By Greg Soukup
We had a very rare occurrence at Eagle Raceway Saturday evening as Empire Fence and Netting along with Mammoth Station presented Junior Fan Club Night. We at Eagle take extraordinary pride in running an on time, smoothly and quickly run show. That wasn’t to be, starting with or rather not starting with the heat races.
Mother Nature decided that the track prep crew hadn’t sufficiently watered the track, so just as hot laps were ending she gave us 2 brief showers. That didn’t phase the big crowd in the grandstands who patiently waited, anxious to see 159 race teams tackle the high banks of One Badass Racetrack.
Roger and his crew reworked the track and heats kicked off just 15 minutes late on the refurbished racing surface.
There were no serious incidents in the preliminary action.
At intermission, One Stop Auto Repair sponsored a $1,500 kids money grab on the front stretch.
Cameron Thompson backed the 2T into the wall at the top of 3 & 4 on the original start of the A Main for the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint Cars, resulting in a complete restart. That restart saw Cole Wayman’s 18W get loose in turn 1, collecting the 77X of John Klabunde. The first official lap saw Tadd Holliman out front in the 19, Justin Bolte’s 17 second, Alex Davenport third in the 25A with Brandon Horton fourth in the 1B. Cole Vanderheiden got past Horton on lap 2 to put the 15V into fourth. He continued to advance, taking third from Davenport on lap 5. Davenport hit the front stretch wall on lap 8, allowing Horton to regain fourth. Vanderheiden then took second place from Bolte on lap 11. 2 laps later Vanderheiden attempted an ill-fated slide job going into turn 2, hitting Holliman’s left front with his right rear, sending Holliman into the wall and rolling over at the pit exit with a destroyed car. Holliman was not seriously injured. The Choose Cone restart lineup was Horton, Vanderheiden, Adam Gullion’s 91 and Bolte. On the restart Nate Weiler’s 4W got loose collecting Thompson with Davenport nearly climbing the wall out of 4. Weiler’s fuel tank was split, spilling its contents onto the track. That resulted in another lengthy red flag while the fuel spill was taken care of. Horton led on the restart with Vanderheiden second, Gullion third and Bolte fourth. Bolte got too high on lap 15, allowing Billy Alley to take over the fourth spot. Shayle Bade also got too high in turns 3 and 4 with 6 to go and hit the front stretch wall, rolling onto her side for yet another caution. She headed back to her pit on the hook. Officials announced at that time that the time limit for the race had been reached and that the next caution would end the race. A single file restart was called. Alley made contact with Gullion coming out of turn 4 on the restart, sending Gullion flipping. That ended the race with Horton winning, Vanderheiden second, Zachary Patterson third in the #93 and Alley fourth.
This was another hard-fought victory for Brandon at Eagle Raceway in 2025. I asked if he was happy, to which he replied “Yeah! I’ll take that. I think that it was not a great deal that there were so many races that got cut short because it’s not a good way to make the drivers feel. It was a tough track tonight. That was apparent by how many cautions we had throughout the night, but there was one good groove at the top and that’s kind of my sweet spot. Hammer down and go. It probably would have been a different story had I gotten into that lapped traffic and given some of those drivers who are better on the bottom an opportunity to get around me, but luckily it worked out in my favor. I want to give a big thanks to all of my sponsors for helping out. It takes a fresh set of tires if you think you want to win. That was the case tonight and we pulled it off.” Brandon’s sponsors include Kaup Turf, Omaha Barbell, Edwards Auto Group, West Omaha Boat and Jet Ski and Little Smokey Barbecue.
Next Saturday is Dirt to Glory Night at Eagle Raceway, presented by Meininger Fire Protection. All 5 classes will be in action, 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.
RESULTS:
IMCA Sprints 30 Entries A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:26:02.368 1. 1B-Brandon Horton[6]; 2. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[10]; 3. 93-Zachary Patterson[15]; 4. 11-Bily Aley[12]; 5. 4X-Jason Danley[13]; 6. 32-Trefer Wa ler[7]; 7. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[8]; 8. 5-Stuart Snyder[16]; 9. 77X-John Klabunde[19]; 10. 91 Adam Gulion[9]; 11. 17-Justin Bolte[2]; 12. 03-Shayle Bade[18]; 13. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[17]; 14. 25A-Alex Davenport[3]; 15. 4W-Nathan Weiler[5]; 16. 2T-Cameron Thompson[4]; 17. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[20]; 18. 19-Tadd Holiman[1]; 19. 18W-Cole Wayman[11]; 20. 88J-Jeremy Huish[14]
B Feature 1 12 Laps | 00:02:44.830 1. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[2]; 2. 03-Shayle Bade[4]; 3. 77X-John Klabunde[1]; 4. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[3]; 5. 78C Chance Cody[5]; 6. 2A-Alex Salzman[9]; 7. 23L-Aydin Lloyd[8]; 8. 3T-Dan Satriano[6]; 9. 77-Bret Klabunde[12]; 10. 25 Gunnar Pike[13]; 11. 11C-Cole Cloud[10]; 12. (DNS) 0-Chase Weiler; 13. (DNS) 8B-Kaedon Thurman; 14. (DNS) 14G Gene Ackland
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:02:10.264 1. 19-Tadd Holiman[1]; 2. 2T-Cameron Thompson[3]; 3. 1B-Brandon Horton[4]; 4. 4X-Jason Danley[6]; 5. 77X-John Klabunde[2]; 6. 78C-Chance Cody[8]; 7. 2A-Alex Salzman[5]; 8. 25-Gunnar Pike[7]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:03:49.063 1. 32-Trefer Waler[4]; 2. 91-Adam Gu lion[6]; 3. 11-Bily Aley[7]; 4. 88J-Jeremy Huish[8]; 5. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[5]; 6. 3T-Dan Satriano[2]; 7. 11C-Cole Cloud[1]; 8. 14G-Gene Ackland[3]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:05:19.353 1. 25A-Alex Davenport[2]; 2. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[6]; 3. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[5]; 4. 93-Zachary Patterson[7]; 5. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[3]; 6. 0-Chase Weiler[4]; 7. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[1]
Heat 4 10 Laps | 00:04:11.734 1. 18W-Cole Wayman[6]; 2. 17-Justin Bolte[1]; 3. 4W-Nathan Weiler[3]; 4. 5-Stuart Snyder[5]; 5. 03-Shayle Bade[4]; 6. 23L Aydin Lloyd[7]; 7. 77-Bret Klabunde[2]