BRL DSS S11 R3 Recap
08 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 3
Dirt Street Stock Series | Volusia Speedway Park
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Johnny Ratley with the Dirt Panda Racing Team took the checkered flag for the first time this season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Volusia Speedway Park beating out William Hargreaves and Billy Northcutt. “It felt like the top was the place to be in the beginning”, Ratley told us after the race, “[The] last restart of the race, [Hargreaves] took the high side and then I was just grinning because I knew that bottom was coming in and I was able to sneak on by him.”
William Hargreaves stood at the top of the boards starting the evening off with a fast lap of 19.46 in qualifying beating Johnny Ratley by 0.02. Hargreaves swept the first heat of the night holding off Billy Northcutt pressuring from behind. Ratley took the win in the second heat beating Brandyn Proudfoot to the line. Jason Best took the win in the C Main consolation as Chris Hill got around Bobby Hayes taking 2nd place before the end. In the final consolation race, J R Shepherd took the win in the B Main event ahead of John Wilson.
Hargreaves and Ratley battled hard over the lead immediately going into the feature event with Northcutt and Proudfoot catching the lead in the first few laps. The battle intensified with no driver giving an inch as Hargreaves continued to hold onto the lead. Proudfoot slid back to 4th behind Northcutt with Ratley looking to the inside of Hargreaves giving the lead over to Ratley going into the second half of the race.
As the battle continued, more drivers caught up to the front with Jason Best and J R Shepherd joining the pack. The top six drivers pressured each other hard as Proudfoot struggled and dropped back to 5th behind Best. Best continued his forward momentum diving to the inside of Northcutt but wasn’t able to complete the move. With 10 laps to go Shepherd tried to use the low line to get around Proudfoot and was denied as Proudfoot slammed the door. Proudfoot tried to recover some positions throwing a slider on Best, but Best anticipated the move and completed a cross over retaking 4th with Proudfoot going high into the outside wall and dropping back to 7th behind Chris Hill.
Proudfoot threw a slider to move back up to 6th behind Shepherd but found himself too far back to make up much more ground. The final laps saw Hargreaves and Northcutt trading sliders back and forth battling hard over 2nd place with Hargreaves taking the position in the end as the Dirt Panda Racing Team crossed the line 1st, 2nd, and 3rd with Johnny Ratley taking the checkered flag.
Johnny Ratley now leads in the points standings with 241 points followed by William Hargreaves in 2nd only 8 points behind. Brandyn Proudfoot dropped back to 3rd in the points after struggling tonight 9 points behind Ratley. Billy Northcutt and Jason Best round out the top five drivers of the season with eight races remaining. The drivers now set their sights to the I-55 Speedway for the first time in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series on April 15th and all of the action can be seen live at 7:10PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S1 R8 Recap
06 Apr 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 1 | Round 8
Premier Series | Martinsville Speedway
Thomas George with Steel Horse Racing took his first win of the season tonight in the Hide the Pain & Celebrate the Joy of Driving 250 at Martinsville Speedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Adam Jurski and Norm Pelletier. “We were working on the restarts and trying to get Steel Horse a one-two finish here tonight and those cautions played out just perfectly for us tonight.”, Thomas George told us, “I didn’t have the best car but with the track position we had, it was right place right time.”
Adam Jurski started out on the pole tonight after being away for several weeks for shoulder surgery. “Passing usually is difficult here so I think track position is going to be really key.”, Jurski shared before the event, “Hopefully we can get into our groove and get some green flag racing in and be there in the end.” As the PGRL took the first green of the night and the drivers all scrambled to get single filed out quickly with Jurski having a strong launch out front.
Cold tires and tight corners caught several drivers out early on in the event. Brian Yaczik made his way up to 2nd place coming to lap 15 and started pressuring Jurski for the lead. Thomas George and Scott Eckrich continued to move up through the field both getting into the top 6 with the first 50 laps of the night completed and several cautions keeping the field tightly stacked. Two drivers had their races ended early out of the 28-car field to that point with Jurski still leading over Yaczik in the front.
Yaczik took advantage of a restart on lap 62 diving down below Jurski and overtaking for the lead. Jurski tried a cross over taking the inside line back but wasn’t able to match Yaczik’s pace on corner exit and conceded back in 2nd place ahead of an intense battle between Woody Mahan and Thomas George over 3rd. George had the position as the caution flag was thrown out with Eckrich and Jeff Ward moving up into the top 5 and Mahan taking the opportunity for his first pit stop of the night.
