August 31, 2019 -Elko, MN
By Jason D Searcy
With Summer winding down the point races are heating up at Elko
Speedway, a great crowd witnessed double features in all three
divisions during an Eve of Destruction Saturday night.
The Premiere division Late Models sponsored by The Car Lot in New
Prague (MN), has two drivers listed first and second in the hunt for a
National NASCAR Championship in Division I, a feat that has never been
achieved by a Minnesota driver in 32 years of NASCAR sanctioning at
ELKO. Jacob Goede #72 qualified 5th and started the first feature 7th
on the grid, Nick Panitzke #22 qualified 2nd and started the first
feature 10th of the 22 cars entered.
Michael Haggar #19 from Hanover (MN) started the first 30 lap Late
Model feature from the pole, took the lead early and never gave it up,
it was anything but easy, he was challenged by #75 Joe Neisius the
entire event and survived a green-white-checker finish to win by 0.572
seconds over runner-up Neisius. Jacob Goede #72 finished third,
fast-qualifier #54 Dylan Moore was fourth and #14 Devyn Stocker fifth.
National title contender Nick Panitzke finished 8th. Haggar had
nearly won a feature the previous week but came up just short after an
intense battle with Nick Murgic, this week he applied the lessons
learned and was victorious, this was his first feature win of 2019.
The second Late Model feature had Nick Panitzke #22 from Sauk Centre
(MN) grab the lead early from #21 Adam Bendzick, Bendzick stayed
inches off the back bumper of Panitzke and pulled up along-side
numerous times but never was able to make the pass. Panitzke won the
30 lap event by 0.376 for his first win at ELKO this summer and
scoring valuable points towards his run at a National NASCAR division
I Championship. Adam Bendzick finished second, #31 Ryan Varner was
able to hold off a hard charging Jacob Goede #72 who came up from his
7th starting position to finish fourth and #54 Dylan Moore was fifth
nine-time Elko Speedway Champion #41 Donny Reuvers finished 6th of the
22 cars entered. Chris Marek, who is second in ELKO points, had a
challenging night and finished 14th and 11th in the two feature
events.
Jacob Goede continues to lead in the standings by 139 points over
Chris Marek with two more point-paying weeks for Late Models remaining
in 2019.
The first Great North Legends feature had #91 Tristan Swanson from
Elko (MN) take the lead from the start, he led every lap and ran away
from the rest of the 17 car field eventually winning by an impressive
2.492 seconds. The great battle was for second place as former 2-time
Bando Champion #8 Colin Stocker held off former 2-time Late Model
Champion #71 Jon Lemke by 0.093 seconds at the line. Point leader #8
Cole Klein was fourth, defending Champ #75 Baiden Heskett fifth and
fast-qualifier #47 Austin Jahr sixth all crossing the finish line
together. It was the third win of the season for Swanson.
The Great North Legends second feature had young #7 Teddy Kottschade
take the early lead until #19 Mike Hanson took over the top spot on
lap 4 of 20. A caution on lap nine bunched up the field and #8 Cole
Klein from Rogers (MN) moved up from his 11th starting spot and
grabbed the lead after the restart. Another caution happened on lap
16 but Klein held onto the lead and won by 0.378 at the line. Austin
Jahr #47 was second, #75 Baiden Heskett third, #91 Tristan Swanson
fourth and Mike Hanson held on for fifth. It was the fourth win of
the season for Klein. Klein also continues to hold onto the point
lead by 14 over Austin Jahr.
In the Pepsi Power Stock division defending Champion #8 Taylor Goldman
from Minnetonka (MN) started the first feature on the pole, took the
lead off the start and had a huge lead mid-race, the 20 lap race went
cautionless and Goldman won by 0.953 seconds at the finish. Paul
Hamilton #56 finished second followed by #27 Darin Patnode third,
fast-qualifier #88 Nick Oxborough was fourth and #08 Mike Stoer was
fifth of the 11 cars entered in the race. It was the second win of
the season for Taylor Goldman.
The second Power Stock feature had 2016 Champion #62 Tom Doten take
the early lead, after a caution on lap seven #83 Julie Jorgenson from
Lakeville (MN) challenged for the lead and finally passed Doten on lap
11 of 20. After another caution on lap 12 Jorgenson broke-away for a
big lead eventually winning by an impressive 2.306 seconds at the
finish line. Tom Doten finished second, #56 Paul Hamilton was third,
#66 Joe Prusak fourth and point leader #88 Nick Oxborough was fifth.
It was the first win of the season for Jorgenson, and for the first
time in 2019 both Power Stock features were won by Female drivers.
The ATV Big Air tour action athletes enthralled the huge Eve of
Destruction crowd at ELKO with their high flying motorsports
acrobatics. The crowd was entertained by three world-class monster
trucks including Tailgator and Jester but the winner of the freestyle
was Nick Pagliarulo from Deltona (FL) driving a Monster Truck called
Kraken.
The winner of the spectator drags was Nate Icaza from Cannon Falls
(MN) in a 2001 Pontiac Firebird and the Figure 8 School bus races had
the crowd on its feet to end the night.
All results and standings were unofficial at the time of this release.
Up next at Elko Speedway is an Eve of Destruction on Saturday
September 7th with NASCAR Racing plus the Timberworks LumberJack show,
2 monster trucks, the Drifters, Wildman Clay Gallagher stunts, School
bus races and more including music by Good for Gary. Get more
information at ElkoSpeedway.com, Follow Elko Speedway on social media
or download our free App by searching Elko Racing.
Elko Speedway in a progressive banked 3/8th oval racetrack with
stadium seating located 30 minutes South of the Twin Cities in
Elko/New Market (MN).
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