By Greg Soukup
I cannot recall a more beautiful July evening at the races that compares the one that greeted everyone Saturday at Eagle Raceway as Meininger Fire Protection. A hazy sky and low 80’s temperatures saw a total of 151 cars in the pits and a very big crowd in the grandstands.
In a testament to the skills of the Eagle Raceway track prep crew, the surface was so fast that Jacob Dye set a new track record for the IMCA Racesaver sprints at 12.171 seconds. Door handle to door handle, 2 and 3 wide racing was the rule throughout the program.
There were 2 serious incidents in the preliminary racing. In the initial heat race for the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint Cars Stu Snyder’s #5 slid up into the 12T of Tyler Drueke entering turn 3, sending him sliding up the track and into the Armco wall and eventually into a slow rollover. He was not seriously injured, but his crew had to thrash to replace both the front and rear ends and both wings to allow him to run the B Feature. Then, in the Nebraska Lawn and Landscape IMCA Modified’s first heat, Cameron Thompson in the 2T slid up into the 99W of Hunter Weber, sending him up into the 1Z of Norm Ziegenbein. Ziegenbein’s racer was then turned sideways which caused his car to turn down into Thompson sending the 1Z flying into a pirouette in the air and coming to a halt at the entrance to turn 3. I spoke to Ziegenbein after the races and he assured me that he would be back at Eagle next week “But not with a car. This one is destroyed and I don’t have the funds to get another car. My head flew forward when I came down and I’m sure I’ll be sore in the morning.”
Mason Day’s #6 spun sideways into turn 1 on the beginning lap of the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint A Feature and the 08 of Chase Koelliker couldn’t quite get around him and ended up clipping Day’s left rear tire, nearly climbing the wall and going into a slow rollover. He was not seriously hurt but his night was over. The restart saw Jacob Dye’s 20D in the lead with Gene Ackland’s 14G, the 25 of Gunnar Pike and Adam Gullion’s 91 rounding out the top 4. Dan Satriano suffered a flat right rear tire on lap 2 and the yellow flag was displayed. The EastepWheels.com Choose Cone was set on the front stretch with Dye, Pike, Ackland and Gullion the new lineup for the front 2 rows. Pike and Gullion both passed Dye on the restart, moving Dye back to third place. Bret Klabunde passed Ackland on lap 4 to put the 77 into fourth position. Tige Jensen took over fourth place on lap 10 in his #24. There were 9 circuits remaining when Joey Danley got past Jensen to put the 14 into fourth. 2 laps later the right rear tire assembly on Klabunde’s car came completely off and rolled into the infield. That slowed the action as Klabunde was towed to his pit. Gullion, Pike, Danley and Dye were the front 2 rows after the Choose Cone reset the field. Gullion slowed dramatically and stopped on the restart and the Choose Cone was again placed on the front stretch. The new restart lineup’s 2 front rows were Joey Danley, Pike, Jason Danley’s 4X and Dye. Dye jumped up to second on the restart with Joey Danley and Jensen third and fourth. The next lap Jensen hit the rear bumper of Jason Danley, sending Jason sliding down the front stretch on its right side and eventually rolling over. That signaled a single file restart with Pike, Joey Danley, Dye and Jensen your top 4. Trevor Grossenbacher got under and past Jensen on the restart to snag the fourth spot. The top 4 remained unchanged to the checker with Pike winning, Joey Danley second, Dye third and Grossenbacher fourth.
This was Gunnar’s first win ever at Eagle. It wasn’t hard to tell that this was a huge weight off his shoulders by the grin on his face. He said “It’s been a minute. I’ve won everywhere but my home track, so it feels pretty good to actually get the win tonight. We had a little bit of luck on our side, but I’d rather be lucky than good any day of the week, especially here with how fast everybody is. There’s no such thing as an easy night here. Luckily that first incident gave me a few spots, and I was pretty aggressive early. My plan was just to get up there and pace myself. We’ve been really good the past week or so. We found something going into Columbus that we’ve just been off on all year but finally found it. We just haven’t been getting the best out of our motors, and I’ll take responsibility for that. Now, I think we’re good.”
