Frederick nabs bounty, downs Snellenberger in Eagle River IMCA Stocks

Kyle Frederick played the role of bounty hunter at Eagle River Speedway last Tuesday night.

The Oconto Falls racer picked up the IMCA Stock Car feature at the third-mile, clay oval. In doing so, won a $1,000 bounty for beating Pulaski’s Rod Snellenberger, who was a perfect six-for-six in his appearances here in ’25.

Frederick sprinted into the lead from the pole position at the drop of the green of the 20-lap contest. Snellenberger started fifth on the grid, and had worked his way up to third by lap 4. Snellenberger whisked past Dustin White to nab the runnerup spot by the sixth circuit.

By that time, Frederick had built up a comfortable four-car length margin, and as Snellenberger began to slowly close the gap, a caution flew on lap 13 for a Nick Pagac spin.

When racing resumed, Frederick kept the top spot. Snellenberger was able to keep the veteran wheelman in his sights, but could not pull off the pass and settled for runner-up money at the pay window. White took third, followed by fellow hometown drivers Ryan Glembin and Jonathan Miller, respectively.

Hermantown, Minnesota’s Cade Nelson only wound up leading one lap of the USRA late model feature, but it was the lap that counted — the final one. 

Nelson, who started eighth on the field, bided his time and slowly clipped away, picking off a car every couple of laps. Hometown ace Jason Zdroik was enjoying a comfortable lead, and kept that top spot through a pair of caution periods.

On a restart with nine laps remaining, Nelson caught up to Zack Friske, who was running second. Nelson ducked underneath Friske for second on lap 14, and set his sights on Zdroik. The duo crossed the line on the white flag lap in a dead heat. Nelson pulled away from Zdroik enough to snag the lead coming off of corner two and hung on to win a thriller with the crowd on its feet. Zdroik wound up second, with Friske, Jason McFadden and Lucas Peterson placing third through fifth, respectively.

Sugar Camp’s Jason Eisel jumped into the lead from the pole position and skillfully weaved his way through lapped traffic in the second half of the race to win the Street Stock feature. Eisel’s victory paid him $500. Hometown driver David Blackberg was able to mount a challenge on a pair of mid-race restarts, but settled for second. Ben Pitlik, Hope Eisel and Quentin Morrison. Rhinelander’s Jeremy Joslin sliced through the field from his 17th starting position to finish sixth.

Wakefield, Michigan’s George Dalbeck pulled a slidejob to grab the lead from Frank Gasperini on lap 10 and threaded his way through lapped cars to pull off the caution-free, 20-lap B-Modified feature. Gasperini, Michael Truscott, Kory Jolliff and Dave Dishaw placed second through fifth, respectively.

Stacy, Minnesota’s Tyler Pelofske passed Mya Towne for the lead on lap four and cruised to victory in the 600 Micro sprint feature. Towne took second, followed by Katherine Towne, Oakley Schwantes and Blake Joslin.

Addison Dishaw of Ontonagon, Mich. and Archer Peter of Manitowish Waters scored the Pro and Semi Pro 300 Micro Sprint features, respectively. Both events went green-to-checkered without a yellow.

Racing resumes Tuesday, Aug. 12. The annual “Back To School” night promotion is in swing, with dozens of backpacks stuffed with school supplies being given to kids. The hammer drops at 7 p.m.