Shepherd Wins at Twin Ring Motegi

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

The "Land of the Rising Sun" is known for many things. Samurai Warriors, Sumo Wrestlers, anime, builder of great automobiles, and of course, Godzilla. On Tuesday, June 30, however, an outsider came to visit one of Japan's many famous race tracks. The 1.5-Mile oval at Mobility Resort Motegi (known commonly as Twin Ring Motegi) was the site of Round 3 of the YesterYear Racing™ League's International Race of Champions (IROC) Series and the driver known simply as "The Institution" was present. Bootleg Racing League's J.R. Shepherd, who is the defending champion of the Series, typically plays down the moniker, but when the green flag drops, he is all business. Shepherd's Cadillac CTS-V started near the back of the 11-car field since drivers started in reverse order from where they finished Round 2. Shepherd quickly took his Orangello-colored machine to the front of the pack and within 4 laps of the 100-lap race had control of the field. Shepherd was tied for the points lead coming into the race with Red Light Racing League's Chris Hammett. Hammett, who was coming off a dominant win in Round 2 at Iowa Speedway, followed Shepherd to the front and it quickly became obvious it would be a 2-horse race barring any adverse outcome related to the car or pit stops. Just before the halfway point of the race, Shepherd lost concentration briefly which allowed Hammett to pounce. Hammett quickly took the lead and looked to suddenly be a real challenge to Shepherd. It was short-lived, however, as Shepherd quickly regained focus, regained the lead, and never really looked back after that. "I lost a little bit of focus and got too close to the wall. These cars are so tight to drive that you really must be in management mode the entire race or they will get out of control and it can cost you. Fortunately we were able to recover and get back to the front," Shepherd said in his post race interview. When asked about his charge to the front, Hammett said, "I got by him once and stayed somewhat close the rest of the race, but I don't think J.R. was running 100%. I suspect he was running just hard enough to keep the gap where he wanted." Hammett crossed the line in second place 3.149 seconds behind Shepherd when the checkered flag flew. Rounding out the podium was the youngster Luke Logan Allen who was driving for Aiden Young who was unable to make the race. The ToyMaker Racing team driver had a somewhat lonely race in third place as he was never really threatened for the position, but never really threatened Hammett nor Shepherd for their positions.

When asked about the event, Allen Wannamaker, Founder and Co-Owner of the YesterYear Racing™ League said it was an interesting event, but noted he was disappointed in the turnout. "I knew it was a bit of a risk to come to Twin Ring Motegi. Not many drivers owned the track and likely needed to buy it. Most drivers obviously did not buy it since we only had 11 drivers grid up and three of those were substitute drivers. This is the first time any race in any YesterYear Racing™ League Series has raced outside of the United States. I thought it was a cool idea and figured I would roll the dice. I like to at least have 12 cars grid up since that is exactly how many drivers raced in the historic IROC Series, but we didn't get there tonight." Round 4 of the YesterYear Racing™ League IROC Series will take place at 8:30pm ET, Tuesday, August 11 at the Oulton Park Circuit in Little Budworth, England. Oulton Park is a free track that comes with an iRacing subscription and Round 4 will be the European Road Course Discipline of the Series.