By Greg Soukup
As exciting as Night 1 of the 2025 Icebreaker Challenge, presented by Auto Trans Matic and Stop ‘N Shop was, Night 2 promised to be even more thrilling for both the fans and drivers. The crowd at Eagle Raceway was bigger and the car count was up from just 120 to 131.
Three drivers were looking at a REALLY big payday. In addition to the regular purse, there was a $1000 bonus on the line if any of the three could repeat their Friday night wins with a victory Saturday. Jordan Grabouski in the A1 Iron IMCA Stock Cars, Izak Mallicoat in the Nebraska’s Best Lawn and Landscape IMCA Modifieds and Tyler Nerud in the Avid Realty IMCA Sportmods were chomping at the bit to get out onto the high banked 1/3 of America’s Home Track and fight their way to the front of their main events and show that their Friday wins were no fluke.
In the B Feature for the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprints Matt Johnson’s #30 got up into the marbles in turn 3, sending him high up into the Armco barrier where it climbed the barrier and came to a halt in the grassy area above the track in turn 4.
Neither driver was seriously injured.
Brandon Horton led lap 1 of the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car feature with the 25 of Gunnar Pike second, Jay Russell’s 7 and Tyler Drueke in the 12 close behind. Russell passed Pike for second on lap 2. Drueke passed Pike on lap 3 for third and got past Russell for second on lap 7. Drueke then took over the top spot from Horton on lap 9. Lee 6Goos Jr. got around Russell on lap 15 to put the 17X into fourth then advanced to third with 8 to go. Pike passed Russell for fourth with 9 laps remaining. Goos Jr. got under and past Horton for second with 7 to go. Pike picked off Horton 3 laps later. Jason Danley spun his 4X to a stop along the wall coming out of turn 4 with 2 to go and the yellow flag was displayed, setting up a green/white/checkered finish. The top 4 went unchanged with Drueke first, Goos Jr. second, Pike third and Horton fourth.
“They made us earn that one! Coming out of 4 there, Brandon and I got sideways; there must have been some grease down there that we didn’t see. We both were back to fourth or fifth there, had to regroup and get our momentum going again. The track was slick up to the curb at the top. You really had to hustle. Luckily, our car was just good enough that we got into the corners in the slick and could pass cars that way. That made all the difference”. I mentioned the nice payout, to which he replied “I made a few decisions about racing all because of the money before and it never turned out well, so tonight was clearly all about where we wanted to go and it turned out good for us. I think Roger did a really nice job with the track tonight. The way it’s shaped and banked, it’s flat on the bottom and banks up from there. I think that once the summer months come around and the cushion dries out a little bit it
will keep moving up and just organically bring the bottom back late in the night. I think our strong suit tonight was getting into the middle in the slick and then getting back to the cushion. That will just keep getting better in the summer months once the cushion keeps moving up the racetrack. Tonight, it was like 2 car widths from the wall and then just stopped there. I think it’s going to race really nice this year”. I then asked Tyler the question on the minds of so many, did he plan on returning to Eagle Raceway this year? He stated “Man! There must have been a hundred people who asked me that tonight!! We’ll be here; not every week but a good amount, probably 8 or 10 times”. Tyler’s sponsors include Forbes Motorsports, Cherney Enterprises, LLC, American Trailer Co. , Drueke Trucking & Ranch, Zoz Farms, Jeffres Trucking LLC, Angels Energy Service, Johnson Farms, Kings Auto Supply, Jimbell, Double Z Express, Gordon Electric Inc., Midwest Racing Performance, J&J Auto Racing, Speedway Motors Racing Engines, Victory Fuel.
If the regular season is anywhere even CLOSE to the action we saw at the Icebreaker Challenge, you won’t want to miss even 1 single night of racing action!!!
Next weekend the regular season opens on Saturday, April 26th as Avid Realty and Empire Fence present Opening Act Season Opener at Eagle Raceway.
