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A very strong field of 33 IRA 410 Outlaw Sprint Cars invaded the Elko Speedway on Friday night July 23 during the AMSOIL Dirt Nationals. Iowa's Terry McCarl returned for his second Elko appearance having raced last year on the Friday night IRA show as well. This year, T-Mac took his first win at Elko when early race leader Brooke Tatnell jumped the cushion in turn four, hit the wall, and turned over six laps into the thirty lap race. McCarl inherited the lead, but Scott Winters had other plans as the Butterfield, MN driver raced under McCarl on lap 14 to take the top spot. While working in traffic on lap 22, McCarl was able to slip back under Winters and went on to score the victory in a very entertaining IRA feature race. Winters finished second ahead of Scott Biertzer, B Main winner and current IRA point leader Billy Balog, and Scott Neitzel. Neitzel and Biertzer had a great battle for third for many laps. Rounding out the top ten finishers were Gregg Bakker, Davey Heskin, Travis Whitney, 18th starter Mike Reinke, and John Haeni.

Reinke jumped the cushion while leading the first heat, hit the wall in turn four, flipped over, and was clipped by Scott Uttech. Reinke's crew brought out his backup car, prepped it for the B Main where he raced from 16th to 2nd, and then put the finishing touches on it for the feature race. Four cars were under Travis Whitney's track record in time trials. The second car to take time trials saw Brooke Tatnell lower the mark early on to 12.341, then Scott Winters bettered it at 12.339, but Whitney was the 26th car to time and he regained the track record with a lap of 12.333. Terry McCarl was the final car to time trial, and he posted the fourth best time of 12.429 on a consistent track surface. Heat race winners included Scotty Neitzel, Scott Winters, rookie Jeremy Kerzman, and Gregg Bakker. Jerry Richert, Jr blew his motor in heat #2 and was done for the evening. Reinke and Tatnell were the only two cars to tip over during a full evening of racing action.

A surprising turnout of 23 UMSS Micro Sprints put on a very good show as well. Micros came from Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Their 15 lap feature started 20 cars and ran nonstop to the finish. Young Robby Resch from Antigo, WI led the first 14 laps, but Sweet Springs, MO driver Chris Koch snuck underneath Resch on the final lap in turn one to record a thrilling victory. The top four cars finished just several car-lengths apart at the checkers. Resch held on to second with Avilla, IN driver Tyler Stump third, Olathe, KS driver Jamie Wilson fourth, and Lakefield, MN driver Skylar Prochaska in fifth. Completing the top ten finishers saw Hospers, IA driver Wade Huisman, Andover, MN driver Mark Chevalier in Jalen Morris' micro, Rapid City, SD driver Eric Darrow, Newcastle, WY driver Anthony "Home Skillet" Farnsworth, and Hospers, IA driver Tim Ottenbacher. Micros from around our area saw cars from the Copper Creek Speedway and Eagle River Speedway compete in addition to a few Twin City area drivers. The Miniakota club from the Worthington area was also well represented. Lakeville's Alan Mondus (mod and late model driver) rented a micro ride for the evening and finished 13th in car #13, as 16 of the original 20 starters were still running at the end of the race. A couple of micros blew motors in hot laps and the heat races while one micro (Paul Wrazidlo from Duluth) was unable to compete due to mechanical problems. Paul's daughter Nicole represented the Wrazidlo family on the track with her #1 micro sprint.

Action continues on the final night of the Elko Dirt Nationals on Saturday July 24 with the IRA Outlaw 410 sprint cars, the UMSS Micro Sprint League, and the Elko Mods. Nate Chodur from Lake Mills, IA won both the makeup and regular Elko Mod feature races on Friday evening.

Great report Grp. It was a good night of racing. You pointed out that Mike Reinke moved from 18th to finish ninth which was a nice run, but Davey Heskin moved up just as far starting 16th and finished 7th. It was a nice run for Davey and Maxwell Racing.

I enjoyed the micro-sprints. This is the first time that I have ever seen them and they put on a nice show. I am taking my stop watch tonight to see how their times stack up against the mods' times.

The quickest time turned in the Micro Sprint feature race was just about three seconds slower than the IRA 410 sprints track record in time trials. Robby Resch whistled around the 3/8 mile oval on one of his early laps in the feature at 15.314 seconds. The second fastest was Rodney Stealy at 15.644. It would not surprise me to see a time trial run quite possibly under 15 seconds for the micro sprints; however, they of course do not time trial. The transponders do record lap times in the heats and feature. I did not get a heat race print-out, so I can only go by the official print-out for the feature race regarding the fastest lap posted by each car.

Tonight I will be up in Brainerd for the Kouba Memorial UMSS sprint car show. Racing at both Elko and North Central should be great tonight.

Here is Justin Zoch's official IRA race result/press release from Friday.

McCarl Outduels Winters for Elko IRA Score
Elko Speedway, Elko, Minnesota
July 23, 2010

He started on the pole position but it wasn't a cake walk for Altoona, Iowa's Terry McCarl as he drove to his first IRA win of the 2010 season on Friday night at Elko Speedway. The first night of IRA action for the AMSOIL Dirt Nationals at Elko (normally a paved track just south of the Twin Cities metro area) saw McCarl snare the pole position alongside Brooke Tatnell for the 30-lap feature. Tatnell used the preferred high line in turn one to grab the lead and led McCarl and third starting Scott Winters through the first five laps. On lap six, Tatnell tagged the concrete in turn three and flipped. He was uninjured but finished for the evening.

McCarl led Winters on the restart but as the leaders approached lapped traffic, Winters took the top spot as McCarl was forced to fend off a bottom-feeding charge from Scott Neitzel. Just past the halfway point, however, McCarl repaid the favor and nipped by Winters in lapped traffic. Meanwhile, Bill Balog was charging up from the 11th spot and had entered the top five behind McCarl, Winters, Neitzel and Scott Biertzer.

