From Spin to Win: J.R. Shepherd Wins at Mid-Ohio

J.R. Shepherd's Cadillac CTS-V IROC Car

It all played out like J.R. Shepherd had likely planned and Hubble (YesterYear's in-house AI Bot) had predicted. Get to the front early, pull away quickly, and set her on cruise control. Except for the fact it didn't play out that way at all. Yes, J.R. quickly got in front, and yes he looked to be pulling away. But tragedy struck on lap two coming out of The Esses onto Thunder Valley straight when Shepherd hit the gas too early and spun his Cadillac CTS-V into the grass. Driver Jeff Aho followed the same pattern and spun as well taking an unfortunate Tom Ogle out of the race. The incident put J.R. back into 6th position and OBRL's Josh Robinson in command of the race.

From there, the race started to settle into a rhythmic tone for the front runners, except for J.R., who made quick work of Todd Liston and Allen Wannamaker (a sub driver for Lloyd Moore) and began chasing down the top three. First on Shepherd's list was Sean Foltz. J.R. was patient and waited a couple of laps before making his move. Shepherd then chased down Christian Loschen, but Loschen pitted for a splash of gas as to not burn his tires up battling J.R. for position. Loschen misjudged a bit and came out behind Wannamaker and lost time to Robinson and Shepherd before finally clearing Wannamaker after a couple of laps. Attrition began settling in. Brian Bianchi blew his engine and had to retire. Todd Liston spun a couple of times but stayed in the race. John Wilson missed the start of the race and never got going. Back up front it didn't take long for Shepherd to run down Robinson and clear him. Once that happened J.R.'s original plan set in. Out front, he could now get into a rhythm and cruise to victory, which he did. Robinson managed to hang onto second place, while VLS iRacing's Christian Loschen finished third.

In his post race interview Shepherd, nicknamed "The Institution" for his unbelievable number of wins and championships in the Bootleg Racing League, said "I didn't plan it that way, but I got on the gas too early coming out of The Esses which put me in a tough spot."

With the win, Shepherd inherits the points lead followed by Robinson who is three points behind, and Jeffery Hardin who is nine points behind in third.

Round 3 of the YesterYear Racing™ IROC Series will take place on Tuesday, August 19, 2025 at Atlanta Motor Speedway's 2008 track design.

Scott Negus Claims Victory at the Old Dominion 267

Scott Negus's Tour Modified Race Car

On a wild and crazy June 3rd race, Scott Negus hung around the top 5 most of the night to claim victory at the Old Dominion 267. This was Round 7 of the YesterYear Racing™ Tour Modified Series and the last race before the summer break. The South Boston Speedway was hot and slick most of the race and drivers struggled to adapt. Rex Hoyle started on pole, but it was points leader Tom Ogle who started second that quickly took command of the race. Ogle got a comfortable lead and then looked to put it in cruise control to save his tires in case a later battle might dictate the need for less wear. 2024 Champion Brian Bianchi made his way into second place early on and was following Ogle, but on the second caution of the race Bianchi passed a car he was supposed to be behind when going into the pits. This gave Bianchi a green flag drive through penalty and basically put the win out of reach as he went two laps down.

Meanwhile, the pack racing was tight. Many drivers had trouble adjusting to the heat of the track. Grip seemed to start going away after 30-35 laps. Allen Wannamaker, Luke Allen, Randy Schuler, and a few other drivers had solo spins. Most coming off of turn 4 onto the front straight.

On lap 167, Brian Neff, who Hubble (YesterYear's in-house AI Bot) had predicted would win the race, got loose coming out of turn 4. Neff and Bill Martin touched and Neff went spinning. In frustration, Neff looped his car around quickly to rejoin the fray, but in doing so hit leader Tom Ogle and took him out of the race. This incident quickly brought drivers back into the mix to win the race since Ogle looked to have the race in hand. Todd Liston, Jerry Isaacs, Brian Johnson, Kenny Allen, and Scott Negus all had "new life" breathed into them.

In another minor incident, Jerry Isaacs had his left front wheel assembly damaged which became severely bowed in. Amazingly, Isaacs seemed to pick up speed because of it and looked to be gradually pulling away from the field. However, another caution ensued and once Isaacs pitted for tires, his car never seemed the same.

This left a three-way battle for the win between Negus, Johnson, and Liston. As the laps began winding down, it looked clear Negus had the better tires and was going to win the race. Liston made an aggressive last lap move on Johnson to claim second place, which put Johnson third. Isaacs nursed his bowed-wheel car home to fourth while Kenny Allen rounded out the top five.

When the dust settled, Tom Ogle still maintained his points lead, but only by four points over Todd Liston, and five points over Kenny Allen. The Series will resume the second half of the season on Tuesday, August 26, 2025 at Stafford Motor Speedway for the Camden Classic.

Ogle Fights Off Bianchi To Win The Connecticut 100

Tom Ogle's sleek Tour Modified race car, adorned with sponsorship decals and Teddy Christopher's number 13, ready for action on the track.

Tom Ogle extended his points lead to 16 Tuesday night as he held off a late-charging Brian Bianchi for the win. Jeff LeMire got his first podium of the year and held off a hard-charging Torrance Childs for third place.

Ogle was cautiously optimistic Tuesday night as the YesterYear Tour Modified "circus" headed to a tricky Thompson Motor Speedway where the wind was whipping over 20mph at the start of the race. Ogle had success last year at Thompson winning two out of the three races held there, but Ogle had to start behind pole sitter Kenny Allen who set a blistering qualifying time of 18.581 seconds, and Jeff LeMire.

The race went quickly under caution as several drivers got loose coming out of turn 4 on lap 5. ToyMaker Racing driver Gavin Adams took a spin through the infield, but looked fine to continue on as his car had limited damage. Chris Davis and Randy Schuler also found themselves on the infield with the later hitting what looked to be curbing in turn 1 and then struck another ToyMaker Racing driver, Allen Wannamaker, in the left side panel. Wannamaker's car flip over the railing and out of the park in what looked to be a night-ending crash.

When the race resumed, Kenny Allen and Tom Ogle made it look like a two-horse race for awhile until another caution bunched up the field. On the restart, Allen found himself again under pressure from Ogle who eventually got by as Allen slid up into the "marbles" and lost many spots. Allen eventually went a lap down when he collected Jeffery Hardin as the two battled for position.

The waning laps saw a hard-charging Brian Bianchi begin to apply pressure to the front runner Ogle. Bianchi, the defending Series Champion, had been on cruise control much of the night saving his tires. In the end though, Bianchi ran out of laps and Tom Ogle took the victory. "I felt like I had a shot at him. Maybe if the race had a few more laps in it I could have gotten him, but Tom is a great driver and did not make a mistake," Bianchi said in his post-race interview. "He was faster than I was at the end. I think he saved his Hoosiers a little better than I did. All I could do was hold my line and make him take the difficult way around if he was going to try and pass me. I want to thank Brian for racing me clean. Everyone in this League has good race craft which is one of the many aspects that make this League so fun," Ogle said in his post-race interview.

The Series will visit South Boston Speedway for the second time this year next week (Tuesday, June 3) as the drivers will run the Old Dominion 267 before wrapping up the first half of the season and taking the summer off.