ASC S11 R8 Recap
28 Feb 2022
Autobahn Sportscar Challenge | Season 11 | Round 8
LMP2/GT3 Multiclass Event | Suzuka Circuit
Billy Smith II took his second win of the season tonight with the Autobahn Sportscar Challenge at Suzuka Circuit ahead of Robert Tinsey and Cameron Bidwell in the Prototype class. Ross Booth was able to take his fourth win of the season in the GT Pro class beating Bradlee Haley and Christopher Paiz to the line. Bradley Salmon claimed his first win this season sputtering across the line as he ran out of fuel ahead of Kevin Santana and Franco Margarella.
After a two week break for the drivers as they moved away from the North American circuits, Jeffrey Ooms came back strong taking the pole ahead of Robert Tinsey with a fast lap of 1:44.372. Ooms was the driver to watch going into the night after winning the last three rounds going into the race in 7th overall in the point standings which was surprising considering that he joined the league several rounds into the season and quickly began closing the gap between himself and Carter Kundinger in the lead.
Bradley Haley took the pole in the very competitive GT Pro class with his fast lap of 1:57.839. Haylee has two wins behind him so far this season with his last win coming from Road America. The GT AM class was led out by Ryan Robertson, who has shown a strong performance through the season with three wins, with a lap time of 1:58.338. The last win Robertson claimed was in the previous round at Watkins Glen.
After a very clean start, Ooms wasted no time putting distance between himself and Tinsey by over 1.5 seconds in the first lap. David Williams took the worst end of a battle defending against Carter Kundinger for 4th place in the second lap going off track. Within the first 10 minutes, Ooms had built up a lead of over 3.5 seconds over Tinsey showing his intention for a repeat performance from previous rounds where he would take a wide lead early on before settling into a groove for the second half.
Washeleski took the lead away from Haley in the GT Pro class in the early stages of the race, but Haley stayed close behind in 2nd place getting back into the line of drivers moving single file through the curves without incident. Robertson had some tough luck when contact sent him spinning off track during the first ten minutes of the event dropping back to the rear of the field and gave the GT AM class lead over to Ian Lake.
Kundinger made contact sending himself off track in the 8th lap recovering back in 10th place behind Patrick McDaniel. That allowed Cameron Bidwell to move up into 4th who was still 3 seconds off Billy Smith II in 3rd place. Unfortunate for the current points leader as Kundinger struggled to regain lost ground as the drivers passed the halfway mark in the event.
Haley was able to retake the GT Pro class lead when Washeleski made a costly mistake sending him back to 12th in class. Robertson made a hard charge back toward the front after recovering from his earlier incident getting back into 3rd on the 10th lap and Ian Lake, who was in the lead, ran wide sending himself off into the grass and handed the lead over to Franco Margarella. This put Lake on the defensive with Robertson close behind.
Going into the second half of the race drivers began making their mandatory fuel stop. Haley and Ross Booth were battling hard over the GT Pro class lead for several laps choosing to stay out longer while other drivers were rejoining the track. Ooms took much longer coming back out of the pits compared to other drivers and rejoined the field in 9th place and started his hard charge back to the front with over 20 seconds to make up to catch Smith in the lead.
Kundinger and Ooms battled back and forth over 5th place in the Prototype class with 20 minutes remaining in the race as each driver tried to use lap traffic to their advantage for several laps, but Ooms was able to overtake in the end. Further back on the track, Booth took the GT Pro class lead away from Haley after an intense battle that ended when contact was made by a Prototype driver trying to overtake both GT drivers sending Haley off the track. Haley was able to recover quickly and held onto 2nd place.
Bidwell started putting pressure on Tinsey for 2nd place in the Prototype class as the drivers entered the final 10 minutes of the race with Smith still holding the lead. Ooms managed to hold 5th but was still over 20 seconds behind the lead battle without enough time remaining to make up the time and contest for the lead himself. Tinsey was able to use traffic to get around and held Bidwell at bay as they crossed the line on the final lap.
