BRL DSS S11 R4 Recap
15 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 11 | Round 4
Dirt Street Stock Series | I-55 Speedway
Photograph by: Billy Northcutt
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
William Hargreaves with the Dirt Panda Racing Team led every lap to the checkered flag tonight with the Bootleg Racing League Dirt Street Stock Series at the I-55 Speedway ahead of Brandyn Proudfoot and Billy Northcutt. “It’s a great track, I think it’s pretty racy all around really.”, Hargreaves commented after his photo finish win tonight, “My only hope was to defend that slider line. I knew [Proudfoot] was going to go for it, and I just had to send it down there as far as I could and hope it worked.”
William Hargreaves and Billy Northcutt started the night off matching fast laps at 14.565 in qualifying with the pole going to Hargreaves who led the field to the green from the front row inside of Brandyn Proudfoot in the first heat. After several attempts on the lead from Proudfoot, Hargreaves was able to hold him off and take the checkered flag. Billy Northcutt led the second heat with Chris Davis to his outside.
Northcutt cleared Davis quickly and instantly went on the defensive not giving Davis an opportunity to challenge him. John Wilson and Chris Hill started the B Main consolation race from the front row. A strong launch from Wilson set him off to a good start as the field single filed out. Wilson was able to outpace the rest of the field pulling away by over 0.7 before taking the checkered flag.
Hargreaves took the field to the green flag starting off the 40-lap feature event with Northcutt to his inside. Hargreaves wasn’t able to clear Northcutt as the drivers battled side by side around the first few laps before Northcutt slid back into 2nd to defend against Brandyn Proudfoot close behind in 3rd. Chris Davis started challenging for 3rd trading sliders with Proudfoot back and forth as the drivers passed the 10-lap mark.
Proudfoot was able to get to the outside of Northcutt but wasn’t able to clear as Proudfoot made contact with the outside wall and found himself back in another heated battle with Davis. The battle came to a head as Proudfoot got loose and fell behind Chris Hill before settling back in 5th ahead of Joe Segalla. Going into the second half of the event, Davis and Hill battled hard over 3rd and Hargreaves managed to pull away from Northcutt by over 2 seconds.
Davis and Hill came together with 10 laps to go unfortunately sending both drivers around and to the rear of the field. The gap of over 2.5 seconds that Hargreaves had built over Northcutt was taken away as the caution came out from that incident. Hargreaves ran the outside line to clear Northcutt, but Proudfoot took advantage of the restart to stay with the leader and quickly took 2nd place away. Proudfoot made a hard charge for the front, but it wasn’t enough in the end as they crossed the line slamming doors with Hargreaves crossed the line 0.029 ahead of Proudfoot.
William Hargreaves took the lead away from Johnny Ratley with his win tonight now with 317 points total. Brandyn Proudfoot moved up to 2nd place 7 points behind the leader. Billy Northcutt trails behind in 3rd at 290 points with Ratley and Bobby Hayes rounding out the top 5 in the points standings 4 weeks into the season. The drivers now set their sights to Cedar Lake Speedway on April 22nd with all of the mudslinging action broadcast live at 7:10PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
PGRL S1 R9 Recap
12 Apr 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 1 | Round 9
Premier Series | Bristol Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing
Jeff Ward with Graafix LC Motorsports took the mud-covered checkered flag tonight in the Laps for Muscular Dystrophy 125 presented by Patriot Media & Marketing Services with the Pretty Good Racing League in the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway ahead of Isaiah Dupre and Woody Mahan. “I’m wore out, that was probably the hardest I’ve ever drove a sim racing car”, Ward commented after the race, “Man it was a handful. It feels good to get that one for sure.”
Michael Whiting started the evening off leading the field to the green for the first heat race of the evening. Isaiah Dupre gained on Whiting from 2nd place being able to take away the inside line and overtake for the lead. Whiting stayed close behind but wasn’t able to challenge back for the lead before Dupre took the checkered flag. Rich Jette led the second heat with Don Runkle Jr to his outside. However, Jeff Ward had the best launch from a row back quickly overtaking the front row and taking the lead. Ward pulled away to an impressive 4.3 second lead before taking the checkered flag.
