After opening night rained out earlier this month, the IRA Lightning Sprints returned to Wilmot Raceway with a healthy field of 23 cars along with the Wisconsin wingless and IRA 410 sprints. In an effort to speed the show up the ILS ran only two heat races as opposed to a three heat format per our rules for 21-30 cars. Josh Rehberg was victorious in Allstar Performance Heat 1 and Nick Petska would capture Rod End Supply Heat 2. The feature invert would put previous feature winner Brian Strane Jr. on the pole in what would basically be a non-stop feature event. Tim Brannam who started outside Strane got the jump on the start and took the lead down the back straightaway but Mark Heinert was able to force his way between those two in 3 and 4 and take the lead. Strane would temporarily fall back to 3rd but regain 2nd with Petska in 3rd as Brannam would start to fade. Heavy lapped traffic was present throughout the entire race and at lap 15, Strane would drive by Heinert on the top and take over the top spot. Petska would then begin to reel them both in but run out of time as Strane would take the checkers with a lead just under 2 seconds over Heinert who just edged Petska by a car length. The victory makes Strane 2 for 2 on the 2024 season for the 2023 ILS Rookie of the Year. A solid run by Petska was able to limit the damage as Strane was only able to grow his points lead by just 1 point on the night. 6th starting Jordan Funderburk and 9th starting Mike Neau rounded out the top 5 with the 23 of Dominick Swierad in 13th picking up the Weld Racing Hard Charger at +9. The finish for Funderburk marks his best finish with the series to date.
The 2nd half of the Memorial Day weekend double header at 141 Speedway was lost on Sunday due to the extended forecast for the evening. The ILS will take the next weekend off and then return to Wilmot Raceway on June 8th.
5/25/2024 at Wilmot Raceway
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 22S-Brian Strane Jr[1]; 2. 55H-Mark Heinert[4]; 3. 18-Nick Petska[3]; 4. 17-Jordan Funderburk[6]; 5. 16-Mike Neau[9]; 6. 74-Tim Brannam[2]; 7. 11-Derek Fortier[10]; 8. 9-John Kirk[13]; 9. 6-Jeff Schmidt[8]; 10. 5S-Chad Stouthamer[16]; 11. 18Q-Chris Quillman[7]; 12. 74M-Max Brannam[11]; 13. 23-Dominick Swierad[22]; 14. 14-Nate Kirchner[14]; 15. 55X-Xander York[17]; 16. 87R-Josh Rehberg[5]; 17. 01-Ron Brannam[12]; 18. 63-Jacob Irwin[15]; 19. 00-Dakota Duncanson[19]; 20. 13-Tucker Richards[20]; 21. (DNF) 77C-Clayton Bickler[18]; 22. (DNF) 15-Cole Olson[23]; 23. (DNS) 64-Jack Lynn
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 87R-Josh Rehberg[2]; 2. 55H-Mark Heinert[4]; 3. 18Q-Chris Quillman[1]; 4. 16-Mike Neau[5]; 5. 74-Tim Brannam[3]; 6. 9-John Kirk[12]; 7. 74M-Max Brannam[6]; 8. 63-Jacob Irwin[7]; 9. 55X-Xander York[8]; 10. 00-Dakota Duncanson[10]; 11. 23-Dominick Swierad[11]; 12. (DNF) 15-Cole Olson[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 18-Nick Petska[4]; 2. 17-Jordan Funderburk[2]; 3. 22S-Brian Strane Jr[3]; 4. 6-Jeff Schmidt[1]; 5. 11-Derek Fortier[5]; 6. 01-Ron Brannam[6]; 7. 14-Nate Kirchner[7]; 8. 5S-Chad Stouthamer[8]; 9. 77C-Clayton Bickler[11]; 10. 13-Tucker Richards[10]; 11. (DNF) 64-Jack Lynn[9]
Qualifying: 1. 55H-Mark Heinert, 00:14.702[18]; 2. 18-Nick Petska, 00:14.896[6]; 3. 74-Tim Brannam, 00:15.077[12]; 4. 22S-Brian Strane Jr, 00:15.079[20]; 5. 87R-Josh Rehberg, 00:15.178[7]; 6. 17-Jordan Funderburk, 00:15.194[17]; 7. 18Q-Chris Quillman, 00:15.264[5]; 8. 6-Jeff Schmidt, 00:15.495[15]; 9. 16-Mike Neau, 00:15.513[4]; 10. 11-Derek Fortier, 00:15.660[11]; 11. 74M-Max Brannam, 00:15.736[9]; 12. 01-Ron Brannam, 00:15.805[3]; 13. 63-Jacob Irwin, 00:15.988[2]; 14. 14-Nate Kirchner, 00:16.160[10]; 15. 55X-Xander York, 00:16.366[23]; 16. 5S-Chad Stouthamer, 00:16.656[19]; 17. 15-Cole Olson, 00:16.747[16]; 18. 64-Jack Lynn, 00:16.843[8]; 19. 00-Dakota Duncanson, 00:16.892[22]; 20. 13-Tucker Richards, 00:18.100[21]; 21. 23-Dominick Swierad, 00:18.777[1]; 22. (DNF) 77C-Clayton Bickler, 00:09.999[14]; 23. (DNF) 9-John Kirk, 00:09.999[13]