Eagle Raceway August 2 2008

Thunder Thru the Plains
By Greg Soukup

Summer finally arrived at "America's Home Track" Eagle Raceway Saturday
night as 96KX presented the "Thunder Through The Plains", featuring the All
Stars Circuit of Champions. Scorching temperatures, sunny skies and a strong
wind prevailed all during the day but Eagle's track preparation crew came
through with flying colors. The track remained smooth throughout the program
and only got racier as the events progressed. In the modified feature the
cars were running within 3/10 of a second of the track record. One of the
All Stars even commented to an official "I've raced all over the world, and
this was the best track I've ever seen".

The first event was the time trials for the sprint cars. Dale Blaney posted
the fastest time with a 11.535, Randy Hannagan was second at 11.565, Lance
Dewease in third with a 11.686 and fourth went to Tim Shaffer with a 11.721.

In the Monster Energy Drink IMCA Modified feature Bob Ruisinger came back to
the start/finish line in his #7 with the lead. He was followed by the 11X of
Steve Devitt, the 12X of George Haney and the 11N of Nathan Landauer. Aaron
Pella took just 5 laps to move his 3A around Landauer for fourth. A yellow
flag was thrown on the next lap when Ed "Doc" Raines looped his #11AA in
turn 1. Pella took advantage of the restart to move under Haney to grab
third, but Chevy Hadan spun his #4 coming out of turn 2 bringing out another
yellow. With 8 laps in the books Dylan Smith made a move inside Pella in the
#95 to take over the fourth spot. 2 laps later Haney slowed dramatically
allowing Smith to move into third and Pella back to fourth. Pella could hold
his position for only 1 lap as Chris Alcorn's #3 passed him the very next
lap. On the same circuit Smith passed Devitt to take the second spot. With
only 6 laps left Alcorn advanced to third. Another 2 circuits had been run
when Smith got around Ruisinger for the lead. Alcorn managed to grab second
on the very last lap.

"The track was really smooth tonight. We were worried early on because it
was a little sloppy in turn 4, but by the time the feature came around it
was super racy" Smith said. "I started 10th, and just started picking cars
off 1 at a time until I got to the front" he finished. Dylan's sponsors
include Active Live Family Chiropractic, Marquardt Plumbing, Hot Rods by
Todd, Augustin Electric and Burke Show Cattle.

The next A Main event was for the Valentino's IMCA Hobby Stocks. Eric Hanson
grabbed the early lead in his #33 followed by the B4 of Ben Becher, the M70
of Rick Munson and the 22 of Nick Beckman. Despite numerous battles, the
running order stayed the same until with 8 laps to go RJ Macku got his 1R
past Beckman to grab the fourth spot. With just 2 laps left Macku made a
tremendous move all the way into the second spot, but his advance was
cancelled when the #86 of Dan Jackson pulled into the infield with a fire
under his hood. On the restart Beckman moved back around Macku for fourth
and took over third on the last lap when Munson was forced high in turns 3 &
4 and fell all the way to 9th. At the finish it was Hanson, Becher, Beckman
and Macku.

This was Hanson's first victory at Eagle Raceway in this, his first year at
the track. "The track was nice and smooth tonight. It was what we needed
because we've had nothing but troubles all year long. I don't know how many
times we swore we were going to quit racing, but we always decided to stick
with it. Tonight just shows you that every dog has his day" Hanson stated.
"It was great to have such a track where everyone played nice" he finished.

The last race of the evening was for the All Stars Circuit of Champions
sprint cars. Dale Blaney jumped to the early lead in his #2 with Lance
Dewease's 30C in second, the 1X of Randy Hannagan in third and Jeremy
Campbell in fourth driving the Rick Ferkel 0. On the second lap it appeared
that Blaney's lead might be very short-lived when his engine began smoking
heavily, but the problem soon cleared and Blaney began to stretch out his
lead. Shortly thereafter Campbell managed to pass Hannagan for third. With
10 laps down the 56R of Ryan Meyers slowed to a stop in turn four, bringing
out the caution flag. On the restart Tim Shaffer moved his #83A past
Hannagan for the fourth spot. Meyers again slowed dramatically down the
front stretch. When the yellow flew for him Mike Chadd slowed his #4 quickly
in turn 1 and Mike Boston's #51 got together with him. Boston was able to
continue but Chadd was towed into the pits. At that time the running order
was Blaney, Dewease, Campbell and Shaffer. With 9 laps left Shaffer passed
Campbell to grab the third position. 3 laps later Adam Gullion's #96KX
slowed in turns 3 and 4, coming to a halt high in turn 4. Miranda
Throckmorton's #22T slowed to a stop just past Gullion with an engine fire.
Blaney again used the clear track to his advantage, holding off all
challengers to the checkered flag. Randy Hannagan used a super move to move
back around Campbell with 3 laps left to take home the fourth spot.

"This is an amazing track" Blaney said. "I haven't been here since like 2001
I don't think. I was here almost every year from 1998-2001 with the Outlaws,
but I honestly couldn't tell you how I finished. It wasn't very good I know"
he continued. "But, my experience on the track sure helped tonight. The car
was really good in the heat, and luckily I never got hung up in traffic in
the feature" he continued. "I want to thank George Fisher Racing. He's the
car owner, the mechanic and he builds the engines. He does it all. I don't
have 1 sponsor name on the car or the hauler; and if you look at all of the
others, that's pretty unusual. But George gives me everything I need every
night" he finished.

Next Friday and Saturday the Monster Truck Challenge will be on the track.
On August 16th The Blaze presents Sizzlin' August Nights as weekly racing
resumes.