By Greg Soukup
It was a typical spring Saturday night at Eagle Raceway Saturday evening with cool temperatures and a brisk wind. But that didn’t stop the good sized crowd from enjoying the action as H&M Trucking and Rotella’s presented Let The Good Times Roll with 136 cars in the pits.
There were no serious incidents in the preliminary racing action.
Cole Wayman jumped out of his modified and into his #18W Twin Rivers IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car, taking his place on the pole of the A Feature. He led lap #1 followed by Adam Gullion’s 91, the 14J of Josh Riggins, and Clint Benson in the #100. Benson passed Riggins for third on lap 2.Gene Ackland also got past Riggins, putting the 14G into fourth. There were 9 laps left when Benson passed Gullion for second, only to lose the spot back to him the following circuit. There were 5 to go when Tyler Drueke passed Ackland to move the #12 into fourth before advancing to third the next time around. Gullion also made a big move that lap to take the lead for good. Gullion took the win, Wayman was second, Drueke held third and Ackland was fourth after regaining the spot in the closing laps.
Adam said “It’s been a while; it’s been a minute. We struggled last year and I started to wonder if I was missing something, if something was wrong with the car, or maybe I was just washed up. Then I had someone tell me that I was washed up and I got really angry!! That’s when we went over and won the Front Row Challenge at Oskaloosa in Iowa. We really stumbled onto something the last half of last year, not just on the car but as a team. Usually in the wintertime we try to improve little things here and there, but not this year. We didn’t go down any rabbit holes, We left everything the way it was, took it apart and put it right back together the way it was. We left the shock package the way it was, the motors the same. That makes it a lot easier on me to drive it, We’re really solid right now; not just with my stuff but with Ryan Kitchen’s stuff even with the motor issue I had last week; Ryan also had a good night tonight and I think it was better than it showed. We’re building on a lot of really solid stuff right now. I didn’t get quite a good enough start in the A and Cole surprised me a little bit in 1 and 2. I thought he was going to do a slide job and I should have kept my foot in it on the top, but I went to the bottom and followed him for a little bit. I thought I could throw a bomb on him in 3 and 4 but he went motoring right by me. I thought “OKAY! Cole came to play!!! Here we go! I’m going to just settle in and let the race come to me and let the car come to me”. He was really, really good early and I was hoping that he would fall off a little more. Late in the race, about midway to three quarters of the way through the race I found a line in 3 and 4 that was a lot better than the one he had been running. We were fairly equal in 1 and 2 but in 3 and 4. I stumbled onto something that made all of the difference for us in the race. I don’t know if he was getting tired or if his car was going away but you could tell that he was struggling a little bit because he wasn’t able to dispose of lapped cars. I saw the 5 to go and I really buckled down and started going harder than I had the first 20 laps. I got to him with a few to go and got a pretty good run on him down the front stretch. I decided that now was the time and threw a pretty good slide job on him, making sure that I could get to the cushion really quickly so that he didn’t have the opportunity to get back by me. I didn’t want to hit him and take him out, but I knew that if we came out of 2 really close or side by side that I could beat him to the cushion in 3 and have a good shot at the win. I was able to do that and
from there to the finish I could check out a little bit for the win. It was just a solid night for us. We were able to keep our nose clean in the heat race, capitalizing on that. It helped us to start up front, but you’ve got to really take advantage of it”. Adam’s sponsors include Midwest Petroleum, Precise Roofing, Speedway Engines, Speedway Shocks, AL Driveline, Ultrashield Racing Products, Simpson Racing Products, BR Motorsports, King Racing Products, Swirlfire Screen Printing, 91 Bar Service, 91 Trucking, Big Pickle Trucking and Brenning Painting.
Next Saturday is Junior Fan Club Night, presented by Avid Realty. Kids 12 and under get in free and there will be a Candy Dash at intermission. All 5 classes will be competing including the Twin Rivers Sprint Cars, Nebraska Lottery Modifieds, Avid Realty SportMods, A1 Iron Stock Cars & Valentino’s Hobby Stocks. Track, State, Regional & National Points for all classes.
