagner had to concede giving 2nd place to Strohl. Noell was still controlling the race, but his fuel was a serious concern with 15 laps to go.
Strohl pulled away from Stagner by over 1 second as he aggressively closed the gap to Noell lap after lap. Noell was far off the pace and Strohl was gaining at a rate that would lead to Strohl taking the win away from Noell regardless of fuel saving. Fyfe was making a hard charge through the top 10 climbing up to 5th place ahead of Wood with only a few laps left to get any positions he could before the end. Pastorius was running in 4th and defending against Fyfe hard. Strohl had closed the gap to Noell and moved to clear around the outside and never lost pace as Stagner caught the rear of Noell.
Stagner took 2nd place while Noell did everything he could to save fuel as the white flag came out. Strohl was running 2 seconds ahead of Stagner as he crossed the line for the win. Stagner finished 2nd and Noell crossed the line in 3rd after some very impressive fuel saving. Pastorius, Fyfe, Wood, Grantham, and Bernhardt round out the top 8 finishers and every driver on the lead lap in the end. “What an event”, Strohl commented after claiming the checkered flag, “This is an idea [I’ve] had for quite some time and I’m just glad it went off without a hitch.”
BRL DSS S11 R10 Recap
03 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 10
Dirt Street Stock Series | Limaland Motorsports Park
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
William Hargreaves with the Dirt Panda Racing Team took his third win of the season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Limaland Motorsports Park ahead of Stephen Spies and Chris Hill. “It worked out in my favor tonight for sure. I’m not really sure what happened there early on with [Proudfoot] and [Northcutt] but it kind of allowed me to get away and just do my own thing”, Hargreaves shared with us after the race, “I was pretty fortunate because I was struggling bad through [turns] three and four.”
William Hargreaves set a quick lap of 15.108 taking the pole 0.037 ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot in qualifying. John Wilson started to his outside as the first heat event took the green flag. Hargreaves had a good jump off the start and cleared ahead of Wilson quickly. Wilson was able to close the door on Chris Hill in 3rd as Hargreaves slowly pulled away from the field. Hargreaves took the checkered flag 0.7 ahead of Wilson crossing the line. Brandyn Proudfoot took to the track for the second heat with Billy Northcutt lined up to his inside.
Proudfoot quickly cleared ahead of Northcutt and started slowing building a gap as the green flag came out over the field. Proudfoot and Northcutt had pulled away from the field by over 1 second as they crossed the line with Proudfoot taking the win. Chris Hill led the consolation race to the green with Bobby Hayes to his outside. Hill had a very good launch off the start jumping out almost 1 second ahead of the field as Jeffrey Hardin and Stephen Spies both got around Hayes knocking Hayes back to 4th.
Hardin and Spies were starting the reel Hill back in as they crossed the halfway point while battling each other over 2nd place. Spies and Hardin ran side by side going into the final lap with Spies taking 2nd place ahead of Hardin by a bumper. Hill took the checkered flag mostly unchallenged ahead of the field. As the drivers started to line up for the feature event Hargreaves and Proudfoot, who were tied for the points lead going into the evening, found themselves sharing the front row as the green flag came out over the field.
Hargreaves opted to start from the outside and was able to clear ahead of Proudfoot. Northcutt took the opportunity and moved up into 2nd with Spies pressuring Proudfoot for 3rd. A few laps into the race, Hargreaves was able to stretch out a gap between himself and Northcutt while Proudfoot struggled to get around. Proudfoot made a dive to get beneath Northcutt but contact between the two drivers resulted with both drivers falling back through the running order before recovering.
Spies and Hill moved up into 2nd and 3rd after the incident but couldn’t find the pace to reel Hargreaves back in who was running over 1.5 seconds ahead of the field. Passing the halfway point of the 40-lap event, Spies had pulled away from Hill but was still unable to make any headway on closing the gap to Hargreaves running over 2 seconds ahead. Proudfoot had climbed back up through the pack to 7th place going into the last 10 laps with Northcutt running in 9th behind J R Shepherd.
In the final laps, Proudfoot continued to run the high line moving up to 6th behind Hayes and Wilson battling over 4th. Hargreaves was further extending his lead crossing the line over 3.6 seconds ahead of Spies as the checkered flag came out. Proudfoot took 5th place in the end with Northcutt finishing in 7th. Spies, Hill, and Hayes rounded out the top 5 finishers to include Proudfoot.
