By Greg Soukup
After a bout of liquid sunshine forced the cancellation of what was to be the season opener at Eagle Raceway last Saturday this Saturday was a beautiful spring day for Junior Fan Club Night, sponsored by Hippo Equipment, Avid Realty and Pepsi of Lincoln.
The large crowd weren’t the only ones ready for action on the high banks of One Badass Racetrack as 158 teams filled the pits, anxious to test their mettle during 18m heats, 3 C Features, 5 B Features and 5 A Features.
At intermission, the front stretch was flooded with young fans as the competed in the Candy Grab, trying to get their share of the 500 pounds of candy there provided by Sam’s Club.
There was one serious incident in the preliminary action, coming in the B Main for the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint Cars. Josh Riggins got too high going into turn one in the 14J, backed into and over the wall, flipped and ended up on his side. He was not seriously injured but his night was through.
Stu Snyder put the #5 in first on lap 1 of the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car A Feature with Brandon Horton’s 1B, the 63 of Jack Thomas and Cameron Thompson’s 2T close behind. Adam Gullion passed Thompson on lap 2 to put the 91 into fourth. Thomas got under and past Horton on lap 11 to move up to second. Lap 12 saw Cole Wayman’s 18W suffer a flat right rear tire and come to a halt just before the track exit. He would get the tire changed and rejoin the field. That brought out the Eastep Wheels Choose Cone, setting the top 4 as follows, Snyder, Thomas, Horton and Gullion and for the Delaware restart. Trevor Grossenbacher jumped from fifth place up to third on the restart, moving Thomas back to fourth with Horton retaking second place. Gullion made a slide job stick with 2 to go, advancing past Thomas for fourth. The top four remained unchanged with ‘Superman’ Stu Snyder winning, Horton second, Grossenbacher third and Gullion fourth.
This made 2 in a row for Snyder, who won the Saturday night portion of the Icebreaker Challenge, I kidded Stu, saying “I would say nice run, but you started out front” to which he replied “It always helps to start out front. You just have to run like a chicken with your head cut off and make sure that nobody gets back around you. You have to be consistent to stay up front. You have to have speed pretty much all night long. We had to change gears for the feature. As soon as the rubber showed up I knew that I had to just hit my marks, don’t get too tight and dispose of the lapped cars as quick as I could. I have to send a huge shout out to Leiting Motorsports for their help. Also, MRSNY Automotive came on board with us this year as did Steven Alcorn out of Oklahoma. We’re going to put his name on all of our cars, including the kids’ cars. Thanks to all of my sponsors we’ll just keep clicking away and hopefully win every other week if not every week.” Stu’s other sponsors include KRL Racing, SLS Motorsports, Stephenson’s Truck and RV Repair, Mr. Yards and More, Tailored Computers, Swirlfire Apparel, Simpson Racing Products, Harris Decals, Bully Brands, BR Motorsports and Speedway Engines.
Next week Moms Rule Night at Eagle Raceway, presented by Empire Fence, AM Contracting and Rotella’s. Grandstands open at 5:15 with hot laps at 5:45.
Adult front gate admission is $15, youths 6-12 are just $5 and children 5 and under are free.
Pit gate open at 3:15 with pit admission being $30. Racing begins at 6:30 with all 5 classes competing; Stock Cars, SportMods, Modifieds, Sprint Cars and Hobby Stocks. Hobby Stocks will be draw/redraw with an upgraded payout of $350 to win the A Feature and $100 to start.
RESULTS:
Eagle, NE IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car 28 Entries
A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:10:37.338 1. 5-Stuart Snyder[1]; 2. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[6]; 3. 1B-Brandon Horton[2]; 4. 91-Adam Gu lion[9]; 5. 63-Jack Thomas[3]; 6. 12-Tyler Drueke[13]; 7. 35L-Gaige Weldon[16]; 8. 25-Gunnar Pike[11]; 9. 11D-Dominic White[12]; 10. 11 Billy Aley[8]; 11. 77X-John Klabunde[7]; 12. 4X-Jason Danley[18]; 13. 14G-Gene Ackland[10]; 14. 2A-Alex Salzman[5]; 15. 4W-Nathan Weiler[20]; 16. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[15]; 17. 18W-Cole Wayman[17]; 18. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[19]; 19. 2T Cameron Thompson[4]; 20. 45-Monty Ferriera[14]
B Feature 1 12 Laps | 00:11:00.726 1. 35L-Gaige Weldon[2]; 2. 18W-Cole Wayman[5]; 3. 4X-Jason Danley[3]; 4. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[8]; 5. 4W-Nathan Weiler[9]; 6. 17-Justin Bolte[4]; 7. 77-Bret Klabunde[6]; 8. 10-Brad Schreiner[7]; 9. 11C-Cole Cloud[12]; 10. 03-Shayle Bade[13]; 11. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[10]; 12. 14J-Josh Riggins[1]; 13. 3V-Len Vermeulen[11]
Drueke Trucking Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:03:30.601 1. 11-Billy Aley[1]; 2. 5-Stuart Snyder[3]; 3. 11D-Dominic White[6]; 4. 2A-Alex Salzman[2]; 5. 12-Tyler Drueke[8]; 6. 14J Josh Riggins[10]; 7. 17-Justin Bolte[9]; 8. 10-Brad Schreiner[4]; 9. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[7]; 10. 03-Shayle Bade[5]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:02:15.204 1. 91-Adam Gulion[1]; 2. 25-Gunnar Pike[3]; 3. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[5]; 4. 77X-John Klabunde[2]; 5. 45-Monty Ferriera[6]; 6. 35L-Gaige Weldon[4]; 7. 18W-Cole Wayman[8]; 8. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[7]; 9. 3V-Len Vermeulen[9]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:02:20.313 1. 63-Jack Thomas[4]; 2. 1B-Brandon Horton[1]; 3. 2T-Cameron Thompson[2]; 4. 14G-Gene Ackland[6]; 5. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[7];
6. 4X-Jason Danley[8]; 7. 77-Bret Klabunde[3]; 8. 4W-Nathan Weiler[5]; 9. 11C-Cole Cloud[9]