Drew Carroll made a hard charge to the front quickly clearing past Ward and George into 4th behind Jurski. The battle over the lead between Yaczik and Eckrich was heating up with Eckrich pressuring hard going through the corners. Most lead lap drivers choose to pit when the caution came out on lap 87 shuffling the running order. Norm Pelletier stayed out and led the field as the green came back out with Yaczik and Eckrich rejoining the field in 6th and 7th respectively with fresh tires. Ward had to drop to the rear of the field for a pit road violation restarting back in 21st.
Yaczik cleared for the lead again on lap 103 with Eckrich following close behind. George had made his way back into the top 5 as the drivers that choose to stay out fell off the pace quickly. An unfortunate restart on lap 110 saw Pelletier dive to the inside when Yaczik had to check up forcing a three wide situation with the leaders that sent Eckrich and Yaczik around on track and hard into the outside wall collecting several other drivers coming up from behind and giving the lead back over to Pelletier.
As the drivers crossed the halfway point in the race, George was in the lead followed by Pelletier, Ricky Hardin, Danny Gutierrez, and Marc Cohn rounding out the top 5. 23 of the 28-car field were still in competition with 5 drivers having to call it a night early. Eckrich and Yaczik were quickly charging back to the front both back in the top 5 by lap 150 showing their paces to be dominate in the field. Frequent cautions limited the chances for drivers to advance through the field with George able to hold off any attempts on the lead through the short green flag runs.
Eckrich was pressuring George hard for the lead on one of the longer green flag runs when Eckrich’s front end snapped loose on lap 162 sending him hard into the outside wall and collected several other drivers including Yaczik who was still fighting his way through the field further back. Yaczik was able to stay on track dropping back to 16th, but Eckrich needed substantial repair to his car sending him down several laps from the pits as the race resumed back under green.
Jurski had been quietly moving back up through the field throughout the second half of the race after some bad luck early on and was back up to 4th with 75 laps to go. George and Yaczik made slight contact sending George around, but he was able to recover clean and continue on from the middle of the field in 11th place between Mahan and Pelletier. Yaczik, who was having a rough night, was back up to 7th still showing a strong pace on lap 182. Drew Carroll was leading the field with Isaiah Dupre and Jurski following close behind.
More unfortunate situations for drivers benefited Yaczik and George letting each of them jump several positions at a time with drivers ahead getting loose in the corners and sliding high and out of their way. With 60 laps remaining, George caught up to Yaczik and the drivers battled hard over 5th with Jurski joining the fight. Yaczik had more bad luck spinning around in the midst of the battle and resulted in serious damage to his car as he joined the growing list of drivers who had ended their night early.
Carroll continued to lead ahead of Dupre with teammates Jurski and George in 3rd and 4th going into the final 50 laps of the event. George was able to leap past both Jurski and Dupre into 2nd place with Jurski keeping 3rd. George then inherited the lead from Carroll who chose to take his final pit stop during the resulting caution moving Jurski up to 2nd followed by Mahan, Pelletier, and Cohn rounding out the top 5. The remainder of the race was plagued by short green flag runs giving George a strong advantage over the Jurski and Pelletier behind him as he held the lead to the checkered flag.
Scott Eckrich holds onto the lead in the point standings with a total of 300 points as the most winning driver of the season thus far. Thomas George moved up two spots up into 2nd place now 27 points behind the leader. Mike Rasimas dropped back another spot from last week now sitting in 3rd with Jeff Ward and Michael Chrobok close behind rounding out the top 5 drivers. The PGRL drivers now set their sights to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Laps for Muscular Dystrophy 125 on April 12th. They’ll be running around on the dirt configuration, and you can catch all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 8:50PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S17 R2 Recap
02 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 2
Super Late Model Series | Hickory Motor Speedway
James Lowe took his first win of the season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Hickory Motor Speedway ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Kenny Kibbey. “It feels great, but I’m worn out… These things are hard to win and whenever you can get one you gotta kind of enjoy it a little bit.”, Lowe told us after leading all 100 laps tonight, “These cars, it seems like if you can get out front you can stay out there unless you mess something up.”
