BRL SLM S18 R4 Recap
16 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 4
Super Late Model Series | Five Flags Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Mathew Thunhorst dominated the field claiming his 2nd checkered flag of Season 18 tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Five Flags Speedway ahead of Austin Boelke and J R Shepherd. The early race incident gave Thunhorst what he referred to as an uneventful drive. “All of the guys that were probably going to compete against me got caught up in that”, he commented, “I was able to then jump on that restart there and get to the lead and I didn’t look back and at that point, you know, I was just trying run laps.”
Joe Segalla shared the front row with Austin Boelke as the green flag came out over the track starting off the 100-lap event. Segalla quickly cleared into the lead and the 18-car field went mostly single file as the drivers settled in to log off some laps. A checkup caught many drivers by surprise on lap 9 when Jeffrey Hardin got loose coming out of turn four causing a chain reaction behind him resulting in many front runners getting sent around including Justin Morton and J R Shepherd and bringing out the caution flag.
Segalla lined the field back up for the restart going into lap 15. Segalla had a great jump, but the restack gave Mathew Thunhorst an opportunity who dove below Segalla and took control of the race lead. Shepherd had climbed back through the field and was battling for 6th against Jason Menda with 30 laps completed as Thunhorst took advantage of the open track ahead of him and stretched his gap to over 1.6 seconds. Segalla found himself stuck on the outside line and was falling back to Menda forcing Shepherd to concede the battle for the moment and fall back to in line behind Menda.
Going into the 2nd half of the night, Thunhorst had extended his lead to almost 4 seconds ahead of Boelke while Sheperd continued to work through the field. Shepherd was up to 4th but was struggling to find a way around the #26 of Donny Moore. Shepherd looked to the inside several time as Moore slammed the door shut over and over until Shepherd beat Moore to the corner with 22 laps remaining and took the inside line away clearing ahead into 3rd. Thunhorst had a commanding lead and was safely out of reach of the field while negotiating through lap traffic going into the final 15 laps.
Morton and Hardin battled over 8th place, the coveted inversion spot for next week, while Thunhorst was leading by over 7 seconds ahead of Boelke. Hardin dove beneath Morton for 8th, but Morton pushed ahead going around the outside of Michael Goodman forcing Hardin to do the same. Morton was looking to the outside of Menda in 6th going into the last 3 laps and was able to clear into that position, but Hardin couldn’t complete the move this time holding onto 8th. Thunhorst came out of the final corner 7.8 seconds ahead of the rest of the field to take the checkered flag tonight as Five Flags Speedway.
Austin Boelke reclaimed the lead with 152 points in the point standings but is leading by a very narrow margin as Mathew Thunhorst closed the gap and is now 2 points behind the leader. Justin Morton dropped back from the lead to 3rd place after a disappointing night with 150 points. J R Shepherd fell back to 4th place with 148 points and Donny Moore rounds out the top 5 drivers with 135 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head to North Carolina on July 23rd for the next round of the season at the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S12 R4 Recap
15 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | 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 dominated the night taking the pole and leading every lap to his 2nd win of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at I-55 Speedway ahead of Chris Davis and J R Shepherd. “Tonight was fairly easy for me but I had open track, I didn’t have to race people.”, Hargreaves commented after tonight’s action, “As the race progressed, I knew [the high line] wasn’t going to come in. I mean, later on in the race obviously, but that middle was definitely the place to be. It was working good there.”
William Hargreaves had the quickest lap in qualifying with a 14.887 and led the first heat race to the green flag with J R Shepherd to his outside. Hargreaves cleared ahead of Shepherd quickly going into the first corner and the rest of the pack went single file. Hargreaves had the superior skill and pulled away from Shepherd who was battling Kevin Davis to hold onto 2nd place in the end. Chris Davis, or Mr. Aggressive as he’s known around the track, started in the lead of the 2nd heat alongside Bobby Hayes on the front row as the green flag came out again. Davis jumped out to a strong lead off the jump and Hayes was overtaken by Butch Baker and Malachi Smith battling over 2nd place. Davis stretched his lead out to over 1.4 seconds as he crossed the line taking the checkered flag with Smith coming in 2nd.
Billy Northcutt and Jeffrey Hardin were sharing the front row for the 3rd and final heat of the night. Northcutt had a good launch on the start and Hunter Hill and Brennen Myers went side by side over 3rd. Northcutt ran away with the lead and took the checkered flag with a 1.7 second lead over Hardin. Kevin Davis and Hunter Hill lined up on the front row of the C Main Consolation race and both drivers had good jumps on the green. Hayes clear beneath Hill taking 2nd place away and moved straight up to the leader. Hayes dove low and cleared Davis with Stephen Spies following him to the front. Spies tried to close the gap to Hayes but couldn’t get there before Hayes took the win.