William Hargreaves broke the tie for the lead with tonight’s win now leading in the points standings with 791 points and 13 points ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot going into the final round of the season. Billy Northcutt holds onto 3rd place with 735 points and Bobby Hayes and Stephen Spies round out the top 5 drivers so far this season. The Bootleg Racing League now heads over to Knoxville Raceway for the exciting season finale on June 10th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S2 R2 Recap
31 May 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 2
Premier Series | Charlotte Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Jeff Ward with Graffix LC Motorsports took the checkered flag and his first win of the season tonight with the Pretty Good Racing League in the “Chad Cole, He’s My Guy 300” at Charlotte Motor Speedway ahead of Danny Gutierrez and Shane Parish. “Once it got nighttime there and started cooling down on the track it just started gripping up for me and [I] found some speed.”, Ward shared with us after taking his win, “We made it through it, and we got the win, and we can move onto something that’s kind of foreign next week which is Gateway.”
Django Matthews led the 28-car field to the green flag to start of the evening’s excitement. Mark Hertzog fought back from the outside taking away the lead with Greg O’Berry challenging for the lead immediately after. O’Berry cleared for the lead as the field was aggressively shuffling positions early on before settling in for the long run ahead. Cody Erdmann took the lead away 10 laps in and quickly built up a decent gap ahead of O’Berry. Shane Parish was showing a strong pace running in the top 10 and making an aggressive charge to the front of the field as Jeff Ward was also pushing through the field quickly up 15 positions from the start of the race.
Erdmann was forced to drive defensively to hold back Rick Thompson and that gave Parish and Ward the opportunity to challenge for the lead themselves. Parish cleared fairly easily for the lead with Ward taking 2nd place. The first few drivers chose to begin their pit cycles around lap 50 under green conditions to include Parish, Ward, and Brian Yaczik. By lap 55, practically the entire field had made their stops and rejoined the race. Parish held the lead as the field shuffled back out with Thomas George running in 2nd place ahead of Ward and James Krahula. Ward was able to catch George while George was still getting back up to speed after exiting the pits and overtook him for 2nd place on lap 60 and was running 1.6 seconds behind Parish.
With 70 laps completed, Ward was able to significantly close the gap to Perish as Perish negotiated through lap traffic. Parish continued to run a very fast line and again started to pull away momentarily when Ward was caught behind the traffic himself. Danny Gutierrez worked his way up to 3rd place passing George and Rick Thompson running around 4.5 seconds behind the leaders. George and Thompson continued to battle each other of 4th place as the laps counted down.
A caution was thrown out as the drivers were approaching the halfway point giving the field an opportune time to cycle through the pit again. Parish maintained the lead as the field again took the green flag and racing resumed. Parish was forced to check up when his car went loose suddenly dropping back to 5th giving Ward the lead ahead of Drew Carroll. Another quick caution and a preventative pit cycle put George in the lead ahead of Ward with Parish running in 7th as the green flag again came out over the field.
Ward followed very close behind George pressuring for the lead and able to clear for the position going into lap 115. Parish was aggressively pushing back up through the field fighting to get back to the front. Carroll and Gutierrez were able to catch the bumper of George, and each overtook pushing George back to 4th with 80 laps remaining. Parish was up to 5th and moved to follow Gutierrez past George who seemed to be falling off the pace. Parish was able to get around Gutierrez a few laps later for 3rd place as Ward further stretched the gap between himself and Carroll.
Michael Chrobok had been quietly moving up through the field throughout the race and was up to 9th running over 8 seconds behind the leaders with 70 laps remaining. Parish was pressuring Carroll for 2nd place but didn’t have an opening to take advantage of at the time. Parish tried to get beneath Carroll, but contact was made causing both drivers to lose momentum allowing Ward to pull over 2 seconds ahead of them. Parish was able to hold off Gutierrez for 3rd, but Gutierrez and George were able to get up close behind him going forward after his costly mistake.
Parish immediately went back after 2nd place diving down low and clearing Carroll on lap 146. The field started pulling off for their final pit cycle again under green conditions with less than 50 laps remaining. The caution came out as many drivers, including Ward, were still on pit road. Ward was able to maintain the lead, but Parish and George were shuffled back to 6th and 8th respectively as the drivers were restacked to take the green. Racing resumed with 40 laps remaining. Ward cleared ahead of Gutierrez, but Gutierrez was able to stay close to Ward’s bumper going into the final stretch of the race.
