“It’s how you get up.” Sean Rayhall said after bouncing back from an abysmal start at Dodge County, and that kind of set the tone for the whole IRA Sprints weekend for the Sippel Racin #14r Team.
Action began at one of the fastest tracks in the midwest, the “Horsepower Half Mile” at the Dodge County Fairgounds, known for being tough on cars and drivers alike, Rayhall and the SRM Crew would look to tame the beast for the first time in a 410 sprint car.
The night would start off well, with Rayhall going quick time in his hot lap group, but the good performance would falter in qualifying, with a fuel issue developing. Rayhall would sputter around the track under less than half power for one lap, then pull off early, setting a 26th place time out of the 29 cars present. Rayhall was understandably upset, as qualifying is of the utmost importance at the fast and narrow speedway, and it meant the team would be fighting for everything the rest of the night, starting with the Heat race, in which Rayhall would push off in the 9th starting position.
The race started off well, as Rayhall blasted off the line and powered underneath the #29 of Hunter Custer for the 8th spot. After the initial laps, the field began to spread out with Rayhall now in 7th after disposing of the #9k of Kyle Schuett, and beginning to hunt down the #47 of Todd King for the 6th and final transfer spot. Unfortunately, the Georgia native would simply run out of laps, missing the transfer by just a couple of car links at the line. This meant the #14r would have to to run the B Main to advance to the 25 lap Feature.
Starting from the 4th position, Rayhall wasted no time making moves in the lightning fast 10 lap Last Chance race. Rayhall would blow by his fellow Rookie of the Year competitor Jack Routson in the other #14 car on the start, then quickly dispatch of Schuett the next lap, then begin to track down the leading #49j of Knoxville Raceway regular Josh Schneiderman. With Schneiderman running the middle to high groove, Rayhall began railing the ultra tacky bottom lane, one wheel in the grass throughout the tight turns of the flat out half-mile oval. On lap 8 of the 10 lap B Feature, Rayhall made his move, diving underneath Schneiderman into turn 1, unfortunately, he would dive just a touch too low, clipping the water barrel marking the boundary of turn 1. This brought the barrel slightly onto the speedway, bringing out a caution, but more importantly, the slight contact was enough to snap the left front shock off of Rayhall’s machine. On the ensuing restart, Rayhall took one more stab at Schneiderman into turn 1 before settling for 2nd. The team went to work immediately on the Bigg Golf #14r, and did a fantastic job getting the car turned around for the 25 lap feature. Unfortunately for Schneiderman, something in his motor would give way late in the B Feature, and the #49j would inevitably scratch for the A main, meaning Rayhall would start in the 19th position for the event.
At the drop of the green flag in the 25 lap Harry Neitzel Tribute Feature, Rayhall followed the #43 of Jereme Schroeder on the bottom of the track and pick off multiple cars before a yellow with 18 laps to go. Rayhall restarted in the 15th position and worked his way around the #77 of Wayne Modjeski, the #68 of Dave Uttech and the #7 of Scott Uttech all on the same lap and then immediately began working on the #5j of Jeremy Schultz. Rayhall made the pass work, however Schultz would slow on the speedway immediately after, bringing out the yellow with 17 laps to go. Restarting from the 12th position, Rayhall began an epic battle with the #22m of Dan McCarron for the 11th spot, with 10th place Todd King just up the road. On lap 14, Rayhall made the pass stick, however a hard charging #23 of Russel Borland soon blew past both McCarron and Rayhall and soon after would overtake 10th place King as well. A red flag on lap 20 for the 2nd place running #64 of Scotty Thiel meant Rayhall moved into the 11th position for a 5 lap sprint to the checkers. Rayhall made several attempts to pass King for a top 10 spot, but to no avail, as he would cross the line just a few car links short of the #47. However, the 19th to 11th place charge meant Rayhall would take home the Hard Charger Award for the night. A fantastic result after a dismal start to the evening.
“I felt really good in that race,” Rayhall said after climbing out of the #14r. “If we hadn’t had that issue in qualifying, I mean who knows where we would have ended up. This place is even crazier in a 410, just happy we’re in one piece. Lots of guys going home with wrecked racecars tonight.”
Keeping the car in one piece is key, especially when you’re facing a long weekend against some of the toughest competition the IRA has seen this year, with the likes of Ryan Ruhl, McCarron, both Bailey and Jordan Goldesberry, Mike Reinke, Blake Nimee and Schneiderman all returning for Saturday’s race at the Plymouth Dirt Track in Plymouth, WI the site of one of Rayhall’s 2 Quick Time’s on the year.