The B Main Consolation race was led out by Baker and Robby Robinson. Baker cleared Robinson who had Brandyn Proudfoot pressuring from behind. Proudfoot dove beneath Robinson taking 2nd place and went for the lead without ever coming up the track. After a lap of battling, Proudfoot officially took control of the lead of the field as the white flag came out. Baker couldn’t get back up to Proudfoot to challenge and had to settle for 2nd place as Proudfoot took the win.
Hargreaves and Chris Davis shared the front row as the drivers lined up for the 40-lap feature event and led the field to the green flag. Hargreaves had a good jump and cleared ahead of Davis who was under pressure from Northcutt and Shepherd. Proudfoot, who started farther back in the midfield, aggressively went 3 wide running along the outside wall trying to make up as many positions as he could early on. Spies followed Proudfoot along the high line letting Proudfoot clear traffic for him as Hargreaves took advantage of the situation and pulled over 1.3 seconds ahead of Davis with 10 laps completed.
Spies and Proudfoot started battling over 7th place without either driver showing a clear advantage over the other. Proudfoot was able to pull away from Spies after Robinson got alongside Spies and made enough contact to force Spies off his line losing his momentum and falling back to 9th. Hargreaves was leading by almost 2 seconds as they passed the halfway point of the race with Hargreaves trying to put as much distance between himself and the field in anticipation of Proudfoot closing the gap later on. Davis, Northcutt, and Shepherd still ran single file in 2nd through 4th place.
Going into the last 10 laps, Spies and Proudfoot were again battling each other but over 6th place this time around. They closed up to Hayes in 5th and went 3 wide for a corner with Hayes holding the position ahead of Spies. With 5 laps remaining, Hargreaves continued to control the field with Davis, Shepherd, and Northcutt still battling over 2nd. Proudfoot was still running a very high line but was struggling to make up ground falling back to 8th behind Kevin Davis. A few short laps later, Hargreaves took the checkered flag with Chris Davis, Shepherd, Northcutt, and Spies rounding out the top 5 tonight at the I-55 Speedway.
Brandyn Proudfoot maintains the lead in the point standings with 288 points. J R Shepherd closes the gap to the leader after a strong performance tonight and is now 16 points behind the leader. Billy Northcutt still holds onto 3rd with 262 points. William Hargreaves jumped up to 4th place with 244 points and Bobby Hayes with 236 points rounds out the top 5 drivers so far in the season. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series now prepare for the next round at Cedar Lake Speedway on July 22nd with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S2 R7 Recap
12 July 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 7
Premier Series | Atlanta Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Scott Eckrich with GRAAFix LC Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight in the “Chuckles, We’re in Danger 200” with the Pretty Good Racing League at Atlanta Motor Speedway ahead of Shane Parish and Chance Manning. “I really don’t know why [the officials] put me up there, but I guess we’ll take it?”, Eckrich commented on the confusing shuffling of the racing order in the end. Eckrich says he was playing it safe for the first half of the night, “[I was] trying to avoid the first melee. It didn’t happen so that was cool, but yeah just trying to bide our time, keep tires under this thing and just make sure we didn’t knock ourselves out of the race before it started.”
Rich Jette started the night off on the pole to the inside of Joe Hassert as the green flag came out and the 30-car field roared across the line and into the first corner. The drivers stayed mostly side by side far back into the field for the first few laps before Greg O’Berry was able to clear into the front leading the outside line very much in a superspeedway fashion. 10 laps into the race, O’Berry held the lead from the front of the outside line while Hassert led the inside line and was running within a car length of O’Berry with both lines running similar paces.
Going into lap 30, the drivers were mostly running patiently in line as the narrow track made running 3 wide a risky move for so early in the night. O’Berry was still out front leading the outside line with Christopher Dewald on his door leading the inside line. Eckrich was running in 24th, 9 positions behind Jeff Ward, and wasn’t yet making any aggressive moves toward the front yet. Lap 43 saw the first round of drivers pulling down pit road with Eckrich coming in on lap 48 and Ward on the following lap. Many of the drivers struggled to get onto pit road without incident making contact with another car or missing the entrance altogether.
The pit cycle was completed through the field on lap 53 and Eckrich had jumped up to 6th place behind Brian Yaczik.. Adam Jurski was in control of the field ahead of Chance Manning. Lap 57 saw the first caution of the night from Don Runkle Jr making hard contact with the outside wall and collecting Ward unfortunately ending Ward’s night very early. Mike Rasimas controlled the field as the green flag came back out and racing resumed going into lap 61. The inside line had the better start which allowed Eckrich to jump further up through the pack into 2nd place with Yaczik in 3rd.
Eckrich went up to take control of the outside line and that gave Yaczik an opening to slingshot around both leaders and clear into the front of the field before he also went up in front of Eckrich as the top line started to pull away from the rest. Lap 71 saw the “big one” as the middle of the field imploded collecting roughly a third of the drivers, those being the drivers who weren’t lucky enough to find a path through the carnage as the track turned into a parking lot. Practically the entire field opted to use the opportunity to go down pit road for their second stop of the night.
Eckrich, Yaczik, and Thomas George went 3 wide over the lead off the restart with Yaczik holding the position in the end and Eckrich fell back to 5th from the shuffle. Drew Carroll moved up into 2nd ahead of George as the outside line again started to pull away from the rest of the field. With 30 laps remaining, Tommy Rhyne was in the lead ahead of Carroll. There were several failed attempts to build the inside line back up and the top 6 drivers ending with Eckrich were all running single file along the top. Going into the final stretch, Yaczik and Eckrich led the final round of pit stops with 25 laps to go.
The last thing Eckrich and Yaczik wanted to see happened in the final 18 laps as the caution flag came out once again and ruined their pit strategy to leap ahead of the field and started from the back end of the lead lap going into the final few laps. Rhyne and Paul Pepper were side by side on the front row as racing resumed with 16 laps remaining. Rhyne had a great launch with, but Carroll dove up into the gap between Rhyne and Pepper and led the high line into the front of the field. Rasimas slid up behind Carroll as a third line started to form down the center. An incident in the final laps brought the caution back and the field line back up for a 2-lap shootout.
Carroll and Rasimas shared the front row as the green flag came out for the final time. Eckrich was running behind Yaczik on the low line behind Rasimas. Carroll jumped out to an early lead being pushing by Pepper. As the drivers were shuffling around for position another large wreck collected Carroll, Yaczik, Eckrich, Pepper, and others as Shane Parish dove through the chaos and into the lead but in a shocking upset with the timing and scoring Eckrich was found to be the leader at the time the caution flag actually came out and, after the racing officials gave him his track position back, Eckrich claimed the win with Rasimas, Parish, Manning, and Rhyne rounding out the top 5 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Jeff Ward holds onto the lead in the point standings for his 6th straight week with 255 points. Brian Yaczik trails behind by only 10 points with Shane Parish 16 points behind the leader. Scott Eckrich moved up to 4th place after the night’s win and now has 238 points as Thomas George dropped back to 5th with 224 points. Next week, the drivers of the Pretty Good Racing League head up to New Hampshire for the Circle Jerks: A Revival Motoring Podcast 150 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 19th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S18 R3 Recap
09 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 3
Super Late Model Series | Lucas Oil Raceway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
J R Sheperd with Different Path Motorsports claimed his first win of Season 18 tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Lucas Oil Raceway ahead of Mathew Thunhorst and Justin Morton. “This was definitely a nice chance of pace. Usually, this track is just the outside groove, and it doesn’t give you a whole lot of options but tonight the car had a little bit of freeness into it at least on throttle so that gave us more options than we normally have here.”, Shepherd commented about the racing and state of the track tonight.
Michael Goodman led the field to the green flag as the action was kicked off with Jeffrey Hardin to his outside. Goodman cleared ahead of Hardin and the front half of the field started to single file out with the first 10 laps completed. J R Shepherd and Justin Morton went side by side as Shepherd tried to take 3rd place from the outside line with Austin Boelke following close behind. Morton struggled to keep his momentum up on corner exit and was slowly dropping back little by little with each lap before conceding the position to Shepherd. Shepherd then made an aggressive dive below the leaders as Goodman got loose and was able to jump from 3rd and take control of the field ahead of Hardin. Goodman fell back far in the running order as drivers spilt around him to try to avoid contact.
Shepherd continued to lead as Justin Morton and Jeffrey Hardin fought over 2nd place. Mathew Thunhorst was up to 7th behind Stephen Spies with 30 laps completed. Morton cleared for 2nd and Thunhorst made contact with Kurt Smith almost sending both drivers around, however they both reacted incredibly quickly and straightened themselves back out to carry on with Thunhorst dropping back to 8th to regroup behind Smith. Spies was still making moves forward clearing around Austin Boelke into 4th and looking to the inside of Hardin. Thunhorst again challenged Smith and was able to complete the move as well as clear ahead of Donny Moore into 6th 45 laps into the night.
Approaching the second half of the race, Spies took 3rd place away from Hardin and went to work reeling Morton in over 2 seconds ahead of him. Thunhorst had caught the rear bumper of Boelke as Boelke as Boelke was trying to overtake Hardin from the inside. Thunhorst followed him low and cleared into 5th. Shepherd continued to stretch out the gap ahead of the field while Thunhorst was still negotiating through traffic and unable to directly challenge him for the lead. Spies had closed up on the leaders and but struggled to get around Morton as Thunhorst overtook Boelke for 4th and quickly went high above Spies and took away 3rd with only 30 laps remaining.
Shepherd still led ahead of Morton, who was feeling the pressure from a quickly approaching Thunhorst. Thunhorst closed up tight behind Morton and was starting to look around the inside but didn’t yet have the momentum to beat Morton’s pace out of the corners. Going into the final 10 laps, Thunhorst had closed up on Shepherd’s bumper but didn’t have a chance to make an attempt on the lead before a large wreck in the middle of the field brough out a late race caution end brought the action to an end with Shepherd leading the field across the line with Thunhorst, Morton, Spies, and Boelke rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Lucas Oil Raceway.
Justin Morton holds the lead in the point standings with 115 points as Austin Boelke fell back to 2nd only 2 points behind the leader. Mathew Thunhorst and J R Shepherd are tied for 3rd place with 110 points each and Bryan Dehn sits in 5th place with 104 points after the first 3 rounds of the season. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head down to Pensacola, Florida on July 16th for the 4th round of the season at Five Flags Speedway with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S12 R3 Recap
08 July 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | Round 3
Dirt Street Stock Series | Volusia Speedway Park
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
William Hargreaves with the Dirt Panda race team took his first checkered flag of the season tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Volusia Speedway Park ahead of Stephen Spies and Brandyn Proudfoot. “I like short track racing. I think it should be a great race.”, Hargreaves commented about the next round of the season at I-55 Speedway, “If it’s anything like the racing here tonight it should really be good.”
William Hargreaves took the pole with a quick lap at 19.780 to start off the third round of the season and lined up alongside Stephen Spies to take the green flag for the first heat race of the night. Hargreaves cleared ahead of Spies while Spies had to battle with Brandyn Proudfoot for 2nd place. Proudfoot to the inside of Spies dropped back into 3rd to defend against Kevin Davis quickly coming up from behind. Spies started to look to the inside of Hargreaves but couldn’t match the pace giving Proudfoot a chance to take the high line away and pushing Spies back into 3rd just as Hargreaves crossed the line to take the checkered flag.
The second heat was led out by Billy Northcutt with Chris Hill to the inside. Northcutt and Chris Hill ran side by side for 4 laps until Chris Hill was able to pull ahead into the lead as Jeffrey Hardin dove below Northcutt. Northcutt closed back up on Chris Hill and dove down beneath him going into the final corner and they crossed the line with Hill barely holding Northcutt off by 0.066 in the end. Bobby Hayes and Hunter Hill shared the front row for the third and final heat of the night. Hayes had a great jump off the start and quickly pulled ahead of the field while J R Shepherd and Hunter Hill battled over 2nd place. Hayes was able to use the battle to extend well out of reach and took the checkered flag with Shepherd holding 2nd place.
Spies led the C Main consolation as the green flag again came out over the field and cleared ahead of H. Hill going into the first corner. John Wilson dove low to challenge for 2nd pushing Hill back to 3rd for a moment before Hill pulled a crossover and went below Wilson. Wilson was able to hold Hill off while also closing the gap to Spies but couldn’t reach the leader before the checkered flag came out and the drivers moved to the B Main consolation event. Hardin took the green flag and jumped out ahead of Kevin Davis. Davis struggled on the start and fell back as Joe Segalla and Brian Lawson cleared into 2nd and 3rd. The top 3 separated themselves from the rest of the pack as Hardin out pacing the field all the way to the checkered flag.
Hargreaves started the main feature event off in the lead to the inside of Chris Hill as the green flag came out to start the final event of the night. Hargreaves quickly cleared ahead of Hill as Proudfoot and Hayes fought over 3rd. Proudfoot struggled to find his way and fell back into the field. Northcutt took advantage of the chaos jumping up into 3rd and diving beneath Hill. Northcutt got a little loose and had to lift giving the position back to Hill before regrouping and trying for 2nd place once again with 10 laps completed.
Again, Northcutt had to fall back behind Hill but found Hayes waiting and found himself fighting to not fall back further into the field. Hargreaves and Hill battled side by side until Hayes lost control coming out of the corner and made hard contact with the outside wall ending his night early as Northcutt moved up to 2nd and pressuring for the lead. Proudfoot climbed his way back up to 3rd and was looking to the inside of Northcutt with Spies running very close behind in 4th. Hargreaves was able to build up a gap ahead of the rest of the field as the battle for 2nd continued and held up several drivers behind them.
