WILMOT, Wis. — Bill Balog captured the 25-lap 410 winged sprint car feature on opening night at Wilmot Raceway.
Balog worked his way to the front using the inside groove, overtaking early race leader Danny Schlafer with eight laps to go. Three laps later, Schlafer and Blake Nimee tangled while battling for third, bringing out the final caution of the main.
Balog went on to the win, while Travis Arenz placed second. Todd Daun, Brenham Crouch and Austin Hartmann completed the top five.
“We had a lot of work between last night and today,” Balog said. “Hopefully this starts us in the right direction and we have some strong momentum going into next weekend here.”
Jimmy Sivia and Clayton Rossmann battled wheel-to-wheel during the closing laps of the non-stop, 20-lap CK Contractors/AutoMeter Wisconsin Wingless Sprints powered by Gandrud feature. Rossmann got Sivia on the final lap as the two came out of turn four side by side for the checkered.
Rossmann edged Sivia by less than half a car length. Early race leader Seth Johnson was third.
Ryan Marshall fourth and Ryan Zielski fifth.
“This is great after we had quite a crash at Lincoln Speedway in Indiana a few weeks ago,” Rossmann said. “Jimmy and I are good friends, and his son Colin, helps me on the car.”
Roman Blank won his first 15-lap Bandit 4-Cylinder Stock Car feature at Wilmot, after running only a few times last season. Blank held off runner-up Scott Ellis and third place Ryan Johnson as the trio were in a tight battle throughout the last half of the main. Dale Ehleiter was fourth and Austin Orth fifth.
“This makes a back-to-back weekend for me and this car as we won at Gravity Park up north on Friday,” Blank said. “This was a fun feature to run with these guys.”
Joel Crowbridge scored his first modified feature win to end a five-year drought at Wilmot. Jason Wirth was second. Steve Mueller, Scott Barnharst and Mike Simons completed the top five.
The race was yellow-checkered due to time limit and rain which was popping up on the radar.
“We decided to come at the last minute because 141 Speedway rained out,” admitted Crowbridge. “I wish we could have run the whole distance, but a win is a win. My 1 and 1/2-year old son wasn’t here, but at least I can bring him home a trophy.”