Ackland takes the win on Armed Forces Night at Eagle Raceway
by Greg Soukup 

It was a great night for racing at Eagle Raceway last night as Duros Dent Works and Empire Fence presented Armed Forces Night. A total of 137 cars filled the pits and a very large crowd filled the stands. 

Unfortunately, the evening took a very bad turn when in the Duros Dent Works IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car B Feature Tom Belsky’s #28X rode up over the rear wheel of the car in front of him. It sent him flipping, making very hard contact with the implement tire guarding the pit entrance and the side of the car, collapsing the cage into his seat. After he was extricated he was life flighted to the hospital. His wife has advised that he is in stable condition but will need lots of support and recovery. Please keep Tom and his family in your thoughts and prayers. This occurred on a restart after Dan Satriano went flipping in turns 3 and 4 on the first lap. He was not seriously injured, but the car was severely damaged. 

To close out the evening the Duros Dent Works IMCA Racesaver Sprints took to the high banks. Lap 1 saw Tim Hilfiker’s 20, the 25 of Gunnar Pike, Gene Ackland in the 14G and Chase Weiler’s 0 out front. Ackland moved up to third on lap 2 with Ryan King also passing Weiler in his 93 to snag fourth. Neil Nickolite smacked the front stretch wall hard on lap 2, badly damaging his front end. He ended going off on the hook. Ackland advanced to second 1 lap after the restart. King took over third on lap 7 but lost the spot back to Pike the next circuit. Lap 10 saw Ackland move up to first. King again took over the third spot with 11 to go. 2 more laps were in the books when Joey Danley put the 14 into fourth. Danley continued his march forward, advancing to third with 6 to go and taking second with 4 to go. Ackland held on for the win, Danley was second but was disqualified after the race for excessive spring pressure. That moved Hilfiker to second, King to third and Jason Danley to fourth. 

“The track kind of played into my hands tonight, where I like to run obviously. I knew that if I could just get the lead and be consistent I could do it. I made a few mistakes early on, but once I got to the lead, I think I did a pretty good job of hitting my marks, and then it was just ‘Don’t mess up’. I figured that if I heard somebody coming then I would have to do something different. It felt really, really good. The car has been fast this year after we changed a few things. Fueling, headers and gearing were tweaked, and the car has really come to life. It’s been fast, but the first 2 features I spun, got the lead and spun out; it’s just little mess ups that have been hurting us”. 

Gene’s sponsors include Five Nines, Colby Ridge, Ironwood Builders and Bluestem Landscaping. Colby Ridge and Ironwood Builders have been supporting Gene for many, many years; since he was racing 360 sprints at Eagle. 

Next week is Eagle Raceway Fun-Ganza, presented by Modern Real Estate and Pepsi. Front gates open at 5:00. Adult admission is $12, youths 6-12 is just $5 and children 5 and under are free. 

Pit gates open at 3:30 with pit admission being $30. 

Hot laps begin at 5:30 with racing kicking off at 6:30. All 5 classes will be in action, including the Duros Dent Works Sprint Cars, Nebraska Lottery Modifieds, A1 Iron/Sany Stock Cars, Modern Real Estate SportMods & Valentino’s Hobby Stocks.