With 10 laps remaining, Hargreaves had extended his lead to almost a whole second over Northcutt and Proudfoot, still running side by side. Spies was starting to look impatient forcing a three wide situation several times as the laps counted down. Northcutt was pushed back to 4th as Spies dove low under Proudfoot and cleared ahead into 2nd. Northcutt saw the chance and dove low beneath Proudfoot but didn’t have enough race left as Hargreaves took the checkered flag 1.7 seconds ahead of Stephen Spies with Proudfoot, Northcutt, and Shepherd rounding out the top 5 for the night.
Brandyn Proudfoot still has a solid lead in the point standings with 235 points overall after winning the first two round of the season. J R Shepherd holds onto 2nd place with 198 points with Billy Northcutt only 9 points behind up to 3rd place. Jeffrey Hardin fell back to 4th place with 178 points and Bobby Hayes rounds out the top 5 drivers with 174 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series now prepare for another round at I-55 Speedway on July 15th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S2 R6 Recap
05 July 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 6
Premier Series | Road America
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Brian Yaczik with Loud Pedal Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight in the Grand Brie of Road ‘Merica benefiting Dog McStacks presented by Scott MacKenzie of Clipping That Apex with the Pretty Good Racing League at Road America ahead of Scott Eckrich and Jeff Ward. “We were just doing what we had to do to keep this #55 machine pointed forward and, in the lead,”, Yaczik commented after taking the win, “We learned some stuff the hard way [at Sonoma Raceway] and were able to apply that to Road America tonight.”
Mike Rasimas led the field to the green flag as the racing action began and the 26-car field streaked across the line. Rasimas had a great jump out ahead of the rest of the drivers with Mark Hertzog and Isaiah Dupre running in 2nd and 3rd place. Rasimas extended the gap between himself and Hertzog to over 1 second as drivers were still getting heat into their tires around the first lap as Brian Yaczik was already up into 5th place from 8th and closing on Drew Carroll ahead. Jeff Ward and Scott Eckrich were making a quick dash through the field as Ward moved up 6 places into the top 10 and Eckrich up 12 places to 14th going into the second lap.
Eckrich came down pit road very early on the 5th lap for fuel while Carroll closed in on the leader and cleared ahead of Rasimas and quickly put some distance between them. Ward was up to 5th and running around 4 seconds behind Yaczik. Eckrich rejoined the track in 14th with a large gap between himself and Thomas George ahead of him. Yaczik caught the rear bumper of Dupre and was able to overtake him for 3rd place and was quickly closing in on Rasimas. Yaczik came down pit road with 23 laps to go for fuel and dropped back to 11th place and Carroll continued to control the field as drivers were settling in the put some laps behind them as they became spread out around the course.
Eckrich was back up to 9th and was closing the 26 second gap to the leader quickly as Ward was up into 3rd as the running order was shuffled with many drivers opting to make a fuel stop with 21 laps remaining. Going into the late stages of the race, Eckrich had made his final stop with 18 laps to go and came back onto the track in 11th with fresh tires. Rasimas ran his fuel out as far as it would go before pitting and giving the lead to Yaczik. Fresh tires were causing problems around the track with several drivers overshooting corners and making hard contact into the wall ending their races early as 17 drivers were still running on track going into the final 15 laps.
Yaczik maintained the lead with Ward and Eckrich charging back through the field. Ward was up to 4th behind Carroll while Eckrich was up to 6th and running some of the fastest laps of any driver to that point in the race. Yaczik took his final pit stop with 11 laps to go and came back out on track in 5th with Shane Parish running close behind him. Rasimas took the lead with Ward 1 second behind him and Eckrich up to 4th. Ward made his final fuel stop with 8 laps remaining allowing Yaczik to jump back up to 3rd behind Eckrich. Rasimas went down pit road on the next lap giving the lead to Eckrich who still would need one more fuel stop before the end.
In the final 5 laps, Eckrich had to pit for a splash of fuel and fell back to 2nd place over 8 seconds behind Yaczik. Rasimas was running in 3rd with Ward pressuring from behind. 14 drivers were still on track with Cody Erdmann being the last driver on the lead lap in 9th place. A slight mistake from Rasimas gave Ward the opening he needed to take the last podium position away while Eckrich was putting down the fastest laps of the race chipping away at the gap to Yaczik in the lead. With 3 laps left in the race, Yaczik still had a 6 second lead over Eckrich. Going into the final stretch, Yaczik’s consistency was enough to maintain the lead as he took the checkered flag 1 second ahead of Eckrich with Ward, Rasimas, and Carroll rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Road America.
