06/15/11 – It was off to Deer Creek Speedway in Spring
Valley, MN for Bill Balog & the B Squared Motorsports team this past
Saturday for another round of IRA action. The night started off with Bill turning
the 3rd quickest time qualifying out of the 30 cars present with a
lap time of 13.178 seconds. By virtue of the 3rd place time, Bill
took the green flag in heat #3 from the 6th position. Once the green
flag was out, Bill began to work his way to the front & with a late race
caution, Bill capitalized on the restart to take the lead & would go on to
record another heat race win.
The #5 pill was
pulled for the feature inversion which meant Bill would pilot the XYZ Machining
Products 17B from the 8th place to start the 30 lap main event.
After a brief delay before the feature for the track crew to rework the racing
surface, the 22 IRA drivers were ready to do battle. Bill & the crew made
some last minute adjustments to the car before they rolled out hoping they
could make their way to the front. With the green flag in the air, Bill set his
eyes on the lead cars, after having to let the handling of the car come to him,
Bill began his march towards the front & by the midway point he worked his
way in to the lead. He had opened up a sizable lead & was coming to the
white flag when the red flag flew for a 2 car wreck in turn 4. Once the race
was restarted Bill had to contend with all the top running cars on his tail,
but once again Bill proved to be to strong for the competition as he would go
on to claim his 3rd IRA win of the year & 3rd in a
row.
On Sunday the team
made the 2.5 hour trip over to the Eagle Valley Speedway in Jim Falls, WI for
the IRA weekend finale. With a less than stellar run in qualifying, which
resulted in a 10th place run out of the 26 cars present, Bill &
the team quickly got to work to make the car better for the heat. Bill started
inside row #2 for the 1st heat of the night, after battling with the
2nd place car for a few laps, Bill fell in line & was running 3rd
when the race leader slowed out of turn
4, brining out a caution. Bill restarted 2nd & had his eyes set
on the leader, after trying to make a run on the leader, Bill once again fell
in line to run 2nd, when that race leader slowed down the front
stretch & pulled in the infield. With no yellow flag, Bill inherited the
lead & would cruise from that point forward to bring home yet another heat
race win.
Another #5 pill was
pulled for feature inversion, which meant the FK Rod Ends 17B would take the
green from the 3rd starting spot. Once again, Bill & the crew
made some changes after the heat to better them selves for the main event.
After putting in a milder version of the set up from the night before at Deer
Creek, the team felt they had something going in to the feature. Once the race
went green, Bill maintained the 3rd position & began working on
the 2 lead cars. As the race wore on, the set up on the car began to work
better & better as Bill quickly moved to the lead & began to open up a
sizable lead. A caution would fly at lap 13 of the race, but Bill had put quite
a few cars down a lap, which would stay in line between him & the 2nd
place car. Once the race went back green, Bill would go on to open up another
large lead on the field. From that point, he was on cruise control & would
go on to claim his 4th win in a row & 19th career IRA
feature win.
This coming week the
team will be in competition just at the Oshkosh Speedzone Raceway in Oshkosh,
WI on Friday June 17th.
The team would also like to welcome, Xtreme
Stainless, LLC, based in Sussex, Wisconsin, which specializes in custom metal
fabrication to the team.
To keep up on all
the latest news regarding the team be sure to visit the team website at www.b2motorsports.com. You can also follow
the team on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bsquaredmotorsports
or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bsqdmotorsports.
Sponsorship for the
2011 season comes from the following companies: Buesser Concrete, Hoeft
Builders, Hepfner Racing Products & HRP Wings, Diversified Machine Inc.,
XYZ Machining Inc., Allstar Performance, K&N Engineering, Astro Titanium,
Super Shox, BLZ, FK Rod Ends, B Squared Visual Solutions, Weld Racing,
Outerwears Inc., Race Gear X, Gleason Racing Equipment, Maxim Chassis, Competition
Driveline, Saldana Racing Products, Fibrestar Industries, A&E Collision and
Service, & Xtreme Stainless, LLC.
