IRA Preps For Saturday Knoxville Show
Thursday, May 12, 2005
McHenry, IL - The Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprint Series prepares for its' annual May journey to the famed Knoxville Raceway, this Saturday night May 14th. IRA was first invited to compete at Knoxville in 1999, and has shared the spotlight on Knoxville's Maytag Night with the highly competitive 410 & 360 sprint divisions which compete at Knoxville weekly.
"IRA has a great relationship with Knoxville, its' staff and its' racers" stated IRA President Steve Sinclair, "it's an honor to to have IRA compete there, it's always tough going up against those guys, especially on their turf but I must praise the IRA guys too as they have supported these dates tremendously over the years and the car count proves it."
Approximately 25 IRA teams are expected to make the trip, combine that with close to the same amount of Knoxville regulars, plus a few more teams that compete semi-regularly with both IRA and Knoxville, and a field of 55 or so 410's can be expected. This event has become one of the toughest tickets to the A-main on the IRA schedule.
Knoxville regular Wayne Johnson picked up a non-points IRA victory at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa back on April 16th, while veteran campaigner Scott Young picked up his first career IRA feature win in impressive fashion at the IRA points opener April 30th at Wisconsin's Dodge Co. Fairgrounds Speedway, topping a 40 car field.
IRA is known for its' large member supported car count per event, the highest of any traveling winged/410 series, mix that in with the Knoxville contingent and you truly have yourself one of the biggest single day fields of the year.
A few IRA teams have made the tow to Knoxville already this season, taking advantage of rare early season IRA off nights to try and get a handle on the legendary raceway. Travis Whitney, Kim Mock, Mike Kertscher, Ty Bartz, Matt Folstad, and Rusty Egan have all run at laps at Knoxville this season, and ofcourse racers like Mike Reinke, and John & Tim Sernett have competed at Knoxville too this year as this trio splits its' time between the Knoxville and IRA schedule.
9-time IRA Champion Joe Roe will make his first trip to Knoxville in over a year as he and fellow IRA champions Scotty Neitzel, John Haeni, and Mock will all be on hand to represent IRA, and there is even a possibility former champ Donny Goeden may make an appearance as well.
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