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IRA Outlaw 410 Sprint Car Driver Bill Balog and B Squared Motorsports

1 sept 2011

Despite a broken rocker arm during the hot laps, Bill Balog recently took the checkered flag in the main event while competing in the Horsepower Half-Mile, at the Dodge County Fairgrounds, in Beaver Dam Wisconsin.

When a basketball player manages to score double figures, pulls down ten or more rebounds and has an excess of nine assists in a game, their performance on that given night is considered a triple-double. Although not competing in the game of basketball, Bill Balog recently experienced what some folks in the racing world could consider as a triple-double as well, as in a time span of two weeks, he went to two different tracks and earned two feature wins.

After two consecutive wins, Bill Balog seems to be on a roll.

Racing on the Bumper To Bumper IRA Outlaw 410 Sprints class, Bill Balog and B Squared Motorsport's first visit was to the ABC Raceway, in Ashland, Wisconsin. Despite a mid-day rain shower, the track was in racing condition when 22 drivers showed up that evening to compete in the event. Turning the 8th quickest qualifying time, the driver lined up fourth in his heat. As soon as the race began, Balog quickly worked his way into the second position and began to pursue the leader. Navigating the wet and narrow track, Balog passed the number one driver in the final lap and never looked back.

"Our confidence level wasn't very high due to the fact that we had hurt both of our engines the week prior," explained the driver. We borrowed an engine for the race at ABC Raceway and really didn't know what to expect. We changed a few things on the car after qualifying, and were able to keep pressure on the leader throughout the race, and eventually passed him for the lead in the final lap."

Bill Balog and B Squared Motorsports recently experienced tweo consecutive wins at two different venues.

With severe weather lurking in the vicinity, the decision was made to push the 25 lap feature trackside and go directly to the main event. From position three, Balog worked his way forward and was in a battle for the lead early on in the race. Soon thereafter, the driver took the first place position and after a yellow flag with only seven laps to go, Balog experienced a flawless restart and was able to overcome all challenges by the second place driver, Scott Biertzer, and ultimately took the checkered flag.

"It was a close race with the second car having a strong run and challenging us for the lead throughout the race," shared Balog. "Then he had a part failure on the last lap, giving us a straightaway advantage on the super-tacky, red clay surface."

Bill Balog and B Squared Motorsports then made a trip to the Dodge County Fairgrounds, in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where they were scheduled to race in the "Horsepower Half-Mile".

As luck would have it, the night didn't start on a positive note, as Balog's Race Gear X/ Weld Racing 17B car broke a rocker arm during the hot laps. Rushing the car back to the pits, the crew went to work and had the car up and running in time for Balog to record the third quickest qualifying time of the night.

Referring to their confidence level after breaking the rocker arm, the driver said, "Once again it was pretty low, but we were able to repair the engine just before qualifying. We drew a late number and were able to keep an eye on the track, and make the right adjustments to compensate for the changing conditions."

Lining up sixth in his heat, the driver managed to work, his way to the second place position and was battling for the lead when power steering fluid began to spew from the engine compartment. To avoid wrecking the car, he backed off and settled for a third place finish. "The car was really good in the heat race before loosing the power steering fluid," explained Balog. "We didn't need to win the heat because of our qualifying time, but when the car is working, it's nice to get the wins. We were happy just to finish the heat."

Starting on the sixth position for the 25-lap main event, Balog worked his way to the front rapidly, and took the lead. Although challenged twice, he eventually pulled away from the other drivers and finished the final five laps with a comfortable lead, taking the win.

Although Bill Balog is the person actually manning their car throughout the races, he is quick to credit the entire Bill Balog and B Squared Motorsports team for his success. "The team is very important," stated Balog. "I depend heavily on them with every aspect of the car, from which tires to run, to making sure the car stays clean throughout the night. I wouldn't be where I am today without the crew I have behind me."

