Shepherd Captures YesterYear IROC Title at Thompson Motorsports Park

J.R. Shepherd's winning Cadillac CTS-V

The 4-race YesterYear International Race of Champions (IROC) Series which began way back in February, ended under the lights at Thompson Motorsports Park on Tuesday night. It was a challenging race for the eleven-car field given that the car being driven, the Cadillac CTS-V, is a road racing car and not a short-track oval car. When the dust settled on the brisk Tuesday night at Thompson Speedway, it was Bootleg Racing League's (BRL) J.R. Shepherd that captured the title. Known as "The Institution" in BRL circles for his unbelievable amount of wins and titles in that League, Shepherd lived up to the moniker on Tuesday night. The BRL-driver started last as the grid was set by reversing the order in the point standings. Because Shepherd had a five-point lead in the standings over OBRL-driver Josh Robinson heading into the race, Shepherd started last and Robinson started second to last, and so-on up the grid.

When the green flag flew, chaos ensued almost immediately. Round 3 race winner Tom Ogle spun on lap two to bring out the first full course yellow of the entire Series. This bunched the field up for a restart and when the green flag flew again, Red Light Racing League's Jeff Aho took off like a rocket ship. Aho stretched out a tremendous lead on the rest of the field and ultimately ended up leading 91 of the 150 lap race. But as the stint went on, Aho's tires began to fail him. Todd Liston, who had quietly been keeping Aho in his site, began to run Aho down. More importantly, Shepherd and Robinson had driven their way through the field and had caught both Aho and Liston. Suddenly, there was a four-car battle for the lead.

With tire wear becoming a major issue for the entire field, some drivers began pitting and Aho was the first driver in the lead pack to pit. However, a couple of laps after Aho pitted, "Lady Luck" shinned down on Shepherd, Robinson, and Liston in the form of the race's second caution. When it flew, it put all drivers who pitted a lap or more down. With no "Lucky Dogs," nor "Waive Arounds" in the rules package, this essentially ruined any chance of a victory for drivers that went a lap down, including Aho.

After the yellow flag pit stops, Robinson found himself in the lead after he "rolled the dice" and only took two right-side tires during the pit stop, while all other drivers changed four tires. Unfortunately for Robinson, the combination of old left side tires and new right side tires proved to be too much of a risk. When the green flag flew with 26 laps remaining in the race, Robinson had no grip going into turns one and two and slid up into the wall, putting him back into third place behind Shepherd and Liston. After a handful of laps, Robinson was able to get around Liston, but could not close the 1.5-second-gap to Shepherd. When they crossed the line, Shepherd secured his second victory in the Series and the Championship. Robinson cruised across the line taking second place in the race, while Liston rounded out the podium.

American Badass Whiskey from Garage Oil Spirits

By winning the YesterYear IROC Championship, not only did Shepherd lock down an invite into next year's Series to defend his title, but he also won a bottle of American Badass Whiskey made by Garage Oil Spirits out of Texas.

When asked about running a 2026 YesterYear IROC Series, Allen Wannamaker, Founder of the YesterYear Racing™ League said, "I plan on running a Series next year as long as we have enough interest from the Series Champions of the Leagues. I suspect about 19-21 invitations will be sent to the Series Champions in early January 2026. We will take a tally then and as long as we have an acceptable number of Champions say they are in, then we will run it." Wannamaker did add that next year's Series, if it occurs, will likely see a few changes including adding a fifth race to cut down on the long break between the February race and the June race. When asked if the Cadillac CTS-V would be the car again, Wannamaker wouldn't totally commit but said, "I thought the Caddy's put on a damn good show! Many questioned this car choice, but I think the CTS-V showed how versatile it is, and it sure looked great on the track. If I were handicapping it, I'd say there is a good chance they return, but we'll see what happens."

The IceMan Cometh

The IceMan Cometh

Throughout history, there have been many "icemen." Up until about 10,000 years ago, Cro-Magnon man was categorized by many as an iceman, given the climate many dealt with during their reign on Earth. In Hollywood, there have been icemen, including most famously the fighter jet pilot Tom "IceMan" Kazansky, played by Val Kilmer in the 1986 movie Top Gun. There have also been famous race car drivers that have donned the nickname "IceMan," including 2007 Formula One World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen, and 2-time NASCAR Winston Cup Champion, Terry Labonte. On Tuesday night at the Martinsville Speedway, another IceMan emerged from the 150-lap event in the form of James Lowe.

Round 13 was Lowe's third race in the YesterYear Racing™ League's Tour Modified Series, having joined late in the 2025 season. Pit issues plagued his debut at Oxford Plains, while a last lap wreck foiled his victory aspirations at the Race of Champions, held for the second season at Pocono Raceway. But this past Tuesday at the second running of the YesterYear Classic, Lowe put all that behind him and drove his Tour Modified to Victory Lane.

"It was a good race and I was just glad to get the win," Lowe, a driver of few words, said after the race. Lowe started second on the grid behind pole sitter Jerry Isaacs and also led 71 of the 150 laps around the Martinsville track known as "Paperclip" for its paperclip-like shape. The race saw five cautions with the last one coming with about 40 laps remaining. Lowe restarted the race after the last caution flew ahead of season points leader Tom Ogle and was able to maintain his advantage throughout the remainder of the race. "I was pressuring him throughout those final laps, but he drove a great race, hit his marks, and was completely mistake free," Ogle, who finished in second, said of Lowe after the race. Allen Wannamaker, Founder and co-owner of the YesterYear Racing™ League added, "James is a great driver. I have raced against him a few times in the Bootleg Racing League and tonight was characteristic of how he drives. Quick, but not flashy. Consistent, smart, and he takes care of his car. He kind of gets out front and puts you to sleep because he doesn't make mistakes, hence the reason why he is the IceMan."

Scott Negus rounded out the podium by finishing third, which was quite a drive since Negus had to overcome an end-of-line penalty to start the race. "I began catching them once I worked my way through the field, but I couldn't quite get up there with them and burnt my tires up a bit trying to catch them," the Canadian said in his post race interview.

The race saw five cautions for twenty laps and was run in fifty eight minutes time. A far cry from the two hours and thirteen minutes it took to finish the Race of Champions the prior week. The Series takes a week off next week before heading to Atlanta Motor Speedway on November 4 for the Fall Final. Ogle (674 points) has a healthy points lead heading into the event with Brian Johnson (644 points) trailing in second. Atlanta will be another double-points race for the YesterYear drivers, so anything can happen.

Ogle Wins Race of Champions In Caution-Laden Affair

Traditional Race of Champions logo

Twenty-five years ago on June 26, 2000, the British rock band Coldplay entered the music scene with their hit song "Yellow," which was about an amazing night sky the band had previously seen a few nights prior. That song could have easily been the theme song set on continuous repeat for the second annual YesterYear Race of Champions. Twenty-nine cars took the grid for the 100-lap event which saw 13 cautions for 19 laps.

"It was a messy race," YesterYear Founder and Race Director Allen Wannamaker said in a post-race interview. He continued, "Tour modified stock cars are built for short track racing. Almost all of our 15-races in the Series are on short tracks, but every year we race Pocono. The full Tricky Triangle, just like they did between 1977 and 1979. We are YesterYear Racing League, and that is what we do. We race historic races that have taken place in the past. To be honest, this year's Pocono track resembled Darlington. It was too tough to tame."

Early on, Dwayne McArthur and Tom Ogle set the pace up front. McArthur started on pole with a lap time of 1 minute 2.342 seconds. Ogle started the race fourth on the grid. For the rest of the pack, drafting was paramount. "You needed to find a drafting partner, or partners, early and stick with them throughout the race if possible," broadcaster J.R. Shepherd pointed out. Many drivers did find partners, but some did not and they looked lost and uncomfortable. "In my opinion, there were two reasons for the large number of cautions we had. First, most of our drivers are used to short track racing. In that type of racing, getting to the front early is critical because passing is so tough. At Pocono, that is not necessary. No one is going anywhere. The second reason is that the Race of Champions is unlike the other fourteen races in our Series in that it is an OPEN event, meaning drivers who do not normally participate in our League can race. This opens up the risk element of not knowing how drivers you are not familiar with might react in certain situations," Wannamaker said.

The close quarters racing yielded plenty of cautions early. In addition, there was confusion over the rules package with respect to restarts. As the cautions began to mount, drivers were staying in their pit stalls until the very last moment to repair their cars. This created a situation where those cars that stayed in the pits for a long time could not catch the field in time before the green flag flew for the restart. A couple of drivers even got black flagged because of this. As the race went on and attrition set in, the number of cars on the track began to diminish. Dale Copeland, who looked to be a "workhorse" up front most of the night, was right in the mix with Ogle, McArthur, Robert Guarisco (aka "Crisco), Jeff Aho, and James Lowe. Some drivers like Wannamaker and Red Light Racing League's Geoffrey Souza had taken a cautious approach. Hanging back most of the race until about 15-20 laps to go.

McArthur's night ended abruptly when his car came together with Todd Liston on the back stretch. Liston was disqualified for exceeding the incident limit for the race, while McArthur limped back to the pits, his car damaged beyond repair. The incident, however, brought out no caution and the drivers continued racing.

With four laps to go, the 13th caution flag of the night flew, which set up a one-lap, green flag race to the finish. Aho was on point, followed by Ogle, Wannamaker, and Lowe. When the green flag flew there was an almost immediate 3-wide situation going into turn one. The casualties were Wannamaker and Lowe who both smacked the inside wall. This created opportunity for some drivers in the back to get solid runs going into, and coming out of turn one. On the final turn, Copeland went high and tucked in behind fellow OBRL driver Ogle and gave him a square shot with his nerf bar to bump draft him into the lead and ultimately the victory. Copeland had enough momentum to cross the finish line in second, while Souza edged out his fellow Red Light Racing League member Jeff Aho for third place to round out the podium. Ultimately, the caution-laden race did produce some green flag runs that were exciting for both racers and fans when they happened. "After the practice, I was expecting this to be somewhat of a boring race, but when the green flag dropped, the pack racing was intense and exciting," Crisco said after the race. Copeland added, "It was surprisingly fun out there. There were a lot of cautions, which is too bad, but I had a blast." With the victory, Tom Ogle (625) stretched his point lead out to 25 points with Brian Johnson (600) moving up into second place in the standings. Both Kenny Allen (576) and Scott Negus (566), who had been second and third in the standings respectively coming into the night, had bad results. The Race of Champions was a double points race and so the bad finishes hurt both Allen and Negus in the points even more than it normally would. The Series heads to Martinsville on Tuesday, October 21, for the YesterYear Classic where they will race 150 laps around the "Paperclip." "Martinsville is a much more familiar track for these drivers. I expect there will be many less cautions next week than there were tonight," Wannamaker said. When asked about final thoughts, Wannamaker added this, "One aspect of the race I find interesting is this. We run races that have happened in history. This year's race was modeled after the 1978 Race of Champions won by Geoff Bodine. And in that race, there were 12 caution flags. We had 13 caution flags, but one was extended by me so drivers could regroup. If you take that one away, we had 12 caution flags in our race also. That is kind of cool, but I would have still rather had only 3-4 caution flags, if any."