By Greg Soukup
You may or may not believe this, it being August in Nebraska, but Saturday’s ‘All Hail The Eagle Dirt Kings Night’ presented by Pepsi and Demon Decals at Eagle Raceway was HOT!!!!!!! Temperatures reaching 100 and a heat index far surpassing may have lowered the car count and kept some fans from coming out, but the racing was fantastic as always with 3-wide action into the features.
There were no serious incidents in the preliminary racing.
Last up was the A Feature for the Twin Rivers IMCA Racesaver Sprints. Ryan Kitchen led lap 1 in the 91K, Brandon Horton’s 1B was second, Doug Lovegrove held third in the 55 with fourth place being held by Dan Nekolite’s 22D. Horton passed Kitchen for the lead on lap 2. Mike Houseman Jr. put the 4L into fourth place the next time around. Kitchen retook the lead on lap 4. Houseman Jr. moved up to third on lap 9 but lost the spot back to Lovegrove the next circuit. Lovegrove moved up to second on lap 11 and Houseman Jr. followed him into third the next lap. Joey Danley took over fourth place after another circuit in the 14 before moving up to third with 8 to go before taking second with 5 to go as Lovegrove took the lead. The top 4 at the checkers were Lovegrove, Danley, Kitchen and the 91 of Adam Gullion taking fourth in the closing laps.
Doug’s win came from 5th on the starting grid. I mentioned to Doug that it had been a long time since I had the pleasure of interviewing him, to which he replied “Yeah. I don’t know that we won one last year, but the year before that I think we won 3 or 4. We made some changes to what our usual regimen is I think it’s going to help us out. This car is actually my old car that I bought in 2011, the Weers family bought it from me for Richard to run so now I’m getting to get back into my old car. It’s a really good car; I don’t know why I ever sold it. It rolls around the track really nice. I want to say I got up front four or five laps in. I was rolling around following Ryan and seeing how his car worked. I didn’t think that as the bottom burned off that he was going to be able to stick there. I wasn’t going to press the issue with him because I was fairly confident that I could get around him before too long. If I could just get a good head of steam that I could keep the really good drivers that were rolling around the cushion behind me. I’m lucky because I didn’t get to see any of those last few laps! I was behind a black and white lapped car and I couldn't seem to get him. I rolled into turn 3 and thought to myself ‘Those last 2 laps were so slow that somebody had to be coming!’. So, I rolled into the corners just hard enough that the car would drift all the way to the wall and shut the door on anybody coming on the top. I wasn’t going to lead all of those laps and then give it away in the last corner!! Dick, Yvonne and Richard Weers are great people to drive for and great friends. We have a lot of fun They’re at another track tonight, so they missed it, but I bet that they’ll be here next week because we had a blast ”. Doug’s sponsors include Carpetland and Duros Dent works.
Next weekend is Junior Fan Club Night, presented by Avid Realty.
Adult front gate admission is $15 and youths 6-12 and children 5 and under free.
All 5 classes will be in competition including the Twin Rivers Sprint Cars, Nebraska Lottery Modifieds, Avid Realty SportMods, Valentino’s Hobby Stocks & A1 Iron Stock Cars.
Front gates open at 5:15.
Pit gates open at 3:30 with pit passes costing $30. Hot laps begin at 5:30.
RESULTS:
Sprint-IMCA A-Feature
1. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne. 2. Joey Danley Martell, Ne. 3. Ryan Kitchen Seward, Ne. 4. Adam Gullion Lincoln, Ne. 5. Mike Houseman Jr Des Moines, Ia. 6. Jason Danley Lincoln, Ne. 7. Brandon Horton Waterloo, Ne. 8. Trevor Grossenbacher Panama, Ne. 9. Daniel Nekolite O'neill, Ne. 10. Toby Chapman Panama, Ne. 11. Mike Boston Lincoln, Ne. 12. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne. 13. Jake Galusha Lincoln, Ne. 14. Derek Kral(r) York, Ne. 15. Gene Ackland Martell, Ne. 16. Cole Vanderheiden(r) Papillion, Ne. 17. Chase Weiler Lincoln, Ne. 18. Andrew Jackson Fremont, Ne. 19. Alex Davenport Lincoln, Ne. 20. Alex Salzman Lincoln, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 1
1. Ryan Kitchen Seward, Ne. 2. Joey Danley Martell, Ne. 3. Jason Danley Lincoln, Ne. 4. Chase Weiler Lincoln, Ne. 5. Trevor Grossenbacher Panama, Ne. 6. Andrew Jackson Fremont, Ne. 7. Alex Davenport Lincoln, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 2
1. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne. 2. Mike Boston Lincoln, Ne. 3. Toby Chapman Panama, Ne. 4. Daniel Nekolite O'neill, Ne. 5. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne. 6. Cole Vanderheiden(r) Papillion, Ne. 7. Alex Salzman Lincoln, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 3
1. Brandon Horton Waterloo, Ne. 2. Mike Houseman Jr Des Moines, Ia. 3. Jake Galusha Lincoln, Ne. 4. Adam Gullion Lincoln, Ne. 5. Gene Ackland Martell, Ne. 6. Derek Kral(r) York, Ne.