PGRL S1 R11 Recap
26 Apr 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 1 | Round 11
Premier Series | Dover International Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Scott Eckrich with Graafix LC Motorsports took the checkered flag under caution tonight in the I Hate Octane93 on Twitch 200 with the Pretty Good Racing League at Dover International Speedway ahead of Mike Rasimas and Isaiah Dupre. Eckrich still holds onto the points lead going into the final round at Darlington next week. “Darlington’s not one of my strong suits. I’ve just really struggled at that place forever.”, Eckrich commented about the final round, “It’s going to be a tough one to try to defend the championship at.”
Don Runkle Jr. led the 30-car field to the green flag with Woody Mahan to his outside starting off the night’s action. Mahan had the stronger launch off the start and was able to overtake Runkle around the outside in turn four for the lead. Norm Pelletier quickly moved up into 2nd as Runkle fell back another position going into lap 5. Within the first 10 laps, Mahan built up a gap of over 1 second ahead of Pelletier as he pushed hard in the early stages of the race.
Brian Yaczik and Paul Pepper battled over 4th as both drivers were able to get around Pelletier. Joe Hassert secured 2nd place ahead of Michael Chrobok as Mahan continued to hold a strong lead over the field. Scott Eckrich was quickly negotiating through the field making a hard charge to the front from back in the pack with Jeff Ward trying to do the same only a few positions behind him on track. Going into lap 30, Eckrich was already in the top 5 and Ward had climbed up to 7th place.
Up 18 spots from where he started, Eckrich wasted no time continuing his push through the field and was closing the gap to Mahan reeling Mahan in within 0.7 with 40 laps completed. Ward fought his way into 3rd and was able to keep Eckrich within reach with Hassert and Yaczik following close behind being a little more conservative with their equipment. Lap 50 saw Ward overtaking Eckrich and taking the lead with Mahan dropping back to 3rd and Ward and Eckrich started to pull away from the rest of the field.
A caution on lap 56 gave a chance for the drivers to run through their first pit cycle as the entire field chose to take advantage of the opportunity. Eckrich restarted in the lead with Mahan to his side and Ward behind in 3rd. Unfortunately, as it is said, cautions breed cautions and a series of failed restarts followed in a chain reaction ending the night early for several drivers as the field struggled to get back into a groove. Mahan, Pelletier, Yaczik, Tommy Rhyne, and Pete Baskins were holding the top 5 spots choosing to not pit with the rest of the leaders as the field stacked back together for a successful restart attempt on lap 102.
The second half of the race started cleaner as the drivers showed more patience. Mahan dropped back to 2nd behind Rhyne with Yaczik pressuring from 3rd. Mahan continued to fall back with Eckrich making another hard charge to the front moving up to 3rd around Mahan within the first few laps off the restart. George, who also pit during the last caution with Eckrich, had made his way back into the top 5. Going into lap 118, Eckrich caught Rhyne and the two drivers battled hard over the lead with Eckrich able to secure the position two laps later.
George and Ward were running 4th and 5th behind Yaczik with 80 laps remaining. Mahan fell back to 7th behind Dupre showing signs of excessive wear as he was one of the drivers that chose to stay out to stretch the fuel as far as he could. Rhyne was able to stay close to Eckrich as Ward started battling over 3rd with Yaczik. Ward had the speed coming out of the corners but wasn’t able to find the momentum to finish the pass falling back behind Yaczik several times to block off George’s advance from behind. Ward took advantage of lap traffic blocking Yaczik to make his move to take 3rd place from the inside on lap 132.
As the green flag run stretched out farther and farther, Mahan’s strategy of waiting to pit and undercut the field was starting to look like a bust as fuel became a concern. One by one, the drivers who were leading off the restart 40 laps prior were forced to pit under green putting themselves two laps behind the lead and essentially out of contention. Mahan had to concede on lap 146 for fuel after almost a 90-lap run between stops. Eckrich and Ward were back in the front stacked tightly together and pulling away from Yaczik in 3rd by over 2 seconds with 50 laps remaining.
Ward dropped back from Eckrich as the leaders cautiously negotiated through lap traffic. More drivers were taking their pit stops under green flag conditions going into the final 40 laps. Ward had closed the gap back up to Eckrich and was aggressively trying to take the lead with Mahan overtaking both regaining one of his lost laps from his pit stop earlier now one lap off the leaders and back up to 9th place knowing that if Eckrich and Ward were forced to pit under green, he would be up to 2nd place behind Joe Alberico and ahead of Rhyne.
Lap 166 saw Ward pull down pit road under green with Eckrich pitting on the following lap. The risky strategy Mahan and Rhyne committed to did not pay off in the end as Ward was able to get back on track with fresher tires quickly enough to overtake Mahan and pull away as the new leader with 30 laps to go. Eckrich rejoined the field back in 4th and quickly went to work trying to close the gap to Ward running 3 seconds ahead of him. Lap traffic hindered Eckrich’s advance, and Ward ran away with the lead going into the final 10 laps.
