8/7/2016
IRA Interstate Racing Association
POINT LEADER JEREMY SCHULTZ DELIVERS BIRTHDAY GIFT TO FATHER FROM VICTORY LANE DURING THE 20TH RUNNING OF THE FRANK FILSKOV MEMORIAL RACE AT PLYMOUTH
SCHULTZ DENIES BALOG … SCORES NAILBITER VICTORY IN BUMPER TO BUMPER IRA OUTLAW SPRINT ACTION AT THE PLYMOUTH DIRT TRACK!
August 6, 2016; Plymouth, WI – It would be hard for Hollywood to write a script more dramatic than the events which played out at the prestigious 20th Annual Frank Filskov Memorial race Saturday Night at the Plymouth Dirt Track.
Heading into the evening Jeremy Schultz, once a weekly competitor in the tough 360 sprint car division on the tight third-mile clay oval, led the Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprints to the track from his perch atop the point standings.
Still, he had come to the event seeking his first Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprint victory of the season. In spite of an impressive string of eight straight top five finishes including a pair of runner-up performances the past two events Schultz had been seeking an elusive win.
He was due for a victory.
Add to that the fact on this evening, his father Jerry was celebrating his 59th birthday. What better way to honor the man who helped shape his racing career by giving him a triumph.
Jeremy would deliver in a dramatic way, pacing a majority of the 27 lap distance, a length which was chosen to honor Filskov whose number matched the length of the contest. It was the final lap however that got fans on their feet.
Seven-time IRA series champion Bill Balog had methodically picked his way through the field from his tenth place starting spot, and after the white flag flew he put a perfectly timed slider on Schultz to briefly hold the top spot. Schultz countered with and expertly crafted cross-over move and he then won the drag race into the final turns where he was able to repel any further challenge from Balog. He packaged up the victory and delivered. By less than a car length.
Chalk one up for a storybook ending, except the unscripted action was real.
“I’m ecstatic. Thanks to all the fans, love you guys!”, Schultz shouted after climbing from the car. We got it done tonight, I’m excited about that. Thanks for coming out and thanks to Hopf Farms for what they did (providing extra money to the field),” Schultz stated.
“We were not good early in the night, we got in the invert luckily and Bill (Balog) pulled me a good draw for the front row. We’ll take it. I’m glad we came out on top especially racing against Bill, he’s a hell of a racer. I hope he does us proud down in Knoxville next week”, as Schultz wished his fellow competitor well at the prestigious Knoxville Nationals coming up next week!
Balog came up just short of his sixth win of the year having to settle for second. For Balog finishing second was as much about sportsman ship as speed. The last lap slide job was made knowing it could be done cleanly.
“I probably should have done it a couple laps sooner, I had a little better run but I wanted to make a real clean pass and there wasn’t a lot of racetrack left to do that kind of thing”, Balog noted on his last-ditch effort to steal the win.
“Congratulations to Jeremy he did a great job up there banging around on that cushion. We were pretty good on the bottom and middle, passing cars down there. We weren’t good on the top early but eventually we had to get up there”, Balog said of his late-race transition to the cushion.
Mike Reinke, who at one point in the contest appeared to have the fastest car on the track was stymied by a late race caution where he had been running second and was closing on Schultz. Balog had slipped past on the restart and Reinke spent the balance of the contest trying to chase down the lead pair, eventually having to settle for third.
The 27 lap A-main greeted the fans with the tradition four-wide salute and then it was down to business.
Bill Rose, the defending Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprint Series champion from Plainsfield, Indiana was making just his third start of the season and put tonight’s opportunity to good use taking the opening lead from his pole starting berth.
Schultz meanwhile had started outside the front row. Ironically it was Balog who drew the invert number by virtue of his fast time. Balog placed himself 10th on the grid with the draw.
Schultz took advantage of the starting spot, dogging Rose during the opening circuits. Schultz preferring to run the high groove swept past Rose on the backstretch after the first circuit and started to pull away.
Third was hotly contested between Reinke and Blake Nimee whose team managed to return to action tonight after a hard crash last evening at the Dodge County Fairgrounds. The battle between Reinke and Nimee allowed them to overtake Rose and filter into the second and third spots by lap five.
Schultz began to work through lapped traffic by lap seven and had built a dozen car length lead on Reinke.