Jeff Ward leads in the point standings for the fifth straight week with 242 points overall. Brian Yaczik moved up into 2nd place after tonight’s win now 25 points behind the leader. Shane Parish and Thomas George are tied for 3rd place with 199 points each and Scott Eckrich moved into 5th place with 189 points. Next week, the drivers of the Pretty Good Racing League head down to Georgia for the Chuckles I’m in Danger 200 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on July 12th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S2 R5 Recap
28 June 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 5
Premier Series | Nashville Superspeedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Tommy Rhyne with Unacceptable Racing claimed his first victory of the season tonight in the BeefJurski’s Cheesecake Emporium & Banana Breadery 200 with the Pretty Good Racing League at Nashville Superspeedway ahead of Jeff Ward and Scott Eckrich. “I just gave it everything I had from there and in the end probably as soon as I got around [Eckrich] I was full on”, Rhyne commented on running the last stretch of the race after pulling off a risky pit strategy by stretching his fuel as far as it would go, “I don’t know if we were going to win otherwise so we took the gamble and hey, here we are!”
Cody Erdmann led the 30-car field to the green flag alongside Michael Chrobok on the front row. Chrobok stayed to the outside of Erdmann off the start for a lap before conceding to drop back single file ahead of Woody Mahan in 3rd. Brian Yaczik moved up into the top 10 early on with Jeff Ward up to 13th and Thomas George running in 16th. Mike Rasimas and Joe Hassert were battling hard over 12th place going into the 10th lap while the field started to spread out with drivers settling in to put some laps behind them.
Erdmann, Chrobok, and Mahan continued to run single file in the front and had built a gap of around 2 seconds between them and Danny Gutierrez in 4th place. Ward had jumped several positions running in 6th making a strong charge to the front as Rasimas climbed into the top 10. Scott Eckrich was up to 18th from his 30th place starting position and was consistently moving up through the field. Ward overtook for 4th place going into lap 18 and went to work reeling the leaders in.
Chrobok had control of the lead ahead of Mahan with Erdmann dropping back to 3rd with 20 laps completed. Chrobok started to stretch out his lead pulling away from Mahan while Ward was closing up on Erdmann’s rear bumper and moving up into 3rd on lap 27. Eckrich using the outside line to complete passes through the field trying to get into the top 10 while Ward caught and overtook Mahan for 2nd place now up 17 positions from where he started the night. Chrobok had over a 1 second lead ahead of Ward over 30 laps into the night.
Lap 34 saw Eckrich getting into 10th place and diving beneath Adam Jurski to quickly move up to 9th behind George and Yaczik. Lap 38 saw a lead change as Ward forced Chrobok to the outside and quickly put distance between them. George and Gutierrez were battling side by side for 6th place with Eckrich closing in quickly as Drew Carroll came down the track to take his first pit stop of the night. George was forced to check up and almost drove up into Gutierrez in an attempt to avoid Carroll. This caused a chain reaction sending Eckrich hard into the outside wall as the drivers coming up from behind scattered to avoid and sending Yaczik sliding into the infield bringing out the caution flag.
As racing resumed on lap 46, Ward still controlled the field and Eckrich had fallen back to 20th place. Yaczik was working his way back up through the field running in 23rd after the incident. George was up to 4th and running close behind Chrobok and Mahan who were battling for 2nd place 1.5 seconds behind the leader. Eckrich had gotten back into the top 10 running behind Rasimas and Ward had stretched his lead ahead of Chrobok to over 2.5 seconds as the drivers approached the halfway point of the race.
Shane Parish was making a strong charge through the field and was able to close the gap to George on lap 78 and cleared for 2nd place running strong pace and gradually closing the 3.5 second gap to Ward. Coming up to lap 90, the drivers began sporadically pulling off track to begin their pit cycles shuffling the running order. Eckrich stayed out until lap 95 trying to stretch out his next stint as fall as he could in an attempt to reach the checkered flag without another stop.
With 50 laps remaining, Ward had reclaimed the lead ahead of Chrobok and Parish. Eckrich was back up to 8th place with Mark Hertzog rounding out the top 10. Ward had over a 6 second lead over Chrobok as the pit cycle spread the field out around the track and the top 19 drivers were still running on the lead lap. Eckrich was up to 4th and advancing quickly out pacing Ward lap for lap going into the last 40 laps. Parish moved up into 2nd place as Eckrich reached the rear of Chrobok and started pressuring for 3rd.
