By Greg Soukup
If you looked in the racing dictionary under ‘Perfect Night For Racing’ you would see it described as Junior Fan Club Night at Eagle Raceway, presented by Colby Ridge and Duros Dent Works. Sunny skies and mid-80’s turned to a cloudless sky with temperatures dropping into the 70’s with a nice breeze. 111 cars filled the pits, running 15 heats, 2 B Features and 5 A Mains over the course of the evening.
There were no serious incidents in the preliminary action.
The Duros Dent Works IMCA Racesaver Sprint Cars were the final A Main of the evening and saw Dennis Engelhaupt’s 30, the 14 of Joey Danley, the 5 of Stu Snyder and Ryan King in the 93 out front of lap 1. The 91 of Adam Gullion stopped at the entrance to the pits on lap 3 for a caution. Snyder jumped up 2 spots on the restart with Danley second, Gene Ackland third and Engelhaupt fourth. Jason Danley in the 4X and Nate Weiler in the 4W battled back and forth to the checkers with Jason Danley taking the spot for good. Snyder held off everyone with the top 4 being Snyder, Joey Danley, Ackland and Jason Danley.
“It was a good run for sure. I told everybody as soon as soon as I got out of the car that it was the most patient and most boring I think I’ve ever been around here on the bottom. But it worked out. We got into lapped traffic, and I had to start searching because they were running the bottom too. So, I tried the top and it was pretty decent, but I thought I was doing better on the bottom. I thought that the top was just going to be too far around. It ended up paying off pretty good, running the top and the bottom. Hopefully, we’ll have something going into Nationals in a few weeks. At the start I was hoping that King and a couple of other guys would get excited going into turn one and drift up a little bit. I learned in the heat race not to let the car drift up there too far off the bottom because you get out of the moisture. You don’t have any momentum to get you across the slick back to some moisture on the back stretch. So, that taught me right there to bide your time and be super, super patient getting it in, getting through the center of the corner and then hammering it in the moisture coming off. That just worked super well. I really want to thank all of the people who back me and my racing. They’ve backed me for a long time now, and I keep trying to make them happy and make them proud of me; put the car where it’s supposed to be, make smart decisions and hopefully in a few weeks we’ll be standing on the front stretch with the really BIG check. Just winning the Nationals is something that we’ve been close at, but it seems like something always happens and we end up having to start at the back of the thing. We have to work our way up towards the front, getting top 5’s. It would be nice getting locked in on Friday with no issues and having a real shot at winning the thing on Sunday. That’s the plan and what we’re looking forward to. I can’t thank Meyers Racing Engines enough for giving us a heck of a motor, JR1 Chassis, Momentum Shocks, BullyBrandGear.com, Smith Repairs, Hozby Tire, Mister Yards and More and Simpson Racing Products for keeping me safe. A big thank you to the whole KRL/SLS Motorsports team. Roger, Bob, Katie, Allie my wife, Robin, Kellen, Big Tony and Kenny are always pitching in and making sure we keep this thing up front and always working hard at the shop”.
This coming Saturday is High Banks Thunder at Eagle Raceway, presented by the Lincoln Stars and Coors Light. Front gates open at 5:00. Adult admission is $12. Youths 12 and under are just $5 and kids 5 and under are free. You will have the chance to throw water balloons at the Eagle officials, including Roger Hadan! All proceeds will go towards the non-qualifying drivers at the IMCA Racesaver Nationals.
Pit gates open at 3:30 with pit admission being $30.
Hot laps begin at 5:30 with racing kicking off at 6:30. All 5 classes will be in action, including the Duros Dent Works Sprint Cars, Nebraska Lottery Modifieds, A1 Iron/Sany Stock Cars, Modern Real Estate SportMods & Valentino’s Hobby Stocks.
RESULTS:
Sprint-IMCA A-Feature
1. Stuart Snyder Lincoln, Ne. 2. Joey Danley Lincoln, Ne. 3. Gene Ackland Martell, Ne. 4. Jason Danley Lincoln, Ne. 5. Nathan Weiler Lavista, Ne. 6. Tyler Drueke Eagle, Ne. 7. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne. 8. Chase Weiler Lincoln, Ne. 9. Ryan King Bennet, Ne. 10. Jay Russell Wathena, Ks. 11. Adam Gullion Lincoln, Ne. 12. Josh Riggins Lincoln, Ne. 13. Jake Galusha(r) Lincoln, Ne. 14. Chris Helget Lincoln, Ne. 15. Tim Hilfiker Greenwood, Ne. 16. Dennis Engelhaupt Page, Ne. 17. Jeff Reiman Ft. Worth, Tx. 18. Dwight Carter Lincoln, Ne. 19. Mike Houseman Jr Des Moines, Ia. 20. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA B-Feature
1. Jake Galusha(r) Lincoln, Ne. 2. Chris Helget Lincoln, Ne. 3. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne. 4. Dwight Carter Lincoln, Ne. 5. Jeff Reiman Ft. Worth, Tx. 6. Andrew Jackson Fremont, Ne. 7. Gunnar Pike South Bend, Ne. 8. James Reed Holodrege, Ne. DNS. Dan Nekolite O'neill, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 1
1. Tyler Drueke Eagle, Ne. 2. Stuart Snyder Lincoln, Ne. 3. Adam Gullion Lincoln, Ne. 4. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne. 5. Josh Riggins Lincoln, Ne. 6. Chris Helget Lincoln, Ne. 7. Gunnar Pike South Bend, Ne. 8. Andrew Jackson Fremont, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 2
1. Joey Danley Lincoln, Ne. 2. Jason Danley Lincoln, Ne. 3. Dennis Engelhaupt Page, Ne. 4. Chase Weiler Lincoln, Ne. 5. Jay Russell Wathena, Ks. 6. Jake Galusha(r) Lincoln, Ne. 7. Jeff Reiman Ft. Worth, Tx. 8. Dan Nekolite O'neill, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 3
1. Gene Ackland Martell, Ne. 2. Tim Hilfiker Greenwood, Ne. 3. Nathan Weiler Lavista, Ne. 4. Ryan King Bennet, Ne. 5. Mike Houseman Jr Des Moines, Ia. 6. Dwight Carter Lincoln, Ne. 7. James Reed Holodrege, Ne. 8. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne.