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Although the opening night of racing was meant to qualify six drivers in each class for the championship feature races on Sunday, Saturday night will be remembered most for the wild incidents on the track. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. Beginning with the IMCA Hobby Stock A Feature Saturday, Dan Rheome of Kearney went off the back stretch on lap seven at a good rate of speed. His car stopped when it hit one of the trees off the track. Near the end of that event, Chuck Ledbetter of Loomis had his accelerator hang and his brakes fail in corner one. Eyewitness accounts say Ledbetter’s car launched into the air and over the access road, hitting the ground long enough to launch again over the ditch south of the track. The car cleared several trees before it nosed into the earth. At the end of the race night, seven trees had to be removed to get the car extricated. In the IMCA Modified A Feature, Brook Eilts of Grand Island went off the track and into the ditch, nearly in the same exact spot as Ledbetter’s, but his car was able to be pulled out and he finished the race. Zach Schultz of North Platte had the crowd gasp in unison after a bar in the rear of his car gave way coming out of corner four on lap six of the IMCA Stock Car A Feature. The car shot into the concrete barrier, rode up the barrier, and barrel rolled four times in front of the grandstand. The rear wheels were several feet away from the car when it finally stopped. Again, Schultz walked away. The Saturday night IMCA Hobby Stock A Feature was won by Corey Cruzan of Maxwell. He took the lead from fellow heat race winner Cody Blessing of Kearney after Blessing slid over the top of corner four on lap four and never looked back. Greg Hoing of Johnson Lake finished in second place. Jim Buss of Blue Hill and heat race winner Jim Rayburn of Gibbon finished in third and fourth places. Tim Miller of Grand Island and Kyle Bond of Gibbon rounded out the top six transfer spots. Travis Tilford of North Platte had a similar situation in the IMCA Stock Car A Feature that Cruzan had. With six laps to go, leader Cale Osborn of Cozad slipped high on the track, allowing fellow heat winner Tilford to get by for the lead. Tilford was hounded by Jason Smidt to the finish, but was undaunted. Heat winner Mikey Dancer of North Platte finished in third. Cale Osborn dropped to fourth, ahead of big brother Colton and Brendan Eilts of Grand Island. Josh Leonard of Gibbon blew an engine during Friday night practice. The spare engine he and his crew replaced it with had less power, but on the dry slick track Saturday night, it did the job. He won his heat race and led all twenty laps of the feature. Chuck Stryker of Eddyville got by heat winner Jamey Kennicutt of Gothenburg for the second spot. John Haubold of Kearney was one of the few drivers who could make a pass down low, and he drove to a fourth place finish. Jay Steffens and Jeremy Herbst, both of North Platte, rounded out the top six. The weather Sunday was cooler and wetter, and the track was completely different than they had less than 20 hours previously. It was tacky from top to bottom. The start of the races were delayed an hour by a goat auction at Stevens Arena. When the races were started, the officials tried to waste no time on getting it completed and getting people home. Greg Hoing took the lead at the start of the IMCA Hobby Stock Feature, followed by Corey Cruzan. Lonnie Grueter had to run the heat race earlier in the day and started back in row four, but worked his way into the third spot in the first four laps. After getting by Cruzan, he stayed right with Hoing, who was running a high line. On lap seven, Hoing dropped low on the track, opened the high side to Grueter, and Grueter drove on by. Hoing would drop to fourth place as Jim Buss and Tim Miller would also get by him. Buss gained some ground on Grueter, but was unable to deny Lonnie the Husker Classic title. Cody Blessing finished in fifth place, in spite of changing a tire during a caution on lap eight and rejoining the field in the back. Travis Tilford picked up where he left off Saturday in the IMCA Stock Car feature, taking the lead at the start and showing the way. Cautions on lap nine and ten moved the field close to him, most notably Colton Osborn. On lap eleven, Osborn and Jason Smidt got by Tilford, who eventually crashed out of the event. With three laps to go in the race, Colton felt his engine begin to fail, and on the last lap knew it had failed. Smidt stayed on his back bumper, at times unknowingly pushing Osborn forward and to the Husker Classic victory. Jason Davis of Norton, Kansas won his Sunday heat race and finished in third place. Casey Werkmeister of Maywood and Bob Chalupa of McCook rounded out the top five. Jim Hagan of Lexington was the other Sunday heat race winner. David Murray raced and won in Kansas City, Kansas on Saturday night, then drove all night to race in Lexington on Sunday afternoon. He won the IMCA Modified heat race, and started in seventh for the A Feature. Chuck Stryker was the leader of the race at the start of the twenty lap event, but soon was joined up there by Murray and Jay Steffens. Stryker slipped high in corner two on lap six, allowing both Steffens and Murray by. In corner three, Murray slid in front of Steffens for the lead, but Steffens turned hard left and came across the scoring line with the lead. The two were putting on a show up front when they came upon a slower car. Steffens burped his throttle just enough to allow Murray to take a run on him on the back stretch. Those two and the slower car went three wide down the straight, and Murray again slid into the lead. Steffens again tried to go low, but Murray had momentum first and went across the scoring line in first for lap nine. Murray would lead the final eleven laps en route to the Husker Classic Modified championship. Steffens held on for second place. Jamey Kennicutt started in third place and finished in third place. Front row starters Josh Leonard and Chuck Stryker finished in fourth and fifth places.
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