By Greg Soukup
It was another scorcher at Eagle Raceway Saturday as Pepsi of Lincoln presented Dirt Track Hero Salute. A heat index well over 100 degrees caused the start time to be pushed back to 7:30. Our goal at America’s Home Track is to always get the show run in3 ½ hours, and despite having an extra class of cars we succeeded. The Midwest Classic Stock Car Association (MCSA) made its annual visit, pushing the total number of cars in the pits to 149.
All preliminary events ran with no serious incidents.
The Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprints Feature saw Gunnar Pike’s 25, the 08 of Chase Koelliker, Bret Klabunde in the 77 and Tyler Hendrickson’s 14T out front. Koelliker snagged the lead on lap 2 as Trevor Grossenbacher passed Hendrickson to take over fourth in his #35. Grossenbacher passed Klabunde for third place on lap 12. The next circuit saw Hendrickson regain fourth. Grossenbacher moved to the lead with 6 circuits left as Pike retained second. The top 4 stayed the same to the checkered flag with Grossenbacher winning, Pike was second, Koelliker was third and Hendrickson fourth. The sprints also ran their race without a caution, garnering each driver with a free pit pass next week.
Trevor is the son of long time competitor Steve Grossenbacher and is living up to his legacy on the track. First win of the year elicited this from Trevor; “We started eighth tonight. That was a fun one! Lots of sliders, making it a blast. Once you got into lapped traffic it became even more fun. I got a run on them coming out of turn 2 and slid both of them in 3 and 4. Gunnar got back by me and I had to slide him again. I got by a lapped car and felt really good. Tyler gave me a good car tonight and Tate, my Dad and Scott all worked their butts off in the heat today. All of the fans came out in the heat, making it a great night; we needed it. We’ve had a pretty rough year so far. We got torn up a couple of times; we’re on our second car. It hasn’t been a good year so far, so we needed this win.” I told Trevor that this was old school Eagle racing, to which he replied “It was! Any time you can run at Eagle and rip the fence, run wide open, have fun and throw sliders, THAT’S Eagle Raceway to me.” Trevor’s sponsors include Stop ‘N Shop, Muehling Financial, Husker Diesel, Fast Track Farms, Greg’s Masonry, Cornhusker Heating and Air, Wilwood, Speedway Race Engines, Stewart Alley Memorial, Silver Ridge Construction, Buddha Concrete and Ron Fox Motorsports.
Next Saturday is FAN APPRECIATION NIGHT presented by Nebraska Lottery, Nebraska Realty & Stumpy's Custom Creations. 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.
RESULTS:
IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car 20 Entries A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:06:07.294 1. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[8]; 2. 25-Gunnar Pike[2]; 3. 08-Chase Koe liker[1]; 4. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[6]; 5. 77-Bret Klabunde[3]; 6. 77X-John Klabunde[4]; 7. 12-Tyler Drueke[16]; 8. 11-Taylor Velasquez[12]; 9. 18W-Cole Wayman[14]; 10. 91-Adam Gulion[11]; 11. 1B-Brandon Horton[7]; 12. 4X-Jason Danley[10]; 13. 03-Shayle Bade[17]; 14. 14G-Gene Ackland[13]; 15. 14J-Josh Riggins[19]; 16. 2A-Alex Salzman[5]; 17. 4W-Nathan Weiler[9]; 18. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[18]; 19. 10-Brad Schreiner[15]; 20. 2T-Cameron Thompson[20]
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:04:16.098 1. 25-Gunnar Pike[2]; 2. 08-Chase Koe liker[1]; 3. 77X-John Klabunde[3]; 4. 1B-Brandon Horton[4]; 5. 14G-Gene Ackland[5]; 6. 12-Tyler Drueke[7]; 7. 14J-Josh Riggins[6]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:05:43.871 1. 77-Bret Klabunde[2]; 2. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[4]; 3. 2A-Alex Salzman[3]; 4. 11-Taylor Velasquez[7]; 5. 18W-Cole Wayman[6]; 6. 03-Shayle Bade[5]; 7. 2T-Cameron Thompson[1]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:02:11.293 1. 91-Adam Gulion[6]; 2. 4W-Nathan Weiler[4]; 3. 4X-Jason Danley[5]; 4. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[3]; 5. 10-Brad Schreiner[1]; 6. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[2]