Griffis, Alcorn, Novak and Shepard Take The Checkered at Eagle Raceway

Story by Greg Soukup

The second full day of summer brought warm temperatures and a breeze to Eagle Raceway, America’s Home Track Saturday afternoon. But, as the evening progressed and the sun set the temperatures created a beautiful evening for racing. The action on the track was just as torrid as the afternoon sun had been.

Two minor incidents occurred before the Feature events even got started. Tige Jensen rolled his #71 sprinter between turns 1 and 2 in the first Budweiser Championship 360 Sprint heat race. Shortly after that in the Stereo West Auto Toys IMCA Sport Compact heat race #1, Jessica Tadlock spun in turn two and rolled her racer gently into the infield. Neither driver was hurt badly, but Jensen’s night was over.

In the 360 Sprint B Feature Kevin Danley rolled his #7X, crushing the top wing. He attempted to continue despite having his wing flattened above his racer, only to pull into the infield 2 laps later.

The Stereo West Auto Toys IMCA Sport Compact A Feature saw Steve Shepard take the lead; with Brian Haller’s B32 and the 26 of Derrick Dreamer in 2nd and 3rd. Dreamer passed Haller with 13 laps remaining and then got around Shepard for the lead 3 laps later. On the same circuit, Maynard Kinnersley also got around Haller in his #18 for the third position. Another 3 laps were in the books when Shepard got back around Dreamer when Dreamer bobbled on the backstretch. With only 2 laps to go, Kinnersley moved into 2nd followed by the #44 of Jack Prall III, as Dreamer fell back to 5th. At the checkers it was Shepard, Kinnersley and Prall III.

Shepard, who has been racing for 16 years, began in the old Friday Night Flyer division. He actually had started out this year in a modified but, according to him “I just couldn’t afford to race it anymore, so I moved into a Sport Compact.” “I want to say thank you to my sponsors. They are EMS Inc., C & D Towing, Big Dan’s Auto Body, Hungry Eye Tattoo and Asa Triplette Hauling & Landscaping. I also want to thank the fans for supporting racing here at Eagle,” he added. He concluded his interview by saying “It was really a good fast track tonight. It great to win the feature, and I hope we can do it again”.

Next up was the Valentino’s Pizza IMCA Hobby Stock Feature. Ron Novak’s #14 broke out in front from his outside row 1 starting position. He was followed by the #9 of Rex Schreiner, the #22 of Nick Beckman and Don Hall Jr. in the #92. With 12 laps left, Hall Jr. and Beckman made contact, allowing the #86 of defending track champion Justin Wulf to take over the 3rd position with Hall Jr. being moved back 4 positions. 8 laps later the #12 of Dan Noonan rolled over in turn four, coming to rest on it’s top inside the berm. Noonan was unhurt. On the restart, the top 4 positions were Novak, Schreiner, Wulf and the M70 of Rick Munson. On the very last lap Wulf took over 2nd place with Munson following him into 3rd. The final results showed Novak taking home the top spot.

“I started outside the front row, and managed to hold them all off for a change” Novak said. “We needed some luck after the way things have gone the last few weeks. You can’t afford to get a flat tire, or break a rocker arm in the engine or anything else out here. The competition here at Eagle is just too fast to let that happen,” he stated. “I’m really happy to take home the winner’s purse tonight. That will let us run a couple of more weeks” he added. Novak is one of many drivers running at America’s Home Track who does it all out of his own pocket. He does all of the work on the car by himself, hauls it to the track, races it and as he put it “Fixes everything the driver breaks too”. “I want to thank my family for letting me race out here; and I want to also say that I became a grandpa again just 2 weeks ago. There’s nothing like grandchildren to make you happy” he finished.

The action was fast and furious in the Monster Energy Drink IMCA Modified main event also. As the pack went into turn #1, cars began sliding around bunching up the field behind them. When the melee was untangled the 5ST of Dan Wayman, Rik Gropp’s #45, the 11X of Steve Devitt and Chad Anderson’s 8c were stopped just before turn #1. After a complete restart Scott Anderson’s #19 led the field; followed by Norm Ziegenbein’s 1Z, Ron Dake in the 33Z and the 75J of Jesse Robinson. On the 3rd lap Ed Raines spun in turns 3 & 4, bringing out the yellow flag. Robinson had taken over 3rd position, but was forced back to 4th place. On the restart Ziegenbein moved around Anderson to take the lead and George Haney pulled around Robinson to garner 4th. Doug Deterding was the “man on the move” however; moving up to 3rd position after having come from the B Feature and starting in the next to last row. That same lap Deterding also got around Dake to advance another spot to 2nd. Also coming forward in a hurry was returning track champion Chris Alcorn. With just 8 laps down he had moved up to 4th position. He wasted no time taking over 3rd on the very next circuit. With 10 laps to go Chad Anderson spun in turns 3 & 4, bunching up the field. The running order at that time was Ziegenbein, Deterding, Alcorn and Scott Anderson. On the restart Alcorn jumped past both Deterding and Ziegenbein to grab the lead, with Deterding following him into 2nd place 2 laps later. After the races Ziegenbein stated that he had lost a cylinder, dropping him back into the pack. Alcorn was timed at anywhere from ½ to a full second faster than the rest of the field during the race. After getting the lead, he sailed to victory.

Alcorn, having started from the inside of the 6th row said “All of the top 4 had great cars; I just got through traffic better than they did once we hit the lapped cars. Doug was really coming tonight, going all-out to move up that quickly is something I try to avoid. Whenever I try that, I end up in a wreck. I prefer to just hang out for a while, figure out where the line is and basically just ‘go where they ain’t”. “I kind of wish the track had widened out a little more than it did; I think there would have been even more side-by-side racing. But, we all have to run the same track; it’s the same for everyone” he added. Chris’ sponsors include Doctor John’s, Heavy Company, Midwest Unlimited, Spanel Engines, The Alley Bar, ATH Motorsports, Onyx Digital Group, Independent Equipment and L&L Motorsports.

The finale for the evening was again the Budweiser Championship 360 sprints. Jay Jordan piloted his #19J into the lead at the drop of the green flag. Behind him were the 8B of Bobby Becker and the 24B of Frank Galusha. Galusha’s engine was smoking from the beginning of the race and finally expired with just 3 laps down. That moved Ken Klabunde’s #28 into 3rd. Just 2 laps later Becker got around Jordan to take over 1st, with Jeff Griffis following him into 2nd place from 4th. Another 4 laps were completed when Griffis passed Becker for the point. They held those positions and began to pull away from the rest of the field until with 6 laps to go, Gage Dorr’s #17 struck the guardrail hard between turns 1 & 2. Without stopping he continued on, only to make contact with the guardrail in turn 3 causing his sprinter to roll over. The resulting red flag bunched the field again with 7 laps left after going back to the last completed circuit. On the restart Griffis again motored to a significant lead, followed by Becker who had suffered a collapsed nose-wing somewhere during the contest. The finish of the race saw Griffis in 1st, Becker in 2nd, Jordan in 3rd and Klabunde in 4th.

Jeff Griffis has been racing since 1992, having taken 3 years off “in the middle somewhere” before returning full-time to the seat of the #3. “It’s been a rough couple of years out here, but now we’ve got a good program and a great car under us. Maybe we can keep improving from there,” Griffis stated. “First of all, I want to thank all of the fans who’ve supported us all of these years. Next, I need to thank my sponsors for giving me this great car” he added. Jeff’s sponsors are Mad Hatter Mufflers, Pearce Financial, Jay B. Garage & Towing, Fred’s Auto Body, C Met Excavating, MJ’s Pizza and Brews, GMS Wings, Barley’s and ‘The 500 Club’. “I can’t thank all of them enough” he finished.

Remember that next Saturday is Eagle’s Independence Day Celebration as the Army National Guard presents “Freedom Fest” Military Appreciation Night. All military, police, fire and rescue personnel in uniform will receive free admission with an appropriate photo ID. Racing will feature the Budweiser Championship 360 Sprints, Monster Energy Drink IMCA Modifieds, Valentino’s Pizza IMCA Hobby Stocks and the Stereo West Auto Toys IMCA Sport Compacts. A gigantic fireworks spectacular immediately following racing will top off the evening.



