7/6/2021
IRA Lightning Sprints
3 in a row for Petska!
The IRA Lightning Sprints made their first appearance of the season to Sycamore Speedway on Independence Day Weekend where we saw just 14 cars make the tow down on a hot Saturday afternoon. Qualifying was led by Ron Brannam in the 01 with quick time and then followed by Tim Brannam in the 74 and Mike Neau in the 16 rounded out the top 3.
In heat race action, the 18 of Nick Petska continued his winning ways as he led all 8 laps in Heat 1 and would go on to win his series leading 5th heat race of the year. In heat 2 Mark Heinert in the 55H would use the high side of 1&2 to cruise to the lead on the opening lap and also lead all 8 laps for his 2nd heat win of the year.
The number 3 pill was drawn for the feature invert and that would put Petska and Heinert on the front row for the 20 lap main event. Heinert, again would use the top line in 1&2 to catapult to the lead down the back straightaway but Petska was able to hold the bottom in 3&4 and get under Heinert to lead lap one. It was all over at that point as Petska would continue to gap the competition every lap and methodically work his way through lapped traffic en route to his 5th feature win of the year. The win was 3 in a row for Petska (at 3 different tracks) but what is even more impressive is he has claimed 5 out of the last 6 feature events in the series across all 4 tracks visited so far this year.
Ion Stear in the 19 would get past Heinert to claim the runner-up position while Heinert, Neau, and 9th starting CJ Malueg in the 13 would round out the top 5. Malueg would also be the event’s Hard Charger at +4.
The IRA Lightning Sprints will be back in action at their home track, Wilmot Raceway - again in support of the World of Outlaws - on Saturday July 10th along with a limited field of Wisconsin Wingless cars.
Submitted By: Mike Neau