Referring to maintaining the race car, he continued, "We use the K&N air box/filter, their oil filters, air filter oil and cleaner, as well as a K&N filter in the hauler. We have been using these exclusively for the past ten years. They are the best on the market today, and we will continue to use them going into the future."

In closing Bill Balog said, "We would like to thank our sponsors and fans for their support over the years. Without our sponsors, we wouldn't be able to race at the level we do!!"

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

K&N's Jacob Elrod Grabs IHRA Div 3 Super Rod Points Lead After Victory in Clay City

30 ago 2011

With the new K&N scoop in place, Team Elrod's Corvette Roadster is now getting the air it needs and is more consistent than ever.

Lima, Ohio's Jacob Elrod spends many of his weekends, from spring until fall, jumping behind the wheel of several of the Elrod Racing Team's cars, from one of their Top Dragsters to the team's Super Comp/Quick Rod dragster as well as sharing driving duties with his brother Tony in the team's Super Gas/Super Rod Corvette Roadster. It was in the Roadster where the eldest son of 4-Time IHRA World Champion, Dave Elrod acquired his latest victory during day two of the IHRA Summit Pro-Am event at Mountain Park Dragway in Clay City, Kentucky.

Jacob Elrod ponders his next move during IHRA Super Rod Eliminations in Clay City, KY.

Elrod's first divisional event of the weekend on Saturday was certainly no thermometer of what was in store for him the following day. "In the first round on Saturday, I got a seven thou package put on me," he confessed. "I wasn't exactly like a lame duck or anything. I was hitting the tree all weekend, in fact I couldn't keep the car green in time runs and I kept having to throw more time in the box to not go red. So when she went .003 and dead-on with a four, I was like, well that hurt. Then I just got to spend the rest of my day watching everyone else on the team race."

But before the team could wrap up their day on Saturday, they spent quite a lot of time into the wee morning hours changing several converters on one of the other team cars. Elrod points out that they continued to deal with various mechanical gremlins with the team's Quick Rod dragster on Sunday morning and he knew his chances of going rounds in that class were not good.

"Based on how the dragster was acting, I went into first round thinking I probably wasn't going to win in Quick Rod that day, but things were going very well in the Super Rod car," he explained. "I was able to get by first round with a better light and Wade just didn't have his car set up right and went way under the 6.40 index."

Three finals in two days for K&N's Team Elrod Racing, (left to right) Tony, Jacob and Dave.

That would move Elrod on to his second round pairing with Josh Baker. "I had been watching this kid earlier in the weekend and he was just brutal at driving the stripe," noted Jacob. "So when we ran I knew I wasn't going to be cutting this guy any slack. I think during our run, it may have been the only time all weekend that his missed the tree. The car was just running good and I was going dead-on that run."

Baker opened a two hundredths window of opportunity for Elrod right off the line when he only managed a .041 light to Elrod's .021 which easily allowed him to dump and push Baker under the index.

"The car and I were gelling together and at the same time," he said. "The car was making dead-on runs every round and it's nice to know you can trust what you've dialed [in the throttle stop]."

Elrod's dominance continued into the semifinals where he was paired up with Arlie Boggs. Elrod used a .013 advantage at the tree to push Boggs .008 under the index ET, all while staying safe with his 6.415 and on the final where he would meet up with David Moore.

"We had a joke in the semi's and I kinda owed him one," Elrod laughed as he explained about his final round competitor. "I had pulled up next to David and he had asked who was left. I said Texas [Arlie Boggs] and Vernon [Rowland] and he said well you take Texas and I'll take Vernon and I told him, heck with that. I ran Texas yesterday and he put a seven thou package on me. Well, that's the way the cards ended up being drawn so I had to run Texas again."

"I had run Moore earlier this year at Pittsburgh and knew what his lights were like there," he continued. "I told him before our final that he had let the cat out of the bag and I knew he was hitting the tree now. I said I'm not setting up for any worse than a twenty on you now. He laughed and told me that he had just had a .141 light and that I could go ahead and pad the box back up again. I laughed back at him and said that no, we won't be doing that."