With 8 laps to go, the first caution of the second half came out after over 90 laps of green flag racing. Eckrich took the lead followed by Rasimas and Parish as Ward chose to pit for fresh tires and rejoined in 5th. The green flag came out over the field with 3 laps to go, but an incident in the field brought the caution back out ending the race with Eckrich, Rasimas, Dupre, Ward, and Yaczik rounding out the top 5 finishers.
Scott Eckrich holds the points lead with 399 points after his win tonight. Thomas George sits in 2nd place 20 points behind the lead with Jeff Ward in 3rd with 362 points. Mike Rasimas and Brian Yaczik round out the top 5 drivers of the season with one round remaining. The Pretty Good Racing League now heads out Darlington Raceway for the season finale in the Imma Head Out 200 presented by The Joy of Driving on May 3rd with all of the action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
ASC S11 R12 Recap
25 Apr 2022
Autobahn Sportscar Challenge | Season 11 | Round 12
LMP2/GT3 Multiclass Event | Imola
Jeffrey Ooms absolutely dominated the field in the Prototype Class tonight claiming his 4th win of the season with the Autobahn Sportscar Challenge at Imola ahead of Carter Kundinger and Robert Tinsey. Johan Shirazi took the checkered flag for the GT Pro Class ahead of Young Park and Christopher Paiz while Ryan Robertson took his 7th win of the season beating out Robert Kast and Luke Schmidt in the GT AM Class as well as outpacing the GT field as a whole. “Should be a good fight for these last two rounds”, Kundinger remarked in regard to closing in on Billy Smith for the points championship, “It’ll be interesting, I might have to put a little bit more practice into those [final] two rounds if I really want to try to secure this championship.”
Jeffrey Ooms had the fast lap in the Prototype Class during qualifying with a lap at 1:31.190. Ryan Robertson in the GT AM Class was leading the entire 21-car GT field in lap times with a scored time of 1:42.114. Paul Gibson with the GT Pro Class was behind Robertson’s time by 0.026 when qualifying came to a close. As the drivers took to the track to begin the 60-minute feature event, a lower car count than previous events was noticeable with many prominent names not appearing as the 31 car field took the green flag.
The Prototype drivers were quick to single file out behind Ooms off the start with a similar start as the GT3 drivers moments later stacked behind Robertson. Robert Tinsey and Carter Kundinger battled over 3rd place as a large gap of over 4 seconds formed between the top 4 and the rest of the Prototype field going into the 4th lap. Ooms pulled away to a strong lead running 1.8 seconds ahead of Austin Young up front. The GT3 field was mixed together between the GT Pro and GT AM drivers benefiting Robertson the most as several Pro drivers were between himself and Luke Schmidt in 2nd place in the GT AM Class.
Trouble for Young ended his evening early as Tinsey and Kundinger continued to battle now for 2nd place over 10 seconds behind Ooms 15 minutes into the event. Billy Smith, the Prototype Class points leader going into the evening, started toward the rear of the field but was slowly advancing through the field reeling in Leif Peterson in 5th place. Small incidents shuffled the GT3 field with Gibson and Robertson holding the lead in their respective classes, each with sizable gaps ahead of their nearest competitors.
After battling through the first half of the race, Kundinger was able to overtake Tinsey on lap 17 for 2nd place. Ooms, Gibson, and Robertson continued to lead across the classes as the field approached the pit cycle going into the second half. Ooms had a massive gap of more than 24 seconds over Kundinger and Tinsey going into the final 20 minutes of the event and Smith continued to pressure Peterson now for 4th place further back in the Prototype field. Gibson had a 6 second gap over Johan Shirazi in the GT Pro Class and Robertson had stretched his lead to over 18 seconds over Robert Kast in the GT AM Class.
In the final 10-minute stretch, Gibson was forced to end his race early because of technical issues after a strong performance all night giving the GT Pro lead over to Shirazi with Young Park close behind. Kundinger and Tinsey started to develop a 10 second gap between them in 2nd and 3rd in the Prototype Class as Ooms further stretched out his lead by over 30 seconds. Smith was able to take 4th place away from Peterson and was running 3 seconds behind Tinsey with little time left to attempt to reel him in.
The final few laps proved to be not enough for Smith to make up substantial ground on Tinsey ahead in 3rd. Ooms crossed the line almost 40 seconds ahead of the rest of the field in the Prototype Class. Shirazi held the lead in the GT Pro class with Park close behind pressuring while Robertson took the GT3 overall win tonight as well as the unofficial points championship in the GT AM Class. “I put in a lot of practice for this track and I’m glad to see it paid off.”, Robertson commented after the race.
