7/3/2023
IRA Interstate Racing Association
Arenz Joins the Winner’s Club
Arenz Joins the Winner’s Club
By Madeline Schultz
28 of the best of the Upper Midwest that represented 7 states checked in at Plymouth Dirt Track for the Scott Semmelmann Memorial and night three of the Hopf Farms Bullring Showdown.
When the feature went green, the Terre Haute native and the Lone Wolf led the rest of the field. The Lone Wolf would take the first lap, but we threw the caution before the tail of the field cycled the track for Hickle piloting the 50H.
After we got the field regrouped, and the 71M and 25 restarted evenly, we were green. Schlafer would lead again at the start. Behind the leaders; Arenz, who started from 6th, challenged the Bob Hood Motorsports 10W for third. Arenz would take third on the backstretch and begin to reel in the 71M and 25. Schlafer and Englehart exchanged the lead back and forth, but Schlafer would lead into lap traffic with six laps in with the 10W in third.
Just before we ticked away ten laps, the battle took to the cushion between the 71M, 25, and 10W. The battle was cut short as the 79 of Blake Nimee would spin and draw out a caution. While the field was being realigned, fans could see hardcharger Brenham Crouch in the CMS Racing 1 from 12th to restart 6th. Schlafer would again lead the field to green, Engelhart, Arenz, Neitzel, and Reinke were the top five.
Schlafer would dash away with the lead once more as fans watched the battle for third between Neitzel, Crouch, Reinke, and Arenz. Reinke would break away from that group to challenge Englehart for second as mechanical gremlins struck the 71M to slow to a stop in turn one.
The battle would continue to brew and Arenz would pass Schlafer for the lead with 8 laps remaining. Soon after, we would see Nimee spin in one and two and draw out another caution. Arenz would now lead the field and begin to count down the laps to try to clinch his first IRA Victory. Arenz would run at the drop of the green, but the battle to watch would be between the IRA 2x Champion Scotty Neitzel and the Sage Fruit Hepfner Racing Products Rookie Brenham Crouch.
White flag would wave for the 25T as the 2w and 1 would cross the flagstand at the same time. Crouch would take to the cushion and Neitzel would battle on the bottom. Heading into the final turn of the race, Netizel would spin as the checkered was thrown on the 25T. Brenham Crouch would finish second, and Danny Schlafer would round out the podium.
The Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprint Car Series will take this upcoming weekend off of competition, and will return to action for the most anticipated race of the 2023 season out west. Thursday, July 13th, we head to I-94 Speedway to battle NOSA. Then we head to River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND for the two-day King of the Wings event sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings. You can watch the IRA Sprint Car Series all season long with FloRacing.
Photo credits to Payton Schneeberg
A Feature 30 Laps | 00:28:24.934
- 25T-Travis Arenz[6]; 2. 1-Brenham Crouch[12]; 3. 25-Danny Schlafer[2]; 4. 10W-Mike Reinke[8]; 5. 23-Russel Borland[9]; 6. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[13]; 7. U2-Jack Vanderboom[11]; 8. 50-JJ Hickle[4]; 9. 9K-Kyle Schuett[7]; 10. 3N-Jake Neuman[19]; 11. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[3]; 12. 99-Tyler Brabant[20]; 13. 68-Dave Uttech[21]; 14. 3B-Shelby Bosie[16]; 15. 87A-Austin Hartmann[14]; 16. 4K-Kris Spitz[18]; 17. 2W-Scott Neitzel[5]; 18. 26R-Preston Ruh[24]; 19. 19-Todd Daun[10]; 20. 24-Scott Conger[17]; 21. (DNF) 79-Blake Nimee[15]; 22. (DNF) 71M-Caden Englehart[1]; 23. (DNF) 50YR-Ryan Ruhl[23]; 24. (DNF) 47-Todd King[22]