Front gates open at 5:15 with adult admission being $15, kids 12 and under are free.
Hot laps kick off at 5:30 with racing at 6:30.
Pit gates open at 3:45 with pit admission being $30.
RESULTS:
Sprint-IMCA A-Feature
1. Adam Gullion Lincoln, Ne. 2. Cole Wayman(r) Lincoln, Ne. 3. Tyler Drueke Eagle, Ne. 4. Gene Ackland Martell, Ne. 5. Gunnar Pike South Bend, Ne. 6. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne. 7. Ryan Kitchen Seward, Ne. 8. Joey Danley Martell, Ne. 9. Stuart Snyder Lincoln, Ne. 10. Jeremy Huish Ness City, Ks. 11. Cody Ledger Omaha, Ne. 12. Josh Riggins Lincoln, Ne. 13. Trevor Grossenbacher Panama, Ne. 14. Jason Danley Lincoln, Ne. 15. Toby Chapman Panama, Ne. 16. Dusty Ballenger Harrisburg, Sd. 17. Shayle Bade Lincoln, Ne. 18. Cole Vanderheiden Papillion, Ne. 19. Mike Boston Lincoln, Ne. 20. Daniel Nekolite O`neill, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA B-Feature
1. Dusty Ballenger Harrisburg, Sd. 2. Jason Danley Lincoln, Ne. 3. Cody Ledger Omaha, Ne. 4. Mike Boston Lincoln, Ne. 5. Brandon Horton Waterloo, Ne. 6. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne. 7. Chase Weiler Lincoln, Ne. 8. Bret Klabunde Omaha, Ne. 9. Alex Davenport Lincoln, Ne. 10. Alex Salzman Lincoln, Ne. 11. Jake Galusha Lincoln, Ne. 12. Maxwell Roseland Carter Lake, Ia.
Sprint-IMCA C-Feature
1. Alex Davenport Lincoln, Ne. 2. Chase Weiler Lincoln, Ne. 3. Alex Salzman Lincoln, Ne. 4. Bret Klabunde Omaha, Ne. 5. Tim Hilfiker Greenwood, Ne. 6. Bayley Ballenger Harrisburg, Sd. 7. Justin Bolte(r) Fremont, Ne. DNS. Andrew Jackson Fremont, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 1
1. Stuart Snyder Lincoln, Ne. 2. Toby Chapman Panama, Ne. 3. Josh Riggins Lincoln, Ne. 4. Cole Vanderheiden Papillion, Ne. 5. Jason Danley Lincoln, Ne. 6. Cody Ledger Omaha, Ne. 7. Chase Weiler Lincoln, Ne. 8. Andrew Jackson Fremont, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 2
1. Cole Wayman(r) Lincoln, Ne. 2. Joey Danley Martell, Ne. 3. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne. 4. Gunnar Pike South Bend, Ne. 5. Dusty Ballenger Harrisburg, Sd. 6. Maxwell Roseland Carter Lake, Ia. 7. Alex Davenport Lincoln, Ne. 8. Bret Klabunde Omaha, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 3
1. Adam Gullion Lincoln, Ne. 2. Ryan Kitchen Seward, Ne. 3. Tyler Drueke Eagle, Ne. 4. Shayle Bade Lincoln, Ne. 5. Jake Galusha Lincoln, Ne. 6. Brandon Horton Waterloo, Ne. 7. Tim Hilfiker Greenwood, Ne. 8. Bayley Ballenger Harrisburg, Sd.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 4
1. Jeremy Huish Ness City, Ks. 2. Gene Ackland Martell, Ne. 3. Trevor Grossenbacher Panama, Ne. 4. Daniel Nekolite O`neill, Ne. 5. Mike Boston Lincoln, Ne. 6. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne. 7. Alex Salzman Lincoln, Ne. 8. Justin Bolte(r) Fremont, Ne.