Billy Smith holds onto the points lead with 218 points with Carter Kundinger slowly closing the gap following behind by 17 points now. Ross Booth further stretches out the gap in the GT Pro class leading over Ryan Washeleski by 64 points with a total of 386 points. Ryan Robertson with 285 points has become the unofficial points winner in the GT AM Class with a dominate 118-point lead over Trent Brown going into the final two rounds of the season. Satellite Racing, consisting of Robert Tinsey, Ryan Washeleski, and Ryan Robertson, continues to lead in the team points standings with 289 points. The Autobahn Sportscar Challenge now heads out to Nürburgring for the next round on May 9th with all of the action broadcast live at 9:05PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S17 R5 Recap
23 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 5
Super Late Model Series | North Wilkesboro Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Mathew Thunhorst took the checkered flag for the second week in a row tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at North Wilkesboro Speedway ahead of Austin Boelke and Justin Morton. “It was kind of a chess match… just kept working at him working at him and [Boelke] wasn’t leaving a whole lot open”, Thunhorst commented in regard to his battle for the lead, “Trying to avoid mistakes, trying to focus on [Boelke] having [Morton] and [Kibbey] right behind me the whole time.”
Donny Moore led the field to the green to start off the night’s action with Austin Boelke taking advantage as he made a quick clear over Jeffrey Hardin to take 2nd place away. Kenny Kibbey and Mathew Thunhorst followed on Hardin’s bumper running single file with Justin Morton behind them. Thunhorst was able to take away the inside line to overtake Kibbey into 4th place with Morton holding tight on Thunhorst forcing Kibbey to settle back into line back in 6th going into the 10th lap.
The top 8 drivers started to pull away from the field with Michael Goodman and Joe Segalla running at the tail of the lead pack. 15 laps into the race, Boelke dove deep to the inside and pushed Moore to the outside line shuffling him back as Boelke claimed the lead ahead of Thunhorst. Moore tried to hold on from the outside, but wasn’t able to as he fell back to 6th ahead of Goodman before rejoining the pack. Michael Lemieux caught the lead pack and started battling with Segalla over 8th place.
Stephen Spies followed Lemieux’s advance and overtook both drivers, pushing Segalla back to 10th behind Lemieux going into the 30th lap of the evening. Adam Schoen made a hard charge to the lead pack and was able to clear ahead of Spies. Boelke continued to hold the lead over Thunhorst who followed close behind patiently waiting for his opportunity. Going into the second half of the 100-lap event, drivers aggressively pushed trying to get track position before tire wear became an issue.
Boelke, Thunhorst, Morton, and Kibbey ran single file in the front pulling away from the field by over 2 seconds as Thunhorst started making more aggressive attempts to take away the lead but unable to hold the momentum to get under Boelke. Hardin found himself running alone in 5th place in the middle of a 3 second gap between Kibbey in 4th and Schoen in 6th. The laps continued to count down with Boelke holding off Thunhorst with 30 laps remaining as the lead pack had caught up to lap traffic.
After an intense stretch, Thunhorst was able to get into the inside of Boelke with 18 laps remaining. Boelke fought back from the outside but couldn’t maintain and settled into 2nd ahead of Morton as Thunhorst started to pull away. Going into the final 10 laps, Thunhorst had built the gap to over one second ahead of Boelke as Kibbey continued to pressure Morton for 3rd. Kibbey wasn’t able to capitalize on Morton before Thunhorst took the checkered flag and became the first repeat winner of the season.
Kenny Kibbey maintains his lead in the point standings with 191 points followed by Justin Morton, up from 3rd place now 13 points behind the lead. Austin Boelke moved up into 3rd place with 176 points with Michael Goodman and Mathew Thunhorst rounding out the top 5 drivers this season. The Bootleg Racing League heads over to Southern National Speedway for the next round of the season on April 30th with all of the action broadcast at 8:55PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S11 R5 Recap
22 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 5
Dirt Street Stock Series | Cedar Lake Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Billy Northcutt with the Dirt Panda Racing Team led flag to flag for the win tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stocks Series at Cedar Lake Speedway ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot and William Hargreaves. “That was a really fun race… I’d give money for [an] all green race tonight so I don’t have to get nervous if I’m up here leading and everybody accomplished that.”, Northcutt commented after his dominating run tonight, “I can’t guarantee that I was the fastest car on the track, but [Hargreaves] and [Proudfoot] were racing clean once they got behind me.”
Billy Northcutt sat on the pole with a fast time at 15.878 in the qualifying session tonight around 0.03 faster than William Hargreaves, Brandyn Proudfoot, and Jason Best behind him. Northcutt and Proudfoot shared the front row as the green flag came out over the first heat of the evening. Northcutt dominated the event taking the win ahead of Proudfoot by over 0.5 crossing the line. Hargreaves had Best to his inside as he took the green in the second heat. Hargreaves had a strong launch off the start pulling ahead and leading every lap to the checkered flag while Best battled with John Wilson holding onto 2nd place in the end.
Stephen Spies started out front for the C-Main consolation race with Bobby Hayes to his outside. Spies cleared Hayes early with Joe Segalla challenging Hayes for 2nd place. Spies and Hayes were able to separate themselves from the rest of the field to battle over the lead as the white flag came out with Spies able to hold the lead for the win. Wilson was leading the field to the inside of J R Shepherd to start off the B-Main consolation. A great launch from Wilson allowed him to clear Shepherd quickly taking control of the field. Running single file, Wilson led Shepherd and Hunter Hill to the checkered flag unchallenged.