B Feature 10 Laps | 00:06:02.068
- 3N-Jake Neuman[1]; 2. 99-Tyler Brabant[3]; 3. 68-Dave Uttech[4]; 4. 47-Todd King[5]; 5. 50YR-Ryan Ruhl[2]; 6. 26R-Preston Ruh[6]; 7. 21-Will Gerrits[7]; 8. 16-Anthony Knierim[8]; 9. 17W-Dylan Winkel[9]; 10. 39V-William Huck[10]
Dash 1 4 Laps | 00:02:02.079
- 71M-Caden Englehart[1]; 2. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[2]; 3. 2W-Scott Neitzel[5]; 4. 9K-Kyle Schuett[3]; 5. 23-Russel Borland[4]
Dash 2 4 Laps | 00:02:17.932
- 25-Danny Schlafer[1]; 2. 50-JJ Hickle[4]; 3. 25T-Travis Arenz[5]; 4. 10W-Mike Reinke[3]; 5. 19-Todd Daun[2]
Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:08:35.194
- 2W-Scott Neitzel[1]; 2. 50-JJ Hickle[4]; 3. 71M-Caden Englehart[2]; 4. U2-Jack Vanderboom[5]; 5. 79-Blake Nimee[9]; 6. 24-Scott Conger[7]; 7. 3N-Jake Neuman[3]; 8. 68-Dave Uttech[6]; 9. 16-Anthony Knierim[8]; 10. 39V-William Huck[10]
Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:07:03.373
- 23-Russel Borland[1]; 2. 25T-Travis Arenz[2]; 3. 25-Danny Schlafer[4]; 4. 1-Brenham Crouch[6]; 5. 87A-Austin Hartmann[5]; 6. 4K-Kris Spitz[9]; 7. 50YR-Ryan Ruhl[3]; 8. 26R-Preston Ruh[8]; 9. 21-Will Gerrits[7]
Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:04:11.128
- 26-Tyler Tischendorf[2]; 2. 10W-Mike Reinke[4]; 3. 19-Todd Daun[1]; 4. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[6]; 5. 9K-Kyle Schuett[3]; 6. 3B-Shelby Bosie[5]; 7. 99-Tyler Brabant[8]; 8. 47-Todd King[7]; 9. 17W-Dylan Winkel[9]
Qualifying | 00:05:03.998
- 50-JJ Hickle, 00:11.458[10]; 2. 25-Danny Schlafer, 00:11.557[28]; 3. 10W-Mike Reinke, 00:11.589[7]; 4. 3N-Jake Neuman, 00:11.684[15]; 5. 50YR-Ryan Ruhl, 00:11.694[14]; 6. 9K-Kyle Schuett, 00:11.761[20]; 7. 71M-Caden Englehart, 00:11.823[25]; 8. 25T-Travis Arenz, 00:11.839[5]; 9. 26-Tyler Tischendorf, 00:11.865[12]; 10. 2W-Scott Neitzel, 00:11.878[18]; 11. 23-Russel Borland, 00:11.911[23]; 12. 19-Todd Daun, 00:11.924[13]; 13. U2-Jack Vanderboom, 00:11.935[17]; 14. 87A-Austin Hartmann, 00:11.968[2]; 15. 3B-Shelby Bosie, 00:11.972[4]; 16. 68-Dave Uttech, 00:12.004[19]; 17. 1-Brenham Crouch, 00:12.020[26]; 18. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, 00:12.031[27]; 19. 24-Scott Conger, 00:12.054[16]; 20. 21-Will Gerrits, 00:12.096[11]; 21. 47-Todd King, 00:12.106[3]; 22. 16-Anthony Knierim, 00:12.164[1]; 23. 26R-Preston Ruh, 00:12.170[9]; 24. 99-Tyler Brabant, 00:12.221[8]; 25. 79-Blake Nimee, 00:12.260[21]; 26. 4K-Kris Spitz, 00:12.698[6]; 27. 17W-Dylan Winkel, 00:12.834[22]; 28. 39V-William Huck, 00:13.118[24]
Hot Laps | 00:08:49.204
- 9K-Kyle Schuett[20]; 2. 25-Danny Schlafer[28]; 3. 71M-Caden Englehart[25]; 4. 3N-Jake Neuman[15]; 5. 2W-Scott Neitzel[18]; 6. 50-JJ Hickle[10]; 7. 1-Brenham Crouch[26]; 8. 19-Todd Daun[13]; 9. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[27]; 10. 50YR-Ryan Ruhl[14]; 11. 23-Russel Borland[23]; 12. 10W-Mike Reinke[7]; 13. 24-Scott Conger[16]; 14. 79-Blake Nimee[21]; 15. 21-Will Gerrits[11]; 16. 68-Dave Uttech[19]; 17. U2-Jack Vanderboom[17]; 18. 87A-Austin Hartmann[2]; 19. 3B-Shelby Bosie[4]; 20. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[12]; 21. 16-Anthony Knierim[1]; 22. 25T-Travis Arenz[5]; 23. 47-Todd King[3]; 24. 39V-William Huck[24]; 25. 17W-Dylan Winkel[22]; 26. 4K-Kris Spitz[6]; 27. 26R-Preston Ruh[9]; 28. 99-Tyler Brabant[8]
Article Credit: Madeline "Chatty Madi" Schultz
Submitted By: Madeline Schultz