Elrod and Moore were nearly dead even on their launch, with only one thousandth of a second between them and the advantage was Elrod's all the way. Elrod let Moore have the stripe and stayed safe with a 6.407 for the Super Rod victory.

"It was definitely a confidence booster as we head into Indy," Elrod said of his win. "Here lately, it has just been brutal. Between now and then we have a couple of things that we just want to tweak on the cars before we get to the U.S. Nationals."

"We have made some improvements to our cars this year and some of the biggest ones have been the addition of the K&N carbon scoops that include the high flowing K&N filters," he said. "Just in this car, I can see a big difference in the consistency in the airflow compared to the scoop that we had on it. This car has improved and we are even seeing more horsepower output thanks to what the K&N scoop provides."

"Plus we are using the K&N wrench-off oil filters on every one of our cars now," he continued. "You know sometimes we just want to pull a filter off to check or we need to take it off to get to something else, like the converter changing we were doing on the one dragster this weekend. Well, with other non-K&N filters that we used to use, we had a big problem with them collapsing when you would try to take them off. By using the K&N oil filters, we haven't had one problem with anything like that. That kind of thing is very reassuring."

Elrod also mentioned how important racing with his family is, in times of good and bad. "You know, we just all pitch in and help one another with whatever needs to be done," he said. "With my brother, Tony, in the Top Dragster final on Saturday night plus Dad and I both in our respective finals on Sunday, we were hopping as usual all weekend. I want to say a special thank you to my sister Jamie, who was a just tremendous help all weekend."

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Dave & Tony Elrod Double Top Dragster Final Weekend at Mountain Park IHRA Division Event

30 ago 2011

Dave Elrod points out that the new K&N 2nd Gen Dragster Scoops helped their cars gain ET and MPH, including his Top Dragster.

With a long family history of drag racing successes, it should come to no surprise that Dave Elrod and his son Tony each took their respective Top Dragsters to the final round during the final IHRA Summit Pro-Am events of the 2011 season at Mountain Park Dragway in Clay City, Kentucky.

Tony Elrod launches his Top Dragster during day number one of the IHRA Div 3 event at Mountain Park Dragway.

Harrod, Ohio resident, Tony Elrod made his way to the Top Dragster final during the Saturday division race with his 2008 Adkins dragster loaded up with a 632 big block Chevy.

"I first want to say what a difference we have seen in all our team cars this year with the addition of the K&N scoops," he pointed out. "It is just amazing the amount of air that the motors are being fed now. We all run big motors and it's important to get as much fresh air in as you can. Our cars have picked up not only ET but also mile-per-hour."

"I was really happy with my group of lights," Tony said of his string of great reaction times in eliminations. "And I didn't take more than a hundredth of the stripe all weekend."

Tony took care of business in round one and by his round two win over Chris Moore, he had his car right where he wanted it. Thanks to having the best reaction time of the round, Tony earned the bye in the quarterfinals and took an easy stroll down the track to save it for the semifinal round.

"My car was just great all day," he commented. "From time runs to eliminations, the car only varied six thousandths of a second in my sixty foot times. I pretty much kept it dialed on a 4.75, except for one round. For the semifinals, that made it a heads up run against Todd Stredling. I knew as long as I had a fifteen or better light, I could get in on him and take the win."

Tony did take the starting line advantage and with his dead-on 4.753 ET, he took the stripe by .009 and on to his family's first final of the double IHRA weekend.

When so many races are won and lost by just mere thousandths of a second, Tony missed having a perfect light in the final by literally less than a blink of an eye with his .003 red.

Elrod Racing was far from done for the weekend. With a stable of five team cars, team leader and multi-time IHRA World Champion, Dave Elrod did his own nice piece of driving during the second divisional event of the weekend on Sunday.