Smith took the points lead in the Prototype class away from Kundinger with his win tonight with 150 points. Ooms had a rough night, but still moved up to 5th in the overall points standings now 51 points behind the lead. Booth holds onto the GT Pro class points lead with 275 points with Paul Gibson trailing by 24 points. Robertson held onto the points lead after struggling early on tonight with 143 points ahead of Kevin O’Keefe by only 1 point. In the team standings Satellite Racing, consisting of Robert Tinsley, Ryan Washeleski, and Ryan Robertson, holds the lead with a total of 164 points. The drivers now prepare to move on to the next round at Twin Ring Motegi in two weeks broadcast at 9PM EST only on the Virtual Grip Network.
BRL GN S9 R8 Recap
26 Feb 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 9 | Round 8
Grand National Series | Lanier National Speedway
Mathew Thunhorst took the checkered flag for the 5th time this season in the Bootleg Racing League Grand National Series at Lanier National Speedway with over a second lead ahead of Justin Morton and Kenny Kibbey. “I just got really fortunate with [Morton] and [Shepherd] battling and that allowed me to get out there.”, Thunhorst commented about the struggles tonight and coming out on top, “See if I can give these ARCA cars, which are my favorite cars on the service, a proper send off in the championship here so, you know, definitely makes me feel better because I thought [Shepherd] was going to win here and, you know, with all the hard racing things got messed up and I got fortunate enough to get out front there.”
Joe Segalla started the evening off on the pole and led the field to the green flag with a strong start ahead of Stephen Spies with Justin Morton, Mathew Thunhorst, and J R Shepherd sitting in 3rd, 4th, and 5th respectively as the drivers scrambled to get down to the inside line quickly going single file. Going into lap 13, Shepherd tried to overtake Thunhorst on the inside, but both drivers got loose going through the corners and neither driver had the advantage. As they battled over the next 4 laps, Thunhorst actually tried to advance around the outside of Morton for 3rd as their battle caught Morton’s rear but couldn’t hold the outside line and slid back to 6th behind Mike Holloway.
As the laps counted away, Spies struggled to find a way to get the lead away from Segalla. The first caution of the night came out on lap 25 as Chris Davis spun his car to the inside trying to set up a pass on Bruce Pearson for 13th place. Off the restart, Segalla was still able to hold off Morton as Spies was stranded on the outside line and dropped back quickly to 5th but was saved by the second caution of the night on lap 35. Adam Schoen spun out going through turn 3 and wasn’t able to get straightened out before the stewards threw out the caution.
Segalla got another strong start off the restart and held the inside line making Morton try to use the outside line to advance. The two drivers were door to door for 15 laps while Shepherd and Thunhorst were stuck behind waiting to see how the battle ended as neither line seemed to have the advantage. Segalla finally had to concede the battle when his tires spun going into turn 3 which sent him into Thunhorst. The contact was minor and helped recover Segalla from the spin as the lead battle began anew between Morton and Thunhorst and Segalla found himself stuck to the outside and was shuffled back in the field.
Justin Morton’s tires were showing signs of excessive wear from the battle with Segalla as Thunhorst made his way to the front on lap 59 and began to build up a gap ahead. Shepherd tried to follow Thunhorst on the inside line but found himself stuck in a battle with Morton instead and Thunhorst continued to pull away before Shepherd was able to overtake Morton. Spies then also tried to use the inside line with Jason Menda and Kenny Kibbey in tow overtaking Morton one after another dropping Morton back to 6th. With 25 laps to go, Kibbey made a pass on Menda and Morton took advantage of the opportunity sending his car in deep to move back up to 5th. Morton then dove deep again on Kibbey for 4th and was scored ahead as they battled when the 3rd caution of the night came out.
