9/7/2022
IRA Lightning Sprints
Dream Chaser Racing sweeps doubleheader weekend!
19 cars signed in on Saturday 9-3-22 for Wilmot Raceway’s Championship Night where the track would crown 5 season champions across their core divisions. The special night utilized a special format where the ILS would run a 25 lap feature only. The feature was lined up by Wilmot Raceway season points, with the point leader drawing the invert pill. Point leader Mike Neau drew the #2 pill which would put him starting the feature 4th and his Dream Chaser Racing teammate, Mark Heinert starting on the pole. Just by taking the green flag in the feature, Neau would lock up the track points title, but he wasn’t done there. Heinert was able to establish the lead early, but Neau would be up to 2nd on lap 2 and the duo would work their way through heavy lapped traffic together until Heinert was forced high in turn 4 on lap 14 and Neau was able to diamond to the bottom and split 3 lapped cars to take the point. They would go on to finish in that order with Neau taking his 5th win of the season and claiming his first Wilmot Track Championship. Heinert would finish second in both the race and the Wilmot standings while CJ Malueg would round out the podium also for both the race and the Wilmot standings. Adam Schroeder was the hard charger at +8.
Then on the next night, Sunday 9-4-22, 15 cars made the trip north for a Sprintacular show at 141 Speedway which highlighted all 3 IRA divisions. Mike Neau continued where he left off by establishing quick time of the night during qualifying. Heat races were won by Mark Heinert and Max Brannam. The feature then saw the trio of Brannams lead the field to green as Ron and Max made up the front row while Tim started 3rd. Ron Brannam would lead the first 4 laps until 4th starting Heinert would get by and start to take a commanding lead early. On lap 8, 6th starting Neau would move into 2nd place as battles were happening all over the speedway. Heinert again was challenged with heavy lap traffic during the 20 lap non-stop event but nonetheless had amassed a nearly 3 second lead over Neau by lap 13. That lead proved to be too much for Neau as he was only able to cut 2 seconds off the lead in the last 4 laps but still came up nearly 4 tenths short as Heinert would claim his second victory of the season – sweeping both 141 events this year. Neau would finish 2nd and pick up the evening’s hard charger at +4, while the K9 of Andrew Kiedrowski would finish 3rd. The weekend wins by Neau and Heinert means their Dream Chaser Racing team owned by Larry Neau would sweep the weekend.
The series will take a few weeks off before concluding the season on September 24th at Plymouth Dirt Track for the Wisconsin Sprint Car Championships where 4 divisions of sprint cars will all race and crown their series champions. Mike Neau takes a 120 point lead into Plymouth which mathematically will seal his 2nd IRA Lightning Sprint championship for him after sign-in that evening, but there are still tight battles throughout the top 10 to look out for!
Submitted By: Mike Neau
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