The laps ticked off at a brisk pace until lap 15 when Matt Vandervere executed a 360 spin between turns one and two when he was forced to stand on the brakes to avoid overrunning another car. This resulted in the first caution period and as a result, he went to the tail of the field.
Schultz, Reinke, Nimee, Philip Mock and Balog were shown in the top five as the second half of the race began.
Balog quickly annexed the fourth spot from Mock on lap 16 and he then set his sights on Nimee.
Out front, Schultz had gone back to commanding the contest outrunning Reinke who maintained second.
Nimee’s podium hopes ended with a spin in turn four on lap 20 while running in the third spot.
The incident elevated Balog to the third position behind Schultz and Reinke. The final seven laps were run caution free.
Schultz got an excellent restart while Reinke was forced to battle with Balog for the second spot. Balog, with a signature slider, overtook Reinke for second on lap 21 and he then set out after Schultz.
By lap 25 Balog had closed within a car length and then had to choose the time to make a passing attempt. As the white flag flew Balog made a bold move to the inside, and while he led briefly Schultz was able to return to the throttle faster and power ahead over the final half lap taking the win. It was his first in IRA action since a victory at Angell Park Speedway one year ago. It was also his first series win at Plymouth Dirt Track.
Balog and Reinke crossed the line in second and third respectively.
Mock who was making his first start in nearly a month after expiring a motor returned with an impressive performance nailing down the fourth spot.
Ken Jay Fielder turned in a breakthrough performance this evening. Fielder who has won championships at Plymouth Dirt Track in the former Supermodified class has been a steadfast competitor in the tracks 360 sprint division. Running double duty tonight Fielder battled in the lead pack all night recording a fifth place finish.
Ben Schmidt who had topped the B-main this evening clawed his way forward throughout the contest earning a respectable sixth place showing. Rose faded to the seventh spot by the checkered chased to the line by Scotty Thiel.
Thiel’s run to eighth was an advancement of 11 spots from his 19th place-starting berth. He had passed the most cars of any driver in the main event.
Scotty Neitzel, the winner of the main event last evening at the Dodge County Fairgrounds earned ninth this evening and Todd Daun completed the top ten finishers.
21 of the 24 starters were still on the track at the finish.
In earlier action Schmidt laid claim to the B-main chased to the finish by Vandervere, Mike Kertscher, Chris Dodd, Tim Vandervere and Alex Bliesner who earned the final transfer spot on the last lap.
Heat race wins went to Rose, Reinke, and Mock.
Balog’s trip around the track in 12.222 seconds headed up the 30 cars field. Matt Vandervere turned in a 12.459 effort for second quickest and Ryan Bowers who was a guest driver in the Ozzie Weinser owned #73 machine was impressive with a lap of 12.518 seconds, the third quickest of the night.
The series now takes a brief break for the Knoxville Nationals before a daunting triple-header weekend. The first two events run during the Kenosha County Fair will take place on back to back Friday and Saturday evenings, August 19th and August 20th at Wilmot Raceway.
The series then heads to Angell Park Speedway for a Sunday, August 21st event run during the community’s Corn Festival.
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.
The IRA Sprints are presented by its long time supporting series partners. The series support is led by title sponsor Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts & Service Centers, and associate series partners Hoosier Tire, Osborn & Son Trucking, TW Metals, Cummins Onan, and Twin Lakes Marine.
