Saldana, Richards and Noonan Win at Eagle Nationals

From Greg Soukup / Eagle Raceway

Anyone saying that 410 sprint car racing is dying, or even on the
decline should have been at Eagle Raceway, America's Home Track for the
second and final night of the Eagle Nationals. A crowd, reportedly near
4000 saw the Greatest Show on Dirt put on their usual spectacle.
Supporting the World of Outlaws were the Valentino's IMCA Hobby Stocks
and the Monster Energy Drink IMCA Modifieds.

Although the wind and temperatures turned the track dry-slick by the
time the Outlaws took the track for their qualifying, Joey Saldana
turned the fastest lap with a time of 12.456 seconds.

The Modifieds and Hobby Stocks ran their heat races first, because it
was decided that in order to allow the fans to see the type of racing
they've grown accustomed to seeing from the Outlaws, the track would be
reworked during intermission. A short 45-minute session of furious work
by Eagle's track prep crew saw the Outlaw cars begin their evening's
schedule.

After 3 heats of 9 410's ran, the "locals" took to the track for their B
Features. After those were concluded, the water truck was run around the
top of the track once again. Approximately 10 minutes later the Outlaw
Crane Cams Dash was run to set the lineup for the A Main. Brooke Tatnell
finished first with Steve Kinser in second.

Possibly the worst incident of the evening occurred as the cars came
around to finish the first lap of the Valentino's IMCA Modified Feature.
Sean Burklund was attempting to pass the 00 of Tim Pickens on the high
side approaching the flag stand. Just as he came along side of Pickens,
the 2 cars made contact; sending Burklund into the front stretch wall.
That catapulted him up and over and he eventually came to a halt upside
down on Pickens' hood. All told, there were 8 cars involved in the melee.

On the restart, the 12X of George Haney held the lead with Terry
Richards close behind in the #21 and the V45 of Rik Gropp in third. They
held that order until with just 9 laps to go, Chris Alcorn drove his #3
into fourth position followed by Doug Deterding's #13. 2 laps later,
Deterding got around Alcorn for fourth. 2 laps later Richards moved into
first with Gropp following him to take second. With 3 laps to go, Alcorn
repassed Deterding and then on the final circuit got around Gropp for
second.

"After not being in a race car for 7 years, and then having the troubles
we've had the last 3 weeks during my comeback I'm thrilled." Terry said.
This was Richards' second feature win at Eagle Raceway. "What was odd
was that my first one came on Snap-On night out here. Now, I'm a Snap-On
Dealer and they had that big thing for Snap-On up front tonight. Another
thing some people think is odd is we're running a small block Ford in
this car, not a small block Chevy" he added. When asked about tonight's
track Terry stated "I love a dry-slick track. If there's a cushion up
top, then I'm there. I actually was worried after they reworked the
track, but it actually helped me in the end" he stated. "I do want to
thank my only sponsor, TR's Tool Service for all of their help" he finished.

In the Valentino's IMCA Hobby Stock feature Shane Hiatt jumped to the
early lead in his #21H with Ron Novak's 14 and Dan Noonan's 12 in hot
pursuit. Shortly after the race started, there was a yellow flag. And
when the red flag came out to set the lineup, a fuel leak was discovered
in Hiatt's car; sending him to the pits. With only 3 laps in the books,
Noonan passed Novak to move into first place. Only 2 laps later Novak
was forced into the pits with a flat tire. This put the 42 of Rob Brown
into second with Justin Wulf's #86 in third. The rest of the race saw
Noonan hold off the fierce competition behind him. The only official
position change came when the 1R of RJ Macku jumped from fourth to
second with 2 laps remaining.

"The track was great, really fast on the high side," said Derick. "They
don't call me 'Front Row Noonan' for nothing" he added with a big smile.
"I want to thank everybody for not letting me give up after the bad
night I had last week. Now, we have to get my dad an A Main win and we
will; one way or the other" he stated. "I want to thank all of my
sponsors, including Advanced Auto Glass, Suds & Scissors Pet Grooming
and Low Budget Customs Chassis & Graphics. I send out a special 'Thank
You' to my wife and parents, and of course the neighborhood gang. Also,
I have to mention what they're calling the "Noonan Crew in Section C".
All these people helped me win this one" he finished.

Finally came the long-awaited World of Outlaws A Feature. Brooke Tatnell
took the lead from his starting position on the pole in his #2 Volcano
Joe's Coffee sprinter. Behind him were the #11 of Steve Kinser, Jac
Haudenschild's #35 and Joey Saldana in the #9. Just 4 laps into the race
Saldana moved around Haudenschild for third, but the red flag flew after
Kinser got sideways coming out of turn #4 and Daryn Pittman's #21 struck
Kinser's front tire. That sent Pittman flipping. Terry McCarl also
received damage when he ran into Kinser, as did the #15 of Donny Schatz
who suffered a bent wing attempting to clear Pittman as he flipped.
Neither Kinser nor Pittman could restart.

The running order on the restart was Tatnell, Haudenschild, Saldana, the
7S of Jason Sides and Paul McMahan in the #20. But, after the green flag
flew Saldana got around Haudenschild for second position. Just 2 laps
later, Saldana got around Tatnell for the lead. Another 11 laps were in
the books when Haudenschild also passed Tatnell, taking over second
place. On the very next circuit Danny Lasoski passed the #2 on the
bottom of the track.

