9/30/2024
IRA Interstate Racing Association
Bogucki and Thiel Victorious on Champ Weekend
27 Sprints brought the thunder to Mississippi Thunder Speedway for the rescheduled rain date. Brenham Crouch would be fastest in Hot Laps while Jake Blackhurst would set a new track record in qualifying with a 11.832.
Heat race winners would be Jordan Goldesberry, Scott Bogucki, and Scott Winters. Dashes wre won by Scott Bogucki and Scott Winters.
Scott Bogucki would take the early lead in the 30 lap feature leaving Winters and Schlafer in his rear view mirror. Winters would grab the lead in turns three and four. Winters would hit the tail of the field and begin to dance through lap traffic. This would allow Bogucki to slide into the lead once more. We would bring out the red for Estenson in four.
Back to green, Bogucki would try to tick away more laps against Winters and Schlafer as Goldesberry would slide into 4th. The race would be for the lead between Winters and Bogucki as the halfway mark was shown. The 23W and 17GP would put on a slider clinic. Crouch would slide past the 65 for fourth.
With 6 laps remaining, the CMS Racing number 1 would take third from Schlafer. With five remaining, we’d have our second red of the night involving the 33B and 65. It would be a green, white, checkered finish for Bogucki as he would claim the Mississippi Thunder Title. Scott Winters second and Brenham Crouch would round out the podium.
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33 Cars would check into the final night of the competitive 2024 season with the Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprint Car Series. Danny Schlafer would be fastest in Box3 Media Hot Laps, then the 51B of Joe B Miller would take the fastest lap around the dirt track for Quicktime.
Heat race winners would be Travis Arenz, Brenham Crouch, Scott Bogucki, and Scotty Thiel. Dash winners would be Scotty Thiel and Blake Nimee. The B-Main was awarded to Kris Spitz.
The final 30 lap feature of 2024 could take the green, Blake Nimee would get a good start against point leader Scotty Thiel and take the early lead. The battle would be behind the 79 as Blackhurst and Arenz would battle for a podium spot. Thiel would have to play catch up to try to grab the lead from Nimee. With six laps in the books, Nimee would make his way to lap traffic and allow Thiel to close the gap. We would tick 12 laps in with Nimee leading the way with Thiel and Blackhurst on his tail.
We would draw out the red flag for the 19 of Jett Man in the apex of turns three and four just after halfway. Nimee would resume the lead, Thiel second, Miller third, Arenz fourth, and Brenham Crouch rounding out the top 5.
On the restart, Thiel would throw a slider into turns one and two and steal the lead from Nimee. Crouch would also take this restart and grab fourth and begin to hunt down Miller. We’d only be green momentarily as we could go under yellow for the 51B.
11 laps remained for race-leader Thiel on the restart. Nimee would try to pull the same slider on Thiel and Thiel did to him, but Thiel would power around on the cushion. Thiel would count down the laps until the checkered, sealing the deal on the win and the 2024 IRA Championship.
Scotty Thiel would also clinch his first ever Championship with the IRA Sprint Car Series. With 4 wins, 11 top 5, and 17 top 10s. Jake Blackhurst would finish second in points, then Danny Schlafer would round out the points podium.
Article Credit: Madeline "Chatty Madi" Schultz
Submitted By: Madeline Schultz
