Too much winter: Beatrice cancels Spring Nationals

Feature

BEATRICE, Neb. – Winter weather will be the winner of Spring Nationals.

Beatrice Speedway officials have announced that the traditional season-opening special, originally scheduled March 8 and 9 and then postponed to March 15 and 16, has now been canceled. 

“We’ve been watching this weather for a month. We’ve still got a foot of snow on the ground and no warm days in the forecast,” Promoter Toby Kruse said. “Canceling was not an easy decision. There was just no way to make Spring Nationals happen.” 

“Scheduling is another issue,” he added, noting upcoming early-season events at area tracks. “We want to be a good neighbor.”

IMCA Modified, IMCA Late Model, IMCA Sunoco Stock Car, IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock, Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod and Mach-1 Sport Compact drivers who entered early will receive refunds by mail.

This is the first time in Spring Nationals’ 25-year history the entire event has been lost to weather; the last time a single nightly program was snowed out was 2014.

Related Articles

Feature

Spring Nationals first for Grabouski with IMCA Modified, Stock Car sweep

BEATRICE, Neb. (March 20) – The leader in Spring Nationals career wins raced to a new Spring Nationals accomplishment Saturday at Beatrice Speedway. Jordan Grabouski won the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car for the first time at his hometown track’s season-opening special, then topped the IMCA Modified headliner for the record 11th occasion . “It was unbelievable. It just sets the tone for the whole year,” said Grabouski, a former national champion in both divisions and three-time defending king in the Jet Racing Central Region for Modifieds. “We’ve had an unbelievable start to the year already.”  Entries again topped 200 for the 28th annual event, shortened to a single day due to weather. Grabouski beat Todd Shute and Ethan Braaksma to the $2,500 Modified checkers and outran Cody Nielson and Dan Nelson to the $1,000 Stock Car victory. He led the last 19 of 20 laps after starting seventh in the Stock Car feature and then every circuit after starting outside the front row in the Modified main. “The bottom groove worked for me better in the Stock [Read More]

Results

Denton tabbed as DC, promoter at Beatrice Speedway 

BEATRICE, Neb. (Dec. 21, 2022) – The Gage County Ag Society has named Tommy Denton as the Director of Competition and Promoter for the Beatrice Speedway 2023 season, starting Jan. 1, 2023.  Tommy brings with him a long history and depth of experience and knowledge of the Beatrice Speedway and racing community.  After moving from Denver to Nebraska in the early 1980s, Tommy started racing at Beatrice Speedway, and in his words “has been at the track every Friday or Saturday night since.”   He was later hired as an announcer for the track and in the early 2000’s took on flagging in turns two and three, and then moved to being the infield pit announcer.  In addition to his other roles, Tommy has served as the Director of the Beatrice Speedway Hall of Fame since 2011, where he has worked to preserve the history of the track and its racers.  He is well connected not only at the Beatrice Speedway, but also at other local tracks including Jefferson County Speedway, where he has been a [Read More]

Feature

Grabouski, Ward near IMCA Modified milestones, Ware sweeps Spring Nationals Stock Car features

BEATRICE, Neb. (March 22-23, 2024) – Jordan Grabouski and Tim Ward each took another step toward Friesen Performance IMCA Modified milestones with Spring Nationals feature wins. Jeff Ware, meanwhile, got the Beatrice Speedway monkey off his back with Friday and Saturday night victories at the 31st annual special. Grabouski’s 290th IMCA Modified win on opening night at his hometown track doubled as his Spring Nationals career 14th in the class dating to 2011. Ward’s Saturday checkers were his career 95th, his last win at Beatrice having come in IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing action in 2013. Both features paid $2,500 and both winners were already Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligible. Grabouski had taken advantage of the extra week after Spring Nationals was postponed to build a new car. He used lapped traffic and then a restart to his advantage in taking the lead with 10 laps to go on Friday and winning ahead of Ward and Troy Cordes. “That car was a bare frame on Monday. Friday was the first time that car saw dirt,” said Grabouski, [Read More]