LAST LAP PASS: Greg Wilson Wins Third Annual Road America Challenge
By Gracie Cleveland
Photos by Emily Schwanke
This past Friday, Plymouth Dirt Track held the 3rd Annual Road America Challenge and round FOUR of the Hopf Farms Bull Ring Showdown.
In the feature event, Scotty Neitzel and Joel Myers Jr. would lead the field to the thirty laps around Plymouth. Myers Jr. would take the early lead on the first lap. Brenham Crouch quickly takes the second spot, and follows closely behind Myers Jr. While side by side, Myers Jr. and Crouch enter lap traffic. The two 17 year old drivers went three-wide with the 49 of Josh Schneiderman coming off the back stretch, which opened the door for Crouch to take the lead in lap 8.
Crouch continued into lap traffic, while Myers Jr. and Balog battled behind for the second podium spot. Balog threw a slider on lap 10 to secure second, while on the lookout for Crouch who had a 7 car length gap lead on Balog.
With 15 laps to go, Greg Wilson makes his way up to the 4th spot after passing the 73 of Scotty Thiel. Myers Jr. still in third while Thiel and Wilson race nose to tail for third.
As laps remaining go into the single digits, Balog gets up high and starts to close in on Crouch amongst lap traffic. Balog dives low in turn 3 to get by Crouch with 2 laps remaining. Couch throws a slider going into turn 4 in an attempt to take the lead back, but Balog crosses him back over pushing Crouch back to second.
On lap 28, the yellow flag flew for the Big Wheel Scotty Thiel who was backwards in turn 2. As Thiel rejoined the field, top 5 was as follows; Crouch, Balog, Myers Jr., Wilson, & Neitzel. Cars regrouped for a single file restart for a green, white, checkered finish.
Green flag drops Crouch leads lap 28. Wilson goes low in turn 2 passes Myers Jr. to start a side by side battle with Balog for second while crossing the white flag. Crouch and Balog get high going into turn 2 while Wilson uses the low side to his advantage. Wilson passes Balog and Crouch when heading for the backstretch.
As the podium battle tightens, Wilson gets past Crouch by 0.26th of a second for the win. Balog gets high making some contact with the turn 4 wall, letting Myers Jr. take the third position.
Right after the checkered flew, the 87A of Austin Hartmann goes for a ride down the backstretch bringing out the red. Hartmann was thankfully able to walk away from the accident.
The Benton Ridge, OH native will win the 3rd Annual Road America Challenge. Brenham Crouch, Joel Myers Jr., Bill Balog, and Travis Arenz will round out the top 5.
Thank you to Road America for hosting this much anticipated event every year at Plymouth Dirt Track. We hope to be back next year for the 4th Annual Road America Challenge!
The IRA Sprint Car series will be back in action this Saturday July 29th at Wilmot Raceway for the IRA Founders Night with the Wisconsin WingLESS Series and IRA Lightning Sprints. If you can’t be there, you can watch the action live on FloRacing: https://flosports.link/3z8dvo9
- Gracie Cleveland on Jul 29, 2023
- Article Date: 7/29/2023 by Gracie Cleveland