By Greg Soukup
A beautiful, blue sky greeted the large crowd that filed through the front gates of Eagle Raceway Saturday for Junior Fan Club Night, presented by AM Concrete Washouts. In the pits were 140 race teams; all ready to give the fans a great show and they more than succeeded!
There were no serious incidents in the preliminary racing.
During intermission, the younger fans 12 and under were invited onto the front stretch for the annual Kids Money Grab as $2,000 was spread out onto the track.
The lead on lap 1 of the Main Event for the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint Cars went to the 76 of Jay Russell, followed by Dylan Wahdahl’s X, the 8B of Kaedon Thurman and Justin Bolte in the 17. Bolte moved up to third on lap 2 with Brandon Horton also passing Thurman the next lap, putting the 1B into fourth. Gunnar Pike’s 25 came to a halt against the wall in turn 4 on lap 10 for a caution. The Choose Cone top 4 were Russell, Waxdahl, Horton and Bolte. Horton passed Waxdahl on the restart to take over the second spot but Waxdahl regained the position the following lap as Jason Danley put the 4X into fourth place. Horton
again got past Waxdahl for second on lap 15. Alex Salzman’s 2A stopped at the top of turn 2 with 10 to go and the yellow lights were lit in the corners again. Russell, Waxdahl, Horton and Danley were the Choose Cone top 4. The restart saw a 4-car pileup in turn 4 when Waxdahl slid up into Horton, sending Horton and Danley into the infield and backing up the field behind them. Trevor Grossenbacher’s 35 and Bolte ending up on their sides with Bret Klabunde stopped as well at the bottom of turn 4. The new top 4 for the restart were Russell, Waxdahl, Tyler Drueke’s 12 and Danley. Drueke moved up to second on the restart as Adam Gullion put his #91 into fourth. Drueke passed Russell the following circuit. Gullion took over the third spot with 7 to go and passed Waxdahl for second place the next lap. The final change in your top 4 came with 2 to go as Danley again moved into fourth. Drueke won, Gullion was second, Russell ended up third with Danley fourth. For his victory celebration Tyler did a headfirst belly flop into the muddy spot inside turn 1, bringing a roar from the crowd.
This was Tyler’s second Eagle Raceway victory in 2026, having come from 11th on the starting grid. He said “It took me a little while to get to the front but the track turned out really good with a top, middle and bottom lines. You could race all over it. There was a little character to keep you on your toes. I thought it was a really good racetrack and we should have put on a great show for the fans. We keep taking our time, getting a little better with this coil over car each time. I want to thank Jack and bonnie at J&J for building this coil over sprint and giving us to the chance to run it. It’s still a work in progress. The stuff we used to do with the torsion bar car doesn’t work on this one. We have to learn to get outside our comfort zone and learn new ways.” Tyler’s sponsors include Speedway Motors Racing Engines, Cherney Enterprises, Cutting Edge Ag, Forbes Motorsports, Drueke Trucking, Jeffries Trucking, Engels Energy Service, Johnson Farms and Kings Auto Supply.
Next Saturday is The Duel In The Dirt, presented by Empire Fence and S&L Trenching. All 5 IMCA classes will be competing.
Grandstands open at 5:15 with adult admission being $20, youths 6-12 are just $5 with children 5 and under free.
Pit gates open at 3:15 and hot laps start at 5:45 and racing at 6:30.
After the races, the always great fun of the Hillbilly Slip N’ Slide will be held in turn 1.
RESULTS:
IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car 24 Entries A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:20:35.466 1. 12-Tyler Drueke[11]; 2. 91-Adam Gu lion[12]; 3. 76-Jay Russe l[1]; 4. 4X-Jason Danley[7]; 5. X-Dylan Waxdahl[4]; 6. 11D Dominic White[15]; 7. 14G-Gene Ackland[14]; 8. 5-Stuart Snyder[16]; 9. 18W-Cole Wayman[13]; 10. 03-Shayle Bade[5]; 11. 14J-Josh Riggins[18]; 12. 77-Bret Klabunde[20]; 13. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[2]; 14. 4W-Nathan Weiler[19]; 15. 1B-Brandon Horton[6]; 16. 17-Justin Bolte[3]; 17. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[10]; 18. 2A-Alex Salzman[17]; 19. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[9]; 20. 25-Gunnar Pike[8]
B Feature 1 10 Laps | 00:02:13.086 1. 5-Stuart Snyder[1]; 2. 2A-Alex Salzman[3]; 3. 14J-Josh Riggins[4]; 4. 4W-Nathan Weiler[7]; 5. 77-Bret Klabunde[2]; 6. 10 Brad Schreiner[6]; 7. 3V-Len Vermeulen[5]; 8. 17JS-Julianna Satriano[9]; 9. (DNS) 2T-Cameron Thompson
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:02:14.276 1. 76-Jay Russel[1]; 2. X-Dylan Waxdahl[3]; 3. 17-Justin Bolte[2]; 4. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[7]; 5. 18W-Cole Wayman[8]; 6. 5-Stuart Snyder[6]; 7. 14J-Josh Riggins[5]; 8. 4W-Nathan Weiler[4]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:05:23.353 1. 03-Shayle Bade[4]; 2. 12-Tyler Drueke[7]; 3. 25-Gunnar Pike[6]; 4. 91-Adam Gu lion[8]; 5. 14G-Gene Ackland[5]; 6. 77 Bret Klabunde[3]; 7. 3V-Len Vermeulen[1]; 8. 2T-Cameron Thompson[2]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:04:07.795 1. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[1]; 2. 1B-Brandon Horton[4]; 3. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[6]; 4. 4X-Jason Danley[5]; 5. 11D-Dominic White[7]; 6. 2A-Alex Salzman[3]; 7. 10-Brad Schreiner[2]; 8. 17JS-Julianna Satriano[8]