Spring iDrive Round #2 Has Historic Turnout

12 May Spring iDrive Round #2 Has Historic Turnout

April showers brought record entries to May after a rainout pushed iDrive Round #2 to May 5th. An all-time series high 50 drivers came out to compete under the lights, with 21 Medium competitors forming the largest class field ever in iDrive’s seven years. This comes on the heels of iDrive Round #1, which had just set the entry record at 42 three weeks prior.

Big fields led to exciting races on track. In Light class, 2019 Light champion Aidan RoosEvans swept the top step of the podium, but there was plenty of battling behind him from some strong Shootout contenders. Seth Hanlon followed up a pair of podium finishes in Round #1 with two more in Round #2 – a second and a third. 2020 Medium champion Micah Floretta rounded out the Race #1 podium in third, while Elijah Ward completed the Race #2 podium in second place.

With so many drivers, Medium class was split into two run groups for the evening, following the same format as Round #1. Josh Merklin had commanding performances in both of his races, taking a double win in Medium A and an early lead in the hunt for a Spring championship. iDrive regular Mikey Wagner took home second place for the second week in a row and newcomer Brad Paquet landed himself on the third step in Race #1. Race #2 was the same song, second chorus, with iDrive veteran Dan Davis in second and Mitchell Gill, a new driver to the program, filling out the top three.

Medium B saw another fresh face with two strong finishes – Luke Thompson took the win in Race #1 and second place in Race #2, catapulting him to a narrow second in the Spring season, just three points ahead of Davis. Christian Wiggins, who has been pulling double-duty racing in Light and Medium, found his way to second place in the first race of the evening just ahead of Ignite Series staple Eric Loddeke. Jeremy Franko, who finished just off the podium at the start of the night, came back for a win in Race #2, his first in the iDrive Series. Jeff Kraatz continues to prove that he’ll be just as much of a contender in Medium class this year as he was in Heavy for the past couple of seasons, backing up his win in the first round of the season with a third place finish in Race #2.

Over in Heavy, Race #1 was all about the champions – 2019 iDrive Heavy champion Adam Crepin (first place), 2020 Ignite Heavy champion Craig Loddeke (second) and 2020 iDrive Heavy champion Rick Neal (third) found their way to the podium. In Race #2, current iDrive Heavy frontrunner Matt Zigaitis was the winner, with Dennis Wilburn in second and Craig Loddeke rounding out the top three in the final race of the night.

The full, talented field of rental league drivers are back May 12th for Round #3 of the Spring iDrive season.

Recap by Rose vonHatten