The third and final heat of the night had Travis McQuistion in the front with Norm Pelletier to his outside as the green flag came out. McQuistion had a good launch off the start and pulled away from Pelletier, but Woody Mahan caught the leader and tried to overtake from the outside with Scott Eckrich jumping both cars into the lead as McQuistion dropped back into 3rd behind Mahan. Eckrich was caught up negotiating around lap traffic which gave the lead over the Mahan who took the win.
Dupre had Ward to his outside as the field took the green flag in the feature event. Ward ran the highline well clearing for the lead very early with Mahan and Eckrich following him around pushing Dupre back to 4th place. Eckrich tried several times to overtake Mahan from the inside but couldn’t get enough speed coming out of the corners to stay alongside. Ward had caught the beginning of lap traffic early into the race as the rear of the field became very spread out.
Mahan and Eckrich closed the gap to Ward going into lap 20 and started searching around the track for a line to use to challenge for the lead. Mahan and Ward door slammed knocking both drivers loose and letting Eckrich get past Mahan into 2nd place. Eckrich was able to then use the outside line to overtake Ward and started to build a gap while Ward and Mahan battled over 2nd. Lap traffic hindered Eckrich’s run allowing Ward and Mahan to get back up to his bumper.
25 laps into the race, only the top 8 drivers were still on the lead lap with 14th place and back already multiple laps down. The 24 car field was spread out to all ends of the track complicating matters for Eckrich who had to continuously change lines to negotiate around the traffic. The dense lap traffic also forced the top 3 drivers apart as over a 1 second gap had extended between Eckrich and Ward as well as Ward and Mahan. With 50 laps completed, Dupre in 4th place was the last car on the lead lap.
Eckrich made hard contact with lap traffic that allowed Ward and Mahan to close the gap back up with both drivers overtaking the leader as Eckrich was forced to pull off track with damage from the incident. The competition caution was thrown out over the field on lap 60 for the only scheduled pit stop of the night with Ward and Mahan the only drivers on the lead lap. Dupre was the first car a lap down and was granted a pass around rejoining the leaders on the lead lap as the stewards threw the green flag back out for the second half of the feature.
Ward wasn’t able to clear Mahan off the restart and the drivers battled side by side for several laps before Mahan was able to clear for the lead from the outside line. Ward worked to stay with Mahan as Mahan wove through the traffic. Mahan and Ward came together a few times as the laps counted down. Lap traffic and over rotation through the corners caused Mahan to check up and Ward wasn’t able to avoid, but in every case both drivers were able to quickly recover and continue racing. After a more severe instance of contact between them, Ward gave Mahan a chance to recover instead of overtaking showing the sportsmanship and respect between the battling leaders.
With 25 laps remaining, Dupre had managed to close up the gap to the lead battle to within 3 seconds after starting from the rear of the field on the restart. Ward was able to clear Mahan for the lead with 20 laps to go along the outside line and started pulling away with the end of the night in sight. Ward made contact with McQuistion that sent McQuistion around and collected Mahan giving him significant damage and allowing Dupre to take away 2nd place going into the final 10 laps. Mahan was forced off track with damage leaving Ward and Dupre the only cars on the lead lap.
Mahan was able to quickly fix the necessary damage for the stewards to allow him back on track in time to hold onto 3rd place, 2 laps down ahead of Thomas George. Ward took the checkered flag unchallenged with a 4 second gap ahead of Dupre. The dirt proved too much for some drivers as almost half of the field retired early for the night with no one making it to the end without an incident or two.
