4/23/2017
IRA Interstate Racing Association
Balog Continues Dominance at Beaver Dam Raceway in Bumper to Bumper IRA competition
With beautiful weather, 29 Bumper to Bumper Interstate Racing Association winged 410 sprint cars converged upon the Beaver Dam Raceway for the Jim Wipperfurth memorial. A stacked field of IRA regulars would face a challenging field of invading drivers including Parker Price-Miller, Craig Dollansky, Ryan Robinson and Joe B Miller. In Osborn and Sons qualifying the Duffy Fleet Service 79 driven by Blake Nimee was fastest over Robinson and Price-Miller who were 2nd and 3rd respectively. Hometown drivers Jeremy Schultz and Scotty Neitzel would round out the top 5.
Heat race 1 saw 2nd place starting Scott Uttech jump out to a lead which he would hold until the checkered flag fell. Behind Uttech, fast qualifier Nimee would work his way to 2nd. The top five would be rounded out by Miller, Schultz and Kris Spitz.
Heat race 2, in similar fashion to heat one, would see the 2nd place starter, Mike Reinke, pick up the win followed by 4th starting Robinson. Matt Vandervere, Neitzel and Josh Walter would complete the top 5.
And just like deja vu, heat 3 would see the winner come from the 2nd starting position, this time it was Craig Dollansky winning over 4th starting Price-Miller. Ben Schmidt would finish 3rd over Bill Balog and Russel Borland, who finished 4th and 5th respectively.
With 18 cars locked into the 30 lap feature, the B main cars would hit the track to battle for the final 6 feature starting spots. When the checkered flag fell, series point leader Scotty Thiel was victorious over Steve Meyer and IRA rookie Ryan Bowers. Rusty Egan would finish 4th over Tim Haddy and the 6th and final transfer spot to the A main would be claimed by Trey Datweiler.
The 30 lap A main saw pole sitter Balog take the early lead. Neitzel and Price-Miller would quickly work into a battle for 2nd. Cautions on two occasions, first for Chris Dodd spinning in turn 1 and second for Schmidt spinning and collecting the 5j of Schultz, would bunch the field back up and give Neitzel and Price-Miller both shots at Balog but neither were successful in their attempts. The podium would consist of Balog who led all 30 laps, followed by Neitzel and Price-Miller. Robinson driving the potent Keith Kunz car and Miller would round out the top 5.
A Feature 1 30 laps
- 17B-Bill Balog[1]; 2. 2W-Scott Neitzel[5]; 3. 2-Parker Price-Miller[3]; 4. 67-Ryan Robinson[8]; 5. 51B-Joe B. Miller[4]; 6. 02-Mike Reinke[10]; 7. 10V-Matt Vandevere[11]; 8. 64-Scotty Thiel[19]; 9. 14AJ-Craig Dollansky[9]; 10. 79-Blake Nimee[6]; 11. 85M-Steve Meyer[20]; 12. 21H-Tim Haddy[23]; 13. 7-Scott Uttech[2]; 14. 25-Jake Blackhurst[18]; 15. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[7]; 16. 99-Kyle Marten[16]; 17. 23D-Trey Datweiler[24]; 18. 23-Russel Borland[14]; 19. 4K-Kris Spitz[15]; 20. 73-Ryan Bowers[21]; 21. 01-Chris Dodd[17]; 22. 59-Ben Schmidt[12]; 23. (DNF) 50-Rusty Egan[22]; 24. (DNF) 12W-Josh Walter[13]
B Feature 1 12 laps - 64-Scotty Thiel[2]; 2. 85M-Steve Meyer[7]; 3. 73-Ryan Bowers[3]; 4. 50-Rusty Egan[4]; 5. 21H-Tim Haddy[8]; 6. 23D-Trey Datweiler[5]; 7. 41-Dennis Spitz[1]; 8. 12-Michael Decker[10]; 9. 43-Jereme Schroeder[6]; 10. 18-Keith Fellner[9]; 11. 68-Mike Uttech[11]
Heat 1 10 laps - 7-Scott Uttech[2]; 2. 79-Blake Nimee[4]; 3. 51B-Joe B. Miller[1]; 4. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[3]; 5. 4K-Kris Spitz[8]; 6. 99-Kyle Marten[7]; 7. 73-Ryan Bowers[6]; 8. 41-Dennis Spitz[5]; 9. 21H-Tim Haddy[9]; 10. 68-Mike Uttech[10]
Heat 2 10 laps - 02-Mike Reinke[2]; 2. 67-Ryan Robinson[4]; 3. 10V-Matt Vandevere[6]; 4. 2W-Scott Neitzel[3]; 5. 12W-Josh Walter[1]; 6. 25-Jake Blackhurst[10]; 7. 23D-Trey Datweiler[8]; 8. 64-Scotty Thiel[5]; 9. 85M-Steve Meyer[7]; 10. (DNF) 12-Michael Decker[9]
Heat 3 10 laps - 14AJ-Craig Dollansky[2]; 2. 2-Parker Price-Miller[4]; 3. 59-Ben Schmidt[6]; 4. 17B-Bill Balog[3]; 5. 23-Russel Borland[1]; 6. 01-Chris Dodd[8]; 7. 50-Rusty Egan[7]; 8. 43-Jereme Schroeder[5]; 9. 18-Keith Fellner[9]
Qualifying 1 2 laps - 79-Blake Nimee, 12.045[6]; 2. 67-Ryan Robinson, 12.299[17]; 3. 2-Parker Price-Miller, 12.310[7]; 4. 5J-Jeremy Schultz, 12.357[13]; 5. 2W-Scott Neitzel, 12.521[5]; 6. 17B-Bill Balog, 12.538[21]; 7. 7-Scott Uttech, 12.545[4]; 8. 02-Mike Reinke, 12.583[18]; 9. 14AJ-Craig Dollansky, 12.612[20]; 10. 51B-Joe B. Miller, 12.628[3]; 11. 12W-Josh Walter, 12.643[9]; 12. 23-Russel Borland, 12.746[19]; 13. 41-Dennis Spitz, 12.854[2]; 14. 64-Scotty Thiel, 12.878[26]; 15. 43-Jereme Schroeder, 12.936[15]; 16. 73-Ryan Bowers, 12.964[16]; 17. 10V-Matt Vandevere, 13.049[24]; 18. 59-Ben Schmidt, 13.078[27]; 19. 99-Kyle Marten, 13.106[22]; 20. 85M-Steve Meyer, 13.116[11]; 21. 50-Rusty Egan, 13.118[29]; 22. 4K-Kris Spitz, 13.193[25]; 23. 23D-Trey Datweiler, 13.204[23]; 24. 01-Chris Dodd, 13.234[14]; 25. 21H-Tim Haddy, 13.536[12]; 26. 12-Michael Decker, 13.590[28]; 27. 18-Keith Fellner, 14.214[10]; 28. 68-Mike Uttech, 15.698[1]; 29. 25-Jake Blackhurst, 15.977[8]
Submitted By: Kim Tennyson
