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Balog Continues His Dominance of PDTR

Twenty-eight of the best of the Upper Midwest checked in to battle at Plymouth Dirt Track for the Road America Challenge presented by Kunes RV. This was also the second night of the "Series within a series" Hopf Farms Bullring Showdown. $5,000 was up for grabs and the speed of the track showed right away when the two-time and defending IRA Sprint Champion, Jake Blackhurst, would go quickest in Osborn and Son trucking Qualifying, laying down a 11.622 lap time. That set up 3 heat races to continue the night. The Knoxville, IA native Riley Goodno would hold off “The Big Wheel” Scotty Thiel to win heat race number one. Heat race number two would have NASCAR cup series driver, Chase Briscoe on top. The final heat race action of the night would have Sussex, WI’s Danny Schlafer taking the checkered.

The two dashes would be next in the program. Dash one had Blackhurst and Briscoe on the front row, with Balog, Schuett, and Thiel behind them. Briscoe would get high in turn two making contact with the wall causing him to fall back. Blackhurst would run away and take the win followed by Thiel, Balog, Schuett, and Briscoe. Dash two had Rookie of the Year points leader Jake Neuman on the pole and Riley Goodno outside of him. Schlafer, Nimee, and Goldesberry would round out the field. Neuman would pull away and win dash number two setting up the outside top 5 rows of the feature.

When we dropped the green at PDTR last night for the Road America Challenge Presented By Kunes RV, Rookie of the Year contender Jake Neuman would bolt to the lead leaving the rest of the pack behind to follow. Shortly after however, the 4B of Biertzer would spin in turn 2 causing the group to reline up behind the rookie. With Neuman leading the field to the green, he would lead in front of competitors like Nimee, Blackhurst, Schlafer, Balog and others that would battle behind him. Lap traffic started getting mixed into the equation when they would catch up to the leader when the right rear of Schultz would fly off the 5j machine. He would go to the work area to replace the missing tire. We would continue to race for only 2 more laps before the 2w of Scotty Neitzel would also fall victim to turn 2, flipping. With 16 laps to go, we found Custer spun in turn 4 and we had to regroup the field. On that restart, something happened before fans could see. All we could see was a huge dust cloud in the apex of turn 3 and 4. When the dust settled, we saw the 73 sideways and at a stop. We regrouped the field and the battle would be for the lead between Neuman, Balog, Blackhurst, and Nimee. Balog would send it into turn one to try to pass Neuman but it wouldn’t stick this time around. Two more circuits around and we would throw the caution flag again for Biertzer and Routson. Back to green with a three wide battle for a podium between Blackhurst, Schlafer, and Nimee. With lap traffic part of the equation and 5 laps remaining, Balog would make the pass splitting a lap car for the lead against Neuman, and would run away for the remaining final 5 laps, taking the Plymouth Dirt Track checkered flag for the second time this season. Neuman would settle for second, and Blackhurst would round out the podium.

The Next scheduled event for the Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprint Car Series will be on July 15th and 16th at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND for the Buffalo Wild Wings King of the WIngs Event. The Friday Night July 15th will be a huge show that also features the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. If you are itching to see some more high powered sprint car action prior to July 15th and 16th don't forget that many IRA regulars will be in attendance at Wilmot Raceway on July 9th when the World of Outlaws invade for the Larry Hillerud Memorial Event.

Hopf Farms Points Standings after 2 of 5 Scheduled Events:

• 1.) Mike Urner (Rhine Auto #39)
• 2.) Blake Nimee (Nimee #79)
• 3.) Schlafer Autobody (Schalfer Auto #25)
• 4.) Jack Goldesberry (Goldesberry #65)
• 5.) Jim Neuman (Neuman #3N)

Results powered by My Race Pass

A Feature 1 30 Laps | 00:33:14.202

1. 17B-Bill Balog[5]; 2. 3N-Jake Neuman[2]; 3. 39-Jake Blackhurst[1]; 4. 25-Danny Schlafer[8]; 5. 79-Blake Nimee[4]; 6. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[6]; 7. 14B-Chase Briscoe[9]; 8. 22-Riley Goodno[10]; 9. 73-Scotty Thiel[3]; 10. 25T-Travis Arenz[11]; 11. 9K-Kyle Schuett[7]; 12. 85M-Steve Meyer[19]; 13. 19-Todd Daun[12]; 14. 23-Russel Borland[15]; 15. 49-Josh Schneiderman[18]; 16. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[13]; 17. 4K-Kris Spitz[23]; 18. U2-Jack Vanderboom[22]; 19. 87A-Austin Hartmann[24]; 20. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[16]; 21. 29-Hunter Custer[20]; 22. 14-Jack Routson[17]; 23. 4B-Scott Biertzer[21]; 24. 2W-Scott Neitzel[14]

