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The Big Wheel Claims Beaver Dam Season Opener!

Image Credits: Jerry Kulas

With our season opener being delayed weeks due to mother nature’s rain, drivers were excited to pull out their cars to battle and kick off the competitive 2022 race season. 25 cars checked into battle at Beaver Dam Raceway in Beaver Dam, WI. With rainfall days before the scheduled race, the track crew did a phenomenal job getting the track race ready. The track showed its true race potential starting in hot laps. “The Big Wheel” Scotty Theil was fastest during hot lap action, laying down a lap of 12.019.

Qualifying began for the 25 winged warriors with Blake Nimee claiming our Osborn and Son Trucking QuickTime award for the night. Following him by less than a tenth of a second between each other followed Theil, Neitzel, Schuett, and Meyer rounding out the top five.

3 heat races were scheduled after Osborn and Son Trucking Qualifying. Heat race one presented by Kool Trikes had the Beaver Dam native Jeremy Schultz victorious. Schlafer, Blackhurst, Schuett, and Berger would take top five with all cars going to the show at the end of the night.

All Star Performance heat race number two continued Theil’s rocket ship-like drive to the front of the pack with him on top of the heat race followed by the return of Scott Biertzer, Routson, Meyer, and Spitz rounding out the top five.

The final heat race had Rockstar Energy’s Jordan Goldesberry out of Springfield, IL on top of the charts. Following him one of the Hepfner Racing Products, Sage Fruit Rookie of the year contender Jake Neuman finishing second, Neitzel, Uttech, and Schneiderman would round out the top five in the Vahlco Wheels and Autometer heat race number 3.

"The King of the Sherm Nation" Jeremy Schultz and “The Big Wheel” Scotty Theil were both victorious in their dashes and would set up the front row of the main event.

At the start of the race, Theil took off on the high side and throughout the feature, Scotty Theil seemed like he had it packed away throughout the feature. Schultz and Neuman would battle it out for what seemed to be second place. Until the first caution was thrown for Scott Biertzer. This would be where both Schultz and Neuman would get the chance to possibly lasso back in the “Big Wheel”. Lap traffic would be a blessing and a curse for the Gibbsville Cheese 73. Schultz and Neuman would have opportunities to shorten Theil’s commanding lead over the field. They all maneuvered lap traffic like others were standing still until the defending 2021 IRA Sprint Champion would bring out the 2nd caution of the night. We would return back to green and the battle would continue for second place. Schultz would lose 2nd to Neuman and Scotty Neitzel would bring out our third caution of the night. With Schultz in the bottom and Neuman on the top, they would split a lap car with Schultz taking 2nd back in turn 4. Caution would arise for a final time for Blake Nimee causing the sprints to regroup where we would have a two-lap tango for Theil, Schultz, and Neuman. With the open air on the restart, the “Big Wheel” would take off and not look back taking the checkered on the 30 lap feature.

The IRA will be back in action May 7th at Sycamore Speedway.

Official results brought to you by MyRacePass. Remember to play weekly in the IRA Sprint Fantasy league presented by HRP powered by MRP.

Get your official 2022 IRA merchandise at A-Main Apparel.com

A Feature 1 30 Laps | 00:30:11.102

1. 73-Scotty Thiel[2]; 2. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[1]; 3. 3N-Jake Neuman[3]; 4. 85M-Steve Meyer[4]; 5. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[6]; 6. 14-Jack Routson[13]; 7. 25-Danny Schlafer[11]; 8. 49-Josh Schneiderman[15]; 9. 9K-Kyle Schuett[9]; 10. 39-Jake Blackhurst[12]; 11. 5R-Matt Rechek[17]; 12. 68-Dave Uttech[8]; 13. 23-Russel Borland[19]; 14. 29-Hunter Custer[18]; 15. 24-Scott Conger[23]; 16. 43-Jereme Schroeder[20]; 17. 21H-Tim Haddy[21]; 18. 87A-Austin Hartmann[25]; 19. 45-Matt Wiese[24]; 20. 79-Blake Nimee[10]; 21. 4B-Scott Biertzer[7]; 22. 4K-Kris Spitz[14]; 23. 19B-Jack Berger[16]; 24. 2W-Scott Neitzel[5]; 25. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[22]

Dash 1 4 Laps | 00:06:05.380

1. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[2]; 2. 3N-Jake Neuman[1]; 3. 2W-Scott Neitzel[5]; 4. 4B-Scott Biertzer[3]; 5. 9K-Kyle Schuett[4]

Dash 2 4 Laps | 00:02:27.828

1. 73-Scotty Thiel[2]; 2. 85M-Steve Meyer[1]; 3. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[3]; 4. 68-Dave Uttech[4]; 5. (DNS) 79-Blake Nimee

Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:07:22.625

1. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[2]; 2. 25-Danny Schlafer[1]; 3. 39-Jake Blackhurst[5]; 4. 9K-Kyle Schuett[3]; 5. 19B-Jack Berger[7]; 6. 79-Blake Nimee[4]; 7. 23-Russel Borland[6]; 8. 45-Matt Wiese[9]; 9. 87A-Austin Hartmann[8]

Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:01:44.384

1. 73-Scotty Thiel[4]; 2. 4B-Scott Biertzer[2]; 3. 14-Jack Routson[6]; 4. 85M-Steve Meyer[3]; 5. 4K-Kris Spitz[5]; 6. 5R-Matt Rechek[1]; 7. 43-Jereme Schroeder[7]; 8. 24-Scott Conger[8]

Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:04:37.370

1. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[1]; 2. 3N-Jake Neuman[2]; 3. 2W-Scott Neitzel[4]; 4. 68-Dave Uttech[3]; 5. 49-Josh Schneiderman[6]; 6. 29-Hunter Custer[5]; 7. 21H-Tim Haddy[8]; 8. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[7]

Qualifying 1 | 00:00:24.751

1. 79-Blake Nimee, 00:12.039[6]; 2. 73-Scotty Thiel, 00:12.148[21]; 3. 2W-Scott Neitzel, 00:12.222[5]; 4. 9K-Kyle Schuett, 00:12.271[3]; 5. 85M-Steve Meyer, 00:12.298[19]; 6. 68-Dave Uttech, 00:12.312[1]; 7. 5J-Jeremy Schultz, 00:12.367[13]; 8. 4B-Scott Biertzer, 00:12.425[23]; 9. 3N-Jake Neuman, 00:12.461[2]; 10. 25-Danny Schlafer, 00:12.497[20]; 11. 5R-Matt Rechek, 00:12.512[4]; 12. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, 00:12.540[18]; 13. 39-Jake Blackhurst, 00:12.561[16]; 14. 4K-Kris Spitz, 00:12.653[15]; 15. 29-Hunter Custer, 00:12.676[17]; 16. 23-Russel Borland, 00:12.682[12]; 17. 14-Jack Routson, 00:12.766[9]; 18. 49-Josh Schneiderman, 00:12.783[24]; 19. 19B-Jack Berger, 00:12.910[25]; 20. 43-Jereme Schroeder, 00:12.999[14]; 21. 26-Tyler Tischendorf, 00:13.135[10]; 22. 87A-Austin Hartmann, 00:13.282[7]; 23. 24-Scott Conger, 00:13.385[11]; 24. 21H-Tim Haddy, 00:13.585[8]; 25. 45-Matt Wiese, 00:13.759[22]

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