By Greg Soukup
Saturday’s event at Eagle Raceway was Saturday Night Lights, presented by Hippo Equipment and Nebraska’s Best Lawn and Landscape.
Richards Simmons was nowhere to be seen but believe me when I say that it was ‘Sweating at the races night’ as well. From over 100 degrees the temperatures dropped to a crisp (or is it crispy) 95 at race time, thanks to everything being pushed back by an hour. That would have made it a miserable evening, were it not for a strong south wind making it tolerable.
129 teams filled the pits, braving the heat and just itching to put on a show for the fans; a feat that they more than provided.
There were 2 serious incidents in the preliminary action, both in the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprints. Heat 3 saw Bret Klabunde snap rolled several times coming out of turn 2, ending up over the back stretch wall on his side. In the B Feature, Ty Ledger’s 35L right rear tire made contact with the left rear of the 24T of Trevor Serbus going into turn 1. Both cars kept going until Ledger hit the back stretch wall, bounced off and caught Serbus again, sending them both flipping into turn 3. All 3 drivers were not seriously injured.
Last up for their A Feature were the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint Cars. Billy Alley’s #11 led the initial lap with Trefer Waller second in the 32, Gunnar Pike put the #25 into third with the 63 of Jack Thomas’ 63 fourth. Thomas passed Pike for third on lap 2. Cameron Thompson looped the 2T on the front stretch on lap 4 to bring out the Choose Cone. The restart lineup was Alley, Waller, the 5 of Stu Snyder and Thomas. Thomas regained third place on the restart. Michalob Voeltz had the top wing of the 23V flip backwards the next lap, bringing out the caution. The lineup at the choose cone saw Alley, Waller, Snyder and Thomas the top 4. Thomas took advantage of the restart to jump up to second as Pike regained fourth. Alley jumped out to a big lead on the restart, but Thomas caught up to him and grabbed the lead on lap 13. Snyder moved back up to fourth 2 laps later. Trevor Grossenbacher climbed the wall in turn 1 with 8 laps left and came to a rest on all 4 tires in turn 2. He was pushed back to his pit. 6 to go saw Waller pass Alley for second place and then get past Thomas for the lead after 1 more circuit. Snyder also passed Alley in the closing laps to move up to the third spot. Waller stretched his lead to a straightaway for the win. Thomas was second, Snyder third and Alley held on for fourth.
This was Waller’s first win at Eagle Raceway, but he has been racing sprints for several years. He related “This is our first full season here at Eagle, but I’ve had several wins at I-90 in the past few years. We ran maybe 1 show a year here 2 or 3 years ago but we didn’t really feel good, so we went back up north and raced there. We raced at I-90 for 4 or 5 years and won the championship there in 2020. We decided to do something different and come down and play with these guys and it’s working for now. It was 8 to go at the last caution and I saw Stu stick his nose underneath me in turn 3 and I thought to myself ‘He should have slid up’ but then the caution came out right after that. He stuck it and didn’t slide up into me so I figured I’d better search around to see what’s going on. As soon as I moved down, I found I could run anywhere; middle or the bottom and it was lights out! The car was completely stuck.” Trefer’s sponsors include Turp’s Automotive, Home Town Repair, Sandhill Equipment, Drueke Trucking, Jeffres Trucking, New Holland Agriculture and Wyfels Hybrids.
Next Saturday is Freedom Fest, presented by Avid Realty, A1 Iron and Pepsi.
This is my favorite night of the season, thanks to a FABULOUS fireworks show once the racing concludes.
All 5 IMCA Classes will be competing including the A1 Iron IMCA Stock Cars Avid Realty Sportmods, Nebraska’s Best Lawn and Landscape Modifieds, Valentino’s Hobby Stocks and Nebraska Septic Sprint Cars.
Grandstands open at 5:15, hot laps kick off at 5:45 with racing at 6:30. Adult front gate admission is $15, youths 6-12 just $5 and children 5 and under free.
NOTE: All times are subject to change due to weather conditions.
Pit gates open at 3:30 with pit passes costing $30.
RESULTS:
NE IMCA Sprints 34 Entries A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:14:09.860 1. 32-Trefer Waler[2]; 2. 63-Jack Thomas[6]; 3. 5-Stuart Snyder[3]; 4. 11-Bily Aley[1]; 5. 25-Gunnar Pike[4]; 6. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[7]; 7. 4X-Jason Danley[5]; 8. 18W-Cole Wayman[10]; 9. 11D-Dominic White[15]; 10. 03-Shayle Bade[11]; 11. 4W-Nathan Weiler[18]; 12. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[14]; 13. 0-Chase Weiler[19]; 14. 23V-Michalob Voeltz[8]; 15. 24-Tige Jensen[16]; 16. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[9]; 17. 91-Adam Gu lion[12]; 18. 76-Jay Russe l[17]; 19. 2A-Alex Salzman[20]; 20. 2T-Cameron Thompson[13]
B Feature 1 12 Laps | 00:10:10.331 1. 76-Jay Russel[1]; 2. 4W-Nathan Weiler[2]; 3. 0-Chase Weiler[5]; 4. 2A-Alex Salzman[9]; 5. 12-Troy Sanford[7]; 6. 14G Gene Ackland[6]; 7. 08-Chase Koeliker[11]; 8. 24R-Rob Rawson[8]; 9. 1B-Brandon Horton[10]; 10. 11C-Cole Cloud[12]; 11. 24T-Trevor Serbus[3]; 12. 35L-Ty Ledger[4]
C Feature 1 10 Laps | 00:02:24.561 1. 2A-Alex Salzman[2]; 2. 1B-Brandon Horton[3]; 3. 08-Chase Koe liker[6]; 4. 11C-Cole Cloud[1]; 5. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[10]; 6. 12P-Ryan Navratil[4]; 7. (DNS) 45C-Mike Boston; 8. (DNS) 14-Joey Danley; 9. (DNS) 77-Bret Klabunde; 10. (DNS) 77X-John Klabunde
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:05:28.470 1. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[2]; 2. 91-Adam Gulion[1]; 3. 63-Jack Thomas[4]; 4. 2T-Cameron Thompson[3]; 5. 76-Jay Russel[6]; 6. 0-Chase Weiler[5]; 7. 11C-Cole Cloud[9]; 8. 45C-Mike Boston[7]; 9. 77X-John Klabunde[8]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:03:46.519 1. 32-Trefer Waler[4]; 2. 23V-Michalob Voeltz[1]; 3. 4X-Jason Danley[3]; 4. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[6]; 5. 4W-Nathan Weiler[5]; 6. 14G-Gene Ackland[8]; 7. 2A-Alex Salzman[7]; 8. 08-Chase Koe liker[9]; 9. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[2]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:12:19.556 1. 03-Shayle Bade[1]; 2. 18W-Cole Wayman[5]; 3. 25-Gunnar Pike[2]; 4. 11D-Dominic White[3]; 5. 24T-Trevor Serbus[7]; 6. 12-Troy Sanford[8]; 7. 1B-Brandon Horton[4]; 8. 77-Bret Klabunde[6]
Heat 4 10 Laps | 00:02:33.163 1. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[2]; 2. 11-Bily Aley[3]; 3. 5-Stuart Snyder[1]; 4. 24-Tige Jensen[6]; 5. 35L-Ty Ledger[7]; 6. 24R-Rob Rawson[4]; 7. 12P-Ryan Navratil[8]; 8. 14-Joey Danley[5]