Quick Time was an outside shot if ever on Saturday, as the #14r would be in ASCS 360 trim for the night.
“This 360 motor is an absolute ripper compared to anything the MSA runs.” Rayhall said before the night’s races. “On a hooked up track like in Qualy or Heats, for sure we’ll be at a disadvantage, but once the track slicks off for the Features, I think we’ll be right there with the big kids in terms of pace.”
Rayhall’s words would turn somewhat prophetic, as a completely flat out lap in qualifying would yield no better than 19th place.
“I never lifted.” An ecstatic Rayhall said. “I got out of the car and could have sworn I had Quick Time, I mean I’ve never gone totally flat around this place even in the MSA car. The power difference is bigger than I thought when the track is so hooked up like this.”
It would be more of the same in the heat race, with Rayhall’s qualifying effort putting him in an absolutely stacked heat with the likes of Reinke, MSA Points Leader Travis Arenz, Borland, Jordan Goldesberry, and Ruhl all pushing off ahead of Rayhall’s 7th starting position. On the start, Rayhall actually powered off the bottom of the track ahead off Ruhl and Goldesberry momentarily into 5th place. However, on the next lap, a well timed pass by Goldesberry put the #65 back into 5th, with Rayhall holding off the #5r of Ruhl for the 6th and final transfer spot. The Michigan hot shoe threw several pass attempts at Rayhall early in the heat, but to no avail, with Rayhall staying glued to the hammer down bottom lane. However, on the second to last lap, Rayhall entered turn 3 and the car snapped tight on him. Rayhall gathered it back up, but it was too late, as Ruhl snuck by on the bottom and motored ahead coming out of turn 4 to the white flag. Rayhall tried to close back in, but it was too little too late and the #14r would be relegated to the B Main once again.
A scratch from the #7 of Scott Uttech meant that Rayhall would start on the pole of the B Feature with the #68 of Dave Uttech to his outside and McCarron to his rear. With the track now beginning to lose some grip on the high side, Rayhall was able to power to the lead and never look back, winning his second career Sprint Car race by a whopping 2.184 seconds of the #79 of Blake Nimee. This meant that for the second night in a row, the #14r would start 19th for the IRA Sprints A Main.
Driving out of a whole once again, Rayhall got off to a quick start, moving ahead of the #25 of Danny Schlafer early on, then settling into 16th position behind the #77 of Wayne Modjeski and #2w of Scotty Neitzel on a one lane track. Several cautions and red flags later would see Rayhall move into 13th. After multiple ventures to the top side to attempt to get around the #9k of Schuett, Rayhall found himself back in 15th with just a few laps to go. However, Rayhall would once again get back up stronger than ever, putting slick moves on teh #5j of Schultz and the #0 of Johnny Fahl on consecutive laps, then nab 13th at the finish line from Schuett. Another solid end to what could have been a disastrous night for the #14r.
“Really solid weekend in the #14r for our team.” Rayhall said. “After a fuel issue in qualifying at Dodge I feel like we made a great comeback there in grabbing the Hard Charger and just missing out on a top 10.” Rayhall then looked to Plymouth’s race. “We tried our ASCS motor on Saturday with hopes for a different kind of track but still finished respectively against a really good field of cars. The results haven’t shown this past month how much our team and my driving has improved, but we are ready to get those results and finish out this IRA Championship on a high note.”
With Sunday’s rainout at 141 Speedway, the IRA looks to another double-header weekend. Starting with the series’ much anticipated return to the Outagamie Speedway in Seymour, WI. Rayhall has raced the track before in MSA 360 competition, but never in a 410 Sprinter. Then the show moves to Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, WI for the annual Jerry Richert Memorial, paying $5,000 to win and $500 to start. Rayhall still sits 6th in series points, and is looking to wrap up the Sage Fruit Top Apple Rookie of the Year Award in the coming weeks.
Sean Rayhall Race Results
9/4 Dodge County Fairgrounds Harry Neitzel Tribute
Qualifying: 26th/29 Cars
Heat: S/9, F/7
B Main: S/4, F/2
A Main: S/19, F/11
9/5 Plymouth Dirt Track
Qualifying: 19th/30 Cars
Heat: S/7, F/7
B Main: S/1, F/1
A Main: S/19, F/13
NEXT RACE:
September 11th, Outagamie Speedway, New Richmond, WI IRA 410 Sprints
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