With 20 laps remaining, Parish battled hard with Brian Yaczik over 3rd place. Parish was able to take away the position after several intense laps, but the time spent in that fight put Parish almost 4 seconds behind the leader. Ward continued to extent the gap ahead of Gutierrez to over 2 seconds going into the final 10 laps. Ward pulled away unchallenged and took the checkered flag 4 seconds ahead of Gutierrez with Parish, Yaczik, and Erdmann rounding out the top 5 finishers.
Jeff Ward took the lead in the points standings away from Mike Rasimas with 91 points. Danny Gutierrez moved up to 2nd place 13 points behind the lead and 1 point ahead of Shane Parish in 3rd place. Brian Yaczik and Thomas George round out the top 5 drivers in the points thus far in the season. The drivers with the Pretty Good Racing League now head over to Illinois for the Muscular Dystrophy Association Fundraiser 200 at the World Wide Technology Raceway for the third round of the season on June 7th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
ASC S11 R14 Recap
23 May 2022
Autobahn Sportscar Challenge | Season 11 | Round 14
LMP2/GT3 Multiclass Event | Spa
Daniel Neice took the final checkered flag of the season tonight with the Autobahn Sportscar Challenge at Circuit de Spa ahead of Billy Smith and Robert Tinsey in the Prototype Class. David Williams beat Young Park and Christopher Paiz to the line in the GT Pro Class and Robert Kast finished ahead of Sheldon Rosenbaum and Dale Green in the GT AM Class. Smith won the Prototype season championship with Ross Booth and Ryan Robertson winning the GT Pro and GT AM Class season championships respectively.
Robert Tinsey started the evening off on the pole in the Prototype Class with a fast lap of 2:01.392 and David Williams was on the pole for the GT drivers with a 2:15.978. The 28-car field took the green with all eyes on Billy Smith and Carter Kundinger who were directly competing against each other for the season championship. Daniel Neice quickly took the lead away from Tinsey going around the first lap with Smith moving up to 4th directly behind Kundinger.
Tinsey retook the lead on the following lap and built a gap of around 0.6 with Kundinger and Smith close behind Neice running single file. Williams had a strong lead over Washeleski and Schmidt by over 3 seconds 10 minutes into the race. Neice again cleared into the lead ahead of Tinsey as Lou Carbonneau tried to challenge Smith for 4th, but Carbonneau eventually conceded and fell back in line behind Smith. Smith was guarding 4th place aggressively as a 4th place finish or better would win him the championship over Kundinger in the end.
Carbonneau tried several more time to take away 4th place from Smith. Able to clear for the position, Carbonneau made effective use of lap traffic to block Smith who fell back to 5th. Kundinger was forced to leave the racing line to avoid an incident within the GT field and that allowed Carbonneau to close the gap between them and take 3rd place away. Kundinger struggled to collect himself back up as Smith also got around him while Kundinger continued to fall short of his previous pace.
Kundinger regained his composure and caught back up to Smith 20 minutes into the evening and cleared back in 4th with 10 laps completed. Williams extended his gap ahead of the GT3 field by over 6 seconds demonstrating the dominate pace in the early stages. Smith was able to match pace with Kundinger but seemed content to play it safe and follow Kundinger for the time being letting the time count down. Neice was showing one of the strongest performances seen from him since the beginning of the season with the gap between himself and the rest of the Prototype drivers was over 5 seconds.
As the first round of pit cycles had begun, Kundinger and Smith stayed out putting Smith in the lead ahead of Kundinger. Neice was able to take 2nd when all drivers finished with the first pit stop of the night. Smith was running in the lead after taking a short pit stop to create distance between himself and Kundinger. Tinsey moved up to 3rd place and Kundinger was holding onto 4th with Leif Peterson rounding out the top 5 going into the second half of the 90-minute event.
With 40 minutes remaining, Williams was leading the GT3 Class by almost 12 seconds as he consistently outpaced the rest of the field. Kundinger was aggressively pushing through traffic trying to close the 5 second gap to Tinsey in 3rd place while Smith extended his lead to over 3.5 seconds ahead of Neice. Peterson stayed close to Kundinger and went side by side through several corners battling over 4th. The battle stretched out over a few laps with lap traffic assisting either driver at different times while they swapped positions back and forth.
