Bianchi Victorious at Richmond

Three times was not a “charm” for Tom Ogle as Red Light Racing’s Brian Bianchi played spoiler at Richmond and took home his first victory of the Season. Ogle had his sights set on a third straight win in the series to go three-for-three, but it didn’t materialize. Ogle picked up slight rear-end damage mid-way through the race and was stuck pack racing for the remainder of the night. It all went “pear-shaped” in the waning laps of the event when Ogle collected Rex Hoyle bringing out the last caution of the night. Ogle finished 17th bringing him “back to Earth” in the overall League point standings.

Bianchi was in the mix all night. At a little over the halfway point, it looked like fellow Red Light Racer and Culpepper-teammate Rex Hoyle were positioning themselves for a one-two finish. Hoyle stretched out a 3-second lead at one point and looked in the clear. However, a caution came out on a Lloyd Moore turn-two spin that bunched everyone back up for a restart. Hoyle was slightly slow off the pits and relinquished the lead, only to tangle with Ogle later in the race. Bianchi, on the other hand, was able to stay clean as the laps wound down. He came out from the pits in second place after the last caution and made an aggressive move to take the lead on the final restart. Ryan Pittman, who finished second in the race after almost going a lap down earlier due to a pit strategy miscalculation, was applying maximum pressure to Bianchi during the last 10 laps of the race. Bianchi, however, did not crack and hit his marks driving his Culpepper-sponsored modified to victory lane.

Bootleg’s Todd Liston grabbed third place in the event while also collecting the “Hard Charger” award. Liston started 19th after a poor qualifying performance but managed to work his way up throughout the race. Jerry Isaacs, who started on Pole and ran solid the entire night, finished in the fourth spot. Rex Hoyle, who was arguably the fastest car on the track from the mid-point of the race until the Ogle incident, deservingly received the “Goody’s Headache award.

With the win, and subsequent 17th finish by Ogle, Bianchi took over the overall points lead by 6 points over Ryan Pittman, who now sits second. Ogle is only 3 points behind Pittman before a gap of 23 points to fourth place Dale Copeland. The Series will take a week off before heading to North Wilkesboro, North Carolina on April 23rd, 2024, for the Zach Brewer Classic. Practice will open at 7:30pm EST, with the race beginning at 8:30.

Ogle Sets Early Tone in Quest for YesterYear Racing™ Title

Solidifying himself as the early front-runner to win the 2024 YesterYear Racing™ Series, Tom Ogle somehow managed to upstage his round one performance on Tuesday night by winning the Hickory Southern Modified 150, starting on the pole position, and leading every lap of the event.  If it weren’t for Lloyd Moore, who finished second, setting fastest lap of the race by one one-hundredth of a second over Ogle’s time, Ogle would have completed a “Grand Slam,” which is incredibly rare in auto racing.  Moore was never far behind Ogle and kept it close the entire race. When asked in the post-race interview what Moore could have done to get by Ogle, Moore said “I had no shot at him at all.  He would have had to have gotten into the wall or make some other mistake for me to have a shot at him.  It was just a deal where I had to follow Tom around and just try not to get too loose to let Bruce catch up.” Bruce Pearson ran a solid race and finished third on the night.  Interestingly, “Hubble,” YesterYear Racing’s OpenAI Bot, had predicted a second-place finish for Pearson which turned out to be a great forecast given where he ended up. 

Bootleg’s Ryan Pittman ended up grabbing the Hard Charger Award on the night coming from 19th all the way up to 6th.  OBRL’s Dale Copeland earned the Goody’s Headache Award. Copeland ran strong early on, but his tires seemed to go away quickly in the last 30-40 laps of the race and had a few close calls that could have easily turned out worse than they did.  Copeland eased it home in 8th.

The night was marred by issues primarily caused by a “buggy” large patch update on the iRacing platform earlier in the day.  The broadcasters had issues hooking into the race and were forced to troubleshoot on the fly.  The Race Director had issues with the race not saving properly once it was concluded.  And storms throughout certain parts of the continental U.S. caused various issues for others.

Like round one in Martinsville, the race got off to a rocky start with a good portion of cautions early on.  However, the race settled, and the total cautions (5) ended up being one less than the actual Southern Modified 150 that took place on March 31, 1990.

The boys will travel to Richmond International Speedway on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, for the third round of the Series.  The Richmond 200 will be the second longest race in the Series and should provide plenty of excitement.

YesterYear Racing™ Announces Advertising Partnership With Sid's View

Today YesterYear Racing™ entered into a advertising agreement with Sid's View. Founded in 2010, Sid's View is a prominent provider of original short track racing content including a very popular YouTube video podcast with just under 5,000 subscribers, as well as documentaries and live video from various short tracks around the eastern part of the U.S. Sid's View is headquartered in New England with some of the staff working at Stafford Motor Speedway, but their short track coverage goes beyond New England. Recently they were in Florida covering the World Series of Asphalt.

Asked about the partnership, YesterYear Racing™ founder Allen Wannamaker said he was excited about the opportunity. "I think what Tom and the crew do at Sid's View is excellent for short track racing and modifieds in particular. They are well versed in the "who's who" not only in the New England scene, but also beyond. This platform will give great exposure to YesterYear Racing™ and I look forward to working with Tom, Nicole, Remy, and the rest of the crew at Sid's View during 2024."

The advertising agreement gives YesterYear Racing™ direct podcast call-outs in 18 episode's running through October 2024. Additionally, YesterYear's branding, tag line, URL, and logo will be prominent on the Sid's View website.

The Sid's View video podcast is broadcast every Tuesday at 7:00pm EST on their YouTube site. YesterYear Racing™ will begin advertising on Sid's View this coming Tuesday, April 2.