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RACING RESUMES! BALOG EXTENDS WIN STREAK IN BUMPER TO BUMPER IRA OUTLAW SPRINTS WITH PLYMOUTH VICTORY

From Deep in the Field Race Long Charge Nets Jordan Goldesberry Podium Finish.

June 14, 2014; Appleton, WI. – Finally, we’re racing! After three consecutive rainouts, the Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprints were ready to get back into action, and so were the fans who turned out in abundant numbers to watch the series compete on the newly reconfigured Plymouth Short Track held at the Sheboygan County Fair Park in Plymouth, WI.

Looking back just one year, Bill Balog had been locked in a dogfight with racing legend Tony Stewart. IRA’s own six-time champion left nothing on the table in his efforts to capture the A-main, and best one of the sports all time finest drivers. His efforts came up just a car length short, but the showdown surely had shown fans the level of talents the Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprints bring to the table.

Now forward one year to last evening. On a revamped racing surface, Balog was in prime form seeking out his third straight series victory, and to do so he had to outrun Phillip Mock who is having the best season of his young career. Like Balog, Mock was looking to notch his third win of the year, and a late race caution placed Mock squarely on Balog’s rear nerf bar.

Over the final six laps Balog demonstrated why his six championship titles have been earned, as he left Mock in his wake, scoring the win by eight car lengths. Mock’s third victory of the season will have to wait until another day after crossing the finish line second.

Third place was a battle of long distance travelers as Plainfield Indiana’s Bill Rose and Springfield, Illinois’ native Jordan Goldesberry were locked in a showdown for the final podium spot. In the end it was Goldesberry making his long haul payoff by edging Rose for the position, his second top three effort of the season thus far.

By virtue of a shallow invert, Balog and Mock comprised the front for the start of the 30 lap A-main contest. Mock’s spot on the pole gave him prime view of starter Jim Barr’s green flag, as the field came up to speed. Balog, starting outside of Mock, drove deep into the first two turns, and powered ahead with the lead down the backstretch. It was lead he would never give up, but one which was never entirely secure.

The lead pair of Balog and Mock put some distance on the rest of the field. Behind the pair, third place was hotly contested between young charger Blake Nimee and former, World of Outlaw regular Bill Rose. The battle between youth, and wisdom would see Nimee’s hard charging driving style score one for the youth, at least temporarily, as he worked under Rose for the third spot.
By lap seven the leaders, Balog, and Mock were already encountering lapped traffic with Balog making decisive moves to stretch his lead.

Looking behind the front running duo, the wisdom gained by years of traveling to tracks back and forth across the country, allowed Rose to find a groove to gain momentum, and he soon surpassed the youthful Nimee for the third spot. Chalk one up for wisdom.

Unfortunately for Nimee his shot at a podium finish came to an end a few laps later after clipping a tire in turn two which damaged his front end. He soon parked his ride in the infield and dropped from the chase.

By the halfway point Balog, Mock, Rose, had settled into the top three slot. Behind this group fans were witnessing two other storylines.

One, was the battle between last season’s Rookie of the Year, Jeremy Schultz, and this season’s rookie title contender Ben Schmidt. Both drivers were extremely popular with fans at the Plymouth Dirt Track as both had earned championships in the weekly 360 class before joining the IRA Sprints.

The second focus of attention was Goldesberry who began to rim ride around the outside edge of the track and he began to steadily pick off cars in the process.

Goldesberry dove past cars in rapid succession including both Schultz and Schmidt placing himself in the fourth spot. He then ran down Rose and moments later placed himself into third in the running order, proving he had one of the fastest rides on the track.

By lap 20 Balog saw his gap over Mock slowly shrink and Mock’s pace began to allow him to reel in Balog, closing within six car lengths in heavy lapped traffic.

It was lap 24 that would produce a major change in the contest. The rivalry between Schultz, and Schmidt had progressed to the point where they ran out of racing room and the pair tangled heading for turn one. Schultz became airborne taking a tumble before landing back on his wheels. He emerged from his heavily damaged machine unhurt but obviously done for the evening. Schmidt meanwhile, was able to head to the work area and rejoin the field. Dave Uttech, who had also been doing battle for the fifth spot had received some damage, and also headed to pit lane for some quick service.