Peterson won the position when Kundinger choose to take his final pit stop early. Smith went down pit road on the following lap giving the lead to Neice temporarily. Smith came out of pit road ahead of Kundinger while the majority of the Prototype drivers had yet to stop for fuel. Neice stayed out for several laps longer than his competitors stretching the gap as far as he could. Neice rejoined the race over 3 seconds ahead of Smith on track and held onto the lead going into the final 20 minutes.
As the season came to a close, Smith seemed to finish out the night choosing the championship over risking to try for the win and crossed the line in 2nd place behind Neice. Kundinger finished in 4th place behind Tinsey. Billy Smith officially took the season championship in the Prototype Class ahead of Carter Kundinger and Robert Tinsey. Ross Booth won the championship in the GT Pro Class ahead of Paul Gibson and Ryan Washeleski and Ryan Robertson to the championship in the GT AM Class with a landslide over Trent Brown and Franco Margarella.
BRL SLM S17 R9 Recap
21 May 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 9
Super Late Model Series | Martinsville Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Mathew Thunhorst claimed his third win of the season with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Martinsville Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and James Lowe. Thunhorst now has the most wins of any other driver in the series this season. “I hate that he didn’t get second at least out of that”, Thunhorst commented about Kenny Kibbey’s show of sportsmanship during their contact in the final few laps, “He pulled an extremely classy move with letting me try to gather that back up and he kind of paid the price for it.”
James Lowe took the green flag for the field as the drivers thundered past the crowd and into the first turn. The field had a lot of chaos shuffling the running order around as drivers went after position gains early and some unfortunate drivers dropping to the rear of the field such as Donny Moore who started in 3rd. Justin Morton and Mathew Thunhorst got to the inside of Joseph Snyder and knocked him back to 4th as Morton and Thunhorst started to close in on Lowe still in the lead.
20 laps into the night, Morton and Thunhorst had completely close the gap to Lowe. Kenny Kibbey was looking to the inside of Snyder clearing into 4th place. Morton and Thunhorst went side by side battling over 2nd place but Thunhorst had to concede and settled back into 3rd ahead of Kibbey. Morton was caught out and stuck on the outside line as Thunhorst and Kibbey both went underneath him pushing him back to 4th. The top 3 drivers started pull away with Morton leading the rest of the field around 1 second behind the battle for the lead.
Thunhorst got inside of Lowe on lap 38 and quickly cleared for the lead with Kibbey following behind. Lowe settled into 3rd but couldn’t match the pace of Thunhorst and Kibbey and he slowly started to fall back as Morton started reeling him in. Crossing the halfway point in the race, the two leaders had separated themselves from the rest of the field by over 1 second. Morton had pulled away from Snyder in 5th and closed the distance to Lowe to make an attempt for 3rd place.
Michael Goodman was running in 5th place with 40 laps remaining running 2 seconds behind Morton. Kibbey held onto the rear bumper of Thunhorst in the battle over the lead as the leaders started catching the rear of the field. Thunhorst was able to use the lap traffic to build a slight gap between himself and Kibbey, now running 0.4 ahead of Kibbey. Kibbey struggled to close the gap back up while negotiating through more traffic going into the last 20 laps.
With 10 laps remaining, Kibbey completely close the gap to Thunhorst but wasn’t given a good opportunity to take advantage of as Thunhorst was careful to not leave any opening going into the corners. On lap 97, Kibbey took a chance to dive under Thunhorst. Thunhorst closed the door quickly and Kibbey couldn’t checkup quick enough as contact was made. Thunhorst spun to the inside and Kibbey slowed in an amazing show of sportsmanship allowing Thunhorst to reclaim the lead. Morton and Lowe close up in that time and cleared around Kibbey before he got back up to speed and fell back to 4th. Thunhorst took the checkered flag around 1 second ahead of Morton with Goodman rounding out the top 5.
Kenny Kibbey still leads in the point standings with 345 points. Justin Morton sits in 2nd place 12 points behind the lead. Mathew Thunhorst and Austin Boelke are tied for 3rd place both with 309 points. Michael Goodman, a rookie in the series this season, holds onto 5th place with 274 points. The Bootleg Racing League will be back on the track after taking a break for Memorial Day Weekend heading to Langley Speedway on June 4th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
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