Ward, Parish, and Chrobok chose to make another fuel stop on lap 117 putting Eckrich in the lead of the race for the first time of the night. Ward rejoined the track in 15th with a 28 second gap between himself and the leader. Chrobok was in 17th and 1 lap off the leader with Parish falling back 2 laps after a pit road violation. Ward was running a strong pace and closing on the leader at a rate of 1.5 seconds per lap putting him near Eckrich before the end if he could maintain as they went into the final 25 laps.
Tommy Rhyne, who was running in 2nd place, was closing on the leader which was making it more difficult for Eckrich to try to save fuel in the final stretch. With 15 laps to go, Ward was still closing on the leader already up to 7th place with a strong pace. Thomas George was still battling in the front clearing Ricky Hardin for 4th place and gaining on Mahan in 3rd. Ward was close behind as he also overtook Hardin and George jumping up to 4th and 4.5 seconds behind Eckrich and still closing.
With 10 laps remaining, Rhyne overtook Eckrich for the lead as Ward moved up into 3rd with 3 seconds to make up. Ward got within 1 second of Eckrich going into the last 5 laps as Rhyne ran away with the lead. Ward was pressuring Eckrich as the white flag came out. Rhyne crossed the line 2.6 seconds ahead of Ward and Eckrich and took the checkered flag while coming out of the final corner Eckrich ran out of fuel allowing Ward to taking 2nd place in the final moments. Eckrich was able to cross the line in 3rd with Mahan and Hardin rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Nashville Superspeedway.
Jeff Ward continues to lead in the points standings with 204 points overall. Danny Gutierrez moved up to 2nd place with 172 points, now 1 point ahead of Brian Yaczik. Shane Parish maintains his 4th place with 167 points and Thomas George moved up into 5th place with 165 points. The drivers of the Pretty Good Racing League now head over to Wisconsin for the Grand Brie of Road ‘Merica presented by PGRL’s Big Cheese on July 5th with all of the racing action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S18 R2 Recap
25 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 2
Super Late Model Series | Hickory Motor Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Austin Boelke with Different Path Motorsports took his first checkered flag of the season under yellow flag conditions tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Hickory Motor Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and Bryan Dehn. “To do it here, I’ve come so close to so many wins here… this is a rough track for me so to finally get the monkey off my back for this series and this track is pretty astounding”, an ecstatic Boelke exclaimed after taking his win, “I was just running the race I felt like I could and if I could get close to somebody, it’s just take advantage when you can.”
Joe Segalla led the field to the green flag to start off the night’s excitement with Kurt Smith alongside him to the outside. Segalla had a good jump off the start and quickly cleared ahead of Smith while the 19-car field struggled to get sorted out. Bryan Dehn moved up ahead of Smith and trailed close behind Segalla pressuring for the lead as Segalla held the inside line careful to keep the door closed with 10 laps completed. Austin Boelke was up to 4th ahead of Justin Morton and dove low beneath Smith to challenge for 3rd.
Dehn took the inside away from Segalla as Morton followed Boelke around Smith into 3rd and 4th place respectively. J R Shepherd was in 5th 20 laps into the night and had Mathew Thunhorst on his rear bumper as the two drivers cautiously negotiated through traffic making their way to the front of the field. Boelke started to pressure Segalla for 2nd place with Morton, Shepherd, and Thunhorst following single file while Dehn was able to put some distance between himself and Segalla.
By lap 30, the drivers settled in to put some laps behind them running single file around the track patiently waiting for opportunities to present themselves rather than forcing situations. Segalla was slowly reeling Dehn back in as the drivers approached the halfway point of the night. Going into lap 46, Boelke saw an opening beneath Segalla and dove low to keep the door open. Segalla was forced up the track as he got shuffled back to 6th with Morton, Shepherd, and Thunhorst following Boelke around. Boelke quickly closed the gap to Dehn and aggressively started pressuring for the lead.
The top five pulled away from the rest of the field as Boelke took the inside line away from Dehn on lap 56 and cleared for the lead. Dehn was pushed back to 5th behind Thunhorst who still couldn’t find the momentum to get to the inside of Shepherd as patience was wearing thin throughout the field. Morton was staying very close on Boelke’s rear bumper and keeping his car in a position to take advantage of any mistake Boelke might make as the drivers entered the final 30 laps and started reaching the rear of the field complicating matters for the leaders.
With only 22 laps remaining, the caution came out in an incredible upset as Shepherd and Thunhorst made contact on the entry of turn one sending Shepherd hard into the outside wall and Thunhorst off into the grass inside of the track. Thunhorst recovered in 9th place, but Shepherd was sent to the rear of the field in 16th place with severe damage to the front of his car. Boelke cleared for the lead off the restart ahead of Morton and Thunhorst aggressively started climbing back through the field. Thunhorst struggled to find a way around Jason Menda for 5th place as Shepherd worked back up to 11th behind Ryan Senneker.
