offroadspeedway Archives

Roebuck leads most important lap at Off Road

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (July 18) – James Roebuck, despite being the Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod division leader in laps led at Off Road Speedway this season, won his first local feature this season and led every lap of the 20-lap event in the process. Last week, Roebuck had the lead most of the way until a tire issue sidelined him. A change in his approach helped the Genoa driver garner three wins on consecutive nights, the third being Saturday’s in Norfolk. “We’ve been struggling a little bit this year. We cut down a tire for the last couple laps last week, so that took us out for that night,” Roebuck said. “It seems like we’re pretty quick at the beginning, but we just need to finish the races. We’ve stumbled on a few issues the past few weeks. Tires were number one we were burning up our tires too quickly.” “We had a win in Albion last night, and we won at Columbus on Thursday,” he said. “So we’ve got it dialed [Read More]

$250 Sunoco bonuses highlight features at three Nebraska venues this week

VINTON, Iowa – The paydays get even better this week for a trio of IMCA Sunoco Late Model feature winners. It begins Thursday evening at U.S. 30 Speedway in Columbus as the IMCA Late Model winner pockets an extra $250 courtesy of Sunoco Race Fuels. Friday night the bonus moves to Boone County Raceway in Albion. The final bonus of the weekend will be presented Saturday night at Off Road Speedway in Norfolk. Sunoco bonuses are being presented at IMCA Late Model sanctioned weekly tracks this year. Drivers are eligible for only one bonus during the 2020 racing season. If the feature winner is a previous Sunoco winner, the bonus moves to the next eligible position. 2020 winners have been Jeff Aikey at Independence Motor Speedway, Matt Ryan at 34 Raceway, Joel Callahan at Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway, Eric Pollard at 300 Raceway, Justin Kay at Davenport Speedway and Dalton Simonsen at Marshalltown. IMCA will announce mid-week before the dates bonuses are to be awarded at each track.

Off Road hosts Wednesday Don Weyrich Classic

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (July 1) – There was plenty of action on the track during the Don Weyrich Classic on Wednesday night at Off Road Speedway, an event held to honor Norfolk’s long-time driver and member of the Nebraska Auto Racing Hall of Fame. Three of the feature winners started in the front row and won handily, among them the father and son combination of Jason (IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks) and Cameron Wilkinson (IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars) and Brian Osantoski (Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods) while Cory Dumpert checked out on his IMCA Sunoco Late Model foes. Off Road Speedway will not hold races on Saturday, but will return to action on July 11.

Svoboda goes from bottom to the top at Off Road Speedway

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (June 27) – Seven days ago, Justin Svoboda’s no. 16 Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod was pictured beneath the no. 22 car of Tim Swartz on the front straightaway at Off Road Speedway. Just a week later, Svoboda was celebrating his first SportMod win at the track, a big moment during what has been a difficult season. “We’ve had a rough go of it so far. This is my ninth night of racing and this is only the fifth race that I’ve finished,” Svoboda said. “We’ve been fighting a lot of issues and trying to get this new car headed in the right direction, and it looks like it’s starting to go that way. It went pretty good tonight, sort of a change from zero to hero. Hopefully it’ll keep going that way, and we can click off some more wins.” Svoboda made the most of an opportunity to start on the pole and was able to lead every one of the 20 laps while as many as five different [Read More]

Starting position doesn’t hinder Off Road Speedway winners

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (June 20) – Brian Osantowski’s journey to the checkered flag was a bit longer than most of his Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod competitors, but what matters is that he got there. Starting on the inside of the sixth of eight rows Saturday at Off Road Speedway, Osantowski didn’t get to the front until the 12th of 16 scheduled circuits. Osantowski then held off bids from two other drivers who also started near the back, Kyle Prauner, who finished second after winning last week, and Colby Langenberg, who added a third place finish to a win and second-place finish the first two weeks of the season. “My car’s been working really good right now through the center where the traffic’s not at, so I can pick them off where they’re not racing, “ Osantowski explained. “That’s how I made it forward when I needed to, I just went where they weren’t, and that got me up to the front where I could work with the leader,” he said. Eric Vanosdall won [Read More]

