BRANDON, S.D. — Tyler Drueke, Dusty Ballenger and Brylee Gough kicked off the Huset’s Speedway season with winning performances on Sunday during Spartan ER Night.
Drueke executed a pair of passes in the final three laps to drive from the bottom step of the podium to the top as he earned his first career Cressman Sanitation 410 Outlaw Sprint Cars victory at Huset’s Speedway.
“I knew the rubber was coming in pretty hard,” he said. “I kept trying to cheat it and clean it off underneath those guys to try to catch them sleeping. I looked up about five to go when I was catching (Christopher) Thram and I thought it was time to push. You have to take those chances when you get them because you never know when they’ll come around.”
Thram led the first 11 laps before a wild moment in traffic allowed Chase Randall to maneuver into the lead down the backstretch on lap 12. Thram threw a pair of slide jobs at Randall in turns one and two and in turns three and four on a restart on lap 17, but Randall was able to quickly power back into the lead each time.
With Randall riding out front with a comfortable lead, Drueke found the track cleaning off in a lower lane than most drivers. He picked his way into third place in the waning laps before passing Thram for second place in turns three and four on lap 23. Drueke delivered the same move in the same corners on Randall one lap later before he pulled away on the last lap for the special win.
“We’ve tried so long,” he said. “This is a tough place to win. These guys are really good. I’m just thankful.”
Randall finished in the second position.
Kaleb Johnson garnered the Hard Charger Award after driving from 12th to third.
Thram placed fourth and Jade Hastings rounded out the top five.
Ballenger dominated the 20-lap Wyffels Hybrids RaceSaver Sprint Car Series A Main to earn his 31 st career win – the ninth in the division – at the track.
“We were lucky enough to draw the front row and get out there and conserve tires,” he said. “I set kind of a slow pace. I knew it’d be 20 laps of tire conservation and we got it done.”
Koby Werkmeister held off Nick Barger for the runner-up position with Jacob Peterson ending fourth and Brady Donnohue fifth.
Cole Vanderheiden, Jack Thomas, Ballenger and Werkmeister were the heat race winners. The B Mains were won by Michalob Voeltz and Brandon Bosma.
Gough led all 18 laps to garner his first-career win at Huset’s Speedway during the Nordstrom’s Automotive Late Model Street Stocks main event.
challenging early before the two made contact entering turn one on a restart on lap five, spinning Gough. He regained the lead for the restart and Zebell went to the back before pulling off the track soon after with apparent car problems. Tim Dann inherited the runner-up position and stayed within striking distance of Gough for the remainder of the race, which featured a green-white-checkered finish.
Dann ended second with Matt Steuerwald advancing to third. Zach Olivier hustled from 15th to fourth and Tracy Halouska charged from 17th to fifth.