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."