By Greg Soukup
An earlier threat of rain never materialized, so the large crowd that showed up for Dad’s Rock ‘N Roll Classic, presented by Pepsi and Hormel at Eagle Raceway Saturday saw a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the mid-80’s at race time.
The only serious incident of the night occurred during hot laps for the Duros Dent Works Racesaver IMCA Sprint Cars. The #47 of Cody Ledger got up and over in turns 3 and 4. He was not seriously injured and returned in the B Feature, only to be caught in a pile-up that ended his night.
The last race of the evening was for the Duros Dent Repair Racesaver IMCA Sprint Cars. Tim Hilfiker spun the #20 to the infield on the start, slowing the racing before it could get started. The first official lap saw Mark Vanderheiden’s 15V, the 5JR of Chad Koch, Mike Boston’s 51 and the 14G of Gene Ackland out front. Boston passed Koch for second on lap 2 and then moved to the lead the following circuit as Trevor Grossenbacher put the 95 into fourth. Grossenbacher advanced to third the next lap and took over second on lap 7. Ackland passed Koch for third the following circuit. Koch then began his move, taking third back the next lap and moving to second after another circuit. Boston was pounding the cushion and
Koch was hugging the bottom. Koch kept hounding Boston and finally got past him with 10 to go. Joey Danley cracked the top 4 with 6 laps left and moved to second 3 laps later. The final top 4 were Koch, Danley, Boston and Grossenbacher.
Koch had just recently moved to Nebraska from Texas and I kidded him that he had moved here just to take home some Nebraska money. He replied “No; I decided to get out of Texas because there’s a lot more winged sprint car racing going on up here. I’ve always called the guys from Pennsylvania ‘Porch Sitters’ and I wanted to be one. I wanted to be able to come to the IMCA Sprint Car Racesaver Nationals and be a top 10 car. I wanted to have a better shot at it. I have known Kevin Ramey and raced against him forever. He came up here last year and cleaned everybody’s clock. I just felt like it was time for me to get out of north Texas because it really wasn’t offering me much anymore. I just wanted to go sprint car racing. In the race, once the 15V missed the bottom coming off of 4 one time I took my shot. I figured it was my only shot because he was running a great race. It was just one of those things where I told myself ‘I’ve got to do this!’. After we cleared him, I felt that we had a pretty good race car. I usually don’t run the bottom, but since this isn’t my car and it’s my first time in the car, I didn’t want to tear it up because I’ve already got a torn-up race car of my own. So, it was hard for me to get up against the fence. It paid off though, because we had it working on the bottom and sometimes the bottom is the place to be”.
The car’s sponsors include KRL Motorsports, Central Body Shop, Helping Hanah and SLS Motorsports.
Next weekend is the Junior Fan Club Cash Bash, presented by Colby Ridge. All 5 classes will be competing including the Duros Dent Works Racesaver IMCA Sprints, Hoosier Tire IMCA Modifieds, Sam’s Club IMCA Sport Modifieds, Valentino’s IMCA Hobby Stocks and ATV Motorsports IMCA Sport Compacts.
Front gates open at 5:15 with hot laps at 5:30 and racing at 6:30. Adult admission is just $10, youths 6-12 are $5 and children 5 and under are free.
Pit gates open at 4:00 with pit passes being $25.
RESULTS:
IMCA Sprint A-Feature 1. Chad Koch Lincoln, Ne. 2. Joey Danley Lincoln, Ne. 3. Mike Boston Lincoln, Ne. 4. Trevor Grossenbacher Bennet, Ne. 5. Gene Ackland Martell, Ne. 6. Tyler Drueke Eagle, Ne. 7. Josh Riggins Lincoln, Ne. 8. Shon Pointer Grand Island, Ne. 9. Stuart Snyder Lincoln, Ne. 10. Toby Chapman Panama, Ne. 11. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne. 12. Trey Gropp Lincoln, Ne. 13. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne. 14. Shayle Bade Lincoln, Ne. 15. Mark Vanderheiden Papillion, Ne. 16. Boyd Peterson Ithaca, Ne. 17. Ryan King Bennet, Ne. 18. Tim Hilfiker Greenwood, Ne. 19. Adam Gullion Lincoln, Ne. 20. Chase Weiler Lincoln, Ne.
IMCA Sprint B-Feature 1. Toby Chapman Panama, Ne. 2. Trey Gropp Lincoln, Ne. 3. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne. 4. Chase Weiler Lincoln, Ne. 5. Boyd Peterson Ithaca, Ne. 6. Neil Nickolite Bellwood, Ne. 7. Brandon Horton Waterloo, Ne. 8. Kayla Stoops Kennard, Ne. 9. Jason Miller Omaha, Ne. 10. Andrew Jackson Fremont, Ne. DNS. Cody Ledger Omaha, Ne. DNS. Keith Dragoo Greenwood, Ne. DNS. Nathan Weiler Lavista, Ne.
IMCA Sprint Heat 1 1. Chad Koch Lincoln, Ne. 2. Stuart Snyder Lincoln, Ne. 3. Trevor Grossenbacher Bennet, Ne. 4. Mark Vanderheiden Papillion, Ne. 5. Josh Riggins Lincoln, Ne. 6. Trey Gropp Lincoln, Ne. 7. Chase Weiler Lincoln, Ne. 8. Jason Miller Omaha, Ne. 9. Cody Ledger Omaha, Ne. DNS. Nathan Weiler Lavista, Ne.
IMCA Sprint Heat 2 1. Tim Hilfiker Greenwood, Ne. 2. Mike Boston Lincoln, Ne. 3. Joey Danley Lincoln, Ne. 4. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne. 5. Shayle Bade Lincoln, Ne. 6. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne. 7. Neil Nickolite Bellwood, Ne. 8. Brandon Horton Waterloo, Ne. 9. Andrew Jackson Fremont, Ne.
IMCA Sprint Heat 3 1. Tyler Drueke Eagle, Ne. 2. Gene Ackland Martell, Ne. 3. Shon Pointer Grand Island, Ne. 4. Ryan King Bennet, Ne. 5. Adam Gullion Lincoln, Ne. 6. Boyd Peterson Ithaca, Ne. 7. Toby Chapman Panama, Ne. 8. Kayla Stoops Kennard, Ne. 9. Keith Dragoo Greenwood, Ne.