By Greg Soukup
A typical late August day greeted the large crowd that filed through the front gates of One Badass Racetrack, Eagle Raceway Saturday for Junior Fan Club Night presented by Quasar Drive-In, Lincoln Stars, Nebraska Septic and Nebraska’s Best Lawn and Landscape. The pits were filled with 140 race teams, itching to hit the high banked 1/3 mile.
With just Saturday and next Saturday left of the regular season, 4 of the 5 class points chases were still up for grabs and everyone knew that it would be a heated battle to the end.
There were 2 serious incidents in the preliminary racing action. First, in heat 2 for the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprints Billy Alley got a little too high in turn 1, began to bounce, hit the wall with his front end and ended up flipping up over the Armco and becoming entangled in the catch fence.
The Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprints were up next. Trevor Serbus put the #10 out front of lap 1 with Brayden Greubel’s 99 second, Mike Boston third in the 51 and Tige Jensen fourth in the 24X. Jensen spun to the infield on lap 2, making hard contact with the implement tire guarding the light pole in turns 3 & 4. He was towed to the pits with significant front-end damage, ending his night. The Choose Cone was placed on the front stretch with the restart lineup being Serbus, Greubel, Adam Gullion’s 91 and Boston. Gullion snagged the lead on the restart followed by Serbus, Boston and the 12T of Tyler Drueke. Boston got around Serbus for second on lap 4 and Drueke followed him into third the next circuit. Drueke then got past Boston on lap 9 to take over second place with Serbus also passing Boston for second. Travis Patterson spun his 14T out in turn 2 the next circuit to bring the Choose Cone out once again. The restart lineup was Gullion, Drueke, Troy Sanford’s 12 and Serbus. Sanford passed Drueke on the restart to take over second place but lost the spot back to Drueke on lap 13. Cole Wayman looped the 18W in turn 4 the next circuit for a caution. The single file restart saw Drueke take the lead away from Gullion. Serbus got past Sanford for third the following lap but lost it back to him with 7 to go. Your top 4 remained unchanged to the finish with Drueke, Gullion, Sanford and Serbus the top 4.
I mentioned to Tyler that this race took me back to the 360 days. I told him That’s the way that a sprint car race should be run at Eagle; 2 lanes with the cushion up against the wall and cars just flying around the track.” He replied “The track was slick and wide, up against the fence or catfishing around the tires. There were 2 lanes, two options and it was pretty racey. I had to use both lanes and move around to figure out what my car would and wouldn’t do. We won’t be here next week, but we’ll be back in two weeks for the Nationals.” I asked if he planned to win and he stated “No promises! We’re going to come back here, try to make our car fast and see what happens.” Tyler’s sponsors include Forbes Motorsports, Cherney Enterprises, LLC, American Trailer Co. , Drueke Trucking & Ranch, Zoz Farms, Jeffres Trucking LLC, Angels Energy Service, Johnson Farms, Kings Auto Supply, Jimbell, Double Z Express, Gordon Electric Inc., Midwest Racing Performance, J&J Auto Racing, Speedway Motors Racing Engines and Victory Fuel.
Next Saturday is the final regular season night of the year. It’s Curtain Call Championship Night, presented by Avid Realty, Empire Fence, S&L Trenching and Nebraska Septic. 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.
With the 13th Annual IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car Nationals beginning Thursday August 28th, you had better get your tickets for 4 big days of racing, culminating on Sunday with the Big Dance paying $13,000 to win and $1,700 just to start the A Feature.
As for tickets, you can purchase 4-day or Single Day tickets online ahead of time at- https://www.racesaver.com/sprint-nationals/tickets/ or purchase ahead of time at the Eagle's Nest next Saturday with cash. As always, you are also able to purchase GA tickets the day of the events at the ticket office.
According to one of Dan Taylor’s sources, we can expect 15 of the regular invaders for the Nationals to be on hand. Can we see 45 sprints in the pits? You’ll have to be there to find out!
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 33 Entries A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:17:37.326 1. 12T-Tyler Drueke[6]; 2. 91-Adam Gulion[9]; 3. 12-Troy Sanford[13]; 4. 10-Trevor Serbus[1]; 5. 4X-Jason Danley[12]; 6. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[10]; 7. 25X-Gunnar Pike[8]; 8. 5-Stuart Snyder[7]; 9. 35W-Gaige Weldon[20]; 10. 18W-Cole Wayman[16]; 11. 77-Bret Klabunde[17]; 12. 51-Mike Boston[4]; 13. 23V-Michalob Voeltz[14]; 14. 1B-Brandon Horton[15]; 15. 35L-Ty Ledger[5]; 16. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[11]; 17. 32-Trefer Wa ler[19]; 18. 1-Thomas Meserau l[18]; 19. 99-Braydn Greubel[2]; 20. 24X-Tige Jensen[3]
B Feature 1 12 Laps | 00:02:56.700 1. 77-Bret Klabunde[4]; 2. 1-Thomas Meserau l[9]; 3. 32-Trefer Wa ler[1]; 4. 35W-Gaige Weldon[8]; 5. 2A-Alex Salzman[2]; 6. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[3]; 7. 99D-Mitche l Dvorak[11]; 8. 4W-Nathan Weiler[5]; 9. 03-Chris Helget[12]; 10. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[7]; 11. 14G-Gene Ackland[10]; 12. 2T-Cameron Thompson[6]
C Feature 1 10 Laps | 00:02:25.776 1. 1-Thomas Meseraul[9]; 2. 14G-Gene Ackland[1]; 3. 99D-Mitche l Dvorak[4]; 4. 03-Chris Helget[8]; 5. 3G-Dylon Knudson[3]; 6. 11C-Cole Cloud[6]; 7. 9A-Hunter Hanson[7]; 8. 11-Bily Aley[2]; 9. 17-Justin Bolte[5]
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:06:59.580 1. 10-Trevor Serbus[1]; 2. 51-Mike Boston[4]; 3. 4X-Jason Danley[8]; 4. 12-Troy Sanford[3]; 5. 32-Trefer Wa ler[7]; 6. 4W Nathan Weiler[5]; 7. 14G-Gene Ackland[6]; 8. 17-Justin Bolte[2]; 9. 1-Thomas Meseraul[9]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:16:45.080 1. 24X-Tige Jensen[3]; 2. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[7]; 3. 25X-Gunnar Pike[6]; 4. 23V-Michalob Voeltz[2]; 5. 2A-Alex Salzman[4]; 6. 2T-Cameron Thompson[5]; 7. 11-Bily Aley[8]; 8. 11C-Cole Cloud[1]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:05:11.252 1. 12T-Tyler Drueke[5]; 2. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[7]; 3. 35L-Ty Ledger[4]; 4. 1B-Brandon Horton[8]; 5. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[6]; 6. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[2]; 7. 3G-Dylon Knudson[1]; 8. (DNS) 9A-Hunter Hanson
Heat 4 10 Laps | 00:05:50.595 1. 99-Braydn Greubel[1]; 2. 91-Adam Gulion[6]; 3. 5-Stuart Snyder[5]; 4. 18W-Cole Wayman[7]; 5. 77-Bret Klabunde[4]; 6. 35W-Gaige Weldon[8]; 7. 99D-Mitche l Dvorak[3]; 8. 03-Chris Helget[2]