Billy Northcutt took the green flag in the 40-lap feature event opting to start from the outside line with Hargreaves to the inside. Northcutt took a very high line jumping out to a strong lead over Hargreaves with Best, Proudfoot, and Spies following single file behind. The top 5 were able to pull away from the rest of the field with Bobby Hayes leading the second group ahead of Wilson and Shepherd. 10 laps down, Proudfoot overtook Best with an aggressive slider and Best wasn’t able to get the crossover completed in time to hold back Proudfoot’s advance.
Northcutt and Hargreaves built a two second gap ahead of Proudfoot as they crossed the halfway mark. Spies, Best, and Hayes battled over 4th as Wilson and Shepherd waited for an opportunity from behind. Wilson stuck his nose in and was able to get around Hayes into 6th with 15 laps remaining as Spies still led the rear pack from 4th place. Northcutt still led the field, but Proudfoot had reeled the leaders back in and overtook Hargreaves now right behind Northcutt.
Going into the final 5 laps over the race, Northcutt had caught up to lap traffic with Proudfoot pressuring for the lead. Negotiating through the rear of the field, Northcutt used the lap traffic to hold Proudfoot at bay and took the checkered flag crossing the line 0.142 ahead of Proudfoot with Hargreaves, Spies, and Best rounding out tonight’s top 5 finishers.
William Hargreaves continues to lead the points standings with 394 points after finishing 3rd tonight. Brandyn Proudfoot closed to gap from 2nd place to only 6 points with Billy Northcutt in 3rd place with 374 points, 20 points off the lead. Bobby Hayes and Johnny Ratley round out the top 5 drivers at this point in the season. The Bootleg Racing League now heads over to Lernerville Speedway on April 29th for the next round with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S1 R10 Recap
19 Apr 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 1 | Round 10
Premier Series | Talladega Superspeedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Thomas George with Steel Horse Racing claimed his second win of the season tonight with the Pretty Good Racing League in the ‘Chuckles‘ I’m in Danger 250 presented by MC2 Editing Services at Talladega Superspeedway beating Ricky Hardin and Kevin Bartelt to the line in a photo finish. “It’s Dega so, I mean, anything can happen.”, George commented after his win tonight, “That caution just came out perfectly… When that came out, I knew it’s like, alright, I just want to survive. Let me get to the end here.”
Joe Hassert started the night off leading the field to the green flag with Jason Galvin to his outside as the field doubled up quickly running side by side. Scott Eckrich was one of a few drivers that decided to drop out of the main pack playing a safer strategy for the long run in an attempt to avoid the “big one”. Mike Rasimas opted to stay up near the front tucked in a few rows back on the inside line keeping the leaders within sight. As the drivers put 10 laps behind them the field had already split into two separate packs.
20 laps into the race, the leading pack tried to go three wide, but the outside line fell apart leaving the field two wide with Brian Yaczik leading the inside line and Paul Pepper leading the outside swapping the race lead back and forth between them. The first round of pit cycles began on lap 29 in small 8 to 12 car groups spreading the 38 car field out around all ends of the track in several smaller packs. A single car incident brought the caution out as the last group’s pit cycle was underway stacking the field back together once again.
The field again divided back up into two smaller packs going into the second half of the evening as the competition in the front pack started to pick up. The drivers continued to try to get a third line working to the outside but weren’t able to maintain for long before merging back into a two wide race. Eckrich led the second pack, in 17th place, from around one second behind the lead pack, holding a safe distance anticipating the chaos that Talladega is known for as the laps counted down.
Drivers started to feel the pressure to move toward the front to get into a good position for the end and bump drafting became more frequent which caused some trouble approaching lap 50 as the caution was thrown out for a bad bump that sent Jason Galvin around on track. Adam Jurski pushed Rich Jette out front around Jeff Ward off the restart taking away the lead. Much more of the field stayed in the lead pack off the restart as they aggressively positioned themselves.
With 40 laps remaining a large group of drivers were caught up in a massive wreck coming out of turn four ending the night early for Adam Blattell and stacking the field back together. Woody Mahan and Eckrich were on the front row as the green flag came back out over the field. Mahan had a very early launch off the restart which spread the field out into three separate groups on the first lap with only the top 14 drivers in the leading pack. The second pack followed four seconds behind with the third pack 2 seconds behind them.
Chris Lanini found himself taking the lead while controlling the inside line with Mahan battling back from the outside. The outside line had a strong run and cleared five cars past Lanini and choose to stay up high and continue pushing further out front as the inside line began to look less organized and not able to match pace. The leading pack shrunk down to the top 12 drivers and the third pack contained the majority of the field with 25 laps to go. The second pack of drivers were only three cars, consisting of Rick Thompson, Pepper, and Rasimas, and were slowly catching up to the leading pack almost ten seconds ahead of the rear pack.