Langenberg tames newly configured Off Road oval

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (June 6) – More than one night of racing will be necessary to determine the impact of the new “D-shaped” configuration of the track at Off Road Speedway. But last Saturday night during the season opener in front of 500 fans, Colby Langenberg, who won the Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod “A” feature in the IMCA Sport Mods division–definitely found the track’s design to his liking. “We got two good practice sessions in earlier in the year; we put a lot of laps on,” Langenberg said. “I don’t know that (the track design) had anything to do with my win but I felt like the new track opened up the back straightaway a little bit. It kind of got congested once in awhile when guys would get runs on each other and got bottle-necked up to one lane. Now it’s opened up coming out of (turn) two.” Langenberg was in third behind Brian Osantowski, who had moved up quickly from the fifth row, and Jacob Swanson when a caution forced [Read More]

Gnat notches Norfolk feature win

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (Aug. 24) – Jeremy Gnat led 18 laps, then had to hold off hard charger Cameron Meyer to win Saturday’s Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod feature at Off Road Speedway. Meyer pulled alongside Gnat as the pair took the white flag and entered the final lap together. Gnat promptly retook the lead coming out of turn two and won his first race of the season at Norfolk, in 13 tries this season. Meyer, who held a narrow two-point lead over Robbie Thome at the top of the division’s point list, finished second ahead of Joey Haase. Meanwhile, Thome’s car was damaged earlier in the race and did not finish. Another highly-contested finish came in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars feature where Jason Wilkinson earned his second win of the season at Off Road Speedway by holding off repeated challenges from TeJay Mielke during the race’s final 10 laps. Mielke’s second place was his sixth top five finish of the season, while Chad Bruns took third for his ninth top five. [Read More]

Johnson brothers square off in Norfolk feature

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (July 27) – When racing returned to Off Road Speedway Saturday night after a two-week hiatus, results included a battle between brothers, a pair of first-time winners, and a sixth trip to victory lane for a driver in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock division. In the IMCA Late Model feature, brothers Jim and Chris Johnson pulled away from a 15-car field to wage a two-car competition, which dated back several years, according to Jim. “We’ve raced against each other a lot of times in 31 years, but going head-to-head like this hasn’t happened a lot of times, but enough times,” Jim said. “We used to share a stock car back in 1988; he’d run at Hartington, and I’d race it at Riviera. When Hartington’s track closed we each had to have our own cars.” The brothers continued to race stock cars for a number of years, until eventually switching over to compete in the Late Model division. Jim, who is two years younger than his brother, burst into the [Read More]

Big night for Vollbrecht, Wilkinsons

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (July 7) – Parker Vollbrecht has spent a number of laps chasing Ramsey Meyer of Pierce around race tracks. In fact, Vollbrecht also trailed Meyer in the Mach-1 Sport Compact standings by 11 points entering Sunday night’s special Lynn Langenberg Memorial. But during the main event on Sunday, Vollbrecht led for seven-straight laps, then re-passed Meyer during the last lap of a green, white, checkered finish for his second Off Road Speedway win of the season, and gave Meyer Racing Team much of the credit. “Since 2017, when I won my first feature here, this is (Meyers) car; not many people know that,” Vollbrecht said. “Besides that, I blew up a motor in Albion (Boone County Speedway) maybe three weeks ago, and they helped me fix it. I wouldn’t be here without them; every time I break something they’ll fix it.” With the lead in hand for those seven laps, Vollbrecht was headed for the finish line until a caution forced the three-lap race to the finish, which also [Read More]

Johnson collects Late Model win at Off Road Speedway

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (June 29) – Jim Johnson raced to his second IMCA Late Model victory in as many nights, coming out ahead of a four-car battle for the lead at Off Road Speedway. Travis Dickes, Ben Sukup and Chris Johnson battled Johnson most of the race. Ultimately, Sukup was able to pass Dickes for second place with two laps remaining, but fell just short of catching Jim Johnson at the finish line. Also the Friday winner at Boone County Raceway, Johnson is hoping the two wins might be a turning point. “It’s been a rough start, with a new car and new chassis. I’m finally getting it figured out,” he said. “I finally loosened the car up, and it’s been better the last couple of nights; tonight I just drove the wheels off it.” With a dozen laps remaining, the leaders caught up to lapped traffic but Johnson was able to avoid losing his momentum. “I was running the bottom, saw the lapped traffic and knew I’d have to be up high [Read More]