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The commanding win at Wilmot Raceway was team B-Squared's first of the season, as they work towards securing their third consecutive IRA Championship. Photo by: McKay's Digital Images.
"It feels awesome to finally get our first win of the year. We have been very close on many occasions and we finally put it all together. Hopefully this is the first of many for the year," exclaims Chippawa Falls, Wisconsin racer Bill Balog.
This was the second of five trips to Wilmot Raceway for the B-Squared Motorsports team, and with track conditions less than favorable, Balog still managed to turn the fifth quickest time of the night, despite being the 25th car on the track. He finished his heat in third place.
In the 30-lap feature the number 17B car took the initial green flag from the sixth place starting position. After the top two cars got involved in an incident on lap one, Balog restarted the race from outside of row one this time. On the ensuing restart, Balog battled with the pole sitter for the first lap, but then quickly opened up a sizable lead on the field. By the time the next yellow flag came out on lap 15, Balog had opened up a half track lead on second place. With each ensuing restart, he quickly increased his already sizable lead, and he would easily go on to collect his eighth career IRA feature win, and the first of his 2010 season.
B-Squared Motorsports combines the efforts of driver Bill Balog and crew members Ryan Buesser and Jeff Bonilla, to form a Sprint Car racing team that is truly a force to be reckoned with. The award winning team is based out of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
B-Squared Motorsports has experienced a good deal of success merging careful engineering with an undeniable understanding of racing. A few of B-Squared Motorsports' accolades include, driver Bill Balog being named Bumper-to-Bumper IRA Rookie of the Year, GFRA Rookie of the Year and Champion, and back-to-back IRA Champion 2008-2009. The team competes with the Bumper-to-Bumper IRA Sprint cars fulltime, and with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series at select races. Balog says he is grateful for his continued support from his sponsors such as K&N.
"Our relationship with K&N has been great. We have always gotten everything we wanted plus more. They do a fantastic job with supporting the short tack racers," says Balog.
"We currently use the Sprint Car air boxes, oil filters, filter oil and filter cleaner. We feel these items are the best on the market today."
For the remainder of year the team says they hope to pick up a few more wins before the season draws to a close. States Balog, "We are working on securing our third consecutive IRA Championship with the help of our K&N product."
The biggest race of the year is still ahead of the team, and with their momentum and sponsorship support they are feeling confident.
"Racing is such an up and down sport - some weekends you just get lucky I suppose," remarked Josh McGuire the Grayson, Kentucky native. It's tough to be humble when you rack up win number four and five for the Dirt Late Model season, but McGuire pulled it off. Josh McGuire Racing (JMR) swept their events at both Rocky Top Raceway in Coal Grove, Ohio and at Ohio Valley Speedway near Washington, West Virginia last weekend.
Team JMR swept all their races at both Rocky Top and Ohio Valley in dominate fashion.
At Rocky Top on Friday night, McGuire won his heat race in preliminary action, and later led all forty laps of the main event to score a dominant victory, nabbing the $4000 winner's check. Then on Saturday evening, in a rare trip to the Ohio Valley Speedway, McGuire once again swept the night's races taking home another $3000.
"It was an awesome weekend for our team and everything went just as we had hoped when we left the race shop on Friday morning," said McGuire. "We qualified well both nights and won our heat races, so that obviously put us in a great position when feature time rolled around. I can't thank everyone associated with our race team enough for their support and hopefully we can keep this momentum going.
The team admits that this is the just sort of year they have been experiencing, many peaks and valleys, with this clearly being a crest. Although they have had some very strong performances at many races, they have also been sidelined several times with mysterious mechanical gremlins.
"As a race car driver you always want more wins, I'm not sure you can ever satisfy a driver," laughs McGuire. "I suppose we are very fortunate though to have these wins at this point in the season. Much of our success has to be attributed to the remarkable support of our sponsors, product sponsors such as K&N, our crew, and of course my family - winning is really only possible when all of the pieces of the puzzle are present."
McGuire continues, "Our relationship with K&N is strong, we are so happy to have them as part of our team and to be able to utilize their products. Their oil filters, air filters, cleaners, and other products are always dependable and withstand the test of time in Dirt Late Model racing."
Probably one of the team's biggest events coming up this season is the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin on August 6-7. The Josh McGuire Racing team has secured the U.S. Steel sponsorship (also the title sponsor for the event) for this race and they are very excited to don the U.S. Steel logo as an addition to their many other sponsors.
"This opportunity has been a true blessing and we hope to be able to make this event a successful venture for all parties involved, adds McGuire.
"We hope that our momentum can continue, fortunately our team has a past record of having stronger ends of the seasons than beginnings, so hopefully we are on the right track again. The next several months are packed with many prestigious, big money races and it is always our goal to just make the starting lineup and then set our standards from there. A good attitude - supportive sponsors - and a strong team goes a long way."
Redline Time Attack Super Modified Racer Mike Cronin Jr. discussed his highly modified Nissan 350Z with just under 500 horsepower. Cronin is also president of Fontana Nissan. Quirt Crawford of Crawford Performance also speaks about their Subaru race cars that have been modified for 550 and 600 horsepower.
