“It’s been a while, but man it feels good to be back on the podium.”
Jordan Goldesberry and the Rockstar Energy Drink #65 came close to a podium, if not a win, at the Dodge County Fairgrounds with the IRA Sprints a couple weeks back, but it wasn’t until a storming drive at the Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, WI that the defending IRA champ found his way back onto the Top 3 rostrum.
The Friday night affair began with the beautiful backdrop of Lake Superior and the Northwoods of Wisconsin casting an amazing scene on IRA qualifying, with Goldesberry setting overall Quick Time against a strong 23 car field.
“Qualifying was right up by the wall.” Goldesberry stated. “The track really slicked off early so I knew it was rip the top or be way off the pace. You just had to put it to the floor up there and hope for the best. Luckily the car was perfect and we were able to lay down a solid lap.”
Goldesberry started 4th and finished 2nd in both his heat race and his dash, which set the #65 starting 4th in the night’s 25 lap A Main at the extremely wide and fast Gondik Law Speedway.
“The feature was just a slider fest.” Goldesberry said of the night’s A Main. “You had to be perfect on every restart otherwise [Scotty] Thiel, [Bill] Balog or someone else would get by. The car was great, I just didn’t have the speed to catch Balog at the end. I thought we might have a shot at Ian [Madsen] but we just ran out of laps. It was a lot of fun racing with Travis [Arenz] and Steve Meyer. The bottom was really good too if you could hit it right. Definitely a fun and racey track that I’d love to get back to next year.”
Goldesberry crossed the line in a solid 3rd place behind Ian Madsen in the Donahue #34DD and race winner and 10x IRA Champion Bill Balog. After the late night at Superior, Goldesberry and the rest of the IRA teams were in for another long evening at the Cedar Lake Speedway for the iconic Jerry Richert Memorial.
The series attempted to qualify the field twice while battling intermittent rain showers until the skies finally cleared around 8:30pm local time, and rather than waste more time officials made the logical decision to run a passing points format for the rest of the night.
“When we went to passing points and lined the heats up off of pill draw, I knew we’d have a lot of work to do in order to make the dash.” Goldesberry admitted. “Our high draw meant we were starting 7th in Heat 2, and it was a loaded field. We ended up catching a break on lap 1 with Brooke [Tatnell] breaking, but I knew we’d need to pass more than just one car. Luckily, we were able to pull it off.”
Goldesberry ended up advancing three positions in his heat to lock himself into the Dash Redraw, and drew the 4th starting spot in Dash #2 where the Rockstar Energy Drink #65 advanced another spot to finish 3rd and earned the 6th starting spot in the night’s 30 Lap Jerry Richert Memorial feature.
“The A Main was wild.” Goldesberry said. “With the amount of really good cars there and fast guys starting towards the back because of the format, it was a survival. Luckily our car was solid enough to hold our own against Tatnell, [Justin] Henderson, [Brendan] Mullen and all those guys. 7th felt disappointing at the time but the more we’ve looked at the results and that night as a whole, it feels a lot better just to come away with a solid finish.”
The Rockstar Energy Drink #65 will head to 141 Speedway this Saturday night with the IRA Sprints, where Goldesberry picked up one of his 3 IRA feature wins back in May.
“Definitely excited to get back to 141 Speedway.” Goldesberry stated. “That place races really well and I think we’ve won two in a row there or something like that and we’ve got a ton of momentum right now. Hopefully we can finish out the year strong.”
The “Super Saturday” event at 141 Speedway will be broadcast live on FloRacing, with tickets available for purchase at the track on race day.
Jordan Goldesberry Racing thanks their 2023 partners for their support this season!
Rockstar Energy Drink
Modern Paving and Scrap
Rhine Auto-Plymouth, WI
FK Rod Ends
Wix Filters
Keizer Wheels
King Racing Products
Schure Built Suspensions
Collision Concepts
HRP-Hepfner Racing Products
Capital City Powder Coating
Box3 Media
FULL RESULTS: 9/8 w/IRA Sprints at Gondik Law Speedway
23 cars
Qualifying: 1st
Heat: S/4th, F/2nd
Dash: S/4th, F/2nd
Feature: S/4th, F/3rd
9/9 w/IRA Sprints at Cedar Lake Speedway
27 cars
Heat: S/7th, F/4th
Dash: S/4th, F/3rd
Feature: S/6th, F/7th
NEXT RACE: 9/16 w/IRA Sprints at 141 Speedway
SEASON STATS
Races: 31
Feature Starts: 27
Top 10’s: 17
Top 5’s: 8
Feature Wins: 4
Dash/Re-Draw Appearances: 15
IRA POINT STANDINGS
1st-Brenham Crouch-3373
2nd-Jordan Goldesberry-3112
3rd-Travis Arenz-3002
4th-Russel Borland-2920
5th-Scotty Neitzel-2802
Cody Almer Photo
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