From there the battle for the lead raged between Haudenschild and
Saldana. By the closing laps of the race, the cushion was nearly
non-existent in turns 1 & 2,and the cars were running inches from the
wall, with the preferred line being on the bottom of 3 & 4. Haudenschild
who struck the wall hard on the 30th lap showed this in grand style.
After that, Saldana cruised to the victory.

"It's so great to finally get my first A Main win at Eagle. I've run
second, crashed…everything but won here. It's so huge to finally get a
win here. I know my dad would be thrilled, and so would my grandpa" he
said. Joey's father is of course one of the icons of sprint car racing,
"Little Joe" Saldana who turned many many laps on Eagle's high banks in
the past. Joey's grandfather was a fixture at the pit gate at the now
closed Midwest Speedway in Lincoln, Nebraska years ago. When asked about
the track conditions, Joey stated "I'm glad they decided to do rework
it. The track held up really well, only going rubber-down in turns 3 &
4. If they hadn't done it, the whole track would have been that way by
lap 20".

Be sure to come out next weekend for a "Dads Rock" celebration of
Father's Day, presented by Legend's Sports Bar. Eagle returns to its
regular Saturday night line-up of Budweiser Championship 360 sprints,
Monster Energy Drink IMCA Modifieds, Valentino's IMCA Hobby Stocks and
Stereo West Auto Toys IMCA Sport Compacts.

World of Outlaw Sprints: A Feature- 1) 9 Joey Saldana 2) 35 Jac Haudenschild 3) 2 Brooke Tatnell 4) 83 Danny Lasoski 5) 14 Jason Meyers 6) 3x Chad Kemenah 7) 11h Kerry Madsen 8) 20 Paul McMahan 9) 6 Tim Shaffer 10) 15 Donny Schatz 11) 7s Jason Sides 12) 1x Randy Hannagan 13) 8k Zach Chappell 14) 36 Jason Martin 15) 7 Craig Dollansky 16) 18t Tony Bruce 17) 10c Jeremy Campbell 18) d1 Justin Henderson 19) 11d Dion Hindi 20) 5c Chad Hillier 21) r19 Jason Solwold 22) 24 Terry McCarl 23) 11 Steve Kinser 24) 21 Daryn Pittman

Monster IMCA Modifieds: A Feature- 1) 21 Terry Richards 2) v45 Rik Gropp 3) 12x George Haney 4) 3 Chris Alcorn 5) 13 Doug Deterding 6) 1r Matt Richards 7) 8c Chad Andersen 8) 95 Dylan Smith 9) 3a Aaron Pella 10) 28n Dan Neeman 11) 11aa Ed Raines 12) 42k Jan Korth 13) 3t Tom Spanel 14) 57 Brian Cudley 15) 00 Tim Pickens 16) b9 Sean Burklund 17) s56 Scott Bivens 18) 95r Lucas Robinson 19) 2ez Mark Kaspar 20) 22 Brian Schmidt

B Feature#1- 1) 3a Aaron Pella 2) 2ez Mark Kaspar 3) 4t Jerry Trejo 4) 7 Bob Ruisinger 5) 75j Jesse Robinson 6) 14 Matthew Kiner 7) 81 Melvin Densberger 8) 1z Norm Ziegenbein 9) 24t Terry Hurt 10) 82 Chris Anderson (DNS B) 11) 19j Jeff Jones (DNS B) B Feature#2- 1) 8c Chad Andersen 2) 22 Brian Schmidt 3) 4jr David Jewett Jr 4) 21t Tracy Harr 5) 33z Ron Dake 6) 4d Pat Donovan 7) 11x Steve Devitt 8) 52 Sean Manning 9) 5st Dan Wayman 10) 8a Dusty Andersen 11) 29 Jeff Mazza 12) 51 Cliff Turner 13) 32j Jeremy Kohlman (DNS Heat or B)

Valentino's IMCA Hobby Stocks: A Feature- 1) 21 Derick Noonan 2) 1r RJ Macku 3) 42 Rob Brown 4) 86 Justin Wulf 5) 94 Mike Hansen 6) d1 Derek Anderson 7) 92 Don Hall Jr 8) m70 Rick Munson 9) 4a Aaron Pearson 10) 12 Dan Noonan 11) 22 Nick Beckman 12) 38c Casey Moyer 13) 10 Brad Schreiner 14) 52v Kevin VanLaningham 15) 10k Lee Kracht 16) 93 Thom Marsh 17) 121 Robert Tippery 18) 2c David Carter 19) 14 Ron Novak 20) 21h Shane Hiatt

B Feature- 1) m70 Rick Munson 2) 12 Dan Noonan 3) 4a Aaron Pearson 4) 10k Lee Kracht 5) 10 Brad Schreiner 6) 3k Jerry Keaton 7) 9 Rex Schreiner 8) 00h Greg Hoing 9) 4j Jamie Bruce 10) 4 Troy Mencke (DNS B) 11) 17j Danny Lane (DNS B) 12) 8 Murray Haugen (DNS B) 13) 98 Dan Jackson (DNS B)