By Greg Soukup
With just 2 weeks left in the regular season, a huge crowd showed up at Eagle Raceway Saturday for Get Fired Up! Night, presented by Empire Fence, High Noon and the Lincoln Stars. And a beautiful night it was with sunny skies, a nice northerly breeze and temperatures falling from the high 70’s to the lower 70’s by feature time.
With the IMCA Sprint Car Racesaver Nationals just 2 weeks away there were several out-of-town visitors getting some extra laps in on the high banks, requiring a C Feature for the class.
There were 2 incidents in the IMCA Racesaver Sprint heat #1. Alex Davenport got his #25A into the marbles in turns 3 & 4, ended up getting sideways before the right-side tires dug in and sent him into a slow rollover. A couple laps later Clint Benson’s 100 got sideways in turns 1 & 2 and ended up flipping. Neither driver was hurt and both rejoined the action later in the evening.
The first lap of the Twin Rivers IMCA Racesaver A Feature saw Ty Ledger out front in the 35L, followed by the 84 of Max Roseland, Mike Boston’s 51 and the 14 of Joey Danley. Danley passed Boston on lap 5 for third. Boston dropped out the following lap, putting the 22D of Dan Neckolite into fourth place. Jake Bubak passed Neckolite the next circuit to put the 74B into fourth. Danley moved up to second on lap 8. Jake Galusha’s 8B slowed the next time around in turns 3 & 4 for a caution. Bubak used the restart to advance to second while Danley took over the lead. Trevor Grossenbacher slowed on the back stretch with 4 to go, slowing the action again. It was a high-speed chase to the checkers with Danley winning, Bubak second, Ledger third and Josh Riggins in the 14J.
Joey stated “The last 2 weeks have gone fairly well, but the week before that was probably the worst night I ever had in racing. We’re bouncing back pretty well. We had a pretty successful night tonight. Because of that bad night I got to start fifth, so maybe I should have a bad night more often because that helped a ton! It’s nice to get up front early. Just because we started where we did doesn’t mean it was easy. I mean it was easy. Ty Ledger had a rocket tonight. I kept getting yellow after yellow so I got to start on his rear bumper. If it had gone green/white/checkers I don’t think I could have caught him. I think we went 3 wide for second because I saw Bubak’s nose. I knew I could clear them both because I had the top and I had the momentum off of four. I knew I had to shut the door on them and I did. I saw Bubak’s nose several times again the rest of the race but he must not have gotten a big enough run to try and slide me. Whenever you can hold him off you’ve done something, especially for the win. The track was best on the bottom of 1 & 2. I would have loved to run the top there, but I tried it 3 or 4 times and it was a little bit bumpy up there and the car would start bouncing and you’d lose all of your momentum. The bottom coming out of 2 had a lot of moisture, so that’s where you had to be and that’s where I spent the rest of the race after I took the lead. It makes me feel good knowing that he had a good car too and he was searching everywhere but couldn’t catch us”. I asked if this was just a tune-up for the IMCA Sprint Car Racesaver Nationals and he replied, “You can say that”. I corrected him by stating “I said that! I want to know what you think” and he said We’re out here fighting for a points championship, but I think we wrapped that up tonight so to cap it off tonight and hold off Bubak, I would call it a hell of a night!!!:.
Next Saturday is The Final Countdown, presented by A1 Iron and Mammoth Station. With all points championships still up for grabs, you won’t want to miss this one!!
Adult front gate admission is $15 and youths 6-12 are just $5 with 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. Joey Danley Martell, Ne. 2. Jake Bubak Lubbock, Tx. 3. Ty Ledger(r) Omaha, Ne. 4. Josh Riggins Lincoln, Ne. 5. Daniel Nekolite O'neill, Ne. 6. Adam Gullion Lincoln, Ne. 7. Maxwell Roseland Carter Lake, Ia. 8. Cole Vanderheiden(r) Papillion, Ne. 9. Stuart Snyder Lincoln, Ne. 10. Tyler Drueke Eagle, Ne. 11. Gunnar Pike South Bend, Ne. 12. Ryan Kitchen Seward, Ne. 13. Jason Danley Lincoln, Ne. 14. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne. 15. Brandon Bosma Rock Rapids, Ia. 16. Toby Chapman Panama, Ne. 17. Jay Russell Wathena, Ks. 18. Trevor Grossenbacher Panama, Ne. 19. Jake Galusha Lincoln, Ne. 20. Mike Boston Lincoln, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA B-Feature
1. Jay Russell Wathena, Ks. 2. Jason Danley Lincoln, Ne. 3. Tyler Drueke Eagle, Ne. 4. Trevor Grossenbacher Panama, Ne. 5. Ryan Navratil East Des Moines, Ia. 6. Gene Ackland Martell, Ne. 7. Jacob Dye Albany, Mo. 8. Brandon Horton Waterloo, Ne. 9. Andy Pake 10. Alex Davenport Lincoln, Ne. 11. Andrew Jackson Fremont, Ne. 12. Mike Houseman Jr Des Moines, Ia.
Sprint-IMCA C-Feature
1. Jacob Dye Albany, Mo. 2. Brandon Horton Waterloo, Ne. 3. Andy Pake 4. Alex Davenport Lincoln, Ne. 5. Alex Salzman Lincoln, Ne. 6. Nick Bryan Lincoln, Ne. 7. Bill Garrow Lincoln, Ne. 8. Steve Hurst(r) Ames, Ne. 9. Dwight Carter Lincoln, Ne. DNS. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 1
1. Ryan Kitchen Seward, Ne. 2. Adam Gullion Lincoln, Ne. 3. Brandon Bosma Rock Rapids, Ia. 4. Cole Vanderheiden(r) Papillion, Ne. 5. Ryan Navratil East Des Moines, Ia. 6. Andrew Jackson Fremont, Ne. 7. Steve Hurst(r) Ames, Ne. 8. Clint Benson Papillion, Ne. 9. Alex Davenport Lincoln, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 2
1. Josh Riggins Lincoln, Ne. 2. Maxwell Roseland Carter Lake, Ia. 3. Stuart Snyder Lincoln, Ne. 4. Jake Galusha Lincoln, Ne. 5. Jay Russell Wathena, Ks. 6. Tyler Drueke Eagle, Ne. 7. Brandon Horton Waterloo, Ne. 8. Nick Bryan Lincoln, Ne. 9. Dwight Carter Lincoln, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 3
1. Mike Boston Lincoln, Ne. 2. Joey Danley Martell, Ne. 3. Jake Bubak Lubbock, Tx. 4. Toby Chapman Panama, Ne. 5. Trevor Grossenbacher Panama, Ne. 6. Mike Houseman Jr Des Moines, Ia. 7. Jacob Dye Albany, Mo. 8. Alex Salzman Lincoln, Ne.
Sprint-IMCA Heat 4
1. Ty Ledger(r) Omaha, Ne. 2. Daniel Nekolite O'neill, Ne. 3. Gunnar Pike South Bend, Ne. 4. Doug Lovegrove Waverly, Ne. 5. Jason Danley Lincoln, Ne. 6. Gene Ackland Martell, Ne. 7. Andy Pake 8. Bill Garrow Lincoln, Ne.