Scott Eckrich holds onto the lead in the point standings with 326 points. Thomas George closed the gap slightly now 16 points behind the lead. Jeff Ward moved up to 3rd in the standings after tonight’s win now at 289 points. Michael Chrobok and Mike Rasimas round out the top 5 going into the final two rounds of the season. The Pretty Good Racing League now prepares for the chaos of Talladega Superspeedway for the Chuckles I’m in Danger 250 presented by MC2 Editing Services on April 19th with all of the fast-paced action broadcast live at 8:50PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
ASC S11 R11 Recap
11 Apr 2022
Autobahn Sportscar Challenge | Season 11 | Round 11
LMP2/GT3 Multiclass Event | Le Mans
Carter Kundinger with Satellite Racing Apollo took the checkered flag tonight in the Prototype Class with the Autobahn Sportscar Challenge 90-minute event at Le Mans ahead of Robert Tinsey and Luc Carbonneau. Ross Booth beat Ryan Robertson and Ryan Washeleski to the line in the GT Pro Class as Ryan Robertson took the win in the GT AM Class ahead of David Parry and Dale Green. “That was a really fun and stressful race”, Kundinger told us tonight after his win, “Really it was just traffic kind of that was really what decided who was in front and who was behind.”
Jeffrey Ooms led the field to the green starting off the evening at Le Mans for the Prototype Class drivers with Ross Booth leading the GT drivers. The field had a very clean start as the drivers in all classes single filed out quickly and settled in for the 90-minute event. Carter Kundinger and Joshua Wolf battled early over 3rd place with Kundinger able to hold onto the position, but the battling allowed Ooms to pull away ahead of the field. Nathan Jue, who was running in 2nd behind Ooms, pulled off the track and ended his own evening in the first 5 minutes of the race.
Several smaller incidents and close calls through the first 30 minutes shuffled the running order around, but Ooms continued to lead in the Prototypes ahead of Kundinger and Robert Tinsey. Booth and Robertson each started building gaps ahead of the rest of their respective classes in the GT Pro and GT AM. Ooms pulled into the pits on lap 9 and stayed in for an extended amount of time at over 1:10 repairing damage picked up while negotiating through GT3 traffic and dropping him far back in the running order and giving the lead to Kundinger with Tinsey staying close behind waiting for an opportunity to challenge for the lead.
As they approached the halfway point in the race, Robertson had over a 46 second lead over the rest of the GT AM Class with Dylan Parry and Matthew Gosch battling hard over 2nd place. Ross Booth led the GT Pro Class with a gap of over 16 seconds ahead of Washeleski. Tinsey took the Prototype lead away from Kundinger, but as Tinsey and Kundinger continued to battle over the lead Wolf and Lou Carbonneau were able to close up the gap to the leaders while battling amongst themselves over 3rd place.
Going into the final 30 minutes, Kundinger was able to retake the lead from Tinsey and Wolf lost 3rd place to Carbonneau, but all four drivers stayed within reach to take advantage of a potential mistake from their competitors. Both GT Pro and GT AM fields had become very spread out with multiple seconds between most drivers as Booth and Robertson continued to lead from far ahead. Ooms found himself back inside of the top 10 as the drivers completed their second pit cycle of the event.
Ooms continued his hard charge through the Prototype field with 20 minutes remaining from 7th place. Kundinger and Tinsey continued their fierce battle over the lead as the time counted down going into the final 5 laps. Tinsey slid wide going around a corner with 12 minutes remaining costing him any chance at taking the win from Kundinger and putting him under immediate pressure from Carbonneau and Wolf. Carbonneau overtook for 2nd quickly while Tinsey was trying to recover. With nearly a 7 second lead, Kundinger was able to relax and just maintain his pace to the finish. Carbonneau, Tinsey, and Wolf chased each other stacked close together single file.
Tinsey took 2nd place back from Carbonneau with 2 laps to go and Ooms climbed his way back into 5th and closed the gap to Wolf up to within 2.5 seconds. Seemingly in response to Ooms gaining, Carbonneau was aggressively pushing with Tinsey instead of attempting for an overtake and built up a gap ahead of Wolf around the final lap. Going through the final corners, Tinsey and Carbonneau fought hard over 2nd place with Tinsey able to hold the position in the end. Kundinger crossed the line 7 seconds ahead of Tinsey, Carbonneau, Wolf, and Ooms all tightly stacked together rounding out the top 5 finishers in the Prototypes.
