After a weekend of rainouts, the Bumper to Bumper Interstate Racing Association (IRA) are set to return to action this Friday and Saturday, May 5th and 6th. Friday night will see the return of the 410 sprint cars to the Oshkosh Speedzone in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. On Saturday, the series will venture north to New Richmond, Wisconsin and the Cedar Lake Speedway.
Friday night will be the series’ first trip to Oshkosh's red clay oval since July 22nd of last year, an event that would be won by surprise entrant Brad Loyet. Mike Reinke was 2nd on that night and is always strong at the Speedzone, so expect him to challenge for the checkered flag Friday night. He won't walk out of Oshkosh with a win easily though, as Tea, South Dakota's Justin Henderson is expected to make an appearance behind the wheel of the Thone Motorsports 59H. Henderson has previously piloted the Thone car once in IRA competition and finished 2nd to Carson Macedo so a strong run is expected. Craig Dollansky is expected to be back in action this weekend, as well as Southern Illinois Jim Moughan who is always a threat anytime his 1mx car rolls out of the trailer.
Saturday when the IRA rolls into Cedar Lake Speedway, it will be for the annual Triple Crown. An event paying $3000 to win and $300 to start, for all 3 classes racing. Bill Balog will surely be the man to beat as the last time he did not win the spring Cedar Lake IRA race was in 2012. Balog will have plenty of challengers though, as series point leader Scotty Thiel has shown great speed this year, and Scotty Neitzel proved at Beaver Dam he could challenge Balog. Set to challenge the series regulars on Saturday, is not only Henderson, but also a pair of Minnesota drivers with countless laps on the 3/8th mile high banked oval. Travis Whitney and Craig Dollansky will use their experience at Cedar Lake to contend for that $3000 Winner's Check.
Defending series champion Jeremy Schultz has been fast but has no results this far, and he is looking for that speed to turn into positive results this weekend. Blake Nimee, Matt Vandervere, and Kyle Marten will also be contenders.
Friday night the grandstands will open at 5pm with a race time of 7pm. Ticket prices are $20 for adults and $10 for students 11-15. Saturday at Cedar Lake, the grandstands will open at 5pm with a race time of 6pm. Ticket prices are $25 for adults and $12 for students 6-16, children 5 and under are free. If you can’t make it up north on Saturday, Cedar Lake has live paperview of their races this season on their website (cedarlakespeedway.com).
- Kim Tennyson on May 02, 2017
- Article Date: 5/2/2017 by Gared Tennyson