Joe Segalla started the night off on the pole with James Lowe to his outside as the green flag came out. Lowe wasted no time dropping behind Segalla off the start and diving down low to take the inside line away going into the first turn and pulling ahead into the lead. Contact between Segalla and Austin Boelke soon thereafter shuffled the running order in the front letting Michael Goodman and Kenny Kibbey move up into 2nd and 3rd. Kibbey cleared Goodman and went to work closing the gap to Lowe.
Mathew Thunhorst cleared for 3rd place when Goodman found himself stuck on the outside line with a tightly packed group of cars running single file below him. Thunhorst and Kibbey battled side by side as the field had 20 laps completed with Thunhorst taking the position away with Justin Morton and Todd Liston catching the lead pack. Thunhorst started pressuring Lowe trying to force a mistake, but Lowe held the inside line running very close together lap after lap.
Going into the second half of the 100-lap event, Thunhorst stayed tight on Lowe’s rear bumper waiting for an opportunity to take advantage, but Lowe held his line not letting Thunhorst get beneath him. Kibbey stayed close behind ready to follow Thunhorst when the move was made for the lead. With 30 laps remaining, Liston cleared Morton for 4th place and started to close the half of a second gap to Kibbey as the leaders caught up to lap traffic for the first time of the evening.
Thunhorst became more aggressive giving Lowe a few light taps to his rear bumper with 20 laps to go. Lowe continued to run a consistent low line in the corners with the laps counting down and not giving Thunhorst a chance to get below him. Kibbey followed closely behind preventing Thunhorst from adjusting his entry for a better run off in the corners as it would open the inside line up enough for Kibbey to take advantage in the final laps. After an intense final few laps, Lowe took the checkered flag beating Thunhorst to the line by 0.139.
James Lowe jumped to the top of the point standings with tonight’s win with a total of 76 points. Kenny Kibbey follows behind by only 1 point and Mathew Thunhorst 3 points off the lead. Michael Goodman sits in 4th place with 71 points and Justin Morton rounds out the top 5 with 65 points. The Bootleg Racing League now heads out to Stafford Motor Speedway for the third round of the season on April 9th and you can catch all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S11 R2 Recap
01 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 2
Dirt Street Stock Series | Weedsport Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Brandon Proudfoot with Jim Beaver eSports wins his second week in a row in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Weedsport Speedway beating Johnny Ratley and William Hargreaves to the finish line. “After about 20 to go… about from that point onwards”, Proudfoot commented about the hard-fought battle against Ratley running side by side through the second half of the feature event, “One restart I got a pretty good start over [Ratley] and I tried the inside but my, because I ran the top the whole night, my right rear wasn’t having any of it.”
Brandyn Proudfoot started the night off strong on the pole with a fast lap at 17.691 in qualifying. Proudfoot beat Johnny Ratley to the line taking the win in the first heat of the night. Jason Best led the field in the second heat with Chris Davis to his outside. The two drivers traded sliders early with Best taking the win in the end. Williams Hargreaves started the third and final heat of the night with Billy Northcutt to his outside. Hargreaves took the win as John Wilson kept the pressure on Northcutt but wasn’t able to make a pass before the checkered flag.
The C Main had Stephen Spies and Wilson on the front row as the green flag came out. Spies had a good launch off the start pulling away as Bobby Hayes and John Wilson battled over 2nd place. Hayes briefly cleared for the position before Wilson dove in deep and took it back holding it to the checkered flag. J R Shepherd led the B Main to the green flag with Wade Burris to his outside. Contact in the first turn collected 3 of the drivers shuffling the pack with Jackie Whaley coming home in 2nd place behind Shepherd.
Proudfoot and Best started the feature on the front row with Proudfoot being the only driver of the night to opt for starting on the outside line putting Best to his inside. Ratley, Hargreaves, and Northcutt wasted no time moving to the front to pressure Proudfoot who continued to be one of only a few drivers to run the high line. Ratley and Hargreaves battled hard over 2nd place with Northcutt waiting behind to take advantage lap after lap as the field entered the second half of the 40 lap event.
The battling behind him allowed Proudfoot to build up a gap over Ratley who cleared for 2nd place. Going into 10 laps to go, Ratley completely closed the gap up to Proudfoot and started making moves trying to take the lead away from the inside. Proudfoot relied on the momentum from the outside line to keep the lead exiting the turns staying just out of reach of a slider from Ratley as they ran side by side with the laps counting down. Hargreaves caught the battle in the final laps and had to checkup to avoid contact with Ratley coming home in 3rd with Proudfoot taking the win over Ratley by 0.183 at the line.
