Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

August 26 with a TBA the night before.  My guess would be Jacksonville

Has the IRA ever scheduled that far south?

I am not sure but they arent worth watching from across the street anymore. No big name travelers stop in anymore and the rest of the field is weak at best. Sad to see  where it is now from a talent standpoint from 10 years ago. I am in Illinois and wont wven drive to Wilmot to watch unless the Outlaws are there. 

Most of the IRA shows I watched on flo this year had good car counts and great racing. If they were local to me, I'd happily attend as many shows as I could. You don't need big names and high dollar corporate cars to have great racing. The IRA/NOSA showdown at River Cities was the best 410 race I saw anywhere this past year. It would be a very boring sport if there was no local 410 racing, only the WOO. 

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Idk if it's for points or not but IRA needs to be careful. Saw a few drivers upset with the long drive on Twitter. I don't think this is what the IRA best serves for their local blue collar teams looking for races near home. 

Also, not having big names doesn't mean the racing will be bad. The car counts are decent and the racing is sometimes still amazing. 

I think the mistake regional sanctions make is trying to  expand out instead of growing within and growing your driver's.

It's one weekend, the vast majority of the schedule is still in Wisconsin. Plus it's another sprint car race at a top 5 place to watch sprint cars. In the same theme as the thread on people complaining about the Million race, people will bitch about anything. 

Come on dsc1600 you know exactly what the IRA is/consists of as far as teams go. I get it ppl complain a lot and I'm no exception but looking at the tentative schedule we are talking about 9, maybe 10 races outside of WI out of 33 total races. It grows each year. Out of the top 20 in points 14 are from Wisconsin and 6 from Northern Illinois. So maybe the Iowa and Illinois shows aren't too bad but they are still drives for most these guys that probably work every Friday and would have to take off work. It adds up. We can call my comment a complaint but really it's just a suggestion for longevity of a series that I care about more than the average Joe. I get it though no one important cares or reads Hoseheads.

To answer your original question, yes the IRA has raced that far south but it was almost 30 years ago. The IRA had a show just up the road from Pevely in Granite City IL:  9/16/1994. Craig Dollansky, who was driving the Jensen Construction #55, won an IRA show Tri-City Speedway,  That was back when Granite was a big flat half mile. The IRA was paired with the MARA midgets. Tony Stewart won the midget feature.

Don't you think the car owners support that trip? 

Within hearing distance of Tri City Speedway

I'm guessing half these guys own their own car/team so I suppose 50/50 support?

Thanks Moon Dog

hope it works out positively for the owner/drivers

what a terrible outlook on that series and its drivers

the top five in points from last year are all good drivers, from there, there are a number of other drivers that will be in contention for a win on any given night, are there a lot of high dollar drivers? not exactly but the pairity of the ira is a lot better than most regional series across the nation, they also put on one of the best 410 sprint car races last year at river cities too, so to say that just because no "big name travelers" may be there is a sad excuse to miss out on a local sprint car race

Just a thought about the field of cars for this Pevely event – I don’t know for sure but this IRA show at Pevely might be co-sanctioned with MOWA.  The IRA has been co-sanctioning shows with MOWA lately when they go to Burlington and Fairbury.  Again, I don’t know for sure if this will be the case for Pevely.   If it is a co-sanction, they’ll get a good field of cars.  Most likely 30.  And if Farmington isn’t running sprints that night, I’d look for 35-40.  I think this has the potential to be a really, really good show.

I think it's a great looking schedule. They paired back thier traveling for a few years but seem to be branching out again the last couple by heading to Grand Forks and now Pevely this year. Obviously trying to stretch out a little more I think is a good thing. They used to go to Attica years ago. And as far as drivers go, they are rebounding nicely with some fast runners now. Goldsberry, Blackhurst, Schlafer, Schuett and the never aging Scott Neitzel. Not to mention a couple stout rookies this past year with Hartmann and Nueman. The occasional drop in by Nimee, Thiel and Josh Schniderman helps too. Most of them might not keep up with the WoO or even the All Stars, but they are a great group of drivers that seemingly get along and have fun, good for them. It sure beats watching Bill Balog win over half the races, I'll tell you that and good for him to step up and try the All Star thing again. I think I can hit 6-8 IRA races this year and looking forward to it.

The IRA has been around for a very long time, and they will be around for many years to come.  Car counts fluctuate over the years, but the core tracks, core teams, and series leadership are all very strong.  They're the most affordable 410 series to go attend a race in person, and the competition on most nights is great.  The guy calling the shots for this series hasn't won promoter of the year awards multiple times for making bad decisions.  I drive several hours to catch IRA shows each summer, and I'm happy to do it.