Spies lost the rear end coming out of turn 2 with only 21 laps remaining taking him out of contention for a podium finish and bringing out the caution. The 3rd restart had Morton in 3rd place sitting behind Mathew Thunhorst on the inside line and Shepherd out on the outside line in 2nd. Morton made sure to stay tight on Thunhorst denying Shepherd the inside line and taking 2nd for himself with 10 laps to go. Kibbey saw the opportunity and dove in tight behind Morton battling Shepherd for 4th as Shepherd struggled to hold the outside line. Neither driver was willing to concede until the final 2 laps of the race when Shepherd had to defend against Menda from behind. With all of the battles going on behind him, Thunhorst was again able to pull away and crossed the line with over a second lead on Morton.
Thunhorst continues to stretch his lead in the point standings with 317 points over J R Shepherd now by 7 points while Justin Morton sits close behind in 3rd place with 299 points. Shepherd’s chances to retake the points lead are quickly running out as the season moves into the 9th round at Martinsville Speedway where Donny Moore will start on the pole after finishing this evening in 8th place, the final inversion spot for the Bootleg Racing League’s grid, and you can catch all of the action broadcast live on March 5th at 8:55PM EST only on the Virtual Grip Network.
BRL DSS S10 R8 Recap
25 Feb 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 10 | Round 8
Dirt Street Stock Series | Lanier National Speedway
Carl Kilgore IV of CFM E-Sports took his first win of the season in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Lanier National Speedway beating Brandyn Proudfoot and Lon Franks to the line using the high line to carry him ahead. Kilgore gambled on the outside line in the final laps of the race when most drivers were preferring the midline tonight and it paid off in the end as he tells us, “We knew it would come in sooner or later, or if it would come in at all, but I figured right on that last caution I went up to the top of the racetrack and I kind of felt the cushion up there. So, I done made my mind up that if someone got under me that I would go ahead and try it and [Franks] got under me coming out of [turn] 4 so we said what the hell, we’ll send it.”
As the clock ran down for qualifying, Carl Kilgore ran a fast lap of 16.273 at the last moment taking the pole away from Brandyn Proudfoot, who was on top of the boards with a 16.291, for the evening. Kilgore was able to hold the lead and pull away from the field in the first heat while Jason Best and Stephen Spies battled over 2nd place behind him with Spies taking the 2nd position in the end when Best went wide in turn four and got shuffled to the back of the pack. Brandyn Proudfoot took the green in the evening’s second heat race and was under immediate pressure from Jim Reavis from behind who stayed within a car length all the way to the checkered but wasn’t able to get around Proudfoot in the end.
Billy Northcutt had a good jump for the lead in the final heat of the evening ahead of Jackie Whaley with J R Shepherd just behind them and led all 6 laps without incident. J R Shepherd lead the field in the C Main but was under pressure from Hunter Hill to his outside and Jason Best close behind. In the end, Shepherd wasn’t able to make the inside line work as Hill beat him to the line by 0.021 for the win. Christopher Hill had a strong launch off the start in the B Main event with Chris Davis to his outside. Justin Simmons and Lon Franks battled side by side over 3rd place for the first two laps with Franks taking the position while Davis was able to use the outside to work around Hill on lap 5 as Franks tried to split the middle going 3-wide. Hill relented letting Franks by who then put Davis under pressure for the lead trying to use the inside line but wasn’t able to take the win as Davis came across the line only 0.015 ahead of him.
Carl Kilgore led the field as the green flag came out in the 40-lap feature event with Proudfoot immediately diving deep to the inside trying to get between Kilgore and the inside wall but wasn’t able to make the line work as Kilgore continued to lead lap after lap holding off the series’ previous season champion. As they crossed the line on lap 10, Proudfoot tucked in behind Kilgore to bid his time and wait for an opportunity to present itself.
As the battle for the lead continued past lap 20, Northcutt started to put pressure on Proudfoot for 2nd place with Stephen Spies waiting only a car length behind Northcutt ready to take advantage of the situation. The front six drivers were all lined up nose to bumper waiting to see who would move first when the caution came out for the first time of the night on lap 27 as Spies and Northcutt made contact going into turn 3 sending both drivers around as well as Jim Reavis behind them and dropping them back in the field. On the restart, a second caution came out almost immediately as the field got jammed up in turn two and Reavis was again spun around sending him to the rear.
