

5/17/2025
IRA Interstate Racing Association
HOMECOMING: Arenz Parks it at Plymouth
HOMECOMING: Arenz Parks it at Plymouth
By: Madeline “Chatty Madi” Ruh
Photo by HW Designs
The Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprint Car Series battled with Mother Nature, but ultimately was victorious on the Saturday portion of the scheduled triple header weekend. With the track looking prepped, Sterling Cling would be fastest in Box3 Media Hot Laps and Kyle Schuett would be fastest around the Plymouth Dirt Track with a 11.224 in Carbon Safety Technologies Qualifying clinching the Hi Plains Building Division Quicktime Award.
A pair of young guns would star the front row or Fox Lake Harbor and All Star Performance heat number one. Julien would take the lead and not look back. The same could be said of BodyCraft of Antioch presents Behling Racing Heat number two with Kelby Watt and Tyler Tischendorf on the front row. Another eight laps would tell the tale with Adel, IA Native of Kelby Watt bringing home the win. Jake Blackhurst put another tally in the Heat Race win column winning the Game Day Men’s Health presents Engler Machine & Tool Heat number three. BR Motorsports presents King Racing Products Heat number four would be claimed by Tim Shaffer.
In the Horizon Whiskey Dash Draw, Travis Arenz and Kyle Schuett would grab poles in the dashes. Travis Arenz would be triumphant and grab the coveted pole position, and Scott Broty would start on the outside of the front row of the 30 lap Scott Semmelmann Memorial-Round 2 of Hopf Farms Bullring Showdown feature. Transferring to the main event from the Behling Racing Equipment would be Zach Daum, Danny Schlafer, Will Gerrits, and TJ Haddy.
The hometown hero of Travis Arenz would strike at the drop of the green, leading the race. Scott Brody, with only limited laps on the track would take to second. Logan Julien would race for a podium spot against the 2024 IRA Champion and Kelby Watt.
The laps would begin to count down, and as Arenz said in the Horizon Whiskey Dash Draw, “The stars needed to align”. Arenz would weave the 25T effortlessly through lap traffic, amassing a total of 5 cars at one point between him and Scott Broty. We would draw out the Honest Abe Roofing Caution Flag for the 26 of Tyler Tischendorf. We would let the green flag fly once more where Arenz would pounce on the restart and continue where he left off, leaving competition in the dust.
The battle would brew behind the Don and Lynn Kiel 25T with Watt, Thiel, Broty, and Julien would exchange positions. Just as the action would heat up with eight laps remained, the Honest Abe Roofing flag would appear once more.
Arenz, Thiel, Broty would be the top three on the restart. With The Big Wheel would throw everything at race-long leader Travis Arenz. Nimee would take the restart to his advantage and swing the Captain Jim’s Yaht Sales 79 into third. Schaffer would also get the 17GP into the fifth spot.
The laps would tick down for the Sheboygan native as he would take the checkered on Round two of the Hopf Farms Bullring Showdown and on the Scott Semmelmann. Blake Nimee would take second, Thiel would round out the podium.
The series continues with the season opener tonight at Angell Park Speedway, and next weekend at Wilmot Raceway and 141 Speedway. You can watch the action all season long on FloRacing.
410 Sprints - Winged 32 Entries
A Feature 30 Laps | 00:15:21.028
- 25T-Travis Arenz[1]; 2. 79-Blake Nimee[7]; 3. 51-Scotty Thiel[5]; 4. 1K-Kelby Watt[6]; 5. 17GP-Tim Shaffer[3]; 6. 33-Scott Broty[2]; 7. 3N-Jake Neuman[13]; 8. 85J-Logan Julien[4]; 9. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[16]; 10. 9K-Kyle Schuett[8]; 11. 34-Sterling Cling[9]; 12. 9-Tommy Colburn[11]; 13. 16C-Max Guilford[20]; 14. 5D-Zach Daum[21]; 15. 96-Jake Blackhurst[10]; 16. 2W-Scott Neitzel[14]; 17. 25-Danny Schlafer[22]; 18. 12-Corbin Gurley[19]; 19. 4K-Kris Spitz[18]; 20. 10V-Matt VanderVere[17]; 21. 16TH-Kevin Newton[12]; 22. 21H-TJ Haddy[24]; 23. GR8-Will Gerrits[23]; 24. (DNF) 26-Tyler Tischendorf[15]