Gunnar’s sponsors include S&L Trenching, Avid Realty by Kyle Gabriel, Grass Assassins, Tailored Computers, Myers Racing Engines, Westover Rock and Sand, Slade Shock Technology, Trev Window Wings, VOG Performance and Automotive LLC, RK Ink, Hi Plains Building Division, Carbon Safety Technologies, Goliath Nutrition and Gateway Custom Homes Inc.
Next Saturday is Driver Salute Night, presented by Pepsi. 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.
The running order will be A1 Iron IMCA Stock Cars, Nebraska Septic Sprint Cars, Avid Realty Sportmods, Nebraska’s Best Lawn and Landscape Modifieds and the Valentino’s Hobby Stocks. The Hobby Stocks will be competing for a purse increased by $2000 with $350 to win and $100 to start the A Feature.
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 32 Entries A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:25:35.424 1. 25-Gunnar Pike[10]; 2. 14-Joey Danley[15]; 3. 20D-Jacob Dye[1]; 4. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[13]; 5. 24-Tige Jensen[8]; 6. 18W-Cole Wayman[18]; 7. 63-Jack Thomas[11]; 8. 35L-Ty Ledger[7]; 9. 32-Trefer Wa ler[12]; 10. 11D-Dominic White[17]; 11. 4W-Nathan Weiler[9]; 12. 6-Mason Day[2]; 13. 4X-Jason Danley[14]; 14. 14G-Gene Ackland[3]; 15. 91-Adam Gulion[16]; 16. 77-Bret Klabunde[5]; 17. 21H-Levi Hinck[20]; 18. 3T-Dan Satriano[6]; 19. 08-Chase Koe liker[4]; 20. (DNS) 11-Bi ly Aley
B Feature 1 14 Laps | 00:03:13.256 1. 11D-Dominic White[2]; 2. 18W-Cole Wayman[4]; 3. 11-Bily Aley[3]; 4. 21H-Levi Hinck[6]; 5. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[8]; 6. 12T-Tyler Drueke[13]; 7. 2A-Alex Salzman[1]; 8. 5-Stuart Snyder[9]; 9. 1B-Brandon Horton[14]; 10. 2T-Cameron Thompson[7]; 11. 17-Justin Bolte[10]; 12. 76-Jay Russe l[12]; 13. 12-Troy Sanford[5]; 14. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[16]; 15. 4 Brett Combs[15]; 16. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[11]
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:06:07.680 1. 20D-Jacob Dye[1]; 2. 77-Bret Klabunde[2]; 3. 63-Jack Thomas[6]; 4. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[5]; 5. 2A-Alex Salzman[4]; 6. 12-Troy Sanford[3]; 7. 5-Stuart Snyder[7]; 8. 12T-Tyler Drueke[8]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:02:05.565 1. 3T-Dan Satriano[2]; 2. 4W-Nathan Weiler[4]; 3. 6-Mason Day[1]; 4. 4X-Jason Danley[7]; 5. 11D-Dominic White[5]; 6. 21H Levi Hinck[8]; 7. 17-Justin Bolte[3]; 8. 1B-Brandon Horton[6]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:02:05.664 1. 14G-Gene Ackland[1]; 2. 35L-Ty Ledger[2]; 3. 32-Trefer Wa ler[6]; 4. 14-Joey Danley[5]; 5. 11-Bily Aley[7]; 6. 2T Cameron Thompson[3]; 7. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[4]; 8. 4-Brett Combs [8]
Heat 4 10 Laps | 00:03:56.540 1. 24-Tige Jensen[2]; 2. 08-Chase Koe liker[1]; 3. 25-Gunnar Pike[4]; 4. 91-Adam Gu lion[6]; 5. 18W-Cole Wayman[5]; 6. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[7]; 7. 76-Jay Russe l[3]; 8. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[8]