Off the second restart, Kilgore held the race lead with Proudfoot trying to get around to his outside as Lon Franks dove below him to take away 2nd and then go after Kilgore himself. With only 10 laps to go, the lead pack went 3-wide as each driver tried a different line to gain the advantage which again went in favor of Kilgore to the outside as Proudfoot and Franks again started to battle over 2nd. The battle allowed Kilgore to pull away as he took the win tonight with over a 0.8 second lead over Proudfoot and Franks at Lanier National Speedway.
Brandyn Proudfoot with Jim Beaver eSports still leads in the points standings with 604 points ahead of William Hargreaves, who didn’t compete tonight, by 131 points which makes Proudfoot the unofficial season champion with only three races left in the season not leaving enough time for anyone to possibly unseat him. Lon Franks sits in 3rd with 407 points and Billy Northcutt is just behind him in 4th place with 399 points. Next week, the Bootleg Racing League set their sights to the Dirt Track at Charlotte for the 9th round on March 4th at 7:00PM EST broadcast live only on the Virtual Grip Network.
C2CRL Hometown Heroes W11 Recap
23 Feb 2022
Coast 2 Coast Racing League | Week 11
Hometown Heroes Series | Volusia Speedway Park
Andy Patton took the checkered flag for the A&J Custom Creations 305 Sprints Series in the Coast 2 Coast Racing League Hometown Heroes Series at Volusia Speedway Park beating Randy Shreves and Jeff Flaro to the line. Blake Chapman had the lead for a few laps but caught the inside wall on lap 18 sending him back to 5th giving Patton the opportunity he was looking for. “He’s definitely faster, [Chapman] is probably the fastest in the league right now”, Patton told with us, “Anytime you can even race up there with him, you know, it makes me pretty happy just to be able to do that.” Chapman holds the points lead with a great recovery after hitting the wall and finishing 5th tonight, but Shreves was able to close the gap considerably coming home in 2nd.
Kyle Moonen claimed victory tonight with a GWC finish in the ABR Setup Shop 360 Sprints Series ahead of Brennon Lacy and Blake Chapman. Randy Shreves, the current points leader in the series, went into the night with a 106-point lead. He brought it home in 5th tonight behind Patrick Spangler but has very little to worry about at this point as the unofficial series champion this season with such a commanding lead. With several cautions forcing Moonen to dictate restart after restart, he says he was limited on what he was able to do, “You definitely try to change it up a little bit, you know, every time, but there was kind of tough because the green comes out, you know, pretty quick after the pace car gets off the track so you really don’t have a ton of room to work with.”
Pat Boice was the first survivor to reach the finishing line tonight in the Coast 2 Coast Racing League Hall of Fame Street Stock Enduro 75 lap special event with Nathan Aldrich and Nick Vickrey following behind. “This is my idea. This is a ton of laps, it’s a chance for everybody to get their frustrations out from the season.”, Roger Craig explained to us about this special no cautions, unlimited fast repairs survival event, “You don’t want to be leading until about lap 73 or 74 because you’re definitely a target when you’re out there.” This was a fun chance for the drivers to let off some steam after a long, hard-fought season that is coming to a close next week.
PGRL S1 R2 Recap
22 Feb 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 1 | Round 2
Premier Series | Auto Club Speedway
Jeff Ward with Graafix LC Motorsports took the checkered flag in a one lap shootout tonight in the Going Back to Cali 200 presented by SnoopDawgyDon on Twitch.tv in the Pretty Good Racing League at the Auto Club Speedway beating Thomas George and Mike Rasimas to the line. Ward, who started in 21st place, took the lead from a caution with 7 laps to go jumping from 4th place when the two leaders at the time, Marc Cohn and Chad Mikosz, both got loose battling each other coming out of turn four.
“For the most part we got through there unscathed.”, Ward shared with us after claiming his win, “I just knew we had the tires. We had to get up there, we had like 13 laps to go, and I had one more chance there to make my move on those tires before they start to even out.” As many drivers tonight struggled with handling the car, Thomas George enjoys the Next Gen as he tells us, “They’re definitely more difficult to drive, but for me that’s a good thing. I like cars that drive like this.”
