New faces visit victory lane in Eagle River Speedway opener

When the dust finally settled after a long night that included a 2-hour rain delay, a trio of new faces found victory lane on the opening night of racing at Eagle River Speedway last Saturday night.

Hermantown, Minnesota’s Cade Nelson, Greenville’s Danny Gracyalny and Pell Lake’s Cody Potter each nabbed opening night wins in the USRA Late Model, Street Stock and IMCA Stock Car classes, respectively.

Nelson, the defending USRA Late Model national champion, started third in the 20-lap feature. It took him just one circuit to wrestle the lead away from pole sitter Josh Wahlstrom of Rice Lake. Nelson quickly bolted from the pack, and skillfully weaved his way through lapped cars to emerge triumphant in the caution-free race.

Wahlstrom settled for second at the pay window, followed by Stockholm’s Lucas Peterson, defending track champion Jason Zdroik and Alma’s Korey Ressie. Eighteen drivers turned up to race in the division’s debut with the USRA sanctioning, with a handful of locals still ready to make their debut yet this year on the popular division.

A pair of aborted starts wiped out eight cars out of the 21 machines that initially took the green in the B-Modified feature. The contest was littered with yellows on the super fast, tacky third-mile clay oval. When all was said and done, pole sitter and hometown driver Dustin White came out on top in what amounted to a true game of survivor. Rounding out the top finishers were Vince Jung, Austin Zdroik, Geoff Zdroik and Jim Zdroik.

Gracyalny started seventh in the Unified Dirt Street Stock feature, and snatched the lead after a lap 10 restart. The veteran Figure-8 champion threaded his way through the 21 car field and collected the feature flag in his first-ever appearance to the track.

Potter led every lap en route to winning the caution-free IMCA Stock Car feature. Potter nailed down a clean sweep on the night, as he won the heat race earlier in the night.

Rhinelander’s Blake Joslin scored a last lap pass on Andy Fink the win the 600 Micro Sprint feature. Cooper Aho and Chase Zdroik captured the Pro and Semi-Pro 300 Micro Sprint features, respectively. Merrill’s Matt Eder won the Dairyland Vintage feature.

The racing program was delayed for more than two hours due to persistent, pesky showers that pelted the track. Track crews and drivers helped save the track by packing it in.

The next race at Eagle River Speedway will be Tuesday, June 10 with the track’s annual “School’s Out” night at the races. All of the track’s weekly, regular classes will be in attendance, with the first green flag dropping at 7:15 p.m.