Brandyn Proudfoot takes off to an early lead for the season with 167 points, 9 points ahead of Johnny Ratley in 2nd place in the points standings. Rounding out the top 5 so far this season are William Hargreaves in 3rd place with 152 points, Billy Northcutt in 4th place with 138 points, and Chris Davis in 5th place with 125 points. The drivers now make their way over to Volusia Speedway Park for the third round of the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series on April 8th and all of the dirt slinging action will be broadcast live at 7:10PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S1 R7 Recap
30 Mar 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 1 | Round 7
Premier Series | Richmond Raceway
Scott Eckrich with Graafix LC Motorsports took his fourth win of the season tonight in the Muscular Dystrophy 200 presented by Patriot Media & Marketing Services with the Pretty Good Racing League at Richmond Raceway ahead of Michael Strohl and Thomas George. “The setup was pretty tight tonight and it just made passing on the bottom super, super hard”, Eckrich told us after the race, “It just really punishes the tires… if you get stuck in one of those battles it kind of feels like you just get tight and you get stuck.”
Travis McQuistion started the evening on the pole taking the green flag and quickly clearing Rich Jette going single file. The first 20 laps proved to be frustrating for several drivers as the field struggled to get sorted out with contact sending many to the back. The battle for 3rd place between Django Matthews, James Krahula, and Scott Eckrich heated up quickly as they went three wide with Krahula coming away with the position and Eckrich close behind with a strong charge through the field already up 12 spots from his starting position going into lap 26.
Eckrich was wasting no time getting around Krahula and starting to work on Jette taking 2nd place away 40 laps into the evening. Eckrich took a very low line getting to the inside of McQuistion in the lead but wasn’t able to clear right away as McQuistion battled back from the middle lane and held a strong pace. After several tense laps battling side by side, Eckrich cleared for the lead 50 laps in as Brian Yaczik and Jeff Ward started to pressure McQuistion for position.
The caution flag was thrown out on lap 81 for contact between Krahula, Thomas George, and Ricky Hardin giving the drivers a safe pit opportunity as the fuel window for the run was getting close. Eckrich, Yaczik, and Ward were leading the field as the green flag came back out approaching the halfway point in the race. With 60 laps remaining, Eckrich stayed ahead of Yaczik in the lead and drivers were shuffling throughout the field for positions. A caution on lap 148 gave the leaders another opportune time to top off on fuel and get a fresh set of tires to run out the remaining 50 laps of the night.
Jeff Ward stayed out during the caution inheriting the lead from Eckrich who rejoined the track in 6th place. Yaczik, who fell back into the field in 7th, had a rough restart coming together with Mike Rasimas and causing a traffic jam on track that collected a large portion of the field. The incident sent Yaczik back to 19th as the green flag came back out with 40 laps to go after having a strong run up front all evening. Ward had a strong launch off the restart, but Eckrich had closed up the gap quickly clearing for the lead.
Eckrich controlled the lead all the way to the checkered flag with Michael Strohl, Thomas George, Tommy Rhyne, and Jeff Ward rounding out the top 5 finishers. Tonight was the first of five races sponsored by Patriot Media & Marketing Services who has pledged to donate $1 for each view on YouTube for the sponsored races in support of muscular dystrophy awareness at the end of the season. More information about muscular dystrophy, where the donations will be sent, or how you can contribute can be found at laps4md.blogspot.com, mda.org, and muscle.ca.
Scott Eckrich, now at 278 points total, took the points lead away from Mike Rasimas with his win tonight knocking Rasimas back to 2nd place with 265 points in the standings. Michael Strohl holds onto 3rd place 48 points behind the new leader. Thomas George and Jeff Ward moved past Brian Yaczik taking 4th with 223 points and 5th place with 222 points respectively. The next round for the drivers is at Martinsville Speedway for the “Hide the Pain and Celebrate the Joy of Driving 250” on April 5th and all of the action will be broadcast live at 8:50PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
ASC S11 R10 Recap
28 MAR 2022
Autobahn Sportscar Challenge | Season 11 | Round 10
LMP2/GT3 Multiclass Event | Hungaroring
Billy Smith II claimed his fourth win for the season tonight in the Prototype Class with the Autobahn Sportscar Challenge at Hungaroring ahead of Robert Tinsey and Paul Darling. Paul Gibson led the GT Pro Class across the finish line ahead of Ryan Washeleski and Ross Booth with Ryan Robertson taking his fifth win of the season in the GT AM Class ahead of Ian Lake and Liam Rudzitis. “It’s going to start taking the pressure off and going to allow me to take less risks.”, Smith tells us as he further builds on his points lead, “Having this little bit of an advantage I can kind of relax and not have to push it so hard and just enjoy it.”