Tonight’s race raises a question: Is the Auto Club Speedway too tough to tame or is the NASCAR Next Gen Cup Car too difficult to recover from a spin? The main cause of cautions tonight were the cars getting loose coming out of the turns and drivers not being able to recover from the resulting spin often over correcting into the wall. Many drivers in the end decided to lock the car down rather than attempt to salvage positions in that situation so the drivers seem to be noticing an issue with the car handling when compared to the previous generation. Time will tell as we look to next week where the PGRL will head to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Memestonks Vegas 200.
BRL GN S9 R7 Recap
19 Feb 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 9 | Round 7
Grand National Series | Myrtle Beach Speedway
Mathew Thunhorst claims his 4th win of the season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Grand National Series at Myrtle Beach Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and Austin Boelke. With this win, Thunhorst now has the most wins of any driver this season with Shepherd taking the remaining 3 wins of the season. Thunhorst took the lead from Morton on lap 65 by pinching Morton from the outside line. Shepherd came home in 4th tonight as he struggled trying to get by Morton which led to him losing a long battle with Austin Boelke.
Even if there is a buffer, I got to race like [Shepherd] is right behind me still. Four points sounds like a big buffer in this league, but it’s not. So, you know, just got to make sure to protect and pad that point lead whenever I can.”, Thunhorst commented after his win tonight, “Got lucky enough to get a little bit of breathing room, so if I make a mistake, you know, I can have the room to not lose the championship lead, but still got to be aggressive. Still got to go out there and try to earn this thing.”
Mathew Thunhorst holds onto the points lead for the fourth week in a row now at 277 points and 4 points over J R Shepherd in 2nd place. Justin Morton still sits in 3rd with 260 points with Austin Boelke close behind with 255 points. If either Thunhorst of Shepherd fail to finish a race before the end of the season, both Morton and Boelke are still within reach to jump to the front with a 30-point swing. Tim Shinoski came home in 9th tonight and moves into 5th place in the point standings with 218 points.
BRL DSS S10 R7 Recap
18 Feb 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 10 | Round 7
Dirt Street Stock Series | Fairbury Speedway
Lon Franks takes his second win of the season tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at Fairbury Speedway beating Brandyn Proudfoot and Jason Best to the line after 40 very chaotic laps. Lon Franks started the evening in 3rd place behind Hargreaves and wasted no time claiming the lead for himself while the rest of the field battled over positions through 11 restarts as Fairbury proved to be a tough track to tame.
“I was trying my best. I was a little nervous every time we had a restart there. We had a lot of cautions.”, Franks told us after his victory tonight, “I knew every time we went green [Proudfoot] had at least one shot if not two to pull a slider which he did once or twice. I was just hoping. Hoping and praying.” Franks was able to get a good launch off each restart and guard against Proudfoot’s attempts to advance in the end making him the 3rd driver this season to have multiple wins, now tied at 2 wins with Proudfoot and Hargreaves.
The season championship is looking more certain for Brandyn Proudfoot as his luck holds out as the season goes on. Now sitting at 524 points, Proudfoot is now 51 points over William Hargreaves in 2nd place. Hargreaves started up front in 2nd but came home tonight in 17th place after getting caught up in an incident with only 3 laps to go. Only a severe upset will unseat Proudfoot from the lead over the remaining four rounds in the season.
C2CRL Hometown Heroes W10 Recap
16 Feb 2022
Coast 2 Coast Racing League | Week 10
Hometown Heroes Series | Volusia Speedway Park
Blake Chapman with Kreitz Sim Racing took home the win tonight in a very chaotic 20 laps for the 305 Sprints with the Coast 2 Coast Racing League Hometown Heroes Series at Volusia Speedway Park ahead of Austin Marlatt and Connor Ross under a GWC finish. Randy Shreves was the points leader coming into the event but has potentially lost the lead to Chapman after finishing in 15th after getting caught up in an incident on lap 17. “Lots of big wrecks that happened in that race”, Chapman commented after the event, “The game plan coming in was just to stick it to the bottom even though the bottom maybe wasn’t the fastest way around the whole time. It helped me survive.”