Mahan held the lead as the entire front pack went single file along the outside wall knowing there would be one more required pit cycle for fuel going into the last 20 laps. Mahan and Eckrich were among the first drivers to pit only taking fuel and rejoining the track in 20th through 23rd place running together and quickly cycling back to the front as the rest of the drivers had to make their stops during the following laps. With 10 laps remaining, the final group of drivers made their pit stop.
Eckrich was set to overtake Rasimas who was exiting the pits but was spun around with Yaczik from aggressive pushing with Mahan bringing out the caution and allowing Rasimas to hold the lead for the restart with Jurski to his outside. Eckrich and Yaczik were far back in the field as the green flag came out taking them out of contention for the win. Thomas George had a great run on the outside and jumped out to the front as the “Big One” struck a few rows back involving the majority of the field with only 5 laps to go.
The Pretty Good Racing League does not have GWC finishes which left the drivers tonight with a one lap shootout to finish off the race at Talladega as the green and white flags came out together. George and Ricky Hardin battled over the lead coming out of tour four and down the front stretch with George taking the win by 0.037 in a photo finish across the line. Scott Eckrich climbed back up to 7th place in the end after all of the chaos.
Scott Eckrich continues to lead in the point standings after his strong recovery tonight with 360 points ahead of Thomas George by only 1 point. Jeff Ward still sits in 3rd place with 324 points with Mike Rasimas and Rich Jette each moving up one spot and rounding out the top 5 drivers with two rounds remaining in the season. The Pretty Good Racing League now heads over to Dover International Speedway for the “I Hate Octane93 on Twitch.tv” Dover 200 for the next round on April 26th with all of the action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S17 R4 Recap
16 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 4
Super Late Model Series | Five Flags Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Mathew Thunhorst claimed his first win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Five Flags Speedway ahead of Kenny Kibbey and Justin Morton. “It was quite the eventful race”, Thunhorst commented about his hard charge to the front, “I was able to get up to like 7th or 8th pretty early before the cautions started coming and then I was just able to get to the top five and I kind of felt like once I got there the pieces kind of fell [in place].”
Donny Moore led the field to the green flag starting to start the evening off with Austin Boelke to his outside. Boelke and Moore battled side by side around the first several laps with Boelke being able to clear for the lead going into the 5th lap. Kenny Kibbey stayed close being Boelke trying to get around Moore in the same manner and was able to push Moore back to 3rd. Boelke and Kibbey then immediately started to pull away from the rest of the field.
A caution at the 20-lap mark stacked the field back together and put Justin Morton and James Lowe directly behind the leaders on the restart. Kibbey continued to chase Boelke around the track with Morton and Lowe close behind, but Thunhorst had also climbed up from 13th place through the field throughout the first 30 laps and joined the battle for the lead from 5th. Morton was able to get around Kibbey for 2nd place as Thunhorst moved up into 4th ahead of Lowe. Thunhorst wasted no time challenging for 3rd diving below Kibbey clearing for the position 40 laps into the event.
Going into the second half, Boelke continued to hold the lead. Thunhorst cleared Morton for 2nd place and started reeling Boelke in. Thunhorst’s move gave an opportunity to Kibbey who got around Morton before Morton could get back into line back in 4th ahead of Moore. Thunhorst made several attempts to pass but Boelke held a defensive line tight to the inside not leaving any room for Thunhorst to get beneath him. With 35 laps remaining, the top 3 of Boelke, Thunhorst, and Kibbey started to again pull away from the field.
Boelke slid up the track just enough to give Thunhorst an opening on lap 68 and Thunhorst took the lead away with Kibbey tight on his bumper to push Boelke back to 4th behind Morton. Boelke continued to fall back with 25 laps to go falling back to 6th ahead of Jeffrey Hardin. Kibbey stayed close to Thunhorst waiting for a mistake he could take advantage of, but Thunhorst was slowly starting to build a gap between them running 0.4 apart with 15 laps to go. Continuing to build that gap to over 1 second, Thunhorst took the win mostly uncontested tonight.
Kenny Kibbey leads in the points standings with 154 points, 4 points ahead of James Lowe after tonight’s win. Justin Morton holds onto 3rd with 140 points over Austin Boelke and Michael Goodman rounding out the top 5 drivers so far in the season. Mathew Thunhorst, last season’s champion, currently sits back in 7th place tied with Joe Segalla with 113 points. Now the Bootleg Racing League heads over to North Wilkesboro Speedway for the next round on April 23rd with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S11 R4 Recap
15 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 4
Dirt Street Stock Series | I-55 Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
William Hargreaves with the Dirt Panda Racing Team led every lap to the checkered flag tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at the I-55 Speedway ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot and Billy Northcutt. “It’s a great track, I think it’s pretty racy all around really.”, Hargreaves commented after his photo finish win tonight, “My only hope was to defend that slider line. I knew [Proudfoot] was going to go for it, and I just had to send it down there as far as I could and hope it worked.”
