IRA Sprint Cars Series

IRA sprint cars
IRA Sprint Cars

The Interstate Racing Association or more commonly known as the IRA sprint cars series is a regional outlaw sprint car sanctioning body.

History of the IRA

The IRA was founded in the middle of 1960, at the time the cars competed on both dirt and pavement tracks. In the middle of the 1970s, the cars were converted to sprint cars and the sprint cars only competed in dirt tracks. Wilmot Speedway was for several years home of Saturday night sprint car racing.

In 1993 the IRA decided to brand more out and choose to compete in several other venues. From there on the IRA became a full-blown regional travelling series with several sponsors. Car counts remained solid and sponsorship increased hugely as Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts & Service Centers came on board as a title sponsor.

Procedures

There are several round and procedures in IRA sprint cars race.

Pill draw:

It’s the driver/teams responsibility to enter at the designated destination before the drivers meeting time. All driver must report to IRA if they have an excuse for coming late. If the team does come late without notify the IRA, then they will be placed last in the qualifying order and only receive 1 practice lap (with penalty).

Drivers meeting:

It’s required for drivers or a member of the team to attend the Drivers meeting before the race.

After the procedures have been done, then the real rounds can begin.

Hot laps round:

Cars must do hot laps in their respective group unless with and IRA officials approval.

Qualifying rounds:

All cars must take a qualifying lap in order of a pill draw.

Heats rounds:

Heats are lined up based on the qualifying rounds time.

Dashes:

In the beginning of 2020, the IRA introduced the dash round.

B-main:

The B-main round consists of all cars which failed to transfer through their heats. The front row consists of the 2 fastest non-transfer cars through qualifying rounds, the next rows are based on fastest time in the heats round.

A-main:

The first 5 rows are lined up based on fastest time in the dashes round. The rest of the field will be the remaining heat transfer cars based on heat finishing position, then by the time per finishing position. B-Main transfers tag the field based on B-Main finish.

Point system IRA

IRA sprints cars
Show up:

If the team show up at time, then they will get awarded 60 points.

The points are different from round to rounds.

Qualifying round:

In the qualifying round, only the top 8 will get awarded points.

First place10 points
2nd  place8 points
3rd  place7 points
4th  place6 points
5th  place5 points
6th  place4 points
7th  place3 points
8th  place2 points
Heats round:

In the heats round the top 4 will get points if they have made 4 transfers

First place15
2nd  place13
3rd  place12
4th  place11
5th  place, if 5 transfer10
6th  place, if 6 transfer9
A-main:

In the A-main round the top 21 will get points

First place65 points
2nd   place60 points
3rd  place56 points
4th  place52 points
5th  place48 points
6th  place45 points
7th place42 points
8th place39 points
9th place36 points
10th place33 points
11th place31 points
12th place29 points
13th place27 points
14th place25 points
15th place23 points
16th place22 points
17th place21 points
18th place20 points
19th place19 points
20th place18 points
21st place17 points
Passing:

1 point will be awarded for each finishing position advanced from starting position in A-main and heat rounds. If you start in 6th place and end up in 2nd position, then you will get awarded 4 points

Big IRA Sprint Cars Drivers

IRA Sprints Cars

There have been several legends among IRA sprint car drivers. In 2012 Bill Balog won 7 consecutive championship and 18 races in 2012 season, which was an outstanding achievement. Mike Reinke and Scotty Neitzel were Bill Balog’s biggest competitor and they were also seen as big legends of the game. In 2015 Bill Balog stepped away from the IRA schedule to pursue other sport and the opportunity was open for other sprint car driver to win. Former USAC and WoO regular Bill Rose won the 2015 championship without winning a single race.

In 2015 several newcomers like Schmidt, Nimee, Thiel, Schultz, Martin, and Mock joined and showed that they belonged in the IRA sprint car series. In 2016, 2 of those newcomers, cemented themselves in IRA history, as Shultz and Thiel battle with IRA sprint cars driver Scotty Neitzel for the championship. The battle went on to the final night and Jeremy Schultz won his first IRA championship.

In 2017 and after the RIA is cleary still in good hands. Young drivers like Thiel, Schulz and Nimee continue to improve and veterans like Balog, Neitzel and Reinke prove that they belong to be known as some of the best IRA sprint cars drivers.

Comments to “IRA sprint cars series”

If you have any comments about ” IRA sprint cars series” then comment them below

If you want to read about “how did covid-19 impact WRC”, then click here.

You might also enjoy