Thornton starts Spring Nationals legacy, Grabouski wins career 10th Modified main 

Ricky Thornton Jr. celebrated the Friday night IMCA Modified victory at Beatrice Speedway’s Spring Nationals, then returned to victory lane on Saturday after winning the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car main event. (Photo by Joe Orth)

BEATRICE, Neb. (March 9-10) – Ricky Thornton started his Spring Nationals legacy while Jordan Grabouski added to his at Beatrice Speedway’s 25th annual event.

Thornton topped the Friday feature for IMCA Modifieds and the Saturday main event for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars. Grabouski collected his record-extending career 10th Modified victory on night two.

Both Modified features paid $2,500 to win. Both Thornton and Grabouski were already on the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot. More than 220 race teams from a dozen states and Can­ada were at Beatrice from the traditional season lidlifter.

While Beatrice is Grabouski’s hometown track, Arizona native Thornton had raced there just once pre­viously with a mid-pack finish at a weekly event to show for his efforts.

“Probably the biggest thing on Friday was that I didn’t win from the front row,” said Thornton, who worked his way up from 11th. “It took about 10 laps to get up to third. I passed Cayden Carter af­ter a yellow around lap 15. Hunter Marriott and I raced hard and clean before I cleared him with five to go.”

Grabouski was the first car out on Friday, sidelined by a broken tie rod that resulted from a multi-car tangle just two laps in.

Jordan Grabouski added a 10th trophy to his collection of Spring Nationals hardware by winning the Saturday night main event at Beatrice. (Photo by Joe Orth)

“I had a rough go of it on Friday and was disappointed in my performance but it was awesome the way we rebounded,” said Grabouski, who took the high line around Marriott for the lead near mid­way on night two. “Lapped traffic made it chaotic and I really wasn’t able to shake Hunter.”

Marriott was second and Carter third in both 30 lappers; 22nd starting Jesse Dennis and Jordy Nelson rounded out Friday’s top five while Jeremy Payne and 16th starting Kelly Shryock were fourth and fifth, respectively, on Saturday.

Carter started 23rd on opening night.

Grabouski was runner-up in the Friday Stock Car feature while Thornton had to do some bounc­ing back after an early exit of his own.

He went three-wide to take the lead in the Saturday Stock Car feature and outran Friday winner Kyle Vanover to the checkers.

Vanover collected his career second Spring Nationals crown, and career win number 85 in the class, with Carter completing the top three. Derek Green was third on Saturday.

Chanse Hollatz and Taylor Huss were IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock winners. Joe Docekal and Josh Appel won features for the Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMods.

Hollatz, Huss and Jesse VanLaningham ran 1-2-3 on opening night. It was Austin Jahnz second and Brady Bencken third on Saturday.

Docekal’s checkers came ahead of Jarred Hackler and Johnathon Logue. While Appel prevailed with Colby Langenberg and Jake McBirnie in pursuit.

Ramsey Meyer started 11th and topped Saturday’s Mach-1 Sport Compact feature. Drake Bohlmeyer and Zach Bohlmeyer were next across the stripe.

March 9 Feature Results

Modifieds – 1. Ricky Thornton Jr.; 2. Hunter Marriott; 3. Cayden Carter; 4. Jesse Dennis; 5. Jordy Nelson; 6. Kelly Shryock; 7. Shane Hiatt; 8.Tyler Droste; 9. Jeremy Payne; 10. Eddie Belec; 11. Cory Wray; 12. Jacob Hobscheidt; 13. Jeff James; 14. Josh Most; 15. Mike Densberger; 16. Chad Clancy; 17. Ryan Jenkins; 18. Scott Smith; 19. Ben Chukuske; 20. Mike Lineberry; 21. Corey Burch; 22. Aaron Benson; 23. Carter VanDenBerg; 24. Jordan Grabouski.

Stock Cars – 1. Kyle Vanover; 2. Jordan Grabouski; 3. Cayden Carter; 4. Jed Williams; 5. Jason Rogers; 6. Jay Schmidt; 7. Derek Green; 8. Randy Brands; 9.  Dan Nelson; 10. John Heinz; 11. Shawn Primrose; 12. Tyler Phelps; 13. Damon Murty; 14. Brendon LaBatte; 15. Chad Palmer; 16. Eric Bartels; 17. Kellie Schmit; 18. Paul Burck; 19. Dan Mackenthun; 20. Jason See; 21. Cole Wayman; 22. Garrett Freese; 23. Damon Richards; 25. Ricky Thornton Jr. 