William Hargreaves and Billy Northcutt started the night off matching fast laps at 14.565 in qualifying with the pole going to Hargreaves who led the field to the green from the front row inside of Brandyn Proudfoot in the first heat. After several attempts on the lead from Proudfoot, Hargreaves was able to hold him off and take the checkered flag. Billy Northcutt led the second heat with Chris Davis to his outside.
Northcutt cleared Davis quickly and instantly went on the defensive not giving Davis an opportunity to challenge him. John Wilson and Chris Hill started the B Main consolation race from the front row. A strong launch from Wilson set him off to a good start as the field single filed out. Wilson was able to outpace the rest of the field pulling away by over 0.7 before taking the checkered flag.
Hargreaves took the field to the green flag starting off the 40-lap feature event with Northcutt to his inside. Hargreaves wasn’t able to clear Northcutt as the drivers battled side by side around the first few laps before Northcutt slid back into 2nd to defend against Brandyn Proudfoot close behind in 3rd. Chris Davis started challenging for 3rd trading sliders with Proudfoot back and forth as the drivers passed the 10-lap mark.
Proudfoot was able to get to the outside of Northcutt but wasn’t able to clear as Proudfoot made contact with the outside wall and found himself back in another heated battle with Davis. The battle came to a head as Proudfoot got loose and fell behind Chris Hill before settling back in 5th ahead of Joe Segalla. Going into the second half of the event, Davis and Hill battled hard over 3rd and Hargreaves managed to pull away from Northcutt by over 2 seconds.
Davis and Hill came together with 10 laps to go unfortunately sending both drivers around and to the rear of the field. The gap of over 2.5 seconds that Hargreaves had built over Northcutt was taken away as the caution came out from that incident. Hargreaves ran the outside line to clear Northcutt, but Proudfoot took advantage of the restart to stay with the leader and quickly took 2nd place away. Proudfoot made a hard charge for the front, but it wasn’t enough in the end as they crossed the line slamming doors with Hargreaves crossed the line 0.029 ahead of Proudfoot.
William Hargreaves took the lead away from Johnny Ratley with his win tonight now with 317 points total. Brandyn Proudfoot moved up to 2nd place 7 points behind the leader. Billy Northcutt trails behind in 3rd at 290 points with Ratley and Bobby Hayes rounding out the top 5 in the points standings 4 weeks into the season. The drivers now set their sights to Cedar Lake Speedway on April 22nd with all of the mudslinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S1 R9 Recap
12 Apr 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 1 | Round 9
Premier Series | Bristol Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Jeff Ward with Graafix LC Motorsports took the mud-covered checkered flag tonight in the Laps for Muscular Dystrophy 125 presented by Patriot Media & Marketing Services with the Pretty Good Racing League in the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway ahead of Isaiah Dupre and Woody Mahan. “I’m wore out, that was probably the hardest I’ve ever drove a sim racing car”, Ward commented after the race, “Man it was a handful. It feels good to get that one for sure.”
Michael Whiting started the evening off leading the field to the green for the first heat race of the evening. Isaiah Dupre gained on Whiting from 2nd place being able to take away the inside line and overtake for the lead. Whiting stayed close behind but wasn’t able to challenge back for the lead before Dupre took the checkered flag. Rich Jette led the second heat with Don Runkle Jr to his outside. However, Jeff Ward had the best launch from a row back quickly overtaking the front row and taking the lead. Ward pulled away to an impressive 4.3 second lead before taking the checkered flag.
The third and final heat of the night had Travis McQuistion in the front with Norm Pelletier to his outside as the green flag came out. McQuistion had a good launch off the start and pulled away from Pelletier, but Woody Mahan caught the leader and tried to overtake from the outside with Scott Eckrich jumping both cars into the lead as McQuistion dropped back into 3rd behind Mahan. Eckrich was caught up negotiating around lap traffic which gave the lead over the Mahan who took the win.
Dupre had Ward to his outside as the field took the green flag in the feature event. Ward ran the highline well clearing for the lead very early with Mahan and Eckrich following him around pushing Dupre back to 4th place. Eckrich tried several times to overtake Mahan from the inside but couldn’t get enough speed coming out of the corners to stay alongside. Ward had caught the beginning of lap traffic early into the race as the rear of the field became very spread out.
Mahan and Eckrich closed the gap to Ward going into lap 20 and started searching around the track for a line to use to challenge for the lead. Mahan and Ward door slammed knocking both drivers loose and letting Eckrich get past Mahan into 2nd place. Eckrich was able to then use the outside line to overtake Ward and started to build a gap while Ward and Mahan battled over 2nd. Lap traffic hindered Eckrich’s run allowing Ward and Mahan to get back up to his bumper.
25 laps into the race, only the top 8 drivers were still on the lead lap with 14th place and back already multiple laps down. The 24 car field was spread out to all ends of the track complicating matters for Eckrich who had to continuously change lines to negotiate around the traffic. The dense lap traffic also forced the top 3 drivers apart as over a 1 second gap had extended between Eckrich and Ward as well as Ward and Mahan. With 50 laps completed, Dupre in 4th place was the last car on the lead lap.
