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.
Comentários