B Feature 12 Laps | 00:02:47.566
- 5D-Zach Daum[4]; 2. 25-Danny Schlafer[1]; 3. GR8-Will Gerrits[5]; 4. 21H-TJ Haddy[2]; 5. 4-Alex Pokorski[7]; 6. 87A-Austin Hartmann[9]; 7. 3BK-Billy Kreutz[3]; 8. 99-Tyler Brabant[6]; 9. 4D-Cruz Dickerson[10]; 10. 3B-Shelby Bosie[8]; 11. 24-Scott Conger[11]; 12. (DNS) 70W-Logan Wienke
Dash 1 4 Laps | 00:00:52.657
- 25T-Travis Arenz[1]; 2. 17GP-Tim Shaffer[2]; 3. 51-Scotty Thiel[5]; 4. 79-Blake Nimee[4]; 5. 34-Sterling Cling[3]
Dash 2 4 Laps | 00:02:12.285
- 33-Scott Broty[3]; 2. 85J-Logan Julien[2]; 3. 1K-Kelby Watt[5]; 4. 9K-Kyle Schuett[1]; 5. 96-Jake Blackhurst[4]
Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:01:33.000
- 85J-Logan Julien[1]; 2. 9-Tommy Colburn[2]; 3. 9K-Kyle Schuett[4]; 4. 79-Blake Nimee[3]; 5. 4K-Kris Spitz[5]; 6. GR8-Will Gerrits[7]; 7. 4-Alex Pokorski[6]; 8. 4D-Cruz Dickerson[8]
Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:01:37.000
- 1K-Kelby Watt[1]; 2. 51-Scotty Thiel[4]; 3. 2W-Scott Neitzel[6]; 4. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[2]; 5. 33-Scott Broty[3]; 6. 3BK-Billy Kreutz[5]; 7. 3B-Shelby Bosie[7]; 8. 24-Scott Conger[8]
Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:01:38.000
- 96-Jake Blackhurst[2]; 2. 25T-Travis Arenz[4]; 3. 34-Sterling Cling[3]; 4. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[6]; 5. 16C-Max Guilford[7]; 6. 5D-Zach Daum[5]; 7. 87A-Austin Hartmann[8]; 8. 21H-TJ Haddy[1]
Heat 4 8 Laps | 00:05:05.000
- 17GP-Tim Shaffer[2]; 2. 16TH-Kevin Newton[1]; 3. 3N-Jake Neuman[3]; 4. 10V-Matt VanderVere[6]; 5. 12-Corbin Gurley[5]; 6. 99-Tyler Brabant[7]; 7. 25-Danny Schlafer[4]; 8. (DNS) 70W-Logan Wienke
Qualifying | 00:00:24.000
- 9K-Kyle Schuett, 00:11.224[5]; 2. 51-Scotty Thiel, 00:11.318[8]; 3. 25T-Travis Arenz, 00:11.367[18]; 4. 25-Danny Schlafer, 00:11.376[10]; 5. 79-Blake Nimee, 00:11.499[16]; 6. 33-Scott Broty, 00:11.503[6]; 7. 34-Sterling Cling, 00:11.517[28]; 8. 3N-Jake Neuman, 00:11.532[19]; 9. 9-Tommy Colburn, 00:11.561[13]; 10. 26-Tyler Tischendorf, 00:11.562[11]; 11. 96-Jake Blackhurst, 00:11.568[23]; 12. 17GP-Tim Shaffer, 00:11.579[29]; 13. 85J-Logan Julien, 00:11.584[3]; 14. 1K-Kelby Watt, 00:11.636[21]; 15. 21H-TJ Haddy, 00:11.658[12]; 16. 16TH-Kevin Newton, 00:11.792[14]; 17. 4K-Kris Spitz, 00:11.801[7]; 18. 3BK-Billy Kreutz, 00:11.804[22]; 19. 5D-Zach Daum, 00:11.828[31]; 20. 12-Corbin Gurley, 00:11.837[15]; 21. 4-Alex Pokorski, 00:11.875[27]; 22. 2W-Scott Neitzel, 00:11.880[24]; 23. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, 00:11.940[26]; 24. 10V-Matt VanderVere, 00:11.945[20]; 25. GR8-Will Gerrits, 00:12.016[32]; 26. 3B-Shelby Bosie, 00:12.017[4]; 27. 16C-Max Guilford, 00:12.041[30]; 28. 99-Tyler Brabant, 00:12.064[1]; 29. 4D-Cruz Dickerson, 00:12.067[25]; 30. 24-Scott Conger, 00:12.190[17]; 31. (DNF) 87A-Austin Hartmann, 00:12.190[2]; 32. (DNF) 70W-Logan Wienke, 00:12.190[9]
Hot Laps | 00:00:24.000
- 34-Sterling Cling[28]; 2. 79-Blake Nimee[16]; 3. 25T-Travis Arenz[18]; 4. 96-Jake Blackhurst[23]; 5. 25-Danny Schlafer[10]; 6. 4-Alex Pokorski[27]; 7. 17GP-Tim Shaffer[29]; 8. 9K-Kyle Schuett[5]; 9. 3B-Shelby Bosie[4]; 10. 85J-Logan Julien[3]; 11. 33-Scott Broty[6]; 12. 16C-Max Guilford[30]; 13. 21H-TJ Haddy[12]; 14. 5D-Zach Daum[31]; 15. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[26]; 16. 1K-Kelby Watt[21]; 17. 12-Corbin Gurley[15]; 18. 4D-Cruz Dickerson[25]; 19. 10V-Matt VanderVere[20]; 20. 99-Tyler Brabant[1]; 21. 3BK-Billy Kreutz[22]; 22. 3N-Jake Neuman[19]; 23. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[11]; 24. 51-Scotty Thiel[8]; 25. 2W-Scott Neitzel[24]; 26. GR8-Will Gerrits[32]; 27. 24-Scott Conger[17]; 28. 87A-Austin Hartmann[2]; 29. 16TH-Kevin Newton[14]; 30. 4K-Kris Spitz[7]; 31. 9-Tommy Colburn[13]; 32. (DNF) 70W-Logan Wienke[9]
Article Credit: Madeline "Chatty Madi" Schultz
Submitted By: Madeline Schultz