With 6 laps remaining, another caution came out when Menda tried to close the door on Thunhorst a second too late and the two drivers came together in turn three sending Menda around on track. Boelke was running in the lead as the flag was thrown and crossed the line for the win under yellow flag conditions with Morton, Dehn, Donny Moore, and Thunhorst rounding out the top 5 drivers tonight around the always challenging Hickory Motor Speedway.
Austin Boelke is now tied with Justin Morton for the lead in the point standings with 77 points each going into the holiday weekend. Mathew Thunhorst fell back to 3rd place with 76 points after the incident tonight. Bryan Dehn jumped up to 4th place with 73 points and J R Shepherd fell back to 5th with 70 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now head up to Indiana to Lucas Oil Raceway on July 9th for the 3rd round of the season with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL DSS S12 R2 Recap
24 June 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 12 | Round 2
Dirt Street Stock Series | Weedsport Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Brandyn Proudfoot with Jim Beaver eSports took the checkered flag tonight after struggling earlier in the evening with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Weedsport Speedway ahead of Jeffrey Hardin and Hunter Hill. “I went to turn into the corner and I turned too far and effectively I just started power sliding going into the corner and it got to the point to where I just had to start running the top because I wasn’t sure if I was going to hit the wall or not because I couldn’t feel a thing”, Proudfoot explained on his earlier mistakes that lost him the lead early in the race.
Brandyn Proudfoot started the evening off by jumping to the top of the timing and scoring boards taking the pole with a fast time at 17.672 in the final moments of qualifying and leading the first heat race to the green flag alongside Chris Davis. The field quickly went single file behind Proudfoot who led every lap to take the win ahead of Davis. The second heat of the night was led out by Neville Ulph with J R Shepherd to his outside. Ulph cleared for the lead after a shaky start as Shepherd and Northcutt battled over 2nd place. Ulph took the checkered flag while Shepherd was able to clear for 2nd place in the end.
Jeffrey Hardin and John Wilson started on the front row for the C Main consolation race as the green flag came out. Wilson tried to stay alongside Hardin off the launch but couldn’t maintain the pace and fell back as Joe Segalla took advantage going below Wilson to take away 2nd place. Segalla struggled to close to the gap to Hardin while Wilson started to pressure Segalla for 2nd place going into the final lap and Hardin extended the lead out to over 1 second to take the win.
Billy Northcutt and Kenny Kibbey sat on the front row for the B Main consolation. Northcutt had a great launch as the green flag was thrown out over the field. Jason Menda got beneath Kibbey on the start and battled for 2nd as Northcutt pulled away from the field. Menda and Kibbey continued to battle back and forth as Hunter Hill closed up on the battle waiting to take advantage. Menda made contact with the inside wall and fell back to 4th as he recovered giving 2nd place to Kibbey as Northcutt took the checkered flag.
Proudfoot led the field to the green flag for the feature event with Ulph to his outside. Proudfoot had a great jump on the start and quickly pulled away from the rest of the field. Davis stayed with him as they extended the gap between them as Proudfoot misjudged the cushion high in turn 3 allowing Davis to get beneath him and take away the lead. Davis jumped out to over a 1 second lead on Northcutt, who also was able to overtake Proudfoot, as the drivers completed the first 10 laps.
Davis, Northcutt, and Proudfoot chased each other around the track going into the 2nd half of the race as Davis and Northcutt came together in turn three bringing out the caution and giving the lead back to Proudfoot going forward with Hardin to his outside. Davis struggled to climb back up through the field from his 7th place starting position on the restart. Hardin and Hunter Hill stayed tight on Proudfoot who was running more conservatively after his earlier mistakes. Davis had gotten back into 5th after clearing around Shepherd and Menda.
With 10 laps remaining, Hardin got to the inside of Proudfoot and tried to take the lead away but couldn’t find the speed out of the corners to finish the move. Davis found an opening beneath Kibbey, and the two drivers ran side by side around the final laps battling for 4th place. Proudfoot started to build up a gap between himself and Hardin as the white flag came out. Proudfoot maintained around the final lap to take the win with Hardin, Hill, Davis, and Kibbey rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Weedsport Speedway.
Brandyn Proudfoot extends his lead in the point standings with his second consecutive win this season with 164 points. J R Shepherd jumped up from 5th to 2nd place with 133 points. Jeffrey Hardin moved up into 3rd place with 120 points. Hunter Hill sits in 4th place with 117 points and Billy Northcutt rounds out the top 5 drivers so far this season with 116 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now prepare for another round at Volusia Speedway Park on July 8th with all of the dirt slinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!
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