With a mere six laps to the finish, and Mock closed in on his tail tank, the pressure was now on Balog to hold on for the win. As action resumed Balog pulled off a near perfect restart, powering away from Mock. Over the final laps Balog had a clear track in front of him and in driving an error free sprint to the finish, he won the event comfortably over Mock. Goldesberry managed to clear the lapped machines that had been between himself and Mock after the final restart, but had to settle for third two car lengths behind Mock’s #1m machine.

Rose held fast to fourth with Steve Meyer quietly working into the fifth spot by the finish.

Scott Uttech had advanced out of the B-main after winning the contest and in workman like fashion advanced to sixth after having started in the 14th spot. Mike Reinke earned a seventh place run just ahead of Brian Kristan. Kristan, the evening’s fastest qualifier established a new mark in setting fast time. The time of 12.137 seconds, now stands as the time to eclipse on the new racing surface. Dave Uttech and Schmidt rebounded from the pit stops on lap 24 to place ninth and tenth respectively. Kris Spitz in eleventh was the final car on the lead lap at the finish.

19 of the 22 starters were still on the track at the checker.

In earlier action. Scott Uttech made a final lap pass on Brian Kristan to steal the victory. Todd Hepfner making his first start of the 2014 season in a car owned by fellow racer Brandon Thone netted third. Scotty Thiel, Lance Fassbender, Jereme Schroeder and Dennis Weisner comprised the top seven and the transfer cars to the main event.

Heat race victories went to Meyer, Schmidt and Dave Uttech.

In addition to Schultz’s flip in the main event three other drivers had the unfortunate experience of getting upside down. In his heat race Ken Jay Fiedler caught some serious air time in turn two coming to rest upside down after the catch fend kept him from leaving the race track. He was shaken but otherwise unhurt in the incident. In the B-main, Dennis Spitz and Allen Hafford became tangled with both drivers executing flips simultaneously. Once again both drivers emerged unhurt from the incident.

To start the night off, Kristan bested the 29 car field in qualifying with his 12.137 second effort. Rose was second quick with a lap of 12.250 followed by Nimee with a 12.268 second trip around the banked third-mile clay oval.

The series now looks to present two shows next weekend starting with a Friday night contest at the Oshkosh Speedzone. The wide sweeping turns of the large third-mile oval allows for plenty of three and four wide racing. That contest will be held on Friday evening June 20th. The following night the series returns to the birthplace of the IRA sprints, Wilmot Raceway, for a show on Saturday night June 21st.

That gives fans two opportunities to catch the best in winged 410 Outlaw Sprint action this coming week.

The 2014 Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprint Series scheduled season will consist of 30 shows to be held at 15 different area tracks.

IRA proudly moves into 2014 backed by its long time supporting series partners led by title sponsor Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts & Service Centers, and associate series partners Osborn & Son Trucking, TW Metals, Hoosier Tire, Cedar Creek Motorsports, Cummins Onan, and Carriage Auto Body.
The Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprints are a featured member of Racetext.net a website dedicated to bringing fans the best possible coverage of local short track racing.

For more information on the IRA Outlaw Sprints check out the tour website at www.irasprints.com or by logging onto the series Facebook page at www.facebook.com/irasprints the series is also on twitter at #IRA_sprints.