Robert Tinsey started the evening off on the pole in the Prototype Class with a recorded fast lap of 1:32.959 over 0.19 faster than Billy Smith in 2nd place and Paul Gibson led the GT drivers to the green with a fast lap of 1:42.169. The field had a fairly clean start between the classes as Tinsey had a strong launch off the start pulling away from Smith very quickly to over one second in the first few corners.
Smith struggled getting through traffic 20 minutes into the race with the gap between himself and Tinsey in the lead stretching out to over 4 seconds as Paul Darling pressured him from behind. Ian Lake had caught up to Ryan Robertson leading the GT AM Class and battled side by side, but Robertson was able to regain the lead after a few tense corners. Gibson maintained around a two second gap over Washeleski in the GT Pro Class with 14 laps completed. Ross Booth stayed within reach of Washeleski throughout in 3rd place with Mo Islam following close behind him.
Tinsey choose to pit very early going in 25 minutes into the 60-minute event giving the lead over to Smith who was still under pressure from Darling. Robertson in the GT AM Class missed a corner allowing Lake to close the gap and take the lead away as Robertson rejoined the track in 2nd place. Pit cycles began shuffling the running orders in the Prototype Class halfway through the race placing Tinsey back up into 4th place still over 30 seconds behind Smith who had yet to pit. Darling used lap traffic to get the lead away from Smith just before Darling choose to take his pit stop at the 38-minute mark as Smith again stayed out on track.
Tinsey had advanced up to 2nd place 32 seconds behind Smith as they approached 40 minutes into the race. Smith choose this moment to take his pit stop and came back out onto the track and into turn one just ahead of Tinsey now separated by 0.6 as Smith got back up to a racing pace and secured the lead with Darling back in 3rd place several seconds behind. Gibson had built a lead of over 3.5 seconds over Washeleski in the GT Pro Class with 15 minutes remaining. Robertson took the lead back in the GT AM Class, but Lake stayed close behind keeping the pressure up.
In the final moments of the event Tinsey struggled negotiating through the GT3 traffic and in the end seemed to concede the attempt to catch Smith for the lead with his pace slowing around the final lap. Gibson had over a 6 second lead ahead of Washeleski in the GT Pro Class and Robertson managed to pull away from Lake by over 1.5 seconds as they crossed the finish line in the GT AM Class.
Tonight’s win put Billy Smith at 184 points total so far in the season, 31 points ahead of Carter Kundinger in 2nd place and 38 points ahead of Robert Tinsey in 3rd, giving Smith some breathing room going forward. Ross Booth continues to lead in GT Pro Class with 312 points, 19 points ahead of Paul Gibson. Ryan Robertson has a strong lead in the GT AM Class at 205 points and 54 points between himself and Trent Brown in 2nd place. Satellite Racing, consisting of Robert Tinsey, Ryan Washeleski, and Ryan Robertson, leads in the team standings at 226 points. The drivers now head over to Le Mans for a 90-minute event on April 11th with all of the action broadcast live at 9:05PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S17 R1 Recap
26 Mar 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 1
Super Late Model Series | Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway
Jason Menda with Thunder Ridge Racing took the checkered flag after leading every lap in the first round of the new season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Austin Boelke. “Really glad that we switched over to super late models. Fits me a lot better so, yeah, really happy.”, Menda commented as he celebrated his win tonight, “I figured there was going to be a caution eventually, so I was trying to save my tires. Those restarts, I was getting kind of nervous there in the end.”
Jason Menda led the field to the green flag quickly clearing Stephen Spies to his outside going single file. The field all went single file around the first 25 laps in one long train of cars with Spies in 2nd place but unable to maintain pace with Menda and inadvertently gate keeping the rest of the field as they struggled to get around him. This allowed Menda to pull away from the field by over one second with 30 laps completed and relax his pace while saving his tires for later in the race.
