By Jeff Bonilla, speedwaygraphicscompany.com photo
9/1/10 – Bill Balog took his B Squared Motorsports team back to the Oshkosh Speedzone this past Friday for the 2nd round of the Budweiser Triple Crown. The night started off will Bill turning a lap of 12.759 sec. in qualifying which turned out to be the 6th fastest out of the 28 cars present. He took the green flag in heat race #3 from 5th place; he would need a top 5 finish to move on to the feature event. With the track still being very wet & narrow, passing was very hard to accomplish in the heats. After falling to 6th at the start, Bill spent the rest of the race playing catch up & would end up finishing in the 6th place, which put him in the B-main. He took the green from 3rd place & quickly fell in line. With the track finally widening out during the B, Bill managed to work his way to a 2nd place in the B, which was good enough to transfer to the feature. He started the feature from the 12 place & was hoping to bring some a solid top 5 finish. After getting a good start, he began methodically working his way towards the front. With the help of a few cautions, Bill had worked his way in to the top 5 by the midway point of the race. With 19 laps in the books, Bill worked his way up to 2nd & another caution on that lap, gave him the break he needed. On the ensuing restart, Bill ducked under the race leader in turn 2 & would go on to open a sizeable lead over the last 5 laps. For the 5th time so far this year & 3rd IRA race in a row, Bill would go on to claim the victory over the rest of the field.
Next up on the weekend, was the Wilmot Raceway for the rescheduled Roger Iiles Memorial. Bill started the night of by picking up fast time over the 33 cars present with a lap time of 13.833 seconds. By virtue of the quick time, Bill started 6th in heat race #1. A top 4 finish was needed to transfer to the main. He quickly moved inside the top 4 at the start, but Bill wasn’t completely satisfied with just a top 4 finish, as he continued to work his way forward & would eventually go on to take the lead & the win in the 10 lap event. A 4 pill was drawn for the feature inversion, which meant Bill would take the green from the 8th position in the 36 lap feature. With the track beginning to look like the week prior, the team began to make some fine tune adjustments, with hopes of another solid finish. Once the green flag was in the air, Bill got to work & began to work his way forward towards the top 5. With the track beginning to slick off more than the team expected, Bill had to adapt & hold on for the remainder of the race. He would battle with in the top 5 over the course of the race & by the time the checkered flew, Bill brought home a solid 5th place finish. With that 5th place finish, Bill & the team now have 17 straight top 5 finishes with the IRA; they also hold a 166 point lead in the season standings.
This weekend the Outerwears Racing Product / Rod End Supply 17B will be in action at the Dodge County Fairgrounds in Beaver Dam, WI on Friday September 3rd for the 4th Annual Stan Fox Memorial.
To keep up on all the latest news regarding the team, be sure to visit the all new team website at www.b2motorsports.com. You can also become a fan of B Squared Motorsports on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bsquaredmotorsports
Sponsorship for the 2010 season comes from the following companies: Buesser Concrete, Hoeft Builders, Hepfner Racing Products & HRP Wings, DMI Race Products, XYZ Machine, Allstar Performance, K&N Engineering, Astro Titanium, Super Shox, BLZ, Rod End Supply, B Squared Visual Solutions, Weld Racing, Outerwears Inc, Race Gear X, Rhey Graphics, Gaerte Engines, Competition Driveline, Ringers Gloves, Plank Enterprises, and Buzz Signs & Graphics.