B Feature 1 12 Laps | 00:05:49.653

1. 85M-Steve Meyer[4]; 2. 29-Hunter Custer[1]; 3. 4B-Scott Biertzer[7]; 4. U2-Jack Vanderboom[2]; 5. 4K-Kris Spitz[6]; 6. 87A-Austin Hartmann[3]; 7. 43-Jereme Schroeder[8]; 8. 7R-Andy Rein[9]; 9. 24-Scott Conger[5]; 10. (DNS) 68-Dave Uttech

Dash 1 4 Laps | 00:03:32.892

1. 39-Jake Blackhurst[1]; 2. 73-Scotty Thiel[5]; 3. 17B-Bill Balog[3]; 4. 9K-Kyle Schuett[4]; 5. 14B-Chase Briscoe[2]

Dash 2 4 Laps | 00:02:30.300

1. 3N-Jake Neuman[1]; 2. 79-Blake Nimee[4]; 3. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[5]; 4. 25-Danny Schlafer[3]; 5. 22-Riley Goodno[2]

Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:04:59.291

1. 22-Riley Goodno[1]; 2. 73-Scotty Thiel[3]; 3. 3N-Jake Neuman[2]; 4. 39-Jake Blackhurst[4]; 5. 23-Russel Borland[7]; 6. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[5]; 7. 24-Scott Conger[9]; 8. 4K-Kris Spitz[8]; 9. U2-Jack Vanderboom[6]; 10. (DNS) 68-Dave Uttech

Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:03:49.187

1. 14B-Chase Briscoe[2]; 2. 25T-Travis Arenz[1]; 3. 79-Blake Nimee[4]; 4. 9K-Kyle Schuett[3]; 5. 2W-Scott Neitzel[6]; 6. 49-Josh Schneiderman[7]; 7. 85M-Steve Meyer[8]; 8. 29-Hunter Custer[5]; 9. (DNS) 43-Jereme Schroeder

Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:03:48.117

1. 25-Danny Schlafer[2]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog[3]; 3. 19-Todd Daun[1]; 4. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[6]; 5. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[4]; 6. 14-Jack Routson[5]; 7. 87A-Austin Hartmann[7]; 8. 4B-Scott Biertzer[8]; 9. 7R-Andy Rein[9]

Qualifying 1 | 00:00:24.533

1. 39-Jake Blackhurst, 00:11.622[2]; 2. 79-Blake Nimee, 00:11.655[18]; 3. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, 00:11.669[11]; 4. 73-Scotty Thiel, 00:11.684[10]; 5. 9K-Kyle Schuett, 00:11.775[4]; 6. 17B-Bill Balog, 00:11.808[8]; 7. 3N-Jake Neuman, 00:11.867[5]; 8. 14B-Chase Briscoe, 00:11.969[23]; 9. 25-Danny Schlafer, 00:11.988[15]; 10. 22-Riley Goodno, 00:12.012[12]; 11. 25T-Travis Arenz, 00:12.038[7]; 12. 19-Todd Daun, 00:12.038[21]; 13. 26-Tyler Tischendorf, 00:12.065[3]; 14. 29-Hunter Custer, 00:12.124[22]; 15. 14-Jack Routson, 00:12.183[20]; 16. U2-Jack Vanderboom, 00:12.188[1]; 17. 2W-Scott Neitzel, 00:12.240[13]; 18. 5J-Jeremy Schultz, 00:12.289[9]; 19. 23-Russel Borland, 00:12.318[27]; 20. 49-Josh Schneiderman, 00:12.350[17]; 21. 87A-Austin Hartmann, 00:12.457[16]; 22. 4K-Kris Spitz, 00:12.470[14]; 23. 85M-Steve Meyer, 00:12.489[24]; 24. 4B-Scott Biertzer, 00:12.549[25]; 25. 24-Scott Conger, 00:12.577[28]; 26. 43-Jereme Schroeder, 00:12.616[6]; 27. 7R-Andy Rein, 00:12.635[26]; 28. 68-Dave Uttech[19]

Photo Credits: Isobel Cornell

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