Worst to First: Bianchi Prevails at SoBo

Bianchi's #14 YesterYear Racing™ Tour Modified stock car.

Round #2 of the 2025 YesterYear Racing™ Tour Modified Series was always going to be a learning experience for the drivers. Only once in the 2024 season did the Series visit a true bull ring. It was Hickory Motor Speedway during race two of 2024. Tuesday night's race saw 29 cars line up to tackle the famed Virginia bull ring and the fans were treated to a dandy of a show.

Defending series champion Brian Bianchi saw his 2025 campaign get off to a slow start in Round #1 at Daytona. After spinning through the infield, Bianchi miscalculated and ran out of fuel finishing in 29th place in a field of 30 cars. To make matters worse, Daytona was a double points race which meant Bianchi was in a hole and needed a solid run at a South Boston track that is known for wearing out tires and trying driver patience.

Bianchi qualified near the front and was fortunate to stay out of trouble when leader and pole winner Jerry Isaacs got collected by some lapped cars coming together right in front of him. This set up a lengthy battle between BRL driver Todd Liston and Bianchi over the course of the rest of the race. In the end Bianchi was able to get by Liston who's car was on "skates" after burning up much of his right-side tires from leading most of the race. "I was very conscious of saving my tires throughout the entire race," Bianchi said in the post-race interview. When asked about his outing, Liston said he was also worried about tires. "I knew tires were going to be key and when Jerry wrecked it put me in front. It is always difficult to run out front on a track like this and save tires. You want to keep a good pace, but don't want to use your right-sides up. That balance is hard to manage when leading," Liston said in the post-race interview.

Liston isn't too bummed though. With two 3rd place finishes in the first two races, he is the Series points leader. "Consistency can pay off in the end," said Race Director Allen Wannamaker in a post-race chat. "Terry Labonte was always my favorite stock car driver back in the day. I liked how he raced. He rarely won, but he stayed out of trouble and his race craft and situational awareness was unmatched," Wannamaker said.

The Series will take a week off before heading to "The Action Track" for Round #3. "Richmond Raceway will be a good next stop for us. We raced Round #3 there last year. There is more space for drivers to maneuver, and so we should see some good side-by-side racing. We visited this track last year and Brian (Bianchi) won it. We'll see what happens," said Wannamaker.

Kenny Allen Solves the Round 1 "Puzzle"

Kenny Allen's #81 Tour Modified car

Red Light Racing League driver Kenny Allen opened his YesterYear Racing™ League Tour Modified account Tuesday night by winning the enigma known as The Icebreaker 250 Presented by VctryLnSprts. In what turned out to be a one caution affair at the 100-lap Daytona International Speedway race, drivers struggle to try and find an answer to make the Tour Modified cars work in the draft. Early on, bump-drafting was king and it was happening in packs all over the track. But as drivers began to mysteriously lose the draft and lose touch with their running groups, they began to look elsewhere to solve the puzzle. Some suspected there was a precise "bubble draft" and if you inched outside of the "bubble," you would lose momentum. Others postulated that oil temperature was the culprit and that the temperature needed to be in a specific range for the car to work optimally. At one point in the race driver Todd Liston was able to single-handedly run down a group of three cars ahead of him without drafting help from anyone. Liston, who finished third in the race, stated in the post race interview that he felt like it was all about keeping the cars as steady and smooth as possible. "You needed to be smooth and steady and turn the wheel slightly and only when necessary. There was also a racing line that minimized the bottoming out of the car. If I ran that line smoothly, I was successful in turning a quick lap most of the time," Liston said.

In the waning laps of the race, it looked as though Elliot Sadler eSports driver Jerry Isaac's, who had led the most laps in the race, was going to cruise to victory. ToyMaker Racing driver Kenny Allen lost him in lapped traffic going into turn one of the last lap. Then suddenly Allen's car seemed to get a Nitrous Oxide System (NOS) boost coming out of turn 4 and he was able to run down Isaac's at the finish line to cross six one-hundredths of a second clear of Isaac's. "It was amazing," said Allen in his post race interview. "I was already congratulating Jerry going down the back stretch and then coming out of turn 4 my car just came alive."

The post-race chatter among all the drivers was that the race was indeed a puzzle. And a puzzle that remains a mystery for most of the drivers.

The YesterYear Racing™ circus has a month off before heading to the South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Virginia for the 150-lap SoBo 150 on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.

Hardin Takes YesterYear IROC Round 1 Opener

Jeffery Hardin's #2 Cadillac CTSV

Bootleg Racing League's Jeffery Hardin came away with the win Tuesday night in what turned out to be a very strategic affair. The YesterYear International Race of Champions (IROC) kicked off its inaugural season at Daytona International Speedway. The exclusive series pits 2024 season champions from the Bootleg Racing League, OBRL, Red Light Racing League, VLS iRacing League, and the YesterYear Racing™ League against one another in a 4-race competition driving identical Cadillac CTS-V race cars.

Round 1 went green from start to finish which meant executing the most efficient pit strategy was going to put drivers in the best position to win. Early on, it looked as though J.R. Shepherd, known as "The Institution" for his domination for many years in the Bootleg Racing League, and OBRL's Josh Robinson were the class of the field. Both had low line positions and were stuck like glue for the first quarter of the race until fuel concerns from being out front for so long caused Shepherd to back off a bit and get a place in line. OBRL's Tom Ogle, Christian Loschen and a changing "gaggle" of drivers held the high line together for most of the first 45 laps of the race, while YesterYear's Brian Bianchi was the primary leader of the middle line. And so they raced. Three wide, three distinct "trains" for almost 50 laps. Then came the pit stops.

A group of mostly Bootleg Racing League drivers were the first to show their hand and come into the pits. Led by Shepherd they pitted, and they were quick. Shepherd and fellow Bootleg racer Todd Liston beat the other drivers out by enough to lose them in the draft and it looked like smooth sailing for Shepherd and Liston. A much larger group of drivers including Robinson, Ogle, OBRL's Sean Foltz, Bianchi, and others pitted a couple of laps later. There was some chaos that ensued that took Ogle out of the race. The CTS-Vs have ABS and traction control which could have been the culprit since most drivers in the field aren't used to having these. The resulting exit of the pits for the second round of cars that pitted was very disbursed. Bianchi and Foltz came out together and hooked up quickly with Bianchi leading and Foltz very closely pushing. Robinson and others were caught in another line behind Bianchi and Foltz and it looked as though the ground they needed to make up was going to be almost impossible to overcome without a caution flag.

Meanwhile up front, Hardin and Red Light Racing League's Geoffrey Souza kept it tight and began closing the gap that Shepherd and Liston had built. It wouldn't take long before they were able to fully close the gap and the lead pack became four. As the laps began to tick away Shepherd finally relinquished the lead to Hardin and Souza. Liston stayed tucked behind fellow Bootleg driver Shepherd and it looked as though they were backing off for a huge run once the last few laps came. But something quickly looked alarming. Shepherd backed off so much that he and Liston lost Hardin and Souza. It then became obvious that Shepherd had fuel issues. Liston finally realized this, but it was too late. Hardin and Souza were up the road and now Liston would get pulled into a battle with Bianchi and Foltz for the third spot on the podium unless a caution came out, which at this point, looked highly unlikely.

In the end, it was Hardin and Souza that battled for the win. Souza waited until coming out of turn 4 to make his move. He had a run, but it didn't look like a great one. They went side-by-side and briefly touched, which was enough to slow Souza's momentum. Souza was three one hundredths of a second short of taking Round 1.

The YesterYear IROC Series will resume on June 10th, 2025 as the drivers head to the Mid-Ohio road course for Round 2.