Redline Time Attack Interviews with Mike Cronin Jr. and Quirt Crawford Video
Martin's Polaris Outlaw 450 MXR has been dialed into near perfection by mechanic Dave Porter and it's powered by a Baldwin Motorsports motor, with suspension expertise from Fox Shox.
Daryl Rath from Hutchinson, Minnesota, has been racing quads and winning for over 24 years, he's become an icon of the sport. Through his dedication and hard work he took a hobby and his passion for racing and built a company around it. Since 1992 Rath Racing has been designing, engineering and manufacturing some of the industries finest high quality components for ATV's and UTV's. The fruits of his labor are plentiful, not only with the success and popularity of his products, but also with his results on the racetrack.
Mechanic Dave Porter says that Martin works very hard at every event and he is perhaps the best rider he has ever worked with.
Casey Martin, aboard his Factory Polaris Rath Outlaw 450 MXR continued his relentless assault so far this year at the AMA ATV Motocross ATV National, at Pleasure Valley, in Armagh, Pennsylvania. Martin earned to two first place motos, winning the Pro Am Production class. The momentum that this team is building is undeniable this season, and with this latest victory by Martin, they find themselves making a little history as well. This was the first AMA Pro Am MX win for the Factory Polaris/Rath Team.
When asked about his stellar performance this weekend Martin stated, "It was awesome to be able to put this Polaris on top, I knew what I had to do this weekend and as the race went on I knew my chances of winning were there and I didn't want to get over excited. I just kept reminding myself to ride smart until the checkers flew. We have done all the right things to this Polaris Outlaw; I know I will finish out the year strong."
Dave Porter who has been Martin's mechanic all season added, "In talking with Daryl Rath I told him I had some really good ideas that would put some more power to the ground, we agreed and it turned out my ideas were spot on. I am excited for
Martin, Polaris, Rath Racing and myself for being able to be part of something like this. Martin works so hard and has always had the best attitude, he is one of the best if not the best rider I have ever worked with."
Rath went on to add, "Casey has continued to get extremely comfortable on the Outlaw. He feels the bike is a contender and the changes we are making now are really just small adjustments to keep him out front."
Rath explains that he started up a relationship with K&N back in 2008, at the same time his team resumed racing for Polaris. "We use quite a few K&N Filters and cleaners in all our race vehicles,from the Polaris Outlaw 450 , the MX and TT , the Polaris Sportsman 850XP, and our RZR's. We also utilize K&N products in all our tow vehicles."
Says Rath, "We are going to continue to focus on both the GNCC Utility Class and the AMA Motocross in Pro Am for 2010. We are excited to add the RZR portion to our program and feel that there should be some good new opportunities there as well."
The big $1500 pay check was all the incentive Mike Faccinto needed to earn his first win of the season.
Team Faccinto from Hanford, California runs two drivers, brothers Michael and Mitchell Faccinto. Mike at age 20 is the oldest and has been racing 11 years. Mitchell at 18 has been racing for nine years. They both race in the very spirited Micro-Sprints class and it comes as no surprise that the two brothers push each other competitively, yet we understand that they never lose sight of the fact that family is always top priority. It's an ideal race environment that fosters going fast, with an accelerated learning curve.
Team Faccinto brothers made it a first and second sweep at the Tachi Nationals Micro-Sprints event at Lemoore Raceway.
Mike has been consistent all year, hovering near the front of the pack, but had yet to make it into victory lane. At the Tachi Nationals, hosted by Tachi Palace and Casino at Lemoore Raceway, with a 1,500 dollars purse on the line, Mike picked the right time to put it all together and win.
Lemoore Raceway is a 1/6 mile dirt oval located near Lemoore, California. The track is specifically designed to be used for micro-sprints, midgets, and other small cars. After managing only one lap of qualifying due to motor issues on the second lap, Mike still qualified sixth. With an extraordinary effort from Team Faccinto and Gordon Seros, the team was able to swap motors in time to make it for Mike's heat.
Mike went on to win his heat which set him up for the eight-lap trophy dash. All the team's hard work paid off as Mike finished second in the trophy dash, which positioned him along the outside front row of the main event. With a 50-lap main event Mike understood that patience would indeed stand to be a virtue. His fortitude was rewarded, as countless yellows waved, the race leader ran out of fuel with only five laps left to go. Mike reaped the advantage from that mistake and led the race to the checked flag. Mitchell, who started sixth in the event, was not far behind making it a Faccinto first and second sweep.
"It feels amazing to get the first win at the biggest race of year," exclaimed Mike. With this win Mike is currently the solid points leader at Lemoore Raceway.
"My win total is now at six" explains Mitchell, "and we're hoping to better the ten races we won last year." Mitchell is the current points leader at Plaza Park Raceway in Visalia, California.
Team Faccinto is making every effort to defend both track titles this year as the competition level is increasingly on the rise. On average 25 to 30 Micro-Sprint cars compete on any given race night at this time.
The Faccinto brothers extend a special thank you to K&N for their continuing support. "We have had a strong four year relationship with K&N, using air filters and oil filters, and they are key to our success."
