When Sean Rayhall began his first full time season in Sprint Cars this year, he claimed he wanted to run as many races as possible. However, with the COVID-19 outbreak and tracks closing or postponing shows left and right, the Georgia native has had to get creative to make that claim a reality. This past weekend was a perfect example of that creativity.
The triple-header began at Outagamie Speedway in Seymour, WI for the IRA Sprints’ much anticipated return to the ultra-fast 1/3 mile oval. Rayhall started the night off well, qualifying 12th overall on a technical cushion. That result put Rayhall on the pole for Heat 3, but that didn’t last too long. Rayhall spun the tires on the start, relinquishing the top spot to 2x IRA Champ Scotty Neitzel. Rayhall battled hard with 2 more former IRA champions in Jeremy Schultz and Jake Blackhurst for the rest of the race, exchanging sliders with the pair before settling for 4th.
Rayhall started the 30 lap main in 12th, and quickly made up positions to run 8th by mid-race. Unfortunately, Rayhall struggled with the low fuel load stint near the end of the race and fell back to finish 11th. Still a solid points finish for the 14R team.
Then it was time for a quick load up and around 4 hour trek to Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, WI for the Jerry Richert Memorial. On the way, the Rayhall crew realized the Midwest Power Series 360 Sprints would also be on the card, and decided to pull the 360 14R car out of the hauler as well and run double duty. After an afternoon of thrashing on both the 360 and 410 car by Sean and the Sippel Racin’ crew, the team was ready for action.
Qualifying against a stout field of cars (Non-regulars included Josh Schneiderma, Brooke Tatnell, Justin Henderson, Paige Polyak and more) was going to be a tough prospect to begin with, and a slowly evolving track made it that much harder. Rayhall went out 16th to qualify, and unfortunately missed that perfect track by just a few cars which resulted in a 13th place run. That meant Rayhall missed the invert for the heat races and would start 5th in Heat #1.
IRA Heat #1 was arguably the strongest heat of the night by some margin. With Justin Henderson, Blackhurst, Joey Moughan, Jordan Goldesberry, Russel Borland, Scott Biertzer and Robbie Pribnow all combining to put Rayhall as the odd man out and in 7th place at the finish, missing the A Main Transfer.
Rayhall then hopped into the 360 for Heat #1 with the Midwest Power Series, which also brought a strong field of drivers to Cedar Lake. Rayhall would come home 4th in his heat race, behind Kaleb Johnson, Henderson, and Chris Graf.
The 360 Feature was up next, and Rayhall pushed off in the 12th position for the 25 lap event. The Sippel Racin’ crew absolutely nailed the setup on the Bigg Golf/Big Machine Vodka 14R and Rayhall was on fire early in the event. Utilizing just about every groove on the speedway, Rayhall advanced from 12th to 7th in the first 4 laps. Then on lap 5, Rayhall completed a slide job on the #33 of James Broty, but Broty pulled back alongside Rayhall on the backstretch and tried to chop Rayhall into Turn 3, this resulted in Rayhall going over the left front of Broty and nearly sending the 14R airborne. The rubber side stayed down but the damage was done, as the right rear Hoosier left the program with a gaping hole in the sidewall. Rayhall pulled into the work area, where after realizing the team didn’t have a spare “M Compound” Right Rear Hoosier (MPS runs those tires specifically) available, he hopped out and the team focused on getting the 410 ready for the 30 lap IRA Feature. A great run ended with some unfortunate contact.
The IRA Feature was similar for Rayhall to Seymour, as the Woodstock, GA native made moves up from his 19th starting position throughout the opening laps. By mid-race, Rayhall found himself in the 14th position sitting behind Russell Borland in the #23. After battling with Borland for the final few laps, Rayhall came home in 13th place. A great effort from 19th on the grid, that was evident as Rayhall tied with Pribnow, Scotty Neitzel and Biertzer for the Hard Charger award.
After Saturday night’s feature, the team once again loaded up quickly, with an 8 hour road trip to Moberly, MO on tap to run the 360 car once again, this time with the Lower Midwest based Sprint Invaders series.
The Sippel Racin’ team was greeted by a small but insanely talented field of 20 cars at the Randolph County Raceway. ASCS Winner Harli White, Sprint Invaders Winner Ayrton Gennetten, Knoxville Hall of Famer Randy Martin, Canadian hot shoe Robbie Price, former Sprint Invaders champion Cody Wehrle, ASCoC Winner Austin McCarl, and Austin Alumbaugh were just some of the big names that took to the high banked oval on Sunday night.
Rayhall started 3rd in Heat #1 and got off to a good start, battling with Alumbaugh, Kaley Gharst and Knoxville regular Riley Goodno for the 3rd and 4th spots before slipping to 5th behind Goodno at the finish.
The feature began with Rayhall starting in the 14th spot, and once again making quick moves up into the top 10 early on. However, a short 20 lap feature plagued with red flags and yellows allowed other cars to slip by Rayhall on restarts and he would come across the line in 12th place. A solid effort at a completely new track and against some of the toughest competition Rayhall has ever faced.
“Man that was a long weekend,” Rayhall began. “Our first triple header turned into a quadruple. We had a lot of speed just kept putting ourselves in the wrong spots due to not performing early on in the heat races which is on me. Our team performed flawlessly and the cars ran strong all weekend. I’m beyond grateful for their hard work and we’re ready to finish out the rest of the IRA season on a high note before heading south to USCS competition this winter!”
As Rayhall said, the IRA season is quickly winding down, but 3 races still remain on the calendar. This weekend the team will slows down a bit and contest only the IRA‘s Scott Semmelmann Memorial at Beaver Dam Raceway in Beaver Dam, WI. Rayhall currently sits 6th in series points, but is quickly closing in on 5th place Jeremy Schultz. Rayhall has unofficially wrapped up the Rookie of the Year title, as Jack Routson sits 16th in points and with only 3 races remaining is mathematically unable to catch the 14R in the points race.
RACE RUNDOWN
Friday, Sep. 11th Outagamie Speedway
IRA Sprints
Qualifying: 12th
Heat: S/1, F/4
Feature: S/12, F/11
Saturday, Sep. 12th Cedar Lake Speedway
IRA Sprints
Qualifying: 13th
Heat: S/5, F/7
Feature: S/19, F/13
Midwest Power Series 360 Sprints
Heat: S/1, F/4
Feature: S/12, F/DNF (Running 7th)
Sunday, Sep. 13th Randolph County Raceway
Sprint Invaders 360 Sprints
Heat: S/3, F/5
Feature: S/14, F/12
NEXT RACE
Saturday, Sep. 19 Beaver Dam Raceway, Beaver Dam, WI
IRA Sprints
Scott Semmelmann Memorial
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