Adam Schoen was the first driver to get around Spies and went to work closing the gap up to Menda gaining around 0.10 per lap on the leader. James Lowe was able to get the inside line away from Spies with Kenny Kibbey following suit approaching halfway in the race. Spies couldn’t hold the line while maintaining pace and he slid up to the outside wall and that opened up the inside line to the rest of the field with Spies dropping back to 7th before closing the door.
Going into the second half Menda continued to lead ahead of James Lowe and Adam Schoen. Tire spin from Lowe off a restart presented Kenny Kibbey an opportunity to jump to 2nd place behind Menda with bad luck striking Schoen as his engine blew coming out of turn two on lap 68 ending his night early after a strong performance up to that point. Austin Boelke, who started in the back of the field, had gotten up to 4th ahead of John Heyn with 30 laps remaining. Heyn made contact with the outside wall and started falling off quickly from the damage giving 5th place up to Bryan Dehn.
Lowe, Kibbey, and Boelke battled over 2nd place with 16 laps to go with Kibbey having to concede back in 4th behind Boelke. As the drivers went into the final 10 laps of the night, the aggression was noticeably higher with everyone reaching for any position they could get before the end. Menda continued to lead as Boelke took 2nd place away from Lowe with Thunhorst up to 4th place from starting in last place tonight. Coming out of the final corner Menda led across the line as Thunhorst was able to get around Boelke from the inside line.
A new season begins with a new car in the premier series of the Bootleg Racing League with Jason Menda top among the different drivers showing speed with the super late model tonight. Mathew Thunhorst came through the entire 26-car field up to 2nd place in the end showing that he is just as fast with the super late model as he was in the Grand National Series last season and is a serious contender for the championship going forward. Next week, the drivers hit the track at Hickory Motor Speedway for the second round of the season with all of the action broadcast live on April 2nd at 8:55PM EDT right here on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S11 R1 Recap
25 Mar 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 1
Dirt Street Stock Series | Eldora Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Brandyn Proudfoot with Jim Beaver eSports took the first win of the season in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Eldora Speedway ahead of Johnny Ratley and William Hargreaves. The second half of the race happened amidst dense traffic that Proudfoot and Ratley had to negotiate while battling over the lead. Proudfoot told us the traffic made for some great racing, “We have a little bit of a mixed community here at Bootleg Racing League. A lot of guys that do the asphalt program in the Grand National Series… a lot of those guys also tread over here. So, it’s kind of interesting because you get a mixed reaction [from the lap down cars when approaching].”
Johnny Ratley took the pole tonight with a fast lap of 19.146 and took the win in the first heat of the night after pulling away from the rest of the field by over 1.2 seconds. Brandyn Proudfoot won the second heat, but it was a much closer finish than what Ratley had. The third and final heat of the night came down to a battle between William Hargreaves and Billy Northcutt with Hargreaves taking the checkered flag. Chris Davis and Stephen Spies led every lap in each of their respective consolation races taking the checkered flag.
Johnny Ratley led the field to the green in the 40-lap feature event with Brandyn Proudfoot to this inside. Ratley had a strong start building up a gap between himself and Proudfoot as both drivers pulled away from William Hargreaves and Bill Northcutt battling over 3rd place. 10 laps into the race, Proudfoot was able to reel Ratley back in and started pressuring for the lead with a slider. The two leaders continued to throw sliders back and forth for several laps before Proudfoot settled back in behind Ratley with 20 laps remaining.
The second half of the race brought a new challenge as the leaders caught the rear of the field and started negotiating through heavy traffic. With only 10 laps to go, Ratley continued to lead until Proudfoot took control of the highline and used lap traffic to block Ratley behind him single file. This gave Proudfoot the chance he needed to pull away. Ratley went to work getting back up close to Proudfoot but there weren’t enough laps left for him to attempt a pass as Proudfoot crossed the finish line.
The drivers made a strong statement tonight going into the new season racing all 40 laps without a single caution flag thrown at Eldora Speedway. Johnny Ratley proved that he is able to challenge Proudfoot and showed the crowd that he doesn’t plan on letting Proudfoot run away with the championship this time around. Now the drivers with the Bootleg Racing League set their sights to Weedsport Speedway for the second round on April 1st broadcast live at 7PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S1 R6 Recap
22 Mar 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 1 | Round 6
Premier Series | Circuit of the Americas
Scott Eckrich with Graafix LC Motorsports claimed his third win of the season tonight in the MemePark Grand Prix at COTA presented by the LPM Group with the Pretty Good Racing League at Circuit of the Americas ahead of Mike Rasimas and Jeff Ward. “Road courses in general seem to suit me pretty well but especially technical road courses”, Eckrich commented after his dominating win tonight, “With this new car as finicky as it is it really, really puts it extremely in the driver’s hands… to say it’s a nightmare to control this thing is an understatement.”