Hobby Stocks – 1. Chanse Hollatz; 2. Taylor Huss; 3. Jesse VanLaningham; 4. Roy Armstrong; 5. Trevor Holm; 6. Brendon Stigge; 7. Brady Bencken; 8. Ryan Roschewski; 9. Luke Ramsey; 10. Adam Goff; 11. Ryan Gilland; 12. Jeff Watts; 13. Kevin VanLaningham; 14. Jeremy Purdy; 15. Jacob Harms; 16. Korbin Nourse; 17. Nick Ronnebaum; 18. David Carter; 19. Kyle Parizek; 20. Cody Green; 21. Austin Jahnz; 22. Kent Husted; 23. Jeff Ware; 24. Matthew McAtee.

Northern SportMods – 1. Joe Docekal; 2. Jarred Hackler; 3. Johnathon Logue; 4. Brayton Carter; 5. Karl Brewer; 6. Colby Langenberg; 7. Cole Bents; 8. Matt Andrews; 9. Dan Nelson; 10. Sam Wieben; 11. Nate Whitehurst; 12. Scott Saunders; 13. Ethan Braaksma; 14. Tyler Watts; 15. Danny Myrvold; 16. Kyle Krogh; 17. Logan Thomsen; 18. Lee Horky; 19. Austin Howes; 20. Cameron Meyer; 21. Ricky Saunders; 22. Joey Haase; 23. Justin Svoboda; 24. Taylor Metz. 

March 10 Feature Results

Modifieds – 1. Grabouski; 2. Marriott; 3. Carter; 4. Payne; 5. Shryock; 6. Josh Vogt; 7. James; 8. Thornton; 9. Benji LaCrosse; 10. Belec; 11. Densberger; 12. Brian Mullen; 13. Hiatt; 14. Chad Andersen; 15. Ryan Jenkins; 16. Josh Gilman; 17. Andy Gage; 18. Jesse Skalicky; 19. Josh Blumer; 20. Jared Hoefelman; 21. Jordy Nelson; 22. Tim Watts; 23. Droste; 24. Most.

Stock Cars – 1. Thornton; 2. Vanover; 3. Green; 4. Elijah Zevenbergen; 5. Murty; 6. Brands; 7. Rogers; 8. Nelson; 9. Carter; 10. Grabouski; 11. See; 12. Heinz; 13. Kyle Pfeifer; 14. Bartels; 15. Blake Adams; 16. Schmidt; 17. Andrew Borchardt; 18. Andrew Altenburg; 19. Shane Stutzman; 20. LaBatte; 21. Schmit; 22. Zach Ankrum; 23. Phelps; 24. Chad Bruns.

Hobby Stocks – 1. Huss; 2. Jahnz; 3. Bencken; 4. Armstrong; 5. Ware; 6. Watts; 7. Purdy; 8. Jesse VanLaningham; 9. Holm; 10. Stigge; 11. Kevin VanLaningham; 12. Tathan Burkhart; 13. Harms; 14. Nate DeSive; 15. Hollatz; 16. Ben Becher; 17. Shawn Slezak; 18. Tyler Jackson; 19. Parizek; 20. Eric Chab; 21. Ramsey; 22. Roschewski; 23. Husted; 24. Matthew McAtee.

Northern SportMods – 1. Josh Appel; 2. Langenberg; 3. Jake McBirnie; 4. Carter; 5. Hackler; 6. Horky; 7. Lance Borgman; 8. Cody Thompson; 9. Howes; 10. Thomas Egenberger; 11. Docekal; 12. John Foreman; 13. Brian Osantowski; 14. Cole Wayman; 15. Scott Saunders; 16. Krogh; 17. Logue; 18. Curtis Dreasher; 19. Tyler Soppe; 20. Rick Rohr; 21. Watts; 22. Austin Heacock; 23. Dave Kennedy; 24. Dakota Sproul.

Sport Compacts – 1. Ramsey Meyer; 2. Drake Bohlmeyer; 3. Zach Bohlmeyer; 4. Jeff Creek; 5. John Martinez; 6. Joshua Young; 7. Josh Black; 8. Brian Cronin; 9. Shawn Hein; 10. R.J. Maas; 11. Curtis Miller; 12. Tanner Uehling; 13. Alex Dostal; 14. Wayne Haidsiak; 15. Daniel Morris; 16. Matt Oberhelman; 17. David Coenen; 18. Dustin Thompson; 19. Trent Fugett; 20. Steffen Oaks; 21. Josh Johnson.