Eagle Raceway Spotlight: Dirt track racing

By: Lee Marion

8@klkntv.com

Eagle Raceway has seen thousands of racers pass through its gates. This season was no different as racers from across the country came to compete on one of the nations  most recognized dirt tracks.

Home to the RaceSaver IMCA Sprint Nationals Championship, Eagle shines bright on Saturdays during the summer.

The track has five different divisions of racing: Hobbystock, sport compacts, modified, sport modified and sprints. 

Tyler Saathoff raced sport compacts before switching to hobbystock’s, where he has stayed for four years. Saathoff started his career racing at Beatrice Speedway and later moved to Eagle Raceway.

 Saathoff spent his Friday nights at Beatrice speedway racing and traveled to Eagle on Saturdays.After a season of the travel and long nights working on the car, he decided to only compete at Eagle.

In the 2018 season, Saathoff raced for points and finished the season in 4th place.

In the sprint class division, rookie Trey Gropp raced at just 14-years-old. Gropp competes on Friday nights in Hastings, Nebraska, where he races an unrestricted micro sprint car. 

Alongside Gropp is Ryan Kitchen in his first year racing a 305, winged sprint car. In years past Kitchen raced 410 wingless and 360 wingless.

He decided to step down a class to the 305’s under to see how they compared to the other models. In his first year, Kitchen said that the 305’s are a big contrast to some of the other models he has raced.