Eagle Raceway Results for June 23rd, 2007

Budweiser 360 Championship Sprints:
A Feature-
1) 3 Jeff Griffis
2) 8b Bobby Becker
3) 19j Jay Jordan
4) 28 Ken Klabunde
5) 2x Rodney Droud
6) 23 Terry Holliman
7) 96kx Adam Gullion
8) 77 John Klabunde
9) 35 Trevor Grossenbacher
10) 18 Ryan Roberts
11) 51 Mike Boston
12) 9j Mark Schmidt
13) 14g Gene Ackland
14) 21 Ryan Kitchen
15) 91 Brad Krutz
16) 3g Bill Garrow
17) 17 Gage Dorr
18) 23r Tadd Holliman
19) 76 Jay Russell
20) 24b Frank Galusha

B Feature-
1) 35 Trevor Grossenbacher
2) 21 Ryan Kitchen
3) 76 Jay Russell
4) 9j Mark Schmidt
5) 3g Bill Garrow
6) 33 Terry Cadwallader
7) 7x Kevin Danley
8) 6 Nick Bryan (DNS B)
9) 71 Tige Jensen (DNS B)
10) 31 Toby Chapman (DNS Heat or B)
11) 24r Doug Roth (DNS Heat or B)

Monster IMCA Modifieds:
A Feature-
1) 3 Chris Alcorn
2) 13 Doug Deterding
3) 95 Dylan Smith
4) 1z Norm Ziegenbein
5) 12x George Haney
6) 3a Aaron Pella
7) 19 Scott Anderson
8) 75j Jesse Robinson
9) 52 Sean Manning
10) 95r Lucas Robinson
11) v45 Rik Gropp
12) 11aa Ed Raines
13) 4d Pat Donovan
14) 7 Bob Ruisinger
15) 8c Chad Andersen
16) 33z Ron Dake
17) 28n Dan Neeman
18) 10k Don McCown
19) 5st Dan Wayman
20) 11x Steve Devitt

B Feature #1-
1) 3a Aaron Pella
2) 8c Chad Andersen
3) 4jr David Jewett Jr
4) 00 Tim Pickens
5) 10j Josh Hessheimer
6) 44 Tom Lenz
7) 82 Chris Anderson
8) 14 Matthew Kiner
9) 11n Nathan Landauer
10) 29 Jeff Mazza
11) 33r Larry Robinson Jr (DNS B)

B Feature #2-
1) 13 Doug Deterding
2) 11x Steve Devitt
3) 19j Jeff Jones
4) 8a Dusty Andersen
5) 21t Tracy Harr
6) 42k Jan Korth
7) 27m Bryan Murphy
8) 95b Nic Bonney
9) 48b Don Chilen
10) 73 James Oaks (DNS B)
11) 57 Brian Cudly (DNS B)

Valentino’s IMCA Hobby Stocks:
A Feature-
1) 14 Ron Novak
2) 86 Justin Wulf
3) m70 Rick Munson
4) 9 Rex Schreiner
5) 3k Jerry Keaton
6) 21h Shane Hiatt
7) 38c Casey Moyer
8) 92 Don Hall Jr
9) 21 Derick Noonan
10) 42 Rob Brown
11) 11 Gary Novak
12) 10 Brad Schreiner
13) 94 Mike Hansen
14) 53 Don Kros
15) 1r RJ Macku
16) 22 Nick Beckman
17) 12 Dan Noonan
18) s53 Scott Robinson
19) 4a Aaron Pearson
20) 121 Robert Tippery

Stereo West Auto Toy’s IMCA Sport Compacts:
A Feature-
1) 20t Steve Shepard
2) 18 Maynard Kinnersley
3) 44 Jack Prall III
4) 0 Rich White
5) 26 Derick Dreamer
6) 28 Richard Meyers III
7) 2k Kyle Schamp
8) 18r Ron Frank
9) 21 Jake Sells
10) 62 Justin Busboom
11) b32 Brian Haller
12) 99 Jason Tadlock
13) 22 Elliott Halverson
14) 13j Jared Deterding
15) 51 Amanda Rhiley
16) 63 Mike Simpson
17) 3n Neil Pella
18) 24 Mike Rice
19) 33 Jeremy Noonan (DNS A)
20) 45 Jack Prall IV (DNS A)

B Feature-
1) 18r Ron Frank
2) 62 Justin Busboom
3) 3n Neil Pella
4) 22 Elliott Halverson
5) 21 Jake Sells
6) 45 Jack Prall IV
7) 2 Dan Rhiley
8) 6 Roger Elliott
9) 2m David White
10) 3 Harry White
11) 59 Jessica Tadlock
12) 7v Adam Vrbka (DNS B)
13) 12 Danni Rhiley (DNS B)