With just five laps remaining and the lead pack in heavy traffic, Steve Meyer spun in turn two to bring out a yellow flag. On the restart, McCarl drove away from Winters and cruised to his first career win at Elko Speedway over Scott Winters, who has never finished worse than third at Elko in IRA action, and Biertzer. Balog edged by Neitzel in the waning laps to take fourth. Balog, the current IRA point leader, has now finished in the top five in an amazing 12 straight IRA shows.

Heat races for the 33 cars were scored by Neitzel, Winters, Sprint Car rookie Jeremy Kurzman and Gregg Bakker, who passed Davey Heskin with a fourth-turn, last lap stunner. Balog scored the B-main over Mike Reinke, who had to pull out a backup car for the evening after crashing in the first heat race while running second.

In qualifying, Travis Whitney lost his track record to Brooke Tatnell and then Scott Winters before coming out late in time trials to again lower the mark with a lap of 12.333 to capture Osborne and Sons Trucking Quick Time and also regain the track record.

During a brief intermission, drivers passed their helmets through the stands and raised $1,400 to benefit injured racer Travis Rilat and to help comfort the family of his crew member Tyson Perez, who passed away this week due to an unfortunate shop accident.

The next IRA race is Saturday, July 24, when the series returns for the conclusion of the AMSOIL Dirt Nationals at Elko Speedway in Elko, Minnesota. For more information on the IRA Sprint Cars, log on to www.irasprints.com.

Osborne and Sons Trucking Qualifications
Quick Time: Travis Whitney 12.333 (NTR)

30-Lap A-Feature:
1. Terry McCarl (1), 2. Scott Winters (3), 3. Scott Biertzer (9), 4. Bill Balog (11), 5. Scott Neitzel (7), 6. Gregg Bakker (8), 7. Davey Heskin (16), 8. Travis Whitney (4), 9. Mike Reinke (18), 10. John Haeni (13), 11. Rob Kubli (6), 12. Jeremy Kurzman (5), 13. Steve Meyer (10), 14. Wayne Modjeski (15), 15. Russel Borland (20), 16. John Sernett (19), 17. Bill Warren (17), 18. Phillip Mock (21), 19. Dave Glennon (14), 20. Kris Spitz (12), 21. Brooke Tatnell (2), 22. Billy Hafemann (22)

Behling Racing Products B-main: 1. Balog (2), 2. Reinke (16), 3. Sernett (1), 4. Borland (8), 5. P. Mock (3), 6. Hafemann (9) / 7. Scott Uttech (4), 8. Dave Uttech (11), 9. Andy Hunt (10), 10. Kim Mock (6), 11. Brandon Thone (13), 12. Duane Olson (14), 13. Bill Wirth (7), 14. Matt Wasmund (5), 15. Jamie Kloatwyk, 16. Michael Emme (12)

Weld Racing Heat Race #1: 1. Neitzel, 2. Biertzer, 3. Whitney, 4. Glennon, 5. D. Uttech, 6. Wirth, 7. Reinke, 8. S. Uttech, 9. Kloatwyk

Lane Automotive Heat Race #2: 1. Winters, 2. Modjeski, 3. Meyer, 4. Kubli, 5. Wasmund, 6. Borland, 7. Emme, 8. Richert Jr.

DMI Heat Race #3: 1. Kurzman, 2. Tatnell, 3. Warren, 4. Spitz, 5. P. Mock, 6. Sernett, 7. Hafemann, 8. Thone

King Racing Products Heat Race #4: 1. Bakker, 2. Heskin, 3. McCarl, 4. Haeni, 5. Balog, 6. K. Mock, 7. Hunt, 8. Olson

I asked micro sprint race winner Chris Koch (pronounced Cook) afterwards about how much an average micro sprint costs. Chris told me he would put it right in the $15,000-16,000 range for a complete new car. Some drivers spend more, but it does not mean they will go any faster or do any better. Some drivers spend less and are more than competitive. Average used micro sprints cost in the range of $3,000-6,000 for older equipment and $5,000-10,000 for newer well-maintained equipment according to Chris. He said it's not easy to set an exact figure, since what might be average to some is good equipment for others or substandard equipment for top-running teams. He did go on to say that once you have made the initial investment, it isn't too bad at all to maintain the equipment on what he termed a reasonable budget.

Chris said the micros have a couple of bigger events in the US with one down in Tulsa, OK being a national deal with several classes of micro sprints racing. Total car count (all classes) is in the neighborhood of 300-400 cars for the event. The UMSS started the class here in the Twin City metro area in order to generate interest amongst younger drivers or for older competitors who would still like to field a down-sized type of sprint car with a somewhat economical operating cost. Chris told me that when they started out and for many years after, he would go to his local area junk yards and pick up 600cc motorcycle engines for use in their micro sprint. He said you can literally pull the engine off the car and bolt it in a motorcycle if you want to. When their club started down in Central Missouri many years ago, they only had 6 or 7 cars at the beginning. By the end of the first year, they had doubled to around 14 cars. Today, their club has well over 100 members with 50-60 cars per event and sometimes more than that. He encouraged us to keep at it, as he was surprised by how well it took off down in his area. He also indicated that micros are huge in Oklahoma, Indiana, Pennsylvania, California and several other states. It is all pretty much new to me up here in Minnesota, but like UMSS leader Ron Bernhagen told me back in the beginning of the year, you have to start somewhere and we will not be discouraged as we slowly build the class here in our area. The Miniakota club down around the Worthington area brought several cars to Elko and assisted with the operation of the program along with micro sprint guru John Morris.