By Greg Soukup
CURTAIN CALL! Championship Night, presented by Empire Fence, Avid Realty, Nebraska Septic and S&L Trenching was held this past Saturday under beautiful blue skies with almost fall like temperatures greeting the large crowd that filled the grandstands at Eagle Raceway.
With the points championships in the A1 Iron IMCA Stock Cars, the Nebraska Lottery IMCA Modifieds and the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint Cars still up for grabs, you knew it would be an evening filled with furious competition on the high banked 1/3 mile of America’s Home Track. Besides the top spots, many chances were there to move up a position or two in the rankings.
As is usual the week before the IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car Nationals, we had drivers come from near and far to get a quick refresher on how to run the world’s fastest 1/3 mile. Usually, they are competing in the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprints, but this week we had a visitor that hails from Healesville, Victoria Australia show up to race his A1 Iron IMCA Stock Car!! A total of 139 cars packed the pits.
There were no serious incidents in the preliminary action.
The final race of the night was for the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprints. Gunnar Pike’s 25, the 2T of Cameron Thompsln, Adam Gullion in the 91 and Gene Ackland’s 14G were the top 4 after lap #1. The red lights were lit in the corners on lap 2 when the B2 of Carson Bolden hit the wall in turn 2 and went for a wild ride. He was not seriously hurt, but his car was too badly damaged for a quick repair. The Choose Cone lineup was Thompson, Pike, Ackland and Gullion. Gullion passed Ackland for third on the restart and Gaige Weldon in the 35W also got past Ackland to move up to fourth. Pike grabbed the lead on lap 8. Gullion got around Thompson on lap 12 to take over second. The leaders began to catch heavy lapped traffic the next lap. Weldon also passed Thompson, this time on lap 14 to move up to third. Weldon passed Gullion with 9 to go for second place and got around Pike for the lead 2 laps later. Gullion made a huge move with 4 circuits remaining as he dove under both Pike and Weldon in turn 1 to take the lead with Pike moving back up to second. Trefer Waller did a 360-degree spin in turns 3 and 4 the next lap, bringing out the caution. That removed the lapped cars from the equation and gave clean air to Gullion who moved out to a nearly 2 second advantage at the checkers with Weldon second, Pike third and Thompson fourth.
Gullion, much like Shawn Harker has been on a tear of his own the past few weeks and I asked him about it. Adam stated “We’ve been exceptional. That’s the best description that I can give. Our results haven’t really shown our speed. We’ve had lots of little hiccups. We’ve taken the lead with 8 to go and then dropped a magneto. We’ve had other motor issues where we’ve been running through it. When the car is like that anybody can get in it and just stand on the gas. It was a really good night tonight. Sixth to first in the heat, winning by over a straightaway. Then, after they reworked the track everybody was fast and just mile-per-houred it around the top, trying to not get up into the crumbles and not kill your momentum. I was kind of set on trying to get into second at least and stick with Gunnar because I figured that once we got into lapped traffic I was going to take chances that he probably wasn’t going to. I kind of messed up and Weldon drove around me and then drove around Gunnar also. Then, we spent a couple of laps just making speed. There was a lapped car that went up top in front of them and left the bottom open. I just sent it through there and came out in the lead. I made a couple of good, clean laps and then we had that restart with 3 to go and it was just ‘Don’t mess up!’ and I think that was as close to perfect as those 3 laps could go. I don’t think we made even 1 mistake and won by almost 1.8 seconds. All in all, a good night, definitely a good confidence builder going into the Nationals weekend. Right now, the car is exceptionally comfortable. It’s repeatable because I know what to expect and I have a wonderful group of people around me and there’s some great partners we have with us, making my job really, really easy.” Adam’s sponsors include Midwest Petroleum Equipment, Midwest Construction Solutions, Steve O, Ultrashield, Blood Performance Products, Maxim Chassis, Pro Shocks by MK, Brenning Painting, Big Pickle Trucking, Precise Roofing, Kansas Trophy Outfitters, Elevate Stand Co., Tornado Race Engines, Swirlfire Screen Printing, BK Motorsports and King Racing Products.