Randy Shreves of LGR Motorsports claimed victory in the 360 Sprints tonight after leading all 25 laps ahead of Blake Chapman and John Heyn. With tonight’s win, Shreves all but secures the points championship over Nick Vickrey with only two rounds remaining in the season. Shreves talked with us after his dominating performance, “Definitely a tough race, always when you have [Chapman] behind you, John Heyn up front, definitely two of the best in the league and definitely just can’t make any mistakes.”
To end the night’s excitement, the Coast 2 Coast Racing League put on a special 100 lap Pro Late Model race with a 25-car field. Dylan Perry of Chip Bangers Racing took the checkered flag in the Mr. Plumber Toilet Bowl 100 beating out Aiden Young and Brandon Bender. All three top finishers went home this evening with a special engraved toilet bowl trophy from Mr. Plumber Atlanta for their outstanding run. Perry talked with us after his win, “The way the track was if you messed up a little bit it was going to be a make it or break it and [Young and I] were both just kind of hitting our marks and when that caution came out it just kind of fell my way after that i just had to hold on and hope I had enough.”
PGRL S1 R1 Recap
15 Feb 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 1 | Round 1
Premier Series | Daytona International Speedway
Norm Pelletier of Pelletier-McQuistion Simulations took home a hard-fought victory tonight at Daytona International Speedway for the inaugural season of the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of James Krahula and Mike Rasimas. Pelletier was also the biggest mover through the event starting in the back of the 45-car field in 35th place.
“I haven’t run a lot of laps in these cars. Didn’t know how it was going to drive on the superspeedway, but I liked it a lot.”, Pelletier commented after his win. He took us through his choice to hold the inside line around the last lap while other drivers were going high, telling us, “I definitely trusted [Krahula] more than the guys on the outside. I knew the outside; everyone was going to try to go 3-wide so the inside I felt like was more safe and more manageable. The outside I think was definitely faster, but possibly less likely to hold that and you’d have guys trying to attack you from all angles up there.”
The first race of the Pretty Good Racing League is in the books and Norm Pelletier gets to hold the title of the first ever winner as the season is off to a strong start. As is almost expected at Daytona, there were several “wrong place, wrong time” moments for a few unlucky drivers that shook up the field several times. The league opted to disable car damage for the event, we’ll have to see if they decide to continue with this as car damage tonight would have drastically changed the outcome. Next week, the league is heading to the Auto Club Speedway in California where all eyes will be on Pelletier to see if he can pull off a repeat performance.
BRL GN S9 R6 Recap
12 Feb 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 9 | Round 6
Grand National Series | Southern National Speedway
J R Shepherd of Different Path Motorsports comes away tonight with his third victory of the season in the Bootleg Racing League Grand National Series battling Mathew Thunhorst and Justin Morton across the line after a late race caution lined the field back and went green with only 7 laps to go. Austin Boelke led the first 56 laps until Shepherd was able to get the better jump off a restart and claim the lead for the remaining laps of the event.
“This is one of those tracks that you really wish you had lane choice on the restarts”, Shepherd commented. The outside line seemed to be the preferred lane for making passes late in the race. “If you’re starting on the outside and you get any kind of a decent restart it’s a huge advantage and it was tough. I was just waiting for [Thunhorst] to be able to poke to the outside there.”
Mathew Thunhorst holds the lead in the point standings with 237 points as we pass the halfway point in the season. Shepherd follows closely behind trailing by only 1 point after his win tonight. Justin Morton sits in 3rd with 221 points with Austin Boelke in 4th with 217 points. James Lowe rounds out the top 5 in the points and is very much within reach of the championship with a little luck as he currently stands at 202 points, 35 points off the lead.
Virtual Grip Network 