All 5 classes will be in action, including Nebraska Septic Sprint Cars Nebraska's Best Modifieds Avid Realty SportMods A1 Iron Stock Cars Valentino's Hobby Stocks
General Admission Grandstands: Adult (13+): $15 Youth (6-12): $5 Child (5 & under): FREE Pit Passes: $35 (All ages cost the same. Minors 17 & younger must have a minor waiver on file with the track)
Pits Open: 3:15PM Driver Check-in ends: 5:30PM Grandstands open: 5:15PM Hot Laps: 5:45PM -Stock Cars -SportMods -Modifieds -Hobby Stocks
-Sprint Cars Racing: 6:30PM Heats & Features same order as Hot Laps
RESULTS:
IMCA Sprints 44 Entries A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:09:57.001 1. 12-Tyler Drueke[3]; 2. 17X-Lee Goos Jr[16]; 3. 25-Gunnar Pike[2]; 4. 1B-Brandon Horton[1]; 5. 76-Jay Russel[4]; 6. 63 Jack Thomas; 7. 23-Brandon Bosma[17]; 8. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[12]; 9. 18W-Cole Wayman[13]; 10. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[7]; 11. 03-Shayle Bade[8]; 12. 32-Trefer Waler[20]; 13. 5-Stuart Snyder[18]; 14. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[19]; 15. 2D-Dusty Balenger[11]; 16. 77-Bret Klabunde[5]; 17. 2A-Alex Salzman[14]; 18. 4X-Jason Danley[10]; 19. 100-Clint Benson[15]; 20. 14-Joey Danley[9]; 21. 31-Koby Werkmeister[6]
B Feature 1 12 Laps | 00:01:24.412 1. 17X-Lee Goos Jr[7]; 2. 23-Brandon Bosma[5]; 3. 5-Stuart Snyder[6]; 4. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[1]; 5. 32-Trefer Wa ler[11]; 6. 53L-Ty Ledger[3]; 7. 4W-Nathan Weiler[10]; 8. 14G-Gene Ackland[14]; 9. 25A-Alex Davenport[13]; 10. 11D-Dominic White[12]; 11. 63-Jack Thomas[2]; 12. 14N-Nick Barger[8]; 13. 45C-Mike Boston[4]; 14. 30-Matt Johnson[9]
C Feature 1 12 Laps | 00:04:45.755 1. 32-Trefer Waler[4]; 2. 11D-Dominic White[2]; 3. 25A-Alex Davenport[1]; 4. 14G-Gene Ackland[5]; 5. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[6]; 6. 98-Nate Barger[12]; 7. 17B-Ryan Bickett[9]; 8. 2T-Cameron Thompson[3]; 9. 6B-Bayley Ballenger[7]; 10. 23V-Michalob Voeltz[11]; 11. 56-Bi l Johnson[10]; 12. 6-Mason Day[8]
D Feature 1 10 Laps | 00:01:21.846 1. 23V-Michalob Voeltz[2]; 2. 98-Nate Barger[4]; 3. 20T-Travis Christensen[1]; 4. 3G-Dylon Knudson[5]; 5. (DNS) 3T-Dan Satriano; 6. (DNS) 47-Kyra Weber; 7. (DNS) 8R-Roman Mason; 8. (DNS) 77X-John Klabunde; 9. (DNS) 11-Jaxon Brenning
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:02:13.104 1. 1B-Brandon Horton[1]; 2. 31-Koby Werkmeister[3]; 3. 2D-Dusty Ba lenger[4]; 4. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[2]; 5. 5-Stuart Snyder[5]; 6. 25A-Alex Davenport[6]; 7. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[8]; 8. (DNS) 77X-John Klabunde; 9. (DNS) 47-Kyra Weber
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:02:09.897 1. 12-Tyler Drueke[2]; 2. 03-Shayle Bade[1]; 3. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[5]; 4. 63-Jack Thomas[7]; 5. 17X-Lee Goos Jr[9]; 6. 11D-Dominic White[6]; 7. 6B-Bayley Ba lenger[8]; 8. 20T-Travis Christensen[4]; 9. 98-Nate Barger[3]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:02:11.770 1. 4X-Jason Danley[2]; 2. 76-Jay Russe l[4]; 3. 18W-Cole Wayman[5]; 4. 53L-Ty Ledger[6]; 5. 14N-Nick Barger[7]; 6. 2T Cameron Thompson[8]; 7. 6-Mason Day[1]; 8. (DNS) 11-Jaxon Brenning; 9. (DNS) 8R-Roman Mason
Heat 4 10 Laps | 00:02:17.773 1. 25-Gunnar Pike[1]; 2. 77-Bret Klabunde[4]; 3. 2A-Alex Salzman[2]; 4. 45C-Mike Boston[6]; 5. 30-Matt Johnson[5]; 6. 32 Trefer Waler[3]; 7. 17B-Ryan Bickett[8]; 8. 23V-Michalob Voeltz[7]; 9. 3G-Dylon Knudson[9]
Heat 5 10 Laps | 00:08:31.222 1. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[2]; 2. 14-Joey Danley[7]; 3. 100-Clint Benson[6]; 4. 23-Brandon Bosma[8]; 5. 4W-Nathan Weiler[3]; 6. 14G-Gene Ackland[4]; 7. 56-Bil Johnson[5]; 8. 3T-Dan Satriano[1]