Raceway Action: The Eve of Devastation Lives Up to Its Name
Kuhn and Macil lead Wheelock and Kalata. (Photo courtesy Jeff Blaser and Blaser Photography)
By Brandon Aschenbrenner
The last event of 2014 was the Eve of Devastation. The night started with some traditional circle track racing with the 4-Cylinder open competition and the Cruisers running their championship race. In the 4-Cylinder class, it was Adam Krzykowski (16) taking fast time and the feature win over Scott Ciesielski (21).
In the Cruiser division, Wheelock and Bates (44) took fast time. In the feature it was Kuhn and Mancil (126) taking the win with Wheelock and Kalata (73) 2nd and Carlson and Carlson (5.0) 3rd. Poeschel and Fourness (69) were tied for the championship with Wheelock and Kalata coming into the night, but finished 4th, giving the 2014 Championship to Wheelock and Kalata by 2 points. The spectator races found Joey Kuhn in his Black Camero and Justin Gracey battling it out in the finals with Kuhn cruising to the win.
After the circle track events, the major destruction began. The first event was called Bumper Love, where one car had to push their teammate backwards around the track and then at the start finish line, the partner had to turn around and push their partner. Josh Klopotek (81) and Jon Engebretson (33) picked up the championship in that event.
The next event was the spin to win races. In this event, you could only pass a car on the track after you spun them out. There were 3 separate winners and they were Luke Betro (Mystery Machine Van), Justin Gracey (77), and Kaleb Kronstedt (MTI). After the spin to win event, we had a jet powered recliner take to the track and put on a novelty exhibition.
The 5th turn race took to the track next, and after 3 heats, we were all set for the feature. In this event, there was a tractor tire placed on the start finish line. The drivers had to make all for turns on the track and go around the tire to complete 1 lap. These races went on for 3 laps and the winner of the feature was Justin Gracey (77). The burn out contest took place after the 5th turn race and was won by Drew Irwin in his 1983 brown Chevy truck based on crowd voting.
One of the biggest and by far the hardest wrecks of the night took place in the Forwards/Backwards race. In this event, the drivers went backwards around the track for 2 laps in reverse and then forward in drive the correct way around the track for lap 3. The 77 and the 23 collided in turn 1 as the 77 was in the top 3 starting his forward lap and 23 was completing his 2nd backward lap. Both drivers were un-hurt in that accident and the winner of the race was Scott Ostricki in his #13 truck.
Megasaurus was next onto the track putting on a very impressive display for the crowd. This fire breathing dragon bit all the way through a car by first ripping of the hood with its mouth. The jump for distance was next on the agenda and Kaleb Kronstedt (MTI) took the win after hitting the jump near the victory lane area and coming to a stop near the spotters stand outside of turn 2 into the water barrels and safety barrier.
The last event of the night was the trailer race. The best design went to John Van Stedum with his Minions theme trailer. In this event, the objective was simply to knock the other racers trailers off their cars while keeping your trailer in one piece. The winner was the 726 of Jared Rapinski who won by finally knocking the boat off of the vehicle driven by John Norris.
Thank you to everyone who participated in this event and in any event throughout the 2014 season. Keep up to date with news during the off season at our website, www.gssrace.com and check us out on Facebook.