Fred Thompson started the night off on the pole for the first road course of the season. “It’s exciting, that’s for darn sure”, Thompson told us before the race. The drivers knew that pit strategies would be critical for the race and Thompson planned to keep it simple, “When the [crew chief] says come in, I’m coming in.” Norm Pelletier started to Thompson’s outside on the front row as the green flag came out over the drivers. Pelletier had a strong launch taking the lead off the start.
Pelletier got out of shape spinning coming out of a corner and quickly fell back in the field as many drivers were struggling to complete the first lap without incident. Dupre was the leader going into the second lap with Thomas George putting pressure on him. Scott Eckrich was running in 6th when he almost had his night ended early ass Django Matthews spun around in front of Eckrich forcing Eckrich off track wide around a corner to avoid. Eckrich was able to recover quickly and continue without losing much pace as he found his way up to 3rd place with Jeff Ward following close behind.
Mike Rasimas found himself in the lead as more drivers had problems getting around the course with frequent spins and slide offs throughout the field that kept the running order shuffling as the field went into the 5th lap of the evening. Jeff Ward and Scott Eckrich each got around Drew Carroll in 2nd place putting him back in 4th while Mike Rasimas continued to lead the field. Ward and Eckrich quickly closed the gap to Rasimas as they battled each other over 2nd with Eckrich coming away with the position over Ward going into the 10th lap.
Scott Eckrich took the lead from Mike Rasimas on lap 10 and started to pull away showing a strong pace. All of the top 10 drivers made their pit stops with 18 laps remaining in the 35-lap event essentially splitting the race in half with fuel. Scott Eckrich held the lead followed by Mike Rasimas and Jeff Ward as the field completed their pit cycles with 16 laps left. Eckrich was out pacing every driver on track lap after lap with the top 3 drivers completely separated from the rest of the field by over 25 seconds.
Going into the final 10 laps of the race, Scott Eckrich had built up an over 20 second lead over Mike Rasimas in 2nd place. Jeff Ward had run into some trouble a few laps prior and was running in 3rd place 30 seconds behind Eckrich. Thomas George, Drew Carroll, and Woody Mahan battled hard over 4th place over 50 seconds behind the leader. The top 11 drivers were still on the lead lap with Fred Thompson being the last lead lap car and only 19 cars were still running on track out of the 24-car field.
Scott Eckrich absolutely dominated the field crossing the finish line 31 seconds ahead of Mike Rasimas in 2nd place and 57 seconds ahead of Jeff Ward in 3rd. Eckrich started in 13th tonight and, after taking the lead on lap 10, held it for the remainder of the 35-lap event. Only the top 10 drivers were still on the lead lap with Isaiah Dupre being the last lead lap car tonight. Travis McQuistion finished last in 24th place giving him the pole position next week at Richmond Raceway as the field inverts.
Mike Rasimas leads in the point standings with 231 points with Scott Eckrich now behind by only 2 points. Michael Strohl moves back to 3rd place with 191 points. Brian Yaczik holds onto 4th at 190 points and Thomas George sits close behind with 185 points to round out the top 5 drivers. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League moves over to Richmond Raceway for 200 laps of action in the Muscular Dystrophy Awareness 200 on March 29th broadcast live at 8:50PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network! We’ve heard it’s going to be “pretty good”.
BRL GN S9 R11 Recap
19 Mar 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 9 | Round 11
Grand National Series | New Smyrna Speedway
J R Shepherd with Different Path Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight in the season finale of the Bootleg Racing League Grand National Series presented by Gargamel’s Kitchen at New Smyrna Speedway ahead of Kenny Kibbey and Mathew Thunhorst. Coming home in third was enough for Thunhorst to take the season championship over Shepherd by only 1 point after a long, intense season between the top 2 drivers. “Very hard-fought season for sure but being able to win the last race in the grand national car is extremely cool so I was glad I was able to get up there and be able to do that tonight.”, Shepherd told us while celebrating his win tonight. Thunhorst had an uphill battle through the night struggling to climb back through the pack and joked with us after being named Season Champion, “I never want to have another race like this again… I’m happy that we’re on the back side of this one.” Thunhorst left it all out on the track tonight as the checkered flag came out.
