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Nienhiser Ends 8-Year IRA Drought, Outruns Miller & Schuett at Sycamore

With a stiff breeze sweeping the race track off of nearby Lake Michigan, the Sycamore Speedway fans braved the chilly evening temperatures and were rewarded with an action-packed race night on a tricky track surface.

The early portions of the night were highlighted by drivers trying different lines all over the Maple Park, IL bullring in hot laps and qualifying to try and find speed. The Box3 Media Hot Lap Award went to Joe B. Miller and in Carbon Safety Technologies Qualifying, Auckland, NZ’s Max Guilford took his first career Hi Plains Building Division QuickTime Award with a 13.239 second lap.

Fox Lake Harbor presents All Star Performance Heat #1 saw Fort Collins, CO driver Scotty Milan take his driver coach to school, grabbing the win ahead of Millersville, MO’s Joe B. Miller. Game Day Men’s Health presents Behling Racing Equipment Heat #2 went to Terre Haute, IN’s Bryce Norris, Jake Blackhurst took the win in BodyCraft of Antioch presents Engler Machine & Tool Heat #3, while the final heat race of the night presented by BR Motorsports & King Racing Products was won by Chapin, IL’s Paul Nienhiser.

The Horizon Whiskey Dash Redraw pole positions went to Nienhiser (Dash #1) and Guilford (Dash #2).

Both Optimum Electric Dash #1 and Kristine Hartmann-Pleasant View Realty Dash #2 were hotly contested with track position at a premium. Dash #1 went to Nienhiser earning the Cam2 Blue Blood #9X the pole for the 30 lap A Main, while Dash #2 saw drama between Max Guilford and Oconomowoc, WI driver Logan Julien, sending the latter spinning back to 5th while Jake Blackhurst took the win and earned the 2nd place starting spot for the Feature event.

The Behling Racing Equipment B Feature was one of the highlights of the night. While Sussex, WI driver Danny Schlafer ran away at the front, an intense battle commenced for the four transfer spots. Young Elijah Gile of Phoenix, AZ piloting the Landon Simon Racing #24G impressed charging from 5th to 2nd on the top side of the Sycamore Speedway, while Waupun, WI’s Tyler Brabant also put in a stout effort from 8th to 3rd at the finish. Honest Abe Roofing Rookie of the Year contender Alex Pokorski of West Bend, WI rounded out the transfer positions.

The 30 Lap Bumper to Bumper Feature Event commenced with Nienhiser, Blackhurst and Miller waging a hellacious battle for the top spot. All three drivers used both lanes of the Sycamore Speedway to take turns running in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. While the top 3 battled, Kyle Schuett of Philo, IL quickly closed in on the top 3 until the first Honest Abe Roofing Caution Flag of the race flew for the #25T of Travis Arenz slowing in turn 4 and collecting Springfield, IL’s Jordan Goldesberry. Goldesberry retired to the infield with a broken right-rear torsion arm while Arenz was able to make repairs in the Honest Abe Roofing Work Area and rejoin at the tail of the field.

When the race resumed with 26 laps remaining, Nienhiser jumped to the lead while Blackhurst slid up in front of Miller for 2nd and opened up the bottom lane for Schuett and the #9K powered to the runner-up spot. This began a 10-15 lap battle between Schuett and Blackhurst for the final podium spots while Nienhiser ran away to a 4.1 second lead at the front of the field. The #9X finally entered lap traffic on lap 13 with a rubber lane quickly building on the bottom side of the Sycamore Speedway. Nienhiser was running the top lane and struggled to clear slower traffic on the bottom and this allowed Schuett and Blackhurst to take massive chunks out of the 3x Midwest Open Wheel Association Champion’s lead.

With 11 laps to go, Schuett closed right to the rear bumper of Nienhiser and tried to pressure the #9X into a mistake, and with 10 laps to go, Nienhiser momentarily opened the bottom lane but Schuett was unable to capitalize. On lap 22, the #9X made a crucial move in traffic passing 4 cars in the span of a lap and a half while Schuett was stuck behind the slower traffic behind him. With 5 circuits to go, Miller closed back in on Blackhurst and eventually cleared the #96 and nearly brought the #B8 of Sherman, IL’s John Barnard and the #85J of Julien with him in the top 5 positions. Out front, Nienhiser appeared to be on cruise control for the win but the Honest Abe Roofing Caution Flag would fly with just 2 laps to go for the spinning #10V of Matt Vandervere.