Like son Tony, Dave was also entered for the weekend's events in Top Dragster and behind the wheel of his 2006 American Race Cars dragster also equipped with a 632 big block Chevy, plowed his way to the final on day two.

Dave was also quick to point out how pleased he is with the addition of K&N products to their team cars this season, "well despite whatever rumors there are about the scoops slowing the cars down, it couldn't be further from the truth. All of our cars picked up quite a bit after adding the K&N scoops with the air filters. One car picked up as much as five mile-per-hour. It's like they not only get more air into the motors, but they also seem to distribute the air more evenly and the cars all seem to be a little more consistent even."

Dave also put together a string of great lights during his trek to the Top Dragster final on Sunday. In round one, his .004 starting line advantage parlayed into a squeaker at the stripe over David Barr and a .002 margin between the two crossing the finish line or only five inches.

He continued to have extremely close races right into round two, where his years of experience carried him into the semi's after a double breakout when he forced Travis Nelson to go under his dial by just one thousandth of a second more.

Dave used his huge .031 starting line advantage in the semifinal round to easily skate by Jonathan Barr and into his team's now third final of the weekend. Son Jacob Elrod was also having a good race day and was off to his own final in the team's Corvette Roadster over in Super Rod.

Just as so many of the rounds before, the final proved to be another tight one at the finish line. While Dave was .006 on the tree, he was already .004 behind and with a .008 margin at the finish line, garnered the Top Dragster Runner up honors for race two of the weekend.

"It was a tough day and it was hot," he noted. "We just couldn't do what we do without the entire family. You have to have crew with just one or two cars, but to run five like we do you have to have help. Basically the family is the crew. Not only Tony and Jacob, but even Jamie. She was running herself ragged over the weekend just trying to keep up with everything that needed to be done."

"Being with them is why I still race," he admitted. "Seeing both Jacob and Tony do well is great and I really enjoy helping them, I enjoy seeing them win as much as winning myself and I guess I would rather see them win than myself even."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

K&N Sponsored Adam Ellis Scores Second Place at Miramont de Guyenne

29 ago 2011

The 4000 strong crowd was thoroughly impressed with the teenager's display of skill and afterward he had a lot of autographs to sign.

For Adam Ellis, the 15-year-old, K&N sponsored, French Speedway racing hot-gun, 2011 continues to be the kind of season that reconfirms current ambitions and redefines future dreams. In the last round of the French Speedway Championship at Miramont de Guyenne, Ellis competed on his 250cc motorcycle in the 500cc Open class, and pulled off an inspiring second overall finish, beating 17 other 500cc riders in the process.

"I had a great meeting at Miramont de Guyenne, France on Sunday night, when I rode my 250cc in the 500cc Open category," said Ellis. "My original aim was just to make the final, as I was up against some good riders and had the disadvantage of only half the engine power.

Ellis was also the only 250cc rider invited to participate in a grass track demonstration at the MTV Festival at Valleiles on the 23rd and 24th of July.

I thought the meeting would just be good experience for me, but I ended up doing much better than I'd ever imagined."

In his first heat Ellis finished second behind eventual winner Richard De Biasi, and beat the favorite, Kevin Salanova. In his second heat, Ellis missed the start, but worked his way up through the field to finish second once again. In his third and final heat, Ellis beat local rider, Guillaume Comblon, to take the win.

After qualifying in third place for the final, Ellis upgraded his game plan slightly, and decided to aim for a podium place.

The 2011 Speedway season is clearly the best year the younger racer has had, with his second place finish at Miramont de Guyenne, Ellis now holds a commanding points lead in the championship (Ellis on right).

"In the final I made a good start out of gate three to finish the meeting in second place," Ellis said. "It was a great night of racing and I really enjoyed myself."

Two days after his impressive race at Miramont de Guyenne, Ellis got a call from Phil Morris, ex- Speedway rider for Belle Vue Aces in the United Kingdom.

"He had heard how well I rode at Miramont and wanted to invite me to ride in the 250cc support class at his Testimonial meeting at the Birmingham Speedway track in Perry Barr, United Kingdom on September 1st 2011," Ellis explained. "I can't wait, as in the main class there are riders that I admire like Jason Crump, Tai Woffinden, Chris Harris, Lee Richardson, Lewis Bridger and Rory Schlein. It will be great just to be in the same pits as those guys."

The K&N sponsored rider currently leads the 250cc class of the French Speedway Championships.

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

K&N's Gary Stinnett Racks Up Another Super Comp Wally in Brainerd

29 ago 2011

Reigning national champion Gary Stinnett gets Super Comp victory.

Proving to be one of Gary Stinnett's favorite stops on the NHRA tour, Brainerd International Raceway played host to the latest Super Comp victory for the reigning national champion. Stinnett drove his K&N Undercover dragster to the win for the fourth time during the 30th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minnesota.

The Emporia, Kansas engine builder put together seven winning rounds over the course of the three day event, in which once he made it to second round, he would remain on quite the roll all the way into the championship round on Sunday afternoon.

NHRA Super Comp Racer Gary Stinnett at Brainerd International Raceway

In his second round, Stinnett would line up against South Dakota's Dustin Long. Long would miss the tree and give Stinnett not only a huge .025 advantage, but also not be able to run anywhere near the 8.900 index. Stinnett was able to take full advantage of both ends of the track and easily parlay that into a safe 8.975 win and on to round three.

If one thought Stinnett's reaction time was good in round two, he would continue to tighten it up for his third round pairing with Craig Clark, who just didn't seem to have a handle on the tree. Stinnett's .008 to Clark's .046 was more than enough window of opportunity for Stinnett to push Clark under the index and on to round four.

The remaining Super Comp rounds, for the 30th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, would be held on Sunday, and even though there may have been a night in-between, Stinnett did anything but cool off.

The air and track conditions on Sunday morning proved to be even better than the last time that the Super Comp class went down the track, with the only entry not running under the index during fourth round being K&N's Don O'Neal. O'Neal enjoyed his earned bye run and made a very soft pass, saving parts and of course, not showing his hand, while all other remaining competitors battled it out for their shot into the quarter-finals.

Stinnett was able to take full advantage of both ends of the track and easily parlay that into a safe 8.975 win and on to round three.

Stinnett, like his other competitors, had Saturday evening to study his next round match up and while he didn't have the better reaction time this round, he certainly had read the track and air conditions better than that of Tom Nygaard. Both competitors running under the index, but Stinnett closer to the 8.90 dial with his 8.888 compared to Nygaard's 8.867.

That was a very important round win for Stinnett and by doing so earned himself a bye into semi-final, where he would meet up with fellow K&N racer, Don O'Neal. At this point in the game, neither driver took the other lightly and both had their best reaction times of the event. O'Neal with a very nice .006 and Stinnett with a near perfect .001, it was a close race between the pair from wire-to-wire. Stinnett dropped O'Neal hard at the stripe and came out on top when O'Neal broke out by a mere two-thousandths of a second.

Stinnett was now off to the final round to face Rodney Thompson.

Not wanting to go red in the final, Stinnett tweaked his starting line approach and backed off his reaction time, as did his competitor, Thompson. Nearly dead even at the hit, the pair each made their quick decisions as they headed to the stripe, where once again it was the reigning Super Comp Champion, Stinnett prevailing in the double breakout.

The round was about as tough as they come and goes to show why NHRA Super Comp is one of the toughest classes in drag racing. The margin of victory at the stripe was a minuscule one thousandth of second or one seventh the time it just took you to blink.

Gary Stinnett, a long time K&N product user from oil filters and air filters to the new K&N composite scoops, was now a twenty-two time NHRA National Event winner. Many of the wins coming in other NHRA classes, but this win during the 30th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals made his twelfth in Super Comp and his fourth at Brainerd International Raceway.

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

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