Eckrich made hard contact with lap traffic that allowed Ward and Mahan to close the gap back up with both drivers overtaking the leader as Eckrich was forced to pull off track with damage from the incident. The competition caution was thrown out over the field on lap 60 for the only scheduled pit stop of the night with Ward and Mahan the only drivers on the lead lap. Dupre was the first car a lap down and was granted a pass around rejoining the leaders on the lead lap as the stewards threw the green flag back out for the second half of the feature.
Ward wasn’t able to clear Mahan off the restart and the drivers battled side by side for several laps before Mahan was able to clear for the lead from the outside line. Ward worked to stay with Mahan as Mahan wove through the traffic. Mahan and Ward came together a few times as the laps counted down. Lap traffic and over rotation through the corners caused Mahan to check up and Ward wasn’t able to avoid, but in every case both drivers were able to quickly recover and continue racing. After a more severe instance of contact between them, Ward gave Mahan a chance to recover instead of overtaking showing the sportsmanship and respect between the battling leaders.
With 25 laps remaining, Dupre had managed to close up the gap to the lead battle to within 3 seconds after starting from the rear of the field on the restart. Ward was able to clear Mahan for the lead with 20 laps to go along the outside line and started pulling away with the end of the night in sight. Ward made contact with McQuistion that sent McQuistion around and collected Mahan giving him significant damage and allowing Dupre to take away 2nd place going into the final 10 laps. Mahan was forced off track with damage leaving Ward and Dupre the only cars on the lead lap.
Mahan was able to quickly fix the necessary damage for the stewards to allow him back on track in time to hold onto 3rd place, 2 laps down ahead of Thomas George. Ward took the checkered flag unchallenged with a 4 second gap ahead of Dupre. The dirt proved too much for some drivers as almost half of the field retired early for the night with no one making it to the end without an incident or two.
Scott Eckrich holds onto the lead in the point standings with 326 points. Thomas George closed the gap slightly now 16 points behind the lead. Jeff Ward moved up to 3rd in the standings after tonight’s win now at 289 points. Michael Chrobok and Mike Rasimas round out the top 5 going into the final two rounds of the season. The Pretty Good Racing League now prepares for the chaos of Talladega Superspeedway for the Chuckles I’m in Danger 250 presented by MC2 Editing Services on April 19th with all of the fast-paced action broadcast live at 8:50PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
ASC S11 R11 Recap
11 Apr 2022
Autobahn Sportscar Challenge | Season 11 | Round 11
LMP2/GT3 Multiclass Event | Le Mans
Carter Kundinger with Satellite Racing Apollo took the checkered flag tonight in the Prototype Class with the Autobahn Sportscar Challenge 90-minute event at Le Mans ahead of Robert Tinsey and Luc Carbonneau. Ross Booth beat Ryan Robertson and Ryan Washeleski to the line in the GT Pro Class as Ryan Robertson took the win in the GT AM Class ahead of David Parry and Dale Green. “That was a really fun and stressful race”, Kundinger told us tonight after his win, “Really it was just traffic kind of that was really what decided who was in front and who was behind.”
Jeffrey Ooms led the field to the green starting off the evening at Le Mans for the Prototype Class drivers with Ross Booth leading the GT drivers. The field had a very clean start as the drivers in all classes single filed out quickly and settled in for the 90-minute event. Carter Kundinger and Joshua Wolf battled early over 3rd place with Kundinger able to hold onto the position, but the battling allowed Ooms to pull away ahead of the field. Nathan Jue, who was running in 2nd behind Ooms, pulled off the track and ended his own evening in the first 5 minutes of the race.
Several smaller incidents and close calls through the first 30 minutes shuffled the running order around, but Ooms continued to lead in the Prototypes ahead of Kundinger and Robert Tinsey. Booth and Robertson each started building gaps ahead of the rest of their respective classes in the GT Pro and GT AM. Ooms pulled into the pits on lap 9 and stayed in for an extended amount of time at over 1:10 repairing damage picked up while negotiating through GT3 traffic and dropping him far back in the running order and giving the lead to Kundinger with Tinsey staying close behind waiting for an opportunity to challenge for the lead.
As they approached the halfway point in the race, Robertson had over a 46 second lead over the rest of the GT AM Class with Dylan Parry and Matthew Gosch battling hard over 2nd place. Ross Booth led the GT Pro Class with a gap of over 16 seconds ahead of Washeleski. Tinsey took the Prototype lead away from Kundinger, but as Tinsey and Kundinger continued to battle over the lead Wolf and Lou Carbonneau were able to close up the gap to the leaders while battling amongst themselves over 3rd place.
Going into the final 30 minutes, Kundinger was able to retake the lead from Tinsey and Wolf lost 3rd place to Carbonneau, but all four drivers stayed within reach to take advantage of a potential mistake from their competitors. Both GT Pro and GT AM fields had become very spread out with multiple seconds between most drivers as Booth and Robertson continued to lead from far ahead. Ooms found himself back inside of the top 10 as the drivers completed their second pit cycle of the event.