Event # 6 – Plymouth Dirt Track – Plymouth, WI – June 14, 2014
Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 17B-Bill Balog[2]; 2. 1M-Phillip Mock[1]; 3. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[10]; 4. 6-Bill Rose[4]; 5. 85M-Steve Meyer[7]; 6. 7-Scott Uttech[14]; 7. 02-Mike Reinke[13]; 8. 5K-Brian Kristan[11]; 9. 68-Dave Uttech[5]; 10. 35-Ben Schmidt[6]; 11. 4K-Kris Spitz[15]; 12. 23-Russell Borland[17]; 13. 94H-Todd Hepfner[18]; 14. 7F-Lance Fassbender[20]; 15. 2W-Scott Neitzel[16]; 16. 4B-Scott Biertzer[12]; 17. 64-Scotty Thiel[19]; 18. 43-Jereme Schroeder[21]; 19. 73-Dennis Weisner[22]; 20. (DNF) 5J-Jeremy Schultz[9]; 21. (DNF) 79-Blake Nimee[3]; 22. (DNF) 14AJ-Wayne Modjeski[8]
Behling Racing Products B Feature (15 Laps): 1. 7-Scott Uttech[3]; 2. 5K-Brian Kristan[1]; 3. 94H-Todd Hepfner[5]; 4. 64-Scotty Thiel[6]; 5. 7F-Lance Fassbender[7]; 6. 43-Jereme Schroeder[8]; 7. 73-Dennis Weisner[10]; 8. 5H-Patrick Haynes[4]; 9. 5-Bryon Walters[14]; 10. 94-Brandon Thone[11]; 11. (DNF) 41-Dennis Spitz[9]; 12. (DNF) 38-Allen Hafford[12]; DNS 95A-Ken Jay Fiedler; DNS 25-Steve Muth
Weld Racing Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 85M-Steve Meyer[2]; 2. 4K-Kris Spitz[1]; 3. 4B-Scott Biertzer[3]; 4. 17B-Bill Balog[5]; 5. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[4]; 6. 5K-Brian Kristan[6]; 7. 94H-Todd Hepfner[7]; 8. 73-Dennis Weisner[9]; 9. 25-Steve Muth[10]; 10. (DNF) 7F-Lance Fassbender[8]
Diversified Machine Inc. Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 35-Ben Schmidt[2]; 2. 02-Mike Reinke[3]; 3. 2W-Scott Neitzel[1]; 4. 6-Bill Rose[6]; 5. 1M-Phillip Mock[5]; 6. 64-Scotty Thiel[7]; 7. 94-Brandon Thone[9]; 8. 43-Jereme Schroeder[8]; 9. 5-Bryon Walters[10]; 10. (DNF) 95A-Ken Jay Fiedler[4]
King Racing Products Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 68-Dave Uttech[1]; 2. 14AJ-Wayne Modjeski[4]; 3. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[5]; 4. 79-Blake Nimee[6]; 5. 23-Russell Borland[7]; 6. 41-Dennis Spitz[8]; 7. 38-Allen Hafford[9]; 8. 5H-Patrick Haynes[2]; 9. (DNF) 7-Scott Uttech[3]
Osborn & Son Qualifying: 1. 5K-Brian Kristan, 12.137[4]; 2. 6-Bill Rose, 12.250[22]; 3. 79-Blake Nimee, 12.268[8]; 4. 17B-Bill Balog, 12.308[24]; 5. 1M-Phillip Mock, 12.328[17]; 6. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, 12.342[25]; 7. 5J-Jeremy Schultz, 12.356[28]; 8. 95A-Ken Jay Fiedler, 12.369[3]; 9. 14AJ-Wayne Modjeski, 12.370[10]; 10. 4B-Scott Biertzer, 12.388[23]; 11. 02-Mike Reinke, 12.393[19]; 12. 7-Scott Uttech, 12.492[15]; 13. 85M-Steve Meyer, 12.521[7]; 14. 35-Ben Schmidt, 12.533[13]; 15. 5H-Patrick Haynes, 12.578[21]; 16. 4K-Kris Spitz, 12.583[9]; 17. 2W-Scott Neitzel, 12.588[27]; 18. 68-Dave Uttech, 12.610[26]; 19. 94H-Todd Hepfner, 12.623[20]; 20. 64-Scotty Thiel, 12.712[6]; 21. 23-Russell Borland, 12.788[2]; 22. 7F-Lance Fassbender, 12.902[12]; 23. 43-Jereme Schroeder, 12.911[5]; 24. 41-Dennis Spitz, 12.932[11]; 25. 73-Dennis Weisner, 12.963[16]; 26. 94-Brandon Thone, 13.077[18]; 27. 38-Allen Hafford, 13.078[14]; 28. 25-Steve Muth, 13.371[1]; 29. 5-Bryon Walters, 13.551[29]

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