Vanderheiden sprints to first Eagle win

Hobby Stock, Modified, Northern SportMod, Results, Sprint Car, Stock Car

Cole Vanderheiden was the big winner Saturday night at Eagle Raceway, collecting $1,300 along with the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car checkers. (Photo by Joe Orth)

By Greg Soukup

EAGLE, Neb. (July 13, 2024) – Young fans got a chance to add some heft to their piggy banks with the $1,500 money grab on the front stretch sponsored by One Shot Auto Repair but the big winner Saturday night at Eagle Raceway was Cole Vanderheiden.

Vanderheiden won for the first time in his career at America’s Home Track, snagging the lead on a mid-race restart and denying Trevor Grossenbacher’s mad slide job attempt in the final turn for the $1,300 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car checkers.

“It’s been a long time coming. Over the past three years we’ve been second, had thirds and fourths all year. It just feels amazing to finally get a win here at Eagle,” Vanderheiden said.

“That’s the longest lap (the last one) I’ve ever experienced in my three years of racing. Going down the back stretch I couldn’t see him (Grossenbacher). I hopped his wheel going into three, but luckily my car didn’t break and I didn’t pop a tire,” he continued. “I kept going into four and Trevor threw a nasty, massive slide job on me but I turned down on him to get the win.”

Dillon Richards raced from 10th starting to win his fifth local IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock feature of the season while Chad Andersen and Arie Schouten earned second wins in the Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds and IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, respectively.

Noah Williams found victory lane in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods.

“It’s been a while,” said Williams, who took over up front with eight laps left. “I was hoping it would be earlier than July, but we’ll take it. It seems like the bad luck is behind us after struggling early on in the season. We started fifth and worked our way up pretty quick.”

“I just kept it on the bottom. We were pretty good down there but were tight up on top,” Williams added, “so, I just kept running the bottom and picked off a couple cars early and stayed down there. I ran the middle in three and four and held on to pick up the win.”

Runner-up was Adam Vrbka.

Noah Williams made use of multiple lines on his way to the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod feature win Saturday at Eagle Raceway. (Photo by Joe Orth)

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