Upcoming 2016 Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprint Series Events:
8/19/2016 – Wilmot Raceway – Wilmot, WI
8/20/2016 – Wilmot Raceway – Wilmot, WI
8/21/2016 – Angell Park Speedway – Sun Prairie, WI
8/27/2016 – LaSalle Speedway, LaSalle, IL
8/28/2016 – Angell Park Speedway – Sun Prairie, WI
410 Sprints | IRA Interstate Racing Association
Bumper Auto Parts A Feature 1 (27 Laps): 1. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[2]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog[10]; 3. 02-Mike Reinke[4]; 4. 1M-Phillip Mock[6]; 5. 95A-Ken Jay Fiedler[7]; 6. 94B-Ben Schmidt[12]; 7. 6-Bill Rose[1]; 8. 64-Scotty Thiel[19]; 9. 2W-Scott Neitzel[15]; 10. 19-Todd Daun[8]; 11. 80K-Mike Kertscher[21]; 12. 4K-Kris Spitz[13]; 13. 10V-Matt Vandevere[11]; 14. 99-Kyle Marten[5]; 15. 79-Blake Nimee[3]; 16. 0-John Fahl[20]; 17. 43-Jereme Schroeder[16]; 18. 14AJ-Wayne Modjeski[17]; 19. 7-Scott Uttech[18]; 20. 7V-Tim Vandevere[23]; 21. 73-Ryan Bowers[9]; 22. (DNF) 14X-Alex Bleisner[24]; 23. (DNF) 01-Chris Dodd[22]; 24. (DNF) 23D-Trey Datweiler[14]
Behling Racing Equipment B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 94B-Ben Schmidt[2]; 2. 10V-Matt Vandevere[1]; 3. 80K-Mike Kertscher[9]; 4. 01-Chris Dodd[3]; 5. 7V-Tim Vandevere[7]; 6. 14X-Alex Bleisner[10]; 7. 41-Dennis Spitz[5]; 8. 6X-Kenny Gouws[8]; 9. (DNF) 68-Dave Uttech[4]; 10. (DNF) 11-Todd King[6]; (DNS) 85M-Steve Meyer; (DNS) 23-Russel Borland
Real Wheels Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 6-Bill Rose[1]; 2. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[2]; 3. 17B-Bill Balog[6]; 4. 95A-Ken Jay Fiedler[4]; 5. 99-Kyle Marten[3]; 6. 2W-Scott Neitzel[7]; 7. 94B-Ben Schmidt[5]; 8. 7V-Tim Vandevere[9]; 9. 80K-Mike Kertscher[10]; 10. 41-Dennis Spitz[8]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 02-Mike Reinke[3]; 2. 4K-Kris Spitz[1]; 3. 64-Scotty Thiel[10]; 4. 19-Todd Daun[5]; 5. 7-Scott Uttech[8]; 6. 43-Jereme Schroeder[7]; 7. 01-Chris Dodd[4]; 8. 10V-Matt Vandevere[6]; 9. 68-Dave Uttech[2]; 10. 6X-Kenny Gouws[9]
All Star Performance Products Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 1M-Phillip Mock[4]; 2. 79-Blake Nimee[3]; 3. 14AJ-Wayne Modjeski[7]; 4. 73-Ryan Bowers[6]; 5. 23D-Trey Datweiler[1]; 6. 0-John Fahl[10]; 7. 11-Todd King[8]; 8. (DNF) 85M-Steve Meyer[2]; 9. (DNF) 23-Russel Borland[5]; (DNS) 14X-Alex Bleisner
Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts Qualifying 1: 1. 17B-Bill Balog, 12.222[5]; 2. 10V-Matt Vandevere, 12.459[4]; 3. 73-Ryan Bowers, 12.518[1]; 4. 94B-Ben Schmidt, 12.623[3]; 5. 19-Todd Daun, 12.704[2]; 6. 23-Russel Borland, 12.716[9]; 7. 95A-Ken Jay Fiedler, 12.756[8]; 8. 01-Chris Dodd, 12.780[15]; 9. 1M-Phillip Mock, 12.789[18]; 10. 99-Kyle Marten, 12.850[26]; 11. 02-Mike Reinke, 12.857[21]; 12. 79-Blake Nimee, 12.904[20]; 13. 5J-Jeremy Schultz, 12.925[24]; 14. 68-Dave Uttech, 12.949[12]; 15. 85M-Steve Meyer, 13.079[16]; 16. 6-Bill Rose, 13.102[11]; 17. 4K-Kris Spitz, 13.133[14]; 18. 23D-Trey Datweiler, 13.140[7]; 19. 2W-Scott Neitzel, 13.169[25]; 20. 43-Jereme Schroeder, 13.205[19]; 21. 14AJ-Wayne Modjeski, 13.220[6]; 22. 41-Dennis Spitz, 13.325[17]; 23. 7-Scott Uttech, 13.627[29]; 24. 11-Todd King, 13.659[22]; 25. 7V-Tim Vandevere, 13.724[27]; 26. 6X-Kenny Gouws, 13.741[10]; 27. 14X-Alex Bleisner, 13.984[13]; 28. 80K-Mike Kertscher, 15.064[23]; 29. (DNF) 64-Scotty Thiel[28]; 30. (DNF) 0-John Fahl[30]
Article Credit: Jeffrey Sachse
Submitted By: Jeffrey Sachse
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