JACKSON, Minn. — Skylar Prochaska and Nate Eakin produced long-awaited victories at Jackson Motorplex on Friday when the track hosted the New Fashion Pork 360 Challenge presented by Best Western Fairmont.
Prochaska captured his first triumph at the track since July 2016 by leading all 25 laps of the Barb and Dean Wieskus Memorial featuring the Gunderson Racing Inc. Midwest Sprint Touring Series and QualityFreightRate.com Midwest Power Series 360 sprint cars.
“It seems like that long, too,” he said. “It’s just good to be back here. I was on a streak for a while and then went on a lull.”
Five cautions bunched the field up behind Prochaska, who faced his toughest challenge on the final restart with five laps to go when Kaleb Johnson threw a slide job attempt in turns one and two. The duo was nearly side by side, but Prochaska powered away on the top groove. The momentum pushed his lead to nearly one second and he held onto that advantage the final handful of circuits to win by .850 seconds.
“It would have been unfortunate to lose it,” he said. “I knew it was his one shot and he just didn’t complete it. He must have got a good start off the bottom. I seen him sliding across. I had a choice to stay in it or try to cross him back over. I stayed in it.”
Johnson garnered a second-place showing to extend his top-five streak to six straight during 360 sprint car races at Jackson Motorplex.
“I kinda knew that was the only chance I had at it,” he said. “He was so good in clean air. I had to throw a Hail Mary at him. Congrats to Skylar and his team for the win.”
Christopher Thram posted a third-place result.
“It was a good night,” he said. “We’re happy with it and we’ll go to Knoxville (Raceway) tomorrow and try again.”
Riley Goodno finished fourth and Brooke Tatnell was fifth.
Eakin led the distance of the 20-lap Wyffels Hybrids RaceSaver Sprint Car Series main event, winning by 1.330 seconds to score his first victory at Jackson Motorplex since June 2018.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “We’ve tried and tried and tried and just hadn’t been able to get up here this year. I can’t thank everyone enough. There’s definitely a team effort here.”
The first half of the feature was caution-free before there were four cautions between lap 11 and lap 14. Eighth-starting Lee Goos Jr. capitalized on the restarts. He drove into the top five and was part of a spirited battle for third place during the middle stage of the race until the final restart when he maneuvered into third place in turns one and two and into the runner-up position in turns three and four.
Jacob Peterson rounded out the podium with Andrew Sullivan charging from 12th to fourth. Dusty Ballenger placed fifth.
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