By Greg Soukup
The finale for the 2016 Racesaver IMCA Sprint Nationals, presented by Precise Racing Products and NCM/The Cat Rental Store, was one for the record books. The largest crowd yet to see the culmination of the event, featuring the largest car count since its inception enjoyed sunny skies and warm temperatures while they viewed the heated action on the high banks of Eagle Raceway Sunday.
Six preliminary features for the sprints, heats for the supports classes and B Features for those support classes set up the A Features. There were several serious incidents in the sprint preliminary features, but luckily, none of the drivers were seriously injured.
The Racesaver IMCA Sprint Car big show saw Clint Benson’s #100 make contact with another car, losing the front end of his racer and Tyler Russell’s 8KK went flipping in turn 3. He was not seriously injured. Russell’s mount, Benson’s racer and the #51 of Mike Boston all went to the pits. When a lap was finally in the books Chad Wilson’s 20, the 84 of Jack Dover, John Carney II in the 74B and Andy Shouse’s 27 were the top 4. Carney caught a rut in turn 1 on lap 4, began bouncing and ended up flipping in turns 1 and 2. Dave Brown Jr. slid sideways in his 44 to try and stop, hit the implement tire in turn 1 and flipped end over end. That moved Shouse up to third and put the 15X of Black Robertson into fourth. Jason Martin moved his 5X into fourth on the restart. The next circuit Dover took the lead and Trevor Grossenbacher put his 35 into fourth. Grossenbacher and Martin both got past Shouse to advance to third and fourth respectively on lap 11. Martin then passed Grossenbacher on lap 16. Wilson was passed by Martin on lap 19 and Grossenbacher remained in fourth. Jake Bubak looped the 9X coming out of turn 4 on lap 21 and the yellow lights again were lit. Wilson spun out with 3 to go in turn 4, making the top 4 Dover, Martin, Shouse and the 12 of
Tyler Drueke. Robertson moved back to fourth on the restart and kept advancing; taking third the next time around and passing Martin for second after another circuit. The final top 4 ended up being Dover, Robertson, Martin and Shouse.
Dover related “A huge thanks, and I mean HUGE thanks goes out to Chris Roseland for letting me drive this awesome car of his!!! Steve, Dave and Rick gave me a great car set-up; it was really awesome to drive. We dropped a cylinder about 10 laps in, and I just hoped that the motor would survive. But Zach, Ben and everyone else at Speedway Engines put together a really fabulous, reliable bullet for us. Another big thanks goes out to Roger for giving us awesome tracks every night all weekend. It never took rubber once the whole time and was just fantastic”.
Eagle Raceway’s 2016 season ends this coming Friday when the Nebraska Cup takes center stage on the high banks of America’s Home Track. Three of the premier race car series in the state will do battle, including the SLMR Late Models, Nebraska 360 Sprints and the Sprint Series of Nebraska.
Front gates open at 5:15 with hot laps at 5:30 and racing at 6:30. Adult front gate admission is $18, youths 6-12 are $5 and children 5 and under are free.
Pit gates open at 4, with pit admission being $25.
RESULTS:
IMCA Sprint A-Feature 1. Jack Dover 84 2. Blake Robertson 15 3. Jason Martin 5X 4. Andy Shouse 27 5. Tyler Drueke 12 6. Trevor Grossenbacher 35 7. Kevin Ramey 7M 8. Jake Bukak 9X 9. Toby Chapman 7KX 10. Stuart Snyder 23S 11. Shon Pointer 20P 12. Mark Watkins 36 13. Darren Berry 12X 14. Dusty Ballenger 2D 15. Chad Koch 35K 16. Shayle Bade 03 17. Luke Cranston 20C 18. Nate Weiler 4W 19. Matt Richards 1R 20. Gene Ackland 14G 21. Chad Wilson 20 22. Adam Gullion 91 23. John Carney 74B 24. Dave Brown Jr. 44 25. Clint Benson 100 26. Tyler Russell 8KK 27. Mike Boston 51