Billy Smith continues to lead in the points standings in the Prototype Class with a total of 200 points and 21 points ahead of Carter Kundinger in 2nd. Ross Booth has a dominating lead in the GT3 Pro Class at 354 points. Ryan Washeleski sits in 2nd place 42 points behind. Ryan Robertson again goes unchallenged in the GT AM Class points standings with 243 points and a 77-point lead over Trent Brown in 2nd. Satellite Racing, consisting of Robert Tinsey, Ryan Washeleski, and Ryan Robertson, leads in the team standings with 258 points. The Autobahn Sportscar Challenge now heads over to Imola for the next round on April 25th with all of the fast-paced action broadcast live at 9:05PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
BRL SLM S17 R3 Recap
09 Apr 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 17 | Round 3
Super Late Model Series | Stafford Motor Speedway
Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming took the checkered flag and became the third different winner of the season in the third round of the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series at Stafford Motor Speedway ahead of James Lowe and Austin Boelke. “It’s always fun to get, well any victory, but the first victory in the new series”, Kibbey commented after his win tonight, “With these [Super Late Models] you almost have to race to halfway or so because it comes to a point where, unless your tires are way better than the guys around you, if you’re pretty even it’s really, really hard to pass when you get into the late goings of these races.”
Bryan Dehn started the evening on the pole with Michael Goodman to his outside as the field took the green flag. After a rocky start to the event the drivers managed to get sorted out after several cautions early on caused frustration within the field. 20 laps into the race, Dehn continued to lead ahead of Kenny Kibbey and James Lowe. The field began to single file out as drivers settled into a rhythm and started putting laps behind them. Seeming to take the early incidents into account, the drivers stayed single file with very few moves being made to advance for several laps thereafter.
Kibbey stayed close behind Dehn staying within reach to take advantage if Dehn made a mistake which happened on lap 38 as Dehn went high enough in a corner for Kibbey to get to his inside and take away the lead. Kibbey quickly started to pull away extending the gap ahead of Dehn as Lowe started to pressure Dehn for 2nd. Going into the second half, Lowe had yet to get around Dehn, but Dehn was showing signs of excessive tire wear and was dropping off the pace as Kibbey continued to extend the gap ahead by more than 1 second.
Out pacing the rest of the field by 0.2 each lap, Kibbey maintained a strong lead over the rest of the drivers with 40 laps remaining. Dehn defended 2nd place against Lowe and Justin Morton, who caught up to the battle, by controlling the inside line. A caution came out on lap 62 stacking the field back together and putting Lowe behind Kibbey for the restart with Dehn to the outside at a significant disadvantage. Kibbey had a strong launch and Lowe stayed with him getting to the inside of Dehn with Austin Boelke trying to close the door before Dehn could get down to the inside.
Dehn fell back to 5th before he tried to dive down low behind Morton but caught the front end of Goodman to his inside and spun sideways before sliding back up the track collecting several other drivers. Kibbey continued to lead now followed by Lowe, Boelke, Morton, and Goodman rounding out the top 5 with 25 laps remaining. Kibbey continued to show a strong pace holding a 0.2 lead over Lowe going into the final 10 laps as Boelke and Morton battled over 3rd. Kibbey crossed the line mostly uncontested followed by Lowe, Boelke, Morton, and Goodman.
Kenny Kibbey and James Lowe are now tied for 1st place in the point standings each with a total of 115 points. Michael Goodman moved up to 3rd place with 107 points followed closely behind by Justin Morton and Austin Boelke rounding out the top 5 drivers. The Bootleg Racing League now moves over to Five Flags Speedway for the next round of the season on April 16th with all of the short track action broadcast live at 8:55PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!
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!
Virtual Grip Network 