On the Green-White-Checkered restart, Nienhiser protected the bottom while Miller sent a “Hail Mary” move on the top side of turns 1 and 2 and used the momentum to clear Schuett for 2nd into turn 3. As the white flag flew, Nienhiser locked the #9X to the bottom of the speedway and crossed under the twin checkers to secure his first IRA feature win since 2017 at 34 Raceway. Miller and Schuett finished a close 2nd and 3rd, while Blachurst, Barnard, Julien, Milan, Blake Nimee, Clayton Rossmann and last year’s Sycamore winner Jake Neuman rounded out the Top 10 runners.

“It’s been a long time since I won an IRA race.” Nienhiser said in Real American Beer Victory Lane. “I just told myself to be patient in traffic. I’ve lost more races [in rubber] than I’ve won. I’ve learned how to lose these types of races so it’s great to finally win one, especially here in Illinois. This Schnee-Lawson Chassis has been on rails since we brought it out and it was on rails all night long thanks to my guys.”

The RT’s Fifth Quarter Hard Charger award went to Rossmann, passing 8 cars en route to his first career top 10 finish with the IRA. The Honest Abe Roofing Rookie of the Race was secured by Guilford in the Greg Wheeler Motorsports #16C with an 11th place finish.

The Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprints now head into one of their busiest weekends of the year with a triple-header of races in central Wisconsin. Friday, May 16th the series makes a stop at the “Horsepower Half-Mile” at the Dodge County Fairgrounds in Beaver Dam, WI for the annual Harry Neitzel Tribute. On Saturday the Best of the Upper Midwest will head East on Highway 23 to the always exciting Plymouth Dirt Track and the weekend will conclude on Sunday at the historic Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, WI for the track’s season opener and the Dahlke Memorial. Tickets for these events will be available at the track on race day, and all 2025 IRA events are broadcast live on FloRacing.

HW Designs Photo

A Feature 30 Laps | 00:15:18.750

1. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[1]; 2. 51B-Joe B Miller[4]; 3. 9K-Kyle Schuett[8]; 4. 96-Jake Blackhurst[2]; 5. B8-John Barnard[9]; 6. 85J-Logan Julien[10]; 7. 97-Scotty Milan[7]; 8. 79-Blake Nimee[14]; 9. 09-Clayton Rossmann[17]; 10. 3N-Jake Neuman[16]; 11. 16C-Max Guilford[6]; 12. 37-Bryce Norris[3]; 13. 21H-TJ Haddy[18]; 14. 4D-Cruz Dickerson[20]; 15. 12-Corbin Gurley[5]; 16. 25T-Travis Arenz[12]; 17. 10V-Matt VanderVere[15]; 18. 4-Alex Pokorski[24]; 19. 25-Danny Schlafer[21]; 20. 24G-Elijah Gile[22]; 21. 4K-Kris Spitz[13]; 22. GR8-Will Gerrits[19]; 23. 99-Tyler Brabant[23]; 24. (DNF) 65-Jordan Goldesberry[11]

B Feature 10 Laps | 00:06:53.971

1. 25-Danny Schlafer[1]; 2. 24G-Elijah Gile[5]; 3. 99-Tyler Brabant[8]; 4. 4-Alex Pokorski[2]; 5. 87A-Austin Hartmann[9]; 6. 9-Tommy Colburn[4]; 7. 43-Jereme Schroeder[7]; 8. 24-Scott Conger[6]; 9. 122-Lane Warner[10]; 10. 56X-Mark Chisholm[12]; 11. 19K-Kenton Pope[11]; 12. 2W-Scott Neitzel[3]

Dash 1 4 Laps | 00:01:04.364

1. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[2]; 2. 37-Bryce Norris[1]; 3. 12-Corbin Gurley[3]; 4. 97-Scotty Milan[4]; 5. B8-John Barnard[5]

Dash 2 4 Laps | 00:02:17.100

1. 96-Jake Blackhurst[2]; 2. 51B-Joe B Miller[4]; 3. 16C-Max Guilford[1]; 4. 9K-Kyle Schuett[5]; 5. 85J-Logan Julien[3]

Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:02:41.073

1. 97-Scotty Milan[1]; 2. 51B-Joe B Miller[3]; 3. 16C-Max Guilford[4]; 4. 10V-Matt VanderVere[5]; 5. 4D-Cruz Dickerson[8]; 6. 2W-Scott Neitzel[6]; 7. 87A-Austin Hartmann[7]; 8. 4-Alex Pokorski[2]

Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:03:47.542

1. 37-Bryce Norris[2]; 2. B8-John Barnard[4]; 3. 85J-Logan Julien[3]; 4. 3N-Jake Neuman[5]; 5. GR8-Will Gerrits[7]; 6. 24-Scott Conger[8]; 7. 43-Jereme Schroeder[1]; 8. 122-Lane Warner[6]

Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:02:06.855

1. 96-Jake Blackhurst[1]; 2. 25T-Travis Arenz[2]; 3. 79-Blake Nimee[6]; 4. 12-Corbin Gurley[3]; 5. 21H-TJ Haddy[5]; 6. 9-Tommy Colburn[7]; 7. 25-Danny Schlafer[4]; 8. 19K-Kenton Pope[8]

Heat 4 8 Laps | 00:06:33.382

1. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[2]; 2. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[3]; 3. 4K-Kris Spitz[1]; 4. 09-Clayton Rossmann[6]; 5. 9K-Kyle Schuett[4]; 6. 24G-Elijah Gile[7]; 7. 99-Tyler Brabant[5]; 8. 56X-Mark Chisholm[8]

Qualifying | 00:11:57.459

1. 16C-Max Guilford, 00:13.239[2]; 2. B8-John Barnard, 00:13.505[7]; 3. 25-Danny Schlafer, 00:13.545[3]; 4. 9K-Kyle Schuett, 00:13.569[6]; 5. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:13.595[13]; 6. 85J-Logan Julien, 00:13.642[12]; 7. 12-Corbin Gurley, 00:13.740[11]; 8. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, 00:13.753[5]; 9. 4-Alex Pokorski, 00:13.776[8]; 10. 37-Bryce Norris, 00:13.840[10]; 11. 25T-Travis Arenz, 00:13.965[20]; 12. 9X-Paul Nienhiser, 00:13.992[1]; 13. 97-Scotty Milan, 00:14.035[16]; 14. 43-Jereme Schroeder, 00:14.203[4]; 15. 96-Jake Blackhurst, 00:14.293[23]; 16. 4K-Kris Spitz, 00:14.338[22]; 17. 10V-Matt VanderVere, 00:14.340[17]; 18. 3N-Jake Neuman, 00:14.363[26]; 19. 21H-TJ Haddy, 00:14.452[9]; 20. 99-Tyler Brabant, 00:14.566[14]; 21. 2W-Scott Neitzel, 00:14.611[31]; 22. 122-Lane Warner, 00:14.926[25]; 23. 79-Blake Nimee, 00:14.949[32]; 24. 09-Clayton Rossmann, 00:15.089[18]; 25. 87A-Austin Hartmann, 00:15.131[30]; 26. GR8-Will Gerrits, 00:15.360[24]; 27. 9-Tommy Colburn, 00:15.474[15]; 28. 24G-Elijah Gile, 00:15.476[28]; 29. 4D-Cruz Dickerson, 00:15.616[19]; 30. 24-Scott Conger, 00:15.625[29]; 31. 19K-Kenton Pope, 00:15.938[21]; 32. 56X-Mark Chisholm, 00:16.109[27]

Hot Laps | 00:15:31.689

1. 51B-Joe B Miller[13]; 2. 37-Bryce Norris[10]; 3. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[1]; 4. 16C-Max Guilford[2]; 5. 9K-Kyle Schuett[6]; 6. 96-Jake Blackhurst[23]; 7. 97-Scotty Milan[16]; 8. 12-Corbin Gurley[11]; 9. 25T-Travis Arenz[20]; 10. 25-Danny Schlafer[3]; 11. 4D-Cruz Dickerson[19]; 12. B8-John Barnard[7]; 13. 10V-Matt VanderVere[17]; 14. 21H-TJ Haddy[9]; 15. 79-Blake Nimee[32]; 16. 85J-Logan Julien[12]; 17. 9-Tommy Colburn[15]; 18. 3N-Jake Neuman[26]; 19. 2W-Scott Neitzel[31]; 20. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[5]; 21. GR8-Will Gerrits[24]; 22. 4K-Kris Spitz[22]; 23. 56X-Mark Chisholm[27]; 24. 43-Jereme Schroeder[4]; 25. 99-Tyler Brabant[14]; 26. 24G-Elijah Gile[28]; 27. 09-Clayton Rossmann[18]; 28. 122-Lane Warner[25]; 29. 87A-Austin Hartmann[30]; 30. 19K-Kenton Pope[21]; 31. 24-Scott Conger[29]; 32. (DNS) 4-Alex Pokorski

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