Ooms continued his hard charge through the Prototype field with 20 minutes remaining from 7th place. Kundinger and Tinsey continued their fierce battle over the lead as the time counted down going into the final 5 laps. Tinsey slid wide going around a corner with 12 minutes remaining costing him any chance at taking the win from Kundinger and putting him under immediate pressure from Carbonneau and Wolf. Carbonneau overtook for 2nd quickly while Tinsey was trying to recover. With nearly a 7 second lead, Kundinger was able to relax and just maintain his pace to the finish. Carbonneau, Tinsey, and Wolf chased each other stacked close together single file.
Tinsey took 2nd place back from Carbonneau with 2 laps to go and Ooms climbed his way back into 5th and closed the gap to Wolf up to within 2.5 seconds. Seemingly in response to Ooms gaining, Carbonneau was aggressively pushing with Tinsey instead of attempting for an overtake and built up a gap ahead of Wolf around the final lap. Going through the final corners, Tinsey and Carbonneau fought hard over 2nd place with Tinsey able to hold the position in the end. Kundinger crossed the line 7 seconds ahead of Tinsey, Carbonneau, Wolf, and Ooms all tightly stacked together rounding out the top 5 finishers in the Prototypes.
Billy Smith continues to lead in the points standings in the Prototype Class with a total of 200 points and 21 points ahead of Carter Kundinger in 2nd. Ross Booth has a dominating lead in the GT3 Pro Class at 354 points. Ryan Washeleski sits in 2nd place 42 points behind. Ryan Robertson again goes unchallenged in the GT AM Class points standings with 243 points and a 77-point lead over Trent Brown in 2nd. Satellite Racing, consisting of Robert Tinsey, Ryan Washeleski, and Ryan Robertson, leads in the team standings with 258 points. The Autobahn Sportscar Challenge now heads over to Imola for the next round on April 25th with all of the fast-paced action broadcast live at 9:05PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S17 R3 Recap
09 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 3
Super Late Model Series | Stafford Motor Speedway
Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming took the checkered flag and became the third different winner of the season in the third round of the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Stafford Motor Speedway ahead of James Lowe and Austin Boelke. “It’s always fun to get, well any victory, but the first victory in the new series”, Kibbey commented after his win tonight, “With these [Super Late Models] you almost have to race to halfway or so because it comes to a point where, unless your tires are way better than the guys around you, if you’re pretty even it’s really, really hard to pass when you get into the late goings of these races.”
Bryan Dehn started the evening on the pole with Michael Goodman to his outside as the field took the green flag. After a rocky start to the event the drivers managed to get sorted out after several cautions early on caused frustration within the field. 20 laps into the race, Dehn continued to lead ahead of Kenny Kibbey and James Lowe. The field began to single file out as drivers settled into a rhythm and started putting laps behind them. Seeming to take the early incidents into account, the drivers stayed single file with very few moves being made to advance for several laps thereafter.
Kibbey stayed close behind Dehn staying within reach to take advantage if Dehn made a mistake which happened on lap 38 as Dehn went high enough in a corner for Kibbey to get to his inside and take away the lead. Kibbey quickly started to pull away extending the gap ahead of Dehn as Lowe started to pressure Dehn for 2nd. Going into the second half, Lowe had yet to get around Dehn, but Dehn was showing signs of excessive tire wear and was dropping off the pace as Kibbey continued to extend the gap ahead by more than 1 second.
Out pacing the rest of the field by 0.2 each lap, Kibbey maintained a strong lead over the rest of the drivers with 40 laps remaining. Dehn defended 2nd place against Lowe and Justin Morton, who caught up to the battle, by controlling the inside line. A caution came out on lap 62 stacking the field back together and putting Lowe behind Kibbey for the restart with Dehn to the outside at a significant disadvantage. Kibbey had a strong launch and Lowe stayed with him getting to the inside of Dehn with Austin Boelke trying to close the door before Dehn could get down to the inside.
Dehn fell back to 5th before he tried to dive down low behind Morton but caught the front end of Goodman to his inside and spun sideways before sliding back up the track collecting several other drivers. Kibbey continued to lead now followed by Lowe, Boelke, Morton, and Goodman rounding out the top 5 with 25 laps remaining. Kibbey continued to show a strong pace holding a 0.2 lead over Lowe going into the final 10 laps as Boelke and Morton battled over 3rd. Kibbey crossed the line mostly uncontested followed by Lowe, Boelke, Morton, and Goodman.
Kenny Kibbey and James Lowe are now tied for 1st place in the point standings each with a total of 115 points. Michael Goodman moved up to 3rd place with 107 points followed closely behind by Justin Morton and Austin Boelke rounding out the top 5 drivers. The Bootleg Racing League now moves over to Five Flags Speedway for the next round of the season on April 16th with all of the short track action broadcast live at 8:55PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
Virtual Grip Network 