Jack Dover conquers RaceSaver IMCA Sprint National’s Big Dance on Sun, Sept 4th!
By Greg Soukup
The finale for the 2016 Racesaver IMCA Sprint Nationals, presented by Precise Racing Products and NCM/The Cat Rental Store, was one for the record books. The largest crowd yet to see the culmination of the event, featuring the largest car count since its inception enjoyed sunny skies and warm temperatures while they viewed the heated action on the high banks of Eagle Raceway Sunday.
Six preliminary features for the sprints, heats for the supports classes and B Features for those support classes set up the A Features. There were several serious incidents in the sprint preliminary features, but luckily, none of the drivers were seriously injured.
Justin Busboom’s #62 got sideways on lap 1 of the Valentino’s IMCA Hobby Stock A Feature and ended up hitting the armco wall in turn 3 very hard. He then collected the #79 of Ryan Sutter, Cheyenne Purchase in the 22C, Mark McKinney’s 23, Brandon Stigge’s 69, the 69K of Kenny Roberts and David Carter’s 2C. The first official lap saw Shawn Slezak’s 35S, the 6J of Jason Harms, Lee Kracht’s 10K and the 13F of Chad Fegley lead the field. Lap 2 saw Roy Armstrong move his 6R into fourth, but debris in turn 3 erased the move as the yellow lights came on. Harms spun in turn 2 on the restart, putting Armstrong into fourth. Armstrong moved up to third on lap 4 and then advanced to second 2 laps later, but spun out. Fegley was put to the rear of the field due to rough driving. That put Purchase back into fourth. The next lap Armstong again moved up to the second spot as Purchase got loose, putting the 38C of Casey Moyer into fourth. Another lap was in the books when Armstrong took over the lead. Kurt Hansen moved to fourth with 9 laps remaining and moved up to third with 5 to go. There were 3 to go when Moyer got back to fourth again. The final top 4 were Armstrong, Slezak, Hansen and Moyer.
“Roger’s new tractor and the implement on it has made a big difference, because we’ve had great tracks 3 nights in a row. I knew I was starting ninth, so we went to watch the sprint features, because we knew that the sprints usually make the track dry and smooth. We were going to make some changes but just ran out of time” said Armstrong. Armstrong’s sponsors include Hummer Contracting, NEAPCO, BA Motorsports and Schmidt Machine.
The Mountain Dew Kick Start IMCA Sport Compact A’s first lap saw Melissa Etherton’s 14M get loose, making Nick Morris’ 11H turn hard into the wall in turns 1 & 2, collecting the 26 of Nick Lindblad and the 99 of Matthew Lewis. Rick Hollandsworth in the 70SS, Spencer Pavey III’s 32, the 3 of Tim Horsham and RJ Maas in the 88K were the top 4 of lap 1 after the restart. Tommy Etherton spun the 24T on the backstretch on lap 2 as Maas went to the pits. That moved Brian Haller into fourth in the 2CS. 1 lap after the restart Kyle Grobeck put the 42G into fourth. Pavey then took the lead and Grobeck moved to third and Haller remained fourth. Michelle Nicholson advanced to fourth in her #88 the next time around. With 3 to go Grobeck slowed, moving Nicholson to third and Tommy Etherton to fourth. The final top 4 were Pavey III, Horsham, Nicholson and Tommy Etherton.
Pavey III’s victory came from the 4th spot on the starting grid. “It was a great track; probably the best it’s been all year! Since Thursday we’ve seen a great track. It’s always a great time racing here, running with the best. Any time you can win a feature here, you have some real bragging rights. I want to thank all of the people who help me get to race; S & K Services, Coulter Excavating, Louis Pavey, CAWB Racing, the Maas Team, Tyler alley and Tim Horsham. A special thanks to my wife for letting us race all over heck!” stated Pavey.
The Racesaver IMCA Sprint Car big show saw Clint Benson’s #100 make contact with another car, losing the front end of his racer and Tyler Russell’s 8KK went flipping in turn 3. He was not seriously injured. Russell’s mount and Benson’s racer went to the pits. When a lap was finally in the books Chad Wilson’s 20, the 84 of Jack Dover, John Carney II in the 74B and Andy Shouse’s 27 were the top 4. Carney caught a rut in turn 1 on lap 4, began bouncing and ended up flipping in turns 1 and 2. Dave Brown Jr. slid sideways in his 44 to try and stop, hit the implement tire in turn 1 and flipped end over end. That moved Shouse up to third and put the 15X of Black Robertson into fourth. Jason Martin moved his 5X into fourth on the restart. The next circuit Dover took the lead and Trevor Grossenbacher put his 35 into fourth. Grossenbacher and Martin both got past Shouse to advance to third and fourth respectively on lap 11. Martin then passed Grossenbacher on lap 16. Wilson was passed by Martin on lap 19 and Grossenbacher remained in fourth. Jake Bubak looped the 9X coming out of turn 4 on lap 21 and the yellow lights again were lit. Wilson spun out with 3 to go in turn 4, making the top 4 Dover, Martin, Shouse and the 12 of Tyler Drueke. Robertson moved back to fourth on the restart and kept advancing; taking third the next time around and passing Martin for second after another circuit. The final top 4 ended up being Dover, Robertson, Martin and Shouse. Although Mike Boston’s #51 crossed the finish line in 7th, he was disqualified in post-race inspection for having titanium bolts in his wheel half.
Dover related “A huge thanks, and I mean HUGE thanks goes out to Chris Roseland for letting me drive this awesome car of his!!! Steve, Dave and Rick gave me a great car set-up; it was really awesome to drive. We dropped a cylinder about 10 laps in, and I just hoped that the motor would survive. But Zach, Ben and everyone else at Speedway Engines put together a really fabulous, reliable bullet for us. Another big thanks goes out to Roger for giving us awesome tracks every night all weekend. It never took rubber once the whole time and was just fantastic”.
Eagle Raceway’s 2016 season ends this coming Friday when the Nebraska Cup takes center stage on the high banks of America’s Home Track. Three of the premier race car series in the state will do battle, including the SLMR Late Models, Nebraska 360 Sprints and the Sprint Series of Nebraska.
Front gates open at 5:15 with hot laps at 5:30 and racing at 6:30. Adult front gate admission is $18, youths 6-12 are $5 and children 5 and under are free.
Pit gates open at 4, with pit admission being $30.
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