Well, the bad news is that the regular season at America’s Home Track is over. The great news is that this coming Labor Day weekend is the 13th annual IMCA Racesaver Nationals. Cars from all over the country haul into Eagle Raceway in hopes of not only competing with the best of the best Racesaver teams anywhere but taking home the $13,000 top prize on Sunday. Everything begins on Thursday with each and every car and motor going through the toughest pre-race inspection in the business. Then, after nearly 3 hours of practice, the RaceJugs Race of Champion qualifying tops off the evening’s festivities. After that, there will be a pit party with a DJ and Karaoke. The Melon Bar will be open until 1 A.M.
Front gates open at 3 P.M. and admission is just $3 for adults 13 and up and children 12 and under are free. Pit gates open at 5. Pit passes are only $20.
RESULTS:
IMCA Sprints 32 Entries A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:14:01.021 1. 91-Adam Gulion[8]; 2. 35W-Gaige Weldon[7]; 3. 25-Gunnar Pike[6]; 4. 2T-Cameron Thompson[2]; 5. 25B-Chase Brewer[12]; 6. 18W-Cole Wayman[9]; 7. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[13]; 8. 4X-Jason Danley[10]; 9. 14G-Gene Ackland[1]; 10. 77-Bret Klabunde[4]; 11. 11J-Taylor Velasquez[20]; 12. 7M-Kevin Ramey[11]; 13. 1B-Brandon Horton[19]; 14. 7P-Dylan Ramey[18]; 15. 5-Stuart Snyder[14]; 16. 32-Trefer Wa ler[16]; 17. 2A-Alex Salzman[3]; 18. 9A-Hunter Hanson[17]; 19. 63 Jack Thomas[5]; 20. B2-Carson Bolden[15]
B Feature 1 12 Laps | 00:02:46.898 1. 9A-Hunter Hanson[2]; 2. 7P-Dylan Ramey[4]; 3. 1B-Brandon Horton[5]; 4. 11J-Taylor Velasquez[9]; 5. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[6]; 6. 17-Justin Bolte[11]; 7. 35L-Ty Ledger[7]; 8. 4W-Nathan Weiler[8]; 9. 99D-Mitche l Dvorak[3]; 10. 12 Troy Sanford[10]; 11. 03-Chris Helget[1]; 12. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[12] C Feature 1 10 Laps | 00:01:49.698 1. 11J-Taylor Velasquez[2]; 2. 12-Troy Sanford[1]; 3. 17-Justin Bolte[4]; 4. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[3]; 5. 3G-Dylon Knudson[6]; 6. 11C-Cole Cloud[5]; 7. 1A-Andrew Jackson[7]; 8. (DNS) 51-Mike Boston
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:02:15.675 1. 14G-Gene Ackland[3]; 2. 7M-Kevin Ramey[8]; 3. 2A-Alex Salzman[4]; 4. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[6]; 5. 03-Chris Helget[2]; 6. 1B-Brandon Horton[7]; 7. 12-Troy Sanford[5]; 8. 11C-Cole Cloud[1]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:03:01.963 1. 2T-Cameron Thompson[3]; 2. 35W-Gaige Weldon[6]; 3. 4X-Jason Danley[7]; 4. 5-Stuart Snyder[4]; 5. 9A-Hunter Hanson[2]; 6. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[5]; 7. 11J-Taylor Velasquez[8]; 8. 3G-Dylon Knudson[1]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:02:17.927 1. 91-Adam Gulion[6]; 2. 77-Bret Klabunde[4]; 3. 25-Gunnar Pike[5]; 4. B2-Carson Bolden[8]; 5. 99D-Mitche l Dvorak[2]; 6. 35L-Ty Ledger[3]; 7. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[1]; 8. 1A-Andrew Jackson[7]
Heat 4 10 Laps | 00:03:41.637 1. 63-Jack Thomas[4]; 2. 25B-Chase Brewer[8]; 3. 18W-Cole Wayman[6]; 4. 32-Trefer Waler[5]; 5. 7P-Dylan Ramey[7]; 6. 4W-Nathan Weiler[2]; 7. 17-Justin Bolte[1]; 8. 51-Mike Boston[3]