Grossenbacher is first in Friday RaceSaver qualifier

By Greg Soukup

EAGLE, Neb. (Aug. 30, 2024) – Thursday was to have been a practice night to allow time for participants in the IMCA Racesaver Nationals to get acclimated to the high banks of Eagle Raceway, but that evil deity Mother Nature decided to gift us with her liquid sunshine. That caused the Eagle officials to call off the night’s events.

But Friday saw a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and lots of race teams in the pits just waiting to put on a show for the fans and attempt to lock themselves into the inside nine rows of Sunday’s Big Dance.

In all, 106 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars filled the pits.

Lap one of the Sprint Car feature saw Billy Alley and Shayle Bade make contact with Alley spinning and causing the cars behind him to bunch up. Zach Rhodes then made contact with Koby Werkmeister, sending Rhodes flipping.

Rhodes’ car was pushed to the pits while Alley drove to the pits for repair and rejoined the field. The restart saw Stu Snyder’s right rear wheel hop the left front of Jake Bubak’s ride, destroying the front end. Bubak went pit side on the hook.

When a lap was finally completed, Michalob Voeltz, Matt Johnson, Trevor Grossenbacher and Ryder Laplante were the top four. Johnson passed Voeltz for the lead on lap two and Jason Danley put his 4XX into fourth. Voeltz slowed dramatically on lap four and headed to the infield, moving Grossenbacher to second, Danley to third and Laplante to fourth.

Gunnar Pike passed Laplante on lap eight to take over fourth. Johnson hit the front stretch wall hard the next time around and ended up rolling, moving everyone up one spot with Grossenbacher taking over the lead.

The restart saw Brady Donnahue pass Laplante for fourth. The next lap, Kolby Weaver jumped the cushion and hit the wall in turns one and two. He was pushed off and rejoined the field. Donnahue got past Pike for third on lap 11. Pike jumped up to the second spot with four to go but lost the spot back to Donnahue on the final lap.

That made the top four Grossenbacher, Donnahue, Pike and Danley. Donnahue was disqualified in post-race tech for being too light, moving Cole Wayman into fourth. Also making the transfer to the Big Dance on Sunday, where they will fill out the inside nine spots for the 3-wide start were Laplante, Chase Brewer, Gene Ackland , Cody Ledger and Trevor Serbus.

“We had a really good car tonight, thanks to my crew and my dad. It was almost perfect,” said Grossenbacher. “I was running the bottom but when we got to lapped traffic, I figured that I had to move to the top. I saw a couple of other cars running there so I had a dilemma, do I stay on the bottom  and wait for someone to pass me or go to the top and worry about those cars?”

“I was running so well on the bottom of one and two and super good on top of three and four,” he continued. “This is amazing that we made the ‘A’ main Sunday, but after the redraw we have to start inside row eight. I know we can do it, we just have to be patient and go.” 

Jake Bubak, John Carney II, Shayle Bade, Tyler Drueke and Kevin Ramey won qualifying heats for the BlueMax Pay Race of Champions.

Adam Armstrong was the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock winner.

RaceSaver Nationals Sprint Car feature results – 1. Trevor Grossenbacher, Panama; 2. Gunnar Pike, South Bend; 3. Jason Danley, Lincoln; 4. Cole Wayman, Lincoln; 5. Ryder Laplante, Calera, Okla.; 6. Chase Brewer, Waxahachie, Texas; 7. Gene Ackland Martell; 8. Cody Ledger, Omaha; 9. Trevor Serbus, Olivia, Minn.; 10. Shayle Bade, Raymond; 11. D.J. Estes, Fort Worth, Texas; 12. Tige Jensen, Lincoln; 13. Stuart Snyder, Lincoln; 14. Koby Werkmeister, Armour, S.D.; 15. Kolby Weaver, Everett, Pa.; 16. Brody Brown, Lawton, Okla.; 17. Taylor Velasquez, Turpin, Okla.; 18. Gaige Weldon, Hinton, Iowa; 19. Matt Johnson, Saint Peter, Minn.; 20. Billy Alley, Bennet; 21. Michalob Voeltz, Madison, S.D.; 22. Jake Bubak, Lincoln; 23. Zach Rhodes, Mc Veytown, Pa.