Rubin Altice started the night off in the pole position with Jason Menda to his outside as the green flag came out. Menda was able to get around Altice’s outside taking the lead as the night started off rough for Thunhorst when he and Kibbey made contact going into turn three sending Thunhorst hard into the outside wall bringing out the caution. Thunhorst restarted from the rear of the field only 2 laps into the race. Menda held the lead off the restart with Kibbey close behind moving into 2nd. The second caution came out on lap 8 from contact between Thunhorst and Kurt Smith in the back of the field sending Smith around.
Menda had another good launch, but Kibbey stayed to his outside and started challenging for the lead 13 laps into the night. Kibbey was able to clear Menda 2 laps later with Justin Morton following suit along the top taking 2nd place. Menda pushed the car too hard coming out of turn four in the battle and sent himself around on the track bringing out the third caution of the night. Thunhorst had already climbed up to 13th through the field at that point showing a strong pace. Kibbey took the green as Morton battled from the outside but couldn’t clear Kibbey as the 4th caution came out. James Lowe and Altice made contact going through the corner spinning Altice into traffic and collecting several other drivers as the line behind him checked up hard.
25 laps into the race, Thunhorst was back within the top 10 with Shepherd in 3rd. Kibbey had a strong restart clearing Morton quickly holding onto the lead off the restart. Chris Davis brought out the 5th caution when he went into the corner too hot sending himself around and wasn’t able to recover quick enough to prevent the caution from coming out. Thunhorst was up to 7th as he continued his hard charge to the front as the green flag came back out 35 laps into the evening. Morton again tried to get around Kibbey on the outside line securing the lead as another caution came out when John Heyn got loose making contact with Joe Segalla spinning around both cars.
Morton held the lead through the restart followed single file by Kibbey and Shepherd. Thunhorst cleared into 6th place as the steward again put out the caution flag from contact between Todd Liston and Ryan Senneker bringing the field back together for another restart. Shepherd challenged for 2nd over Kibbey to the outside with a good jump but wasn’t able to clear before a pile up involving the majority of the back half of the field brought out yet another caution. The restart gave Thunhorst an opportunity to clear Adam Schoen for 4th place now directly behind Shepherd with 43 laps to go.
Kibbey again battled Morton from the outside clearing for the lead. Shepherd moved to the outside to repeat Kibbey’s move taking 2nd place as Thunhorst was pressuring from behind. The caution again came out with contact between Michael Smith and Senneker in the rear of the field and the drivers stacked back up led by Kibbey. Shepherd and Thunhorst were in 2nd and 3rd as the green flag came back out with 33 laps remaining. Shepherd was able to clear Thunhorst holding onto 2nd. Running single file, Kibbey, Shepherd, Thunhorst, and Morton started to pull away from Schoen in 5th as the 10th caution of the night was thrown out because of contact between Chris Davis and Kurt Smith sending Smith around on the track.
The green flag came back out with 16 laps remaining and Shepherd challenged for the lead over Kibbey running the outside line and cleared just before the 11th caution was thrown when Segalla and Altice came together coming out of turn four. The green came out for the last stretch with only 8 laps remaining with Shepherd leading the field followed by Kibbey and Thunhorst. Kibbey was able to clear Thunhorst holding onto 2nd with Morton starting to pressure Thunhorst for 3rd. Shepherd was able to hold off Kibbey across the line taking the checkered flag for the last time as the Grand National Series gets retired from the Bootleg Racing League and replaced next season with the Super Late Model Series.
Mathew Thunhorst took the championship for the final season of the Grand National Series with a total of 429 points beating J R Shepherd by only 1 point. Justin Morton took 3rd in the point standings with 406 points ahead of Kenny Kibbey, who had 341. Adam Schoen rounds out the top 5 with 338 points. As the Grand National Series gets retired from the Bootleg Racing League, everyone starts to prepare for the Super Late Model Series taking its place next season. “The [super] late models are going to be different for sure. I think you’re probably going to see a different group of guys be strong in those cars just because of their driving styles. Those cars are extremely tricky as far as what I’ve run in the past.”, Shepherd commented in regard to switching cars. A new season with a new car beginning with Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway on March 26th broadcast live at 8:55PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!
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