Bianchi Repeats at Richmond

Bianchi's YesterYear Racing's Tour Modified car.

Last year's YesterYear Tour Modified Richmond race was twice the distance as the 2025 version, but in the end it didn't matter because the result was the same. Brian Bianchi took the checkered flag in Richmond for the second straight year to win the River City 100 at "The Action Track." In addition, Bianchi is on a two-race win streak having won Round 2 at the SoBo 150 on March 25.

For most of the race it did not look like Bianchi was in typical form. After qualifying 8th, Bianchi settled in and looked to be locked into tire saving mode. Early and mid-race cautions brought strategy into the race as some drivers like Tom Ogle, who was Hubble's prediction to win the race, pitted and took tires, while other drivers stayed out.

As the laps began to tick off and the race moved into the final third of the event, Bianchi began to lose touch with the leaders. With 7 laps to go Jerry Isaacs got his car loose coming off of turn 4 and collided with Rex Hoyle. Ogle had a great run coming off of turn 4 and tried to "split the middle" to pass both cars by going between them, but the gap closed quickly and the three cars came together and brought out the fourth and final caution of the race. This put Ryan Pittman seemingly in the "driver's seat" to win the race. But with only 4 laps remaining and the race still under caution, Pittman bizarrely pitted for tires baffling the capacity crowd in attendance at Richmond Raceway. When Pittman rejoined, it was obvious the race was going to end on a natural green/white checkered finish giving Pittman no time to break in his new tires and threaten the leaders.

With Pittman now out of the hunt for the win, Bianchi inherited the lead. When the checkered flag flew Bianchi had saved enough in his tires to hold off a charging Darryl Wineinger and Brian Johnson. "I certainly wasn't the fastest on the track tonight. My teammate Rex Hoyle really deserved to win, but he got caught up in some stuff there at the end. Sometimes being lucky and being in the right place at the right time pays off," Bianchi said in his post race interview.

With Round 3 in the books Todd Liston still has the points lead with three top 10 finishes in the first 3 races. Jeffery Hardin is 6 points behind Liston in second, while Brian Johnson holds third 9 points back of Liston.

The Series heads to Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in two weeks where the drivers will re-run the 1966 Flameless 300, one of the most famous races ever held at Nashville Fairground Speedway due to what happened the previous year in 1965.

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.