Blake Egeland races to first career NOSA win

Picture

Photo by Mike Spieker | speedway-shots.com

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, ND (August 3, 2018) – Blake Egeland scored his first career Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint Car feature win Friday night at River Cities Speedway. The Climax, Minnesota driver, who is in his eighth year of racing, took the lead from two-time and defending NOSA and River Cities Speedway track champion, Austin Pierce, and held on for the win.

“This is awesome. I’ve dreamt about this since I was a little kid,” said an elated Egeland in RydellCars.com Victory Lane. “I’ve been close a couple times, but I finally, finally pulled it off.”

NOSA rookie, Brendan Mullen led the opening laps over Ty Hanten. On lap three, Mullen momentarily lost the handle on his No. 11M and collected his Auto Finance Super Center teammate, Wade Nygaard. Both drivers got upside down and both were okay. Nygaard reported to the work area and was seconds from rejoining the field after replacing the top wing, but wasn’t pushed off as the race went back to green.

On the restart, Hanten inherited the lead until Pierce took the point on lap seven. The narrowing racing groove on the fast, tacky three-tenths mile oval was paired with a thick, treacherous cushion, which made navigating lapped traffic difficult.

On lap 17, Pierce pushed up the track, which allowed Egeland to shoot underneath and into the lead.

One last caution flew with five to go, setting up a restart with Pierce and Jade Hastings behind Egeland.

“I was telling myself, ‘don’t slip off the bottom, don’t come in too hot,’ and I just kept watching the lap counter,” recalled Egeland.  

Pierce was hot on Egeland’s heels as the white flag waved, but Pierce, who didn’t have brakes in the second half of the race, spun entering turn one. Hastings took over second, but didn’t have anything for Egeland.

Hastings was the hard charger of the race, advancing from 17th to second. Hastings and crew worked all night long to get the No. 8H repaired after making heavy contact with the outside retaining wall off turn two during his heat. Jordan Adams, who started 11th, finished third, while Shane Roemeling and Hanten rounded out the top five. Pierce salvaged a sixth-place finish.

A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 26-Blake Egeland, [8]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings, [17]; 3. 20A-Jordan Adams, [11]; 4. 31-Shane Roemeling, [4]; 5. 13T-Ty Hanten, [1]; 6. 2A-Austin Pierce, [5]; 7. 99-Jordan Graham, [12]; 8. 14-Tom Egeland, [14]; 9. 0-Nick Omdahl, [10]; 10. 5-Dave Glennon, [15]; 11. 1AJ-Trevor Mell, [13]; 12. 12-Brayden Pengilly, [16]; 13. (DNF) 47-Brandt OBanion, [3]; 14. (DNF) 4M-Cale Mack, [9]; 15. (DNF) 9N-Wade Nygaard, [6]; 16. (DNF) 11M-Brendan Mullen, [2]; (DNS) 10TRB-Bob Martin,
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 47-Brandt OBanion, [1]; 2. 31-Shane Roemeling, [4]; 3. 2A-Austin Pierce, [8]; 4. 4M-Cale Mack, [3]; 5. 0-Nick Omdahl, [6]; 6. 26-Blake Egeland, [9]; 7. 1AJ-Trevor Mell, [7]; 8. (DNF) 12-Brayden Pengilly, [2]; 9. (DNF) 8H-Jade Hastings, [5]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 9N-Wade Nygaard, [5]; 2. 11M-Brendan Mullen, [1]; 3. 13T-Ty Hanten, [3]; 4. 20A-Jordan Adams, [2]; 5. 10TRB-Bob Martin, [7]; 6. 99-Jordan Graham, [4]; 7. 14-Tom Egeland, [6]; 8. (